Kearney's DUBIOUS team selections/use of the bench YET AGAIN!

[Twizzle]

Next year the Sharkies might have Robson and Tim Smiff

so they still wont have any decent halves

 

[BigErn]

Clearly you misplaced your second IQ point before posting this.

Laughing at it is the first thing to do, but the second thing might be to ask whom you would've signed?
It's compulsory to have 25 players in the NRL squad. Who would you have signed if not some old vets?
The ridiculous criticism over his use of the bench is just that. Who cares if NOBODY comes off the bench, as long as the team is competing - oh, and since round 10 we've competed, and could've won, every single footy game.

As for dropping people, you take that to mean an acceptance of mediocrity and uncertainty in the squad? PERHAPS (and this might stretch your little brain) PERHAPS the players know who is picked, it's just the press who isn't given the final squad until an hour before kickoff (as per the rules).

For a team to have a +25 differential and an excellent defensive record since round 10, you'd have to say they've played good footy. Just a shame that we don't have the talent to finish the job, and have been unfortunate in going down on the bell 3 times.

Here's the simple maths for ya: those 3 tight losses = +6 comp points = 8th spot.
then everyone would be saying how massively we've overachieved and what a fantastic job Kearney has done in developing young talent.
The fact that the ball bounced arsily for Foran to score; the fact that Burt made a dumb decision; the fact that Robson gave away a stupid penalty - those things lead directly to losses which otherwise would've been wins.

Those 3 mistakes don't change the fact that we've played footy to the standard of a top 8 team WITHOUT HAVING A HALFBACK of any note.
Our attack is Hayne or nothing (and the opposition knows it) - how can you say we're doing badly? With our roster we should get the spoon...

If you genuinely think we are top 8 standard, than you're a bigger idiot than I first thought.
Here's a thought. Why don't you step out in to the real world once in a while and talk to real people? You wouldn't dare say half the things you say in these forums to people's faces.
You think you're all high and mighty talking down to people by typing on your keyboard.

Same goes for you, SDM.

How is Kearney fostering young talent?? I fail to see how having OHanlon sitting on a bench for the entire game is helping him in anyway. And then to bring him on in a pressure situation at the death is just heaping a whole lot more pressure on the kid.

 

[SDM]

If you genuinely think we are top 8 standard, than you're a bigger idiot than I first thought.
Here's a thought. Why don't you step out in to the real world once in a while and talk to real people? You wouldn't dare say half the things you say in these forums to people's faces.
You think you're all high and mighty talking down to people by typing on your keyboard.

Same goes for you, SDM.

How is Kearney fostering young talent?? I fail to see how having OHanlon sitting on a bench for the entire game is helping him in anyway. And then to bring him on in a pressure situation at the death is just heaping a whole lot more pressure on the kid.

I have an iphone loser.

 

[BigErn]

I have an iphone loser.

It's still a keyboard, tosser.

 

[SDM]

Do you have an iphone? I could ring you on face time and call you a dope. Would that count as saying it to your face?

 

[Bigfella]

Doesn't this negate your whole point of inheriting a lesser quality squad.
If he turfed Tahu and Grothe, he should be held accountable for those decisions.

He signed hicks
He signed walker
He signed whatuira
He's the one who decided to play Morgan.
He's the one who is destroying OHanlon.

Where is this almighty attitude improvement???

We are still the worst club in the speed of the ruck
We are still struggling to compete the full 80 mins.

There's no improvement.
We've gone downhill.

Why is kearney imune to criticism?
Because he is a rookie coach?

If an apprentice f**ks up in the workplace, he gets reprimanded.

No ones demanding SK gets the sack immediately.
All the fans want is to see what was promised.
An improvement in attitude and a glimmer of hope for the future.

So far I don't see it.
Poor use of the bench, so much uncertainty in the squad week in and out, and an acceptance of mediocrity doesn't exactly instill me with a whole lot of confidence.

Again, I'll reserve my judgement for round 6 next year.
But until then, I believe I have a right to question his decisions without a fear of being ridiculed and called fickle.

