late mail smh

[Stagger eel]

Why did Finch have to be cleared?

because he's not injured.

 

[Eels Fanatic]

Nooooo!!!
GRAND FINAL: 30 SEPTEMBER 2007

Wow they changed it on me! Looks like some of these marbles may be mine.

New thought: We only have to dominate one game this year ie the one played at night on 30 September 2007.

 

[Stagger eel]

Wow they changed it on me! Looks like some of these marbles may be mine.

New thought: We only have to dominate one game this year ie the one played at night on 30 September 2007.

I would say that if we make the grand final without dominating any other game other the one you mentioned, we would all be advised to go out and buy lottery tickets because that's a horrendous amount of luck involved.

 

[Join The Bandwagon]

because he's not injured.

we can fix that...

 

[Redback71]

go a feeling the panthers will give us a bit of a touch up, but i still tipped the eels

 

[Eels Fanatic]

I would say that if we make the grand final without dominating any other game other the one you mentioned, we would all be advised to go out and buy lottery tickets because that's a horrendous amount of luck involved.

So true we need to be in the top eight come finals time, however dominating games definately is not a prerequisite of winning on grand final day. Winning each and every game/final by one point regardless of the circumstances it was achieved is enough to ensure our team hoists the trophy at the end of the season.

Food for thought:

2001 Dominating Team Eels Grand Final Winner Newcastle
2002 Dominating Team Warriors Grand Final Winner Roosters
2003 Dominating Team Roosters Grand Final Winner Penrith
2004 Dominating Team Roosters Grand Final Winner Bulldogs
2005 Dominating Team Eels Grand Final Winner Tigers
2006 Dominating Team Storm Grand Final Winner Broncos

My prediction

2007 Dominating Team "Don't Care" Grand Final Winner Eels

Hope that sheds a bit more light on the point I was trying to make.

 

[Stagger eel]

So true we need to be in the top eight come finals time, however dominating games definately is not a prerequisite of winning on grand final day. Winning each and every game/final by one point regardless of the circumstances it was achieved is enough to ensure our team hoists the trophy at the end of the season.

Food for thought:

2001 Dominating Team Eels Grand Final Winner Newcastle
2002 Dominating Team Warriors Grand Final Winner Roosters
2003 Dominating Team Roosters Grand Final Winner Penrith
2004 Dominating Team Roosters Grand Final Winner Bulldogs
2005 Dominating Team Eels Grand Final Winner Tigers
2006 Dominating Team Storm Grand Final Winner Broncos

My prediction

2007 Dominating Team "Don't Care" Grand Final Winner Eels

Hope that sheds a bit more light on the point I was trying to make.

mate, even the winners at one stage or another still dominated in games leading up to winning the thing..in fact didn't a full strenth Newcastle still give us a touch up in 2001??

Penrith were minor premiers in 2003..
The Dogs won plenty of games where they monstored the side including us in 2004

and so on.

all the winners had atleast half a dozen clinical wins during the season.

 

[Stagger eel]

we can fix that...

no you can't..;-)

 

[Jake the snake]

We have all learnt from the past...... no matter what you do during the year if you don't turn up on GF day, it's all a waist. Sometimes the scrappy hard wins are the best. You need to be playing good footy at the end of the year.

 

[caylo]

So true we need to be in the top eight come finals time, however dominating games definately is not a prerequisite of winning on grand final day. Winning each and every game/final by one point regardless of the circumstances it was achieved is enough to ensure our team hoists the trophy at the end of the season.

Food for thought:

2001 Dominating Team Eels Grand Final Winner Newcastle
2002 Dominating Team Warriors Grand Final Winner Roosters "No bulldogs were"
2003 Dominating Team Roosters Grand Final Winner Penrith
2004 Dominating Team Roosters Grand Final Winner Bulldogs
2005 Dominating Team Eels Grand Final Winner Tigers "dragons, broncos were dominate to"
2006 Dominating Team Storm Grand Final Winner Broncos

My prediction

2007 Dominating Team "Don't Care" Grand Final Winner Eels

Hope that sheds a bit more light on the point I was trying to make.

point taken. Also since 2000, no one who won the minor premiership has won the comp. No team has won back to back preimierships. And other than the rosters with fitler, has any team been consistant the year after dominating, or winning the comp.

 

[Stagger eel]

We have all learnt from the past...... no matter what you do during the year if you don't turn up on GF day, it's all a waist. Sometimes the scrappy hard wins are the best. You need to be playing good footy at the end of the year.

exactly, but you also need to playing good footy during the year to survive the backend also.

 

[Stagger eel]

Eels Fanatic, if you want a good example with your theory you don't have to go past the 1995 Canterbury side...

they scraped in the semis by the skin of their teeth by playing sudden death footy in the last month before their semis and than gradually got better and stronger apporaching and during the playoffs..

I don't think any other club did what the dogs were able to do that year.

 

[miniHINDY]

Eelavation is totally right, stop being jerks everybody. A lot of the teams have went backwards this year (us included) but still, on paper we have a very good team (relatively).

 

[Eelectrica]

We've shown improvement every week thus far, and I think at this stage as long as we continue improving we'll be OK.

 

[miniHINDY]

Shoot for the moon, Even if you miss you'll be amongst the stars.

 

[btaag]

Its a bit like training a horse (not that I have ever done it!) - you need to be in contention from the outset and hopefully not playing catch-up from the start, but as long as you are in semi's contention (hopefully closer to 6,5,4,3rd position than 9.8.7th position), your team is a chance of winning.
From there it is all about trying to have your team on a roll in the weeks leading up to the finals. This is hard to orchestrate, and can be influenced by unexpected and key injuries, or the unexpected emergence of a young player out of the blue.

For me, some of the most memorable finals runs that have derailed, or emerged out of the blue include:

Canberra 1993 - Ricky Stuart does his knee flogging us in the secodn last game of the season, Canberra, the minor premiers go out of the finals in straight games.

Dogs 1995 - already discussed, but were patchy all season before flogging the Cowboys by 50 or more points, then went on a great run.

Eels 1997 - we had the great run of wins, but then injuries really hurt us leading into the finals. We were patchy in the last rounds and were bundled out in straight defeats

Eels 2000 - the Baby Eels scraped into the finals (beating the warriors in Auckland was a make or break game to make the semi's), noone rated us in the finals but we upset the Roosters and Panthers before giving the Bronco's their greatest test in the finals. We had the momentum. (Ditto goes for 1998 but it is too painful to recount again).

St George 2005 - I would argue Saints were the dominant team in 2005 and they peaked in the game against us at Kogorah. We were also coming into good form, and it was a top game, though they never played as well in the following weeks, and the momentum was lost.


I always thought Brian Smith had Parra primed for finals football - even in 1997 when we had loads of injuries, we took that 18-0 lead vs Newcastle and also led against the Bears. In 2002 when we were indifferent, we really gave Brisbane a scare and were unlucky to have been bundled out thanks to the Macintyre system.
I only hope Hagan can engender high morale with the boys so they play at their best in the business end of the season.

 

[Stagger eel]

Shoot for the moon, Even if you miss you'll be amongst the stars.

are you sure you're not miniPARRA PETE :lol:

 

[miniHINDY]

I don't even know who that is tbh

Just a little motto I live my life by.

 

[Stagger eel]

I don't even know who that is tbh

Just a little motto I live my life by.

uncle Parra Pete's a good man ;-)

 

[miniHINDY]

haha thats good to hear!