Chipmunk said:
EELS13 said:
I think the trials and pre-season will be the most tightly faught one in years. With so many players, especially in the forwards, i think its near impossible to even guess what the team will be. The promise of a new style of play only adds to the intrigue, and has got me as excited about a new season as i can remember. Now the toughest part is going to be passing the time to next March, but i'm cetain it will be worth the wait as the mighty eels regain the kind of form that took them 1 game away from the premiership in 2001. No team will match there depth in the forwards, and there is nothing more healthy than competition in the squad for starting spots. This in itself will mean a more competitive, hungary team. No one is safe, just how it should be.
A new style of play!! Are you kidding? this is Brian Smith we have coaching us. He will be delivering the same crap that he was working on with the Dragons during their 1993 Premiership Assault!! I expect him to fully grasp the concept of "Go Forward" football something during the final weeks of the end of his contract in 2006!
Now THAT type of talk won't win you any friends here LOLLOL!
Brian Smith is a slow starter. Wisely, he realises that with the Macintyre system, you can use he first half of the season to fiddle with the side, retrain players etc. Sadly, however, it usually means us copping crapfootball (remember the days when Luke Burt and Ben Kusto had toput a length of the field effort and a sideline goal to defeat Manly at home????)
This year the slow start turned into a slow finish as well!!!
That's why we need a change of routine.
I still have a great deal of concern with our outside backs. Ashley Graham will miss out on pre season training and Luke Burts suspect shoulder adds to that concern. Dykes hasn't had an injury free run for years, Vaeliki has a shaky hamstring and to add to that lot Lyon will miss out on a chunk of training because of stress fractures on his back.
We also have a depth problem in the centre to cover Fresh and Killer which was why I was dissapointed about not signing Wilson, Ben McDougall, Chris Hicks or Shane Elford.
Good point, eelevation. I'm thinking 'blessing in disguise', as it will force Smith to tap into our talented youngsters. However, the centres are thin. You don't get anywhere in the NRLwith weak centres. An injury or suspension to either Lyon or Vaialiki would prove an almost insurmountable hurdle.
The more I thnik of it, the more I think we will revert to thye controlled stype of the early Smith years (think Kelly, Whereat, Barnes/Kidwell). While the sucess was great, the flair was zero, compared to what the latter teams could produce.
Thinkingf about it this morning, I amalmost convinced that, under any of the top 8 coaches (bar Bennet), Parra would have made the finals this year. Any takers on that one?