I completely disagree with every point you made in this post.

Especially these:

He's the one who is destroying OHanlon.

There is no evidence he is being destroyed. O'Hanlon is being brought slowly in to first grade and being given an opportunity to develop in the late stages of a match which are obviously less physical. He is getting the opportunity to play limited minutes to get exposure to the pressures of first grade but in a physical manner that eases him in to playing against men. There is no evidence this is having an adverse affect on his confidence and performance and frankly is so silly it undermines any credibility of the rest of your post.

Where is this almighty attitude improvement???

We are still the worst club in the speed of the ruck

I think this has definitely improved. It does still need work. But we are obviously working at it and Ibelieve we have shown more consistency in this aspect of the game. I don't think we are exposing our opponents in attack, dues to our dummy half, halfback, and lack of penetration by early backs. But our marked improvement in defence I believe is largely due to our improvement in this area.

We are still struggling to compete the full 80 mins.

Are you serious? We have been in every contest at the death of the game for the last two months.

The real key is that we lack the class to finish those games off at the death, and I think we have failed to capitalise on possession and score enough points in those games. I would have thought the one undeniable factor in our improvement (no matter how much you want Kearney to fail) is that we have consistently remained in the contest even against the top sides.

There's no improvement.

Our defensive record recently has been at St George / Manly levels.

Individual players like B Smith, Lassalo, Allgood, Morgan, Uiasele, Loko have shown significant individual development.

Our kicking game has gone from worst in comp to one of the very best. Hayne and Burt have been exceptional, bith long and short. I personally think Hayne's kicking game is the best in the league bar possibly Thurston and Soward, and is a huge reason why he should stay at 6.

We are competing consistently. That is something neither Hagan nor Anderson achieved.

There is still the gaping lack of class at 7. That has been addressed by recruitment. Roberts also potentially allows us to address the hole at 6 that Hayne has been filling.

We have also blooded youngsters and they are actually developing as genuine first graders, which again both Hagan and Anderson failed to do effectively IMO.


We've gone downhill.

See above.

 

[True EEL]

But they are.

You can't compare the two teams because there is a vast gulf in talent between the two.

The 2009 Eels performed to their potential in the regular season and above their potential in the finals.

The 2010 Eels were abysmal.

The 2011 Eels are performing well above their potential, considering the poor overall quality of the squad. We currently have 16 players of first grade standard fit enough to play. That's only if you include Jeff Robson.

woa, woa, woa....can't compare them??

you say KK is a loser and a waste of space, so he is hardly great talent that's gone right? Tahu was a shadow of his former self, Guru was winding down, Mateo was just as inconsistent as he is now at NZ (maybe worse back then) and everyone liked to bag our Captain Nathan Cayless (except me, i think he has easily been our biggest loss this season) so where is this dearth of talent between the teams that renders them unable to be compared?? seriously????

and that second bolded bit, mate that is just a pathetic cop out and not at all accurate

 

[Bigfella]

If you genuinely think we are top 8 standard, than you're a bigger idiot than I first thought.

He didn;t say that. He said we've been playing top 8 standard for two months.

I agree with that completely.

In fact, we've played better footy in that time that most of the top 8, but below the top 4 standouts (lacking the class at 7 and 9 of those top sides, and possibly the strikepower in the outside backs).

 

[True EEL]

What's with all the 'IF we won those games we'd be in the eight' rubbish?

We didn't win them and we're not in the eight. Fact.

well this is pretty straight up isn't it?? i can't argue with this.

 

[True EEL]

i also thought Big Ern made some decent points, or at least raised some good questions at times too....

 

[BigErn]

woa, woa, woa....can't compare them??

you say KK is a loser and a waste of space, so he is hardly great talent that's gone right? Tahu was a shadow of his former self, Guru was winding down, Mateo was just as inconsistent as he is now at NZ (maybe worse back then) and everyone liked to bag our Captain Nathan Cayless (except me, i think he has easily been our biggest loss this season) so where is this dearth of talent between the teams that renders them unable to be compared?? seriously????

and that second bolded bit, mate that is just a pathetic cop out and not at all accurate

Hear hear.
This is the point I was trying to make to start with.
Poupou uses the excuse that we are a shadow of the team of 2010.

Yet in the same breath he applauds kearney and the powers that be for dumping two of the players he uses in that argument.

And you all harp on about the absolute black hole of talent at the club, but are so thrilled that we are re-signing all these players.

And then to cap it all off, we go and buy f**king tautai.

Why is Kearney afforded all this praise for a team coming 14th?

Oldmancraigy's argument seems to be centred around the halves.
All our problems will be solved with a good half.

If we want to talk comparisons, what's the difference with the halves this year to the halves of 09/10?
What?

 

[Eels Dude]

What's with all the 'IF we won those games we'd be in the eight' rubbish?

We didn't win them and we're not in the eight. Fact.

You can turn decision onn it's head by using the term 'what if'.... a bit silly IMO agree.

 

[oldmancraigy]

Hear hear.
This is the point I was trying to make to start with.
Poupou uses the excuse that we are a shadow of the team of 2010.

Yet in the same breath he applauds kearney and the powers that be for dumping two of the players he uses in that argument.

And you all harp on about the absolute black hole of talent at the club, but are so thrilled that we are re-signing all these players.

And then to cap it all off, we go and buy f**king tautai.

Why is Kearney afforded all this praise for a team coming 14th?

Oldmancraigy's argument seems to be centred around the halves.
All our problems will be solved with a good half.

If we want to talk comparisons, what's the difference with the halves this year to the halves of 09/10?
What?

We had a phenomenal run in 2009, but then came 12th in 2010.
I like DA, I think he's an excellent coach and was starting to do some good things for the club - but unfortunately we didn't have a HALFBACK.
Hagan made the problem by sacking 2 guys who are first grade quality (Maloney and Hodko) in favour of Finch. Finch is a loser, so DA flicked him - sadly first grade halfbacks don't grow on trees.

Had you watched us play last year, you'd have noticed that we were one of the best defensive teams in the competition. We struggled to what? (the answer is score points).
Why?
(the answer is no structure from the **dum dum duh** HALFBACK).

So what happened in 2009 then???
Well, it's really quite simple - Mortimer burst onto the scene as an 'option' to do something himself; Mateo was in career best form, and that just opened up the field for Hayne to run wild.
Reddy had his best ever season by far; Ben Smith too; and Fui was actually allowed to get up after being tackled and play the ball (refs have been pretty happy for people to lay all over him the last couple of years). Add to that that Kevin Kingston's impact from dummy half, and suddenly there was more than 1 attacking option.

The problem was masked somewhat in 2009, but it was still there - NO HALFBACK.
Who was the crap halfback in the grand final flopping off tackles and generally being inept with the ball? Oh dear, Robson.

But he was the only option for 2010, so we stuck with him. The board wanted a new coach, one THEY appointed, so that threw things into turmoil and by the time Kearney took over, none of the halfbacks panned out - I would've like Orford, because as crap as he's been in Canberra, he would've been better than Robson.
IF you think there's been no halfback crisis the last few years, just look at all the names we've chased/been linked to: Orford, Kimmorley, Barrett, Sherwin - a desperate search for a veteran to step in and cover that glaring weakness in our lineup.

You can mock the team all you want, but feel free to go back and watch the games. We've been playing good football, we have a good system, we simply need a halfback to 'execute' inside the 20 and produce tries. Once we have that, we have 2 options (Hayne + another) which will equal winning games that we've dominated possession/ territory.
The only reason we've lost those games on the bell is because we failed to 'put them to bed' earlier and capitalise on our field position/dominance.

Like I say, we're playing "top 8 footy" with a bad squad. Put a halfback in, and we're in business (lucky us, we also get a 5/8 next year!)

 

[JoeyJoJo83]

We had a phenomenal run in 2009, but then came 12th in 2010.
I like DA, I think he's an excellent coach and was starting to do some good things for the club - but unfortunately we didn't have a HALFBACK.
Hagan made the problem by sacking 2 guys who are first grade quality (Maloney and Hodko) in favour of Finch. Finch is a loser, so DA flicked him - sadly first grade halfbacks don't grow on trees.

Had you watched us play last year, you'd have noticed that we were one of the best defensive teams in the competition. We struggled to what? (the answer is score points).
Why?
(the answer is no structure from the **dum dum duh** HALFBACK).

So what happened in 2009 then???
Well, it's really quite simple - Mortimer burst onto the scene as an 'option' to do something himself; Mateo was in career best form, and that just opened up the field for Hayne to run wild.
Reddy had his best ever season by far; Ben Smith too; and Fui was actually allowed to get up after being tackled and play the ball (refs have been pretty happy for people to lay all over him the last couple of years). Add to that that Kevin Kingston's impact from dummy half, and suddenly there was more than 1 attacking option.

The problem was masked somewhat in 2009, but it was still there - NO HALFBACK.
Who was the crap halfback in the grand final flopping off tackles and generally being inept with the ball? Oh dear, Robson.

But he was the only option for 2010, so we stuck with him. The board wanted a new coach, one THEY appointed, so that threw things into turmoil and by the time Kearney took over, none of the halfbacks panned out - I would've like Orford, because as crap as he's been in Canberra, he would've been better than Robson.
IF you think there's been no halfback crisis the last few years, just look at all the names we've chased/been linked to: Orford, Kimmorley, Barrett, Sherwin - a desperate search for a veteran to step in and cover that glaring weakness in our lineup.

You can mock the team all you want, but feel free to go back and watch the games. We've been playing good football, we have a good system, we simply need a halfback to 'execute' inside the 20 and produce tries. Once we have that, we have 2 options (Hayne + another) which will equal winning games that we've dominated possession/ territory.
The only reason we've lost those games on the bell is because we failed to 'put them to bed' earlier and capitalise on our field position/dominance.

Like I say, we're playing "top 8 footy" with a bad squad. Put a halfback in, and we're in business (lucky us, we also get a 5/8 next year!)

 

[Poupou Escobar]

there's a massive difference between the organising halves and those who just lay on plays.

Yep.

A lot of people think an organiser and a playmaker is the same thing, because the best halves are both.

 

[Eels Dude]

Our defence has improved slightly. But keep in mind over the last 8 weeks when our defence has supposedly improved out of sight we have played a LOT of wet weather footy which generally results in very low scoring games.

 

[hineyrulz]

We had a phenomenal run in 2009, but then came 12th in 2010.
I like DA, I think he's an excellent coach and was starting to do some good things for the club - but unfortunately we didn't have a HALFBACK.
Hagan made the problem by sacking 2 guys who are first grade quality (Maloney and Hodko) in favour of Finch. Finch is a loser, so DA flicked him - sadly first grade halfbacks don't grow on trees.

Had you watched us play last year, you'd have noticed that we were one of the best defensive teams in the competition. We struggled to what? (the answer is score points).
Why?
(the answer is no structure from the **dum dum duh** HALFBACK).

So what happened in 2009 then???
Well, it's really quite simple - Mortimer burst onto the scene as an 'option' to do something himself; Mateo was in career best form, and that just opened up the field for Hayne to run wild.
Reddy had his best ever season by far; Ben Smith too; and Fui was actually allowed to get up after being tackled and play the ball (refs have been pretty happy for people to lay all over him the last couple of years). Add to that that Kevin Kingston's impact from dummy half, and suddenly there was more than 1 attacking option.

The problem was masked somewhat in 2009, but it was still there - NO HALFBACK.
Who was the crap halfback in the grand final flopping off tackles and generally being inept with the ball? Oh dear, Robson.

But he was the only option for 2010, so we stuck with him. The board wanted a new coach, one THEY appointed, so that threw things into turmoil and by the time Kearney took over, none of the halfbacks panned out - I would've like Orford, because as crap as he's been in Canberra, he would've been better than Robson.
IF you think there's been no halfback crisis the last few years, just look at all the names we've chased/been linked to: Orford, Kimmorley, Barrett, Sherwin - a desperate search for a veteran to step in and cover that glaring weakness in our lineup.

You can mock the team all you want, but feel free to go back and watch the games. We've been playing good football, we have a good system, we simply need a halfback to 'execute' inside the 20 and produce tries. Once we have that, we have 2 options (Hayne + another) which will equal winning games that we've dominated possession/ territory.
The only reason we've lost those games on the bell is because we failed to 'put them to bed' earlier and capitalise on our field position/dominance.

Like I say, we're playing "top 8 footy" with a bad squad. Put a halfback in, and we're in business (lucky us, we also get a 5/8 next year!)

Well said OMC.

 

[True EEL]

Hear hear.
This is the point I was trying to make to start with.
Poupou uses the excuse that we are a shadow of the team of 2010.

Yet in the same breath he applauds kearney and the powers that be for dumping two of the players he uses in that argument.

And you all harp on about the absolute black hole of talent at the club, but are so thrilled that we are re-signing all these players.

And then to cap it all off, we go and buy f**king tautai.

Why is Kearney afforded all this praise for a team coming 14th?

Oldmancraigy's argument seems to be centred around the halves.
All our problems will be solved with a good half.

If we want to talk comparisons, what's the difference with the halves this year to the halves of 09/10?
What?

i've gotta say, these bolded bits (especially) are good points.....if we have such a bad squad why is everyone so excited because we are re-signing a lot of the squad, bringing in Tautai (even though i concede he has improved as a forward since being at our club as a horrible winger) - and only supplementing these signings with a couple of good, genuine signings

Sandow will be great, but he still goes missing in games, he is not the cure all

 

[Poupou Escobar]

woa, woa, woa....can't compare them??

That's what I said.

you say KK is a loser and a waste of space

When did I ever say that? I think he's a good player, just not the playmaker or organiser we needed and his kicking game is average. He's one of the best defensive halves in the game, with good support and he runs well.

He's better than Morts at the things Morts is good at but without the halfback potential.

so he is hardly great talent that's gone right?

In hindsight this was a pretty silly comment from you wasn't it?

Tahu was a shadow of his former self, Guru was winding down, Mateo was just as inconsistent as he is now at NZ (maybe worse back then) and everyone liked to bag our Captain Nathan Cayless (except me, i think he has easily been our biggest loss this season) so where is this dearth of talent between the teams that renders them unable to be compared?? seriously????

The dearth of talent is in the fact that the guys we've got to replace all the ones who are gone, are all worse footballers.

Do you see you're logic failure? Just because the players who left have their faults, doesn't mean they weren't part of a net talent loss.

You think far too much in terms of absolutes and this limits your ability to recognise how things relate to each other.

and that second bolded bit, mate that is just a pathetic cop out and not at all accurate

If that's the case then I'm sure you'll have no problem naming more than 16 fit Eels that are good enough to be playing first grade.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Hear hear.
This is the point I was trying to make to start with.
Poupou uses the excuse that we are a shadow of the team of 2010.

Yet in the same breath he applauds kearney and the powers that be for dumping two of the players he uses in that argument.

You keep switching back and forth desperately looking for a win, don't you?

Anything to justify your criticism of the people currently in charge of the club.

I think dumping Grothe and Tahu may have hurt us in the short term, but in the long term will yield massive benefits for us. And to be honest, I doubt Kearney would have been able to improve the attitude in the squad as quickly as he has if Grothe and especially Tahu were still here.

If we want to talk comparisons, what's the difference with the halves this year to the halves of 09/10?
What?

In '09-'10 we had a bunch of great offloaders so the halves didn't matter. See? Without the offloading ability in the team (plus the linebreaking ability of Grothe, Inu and Mateo) we need good halves. In '09 we obviously didn't need them, though our kicking game hurt us in the grand final.