Playing like it's pre-season

[oldmancraigy]

This is the most disappointing thing for me.

We brought in a new halves combination, and only teed up 2 pre-season games. The first few games of the year it really looks like we're still fiddling with combinations, and still trying to get Sandow to learn his place in the team.
Todays game against Newcastle looked exactly like a pre-season game. A couple of silly errors, same mistakes in attack (ie, running the wrong way, holding it when we should pass, not being calm under pressure) - all in all if it was a pre-season game I'd say "exactly what was expected, no big deal, should be a fun season"

Unfortunately it isn't pre-season, and because we're playing against teams who have done their pre-season prep well, we seem to be well off the pace.

I can't for the life of me figure out why they'd play that way 6 games into the year, but then I remembered that it took us 10 games last year before we started to "click" - is there some kind of trend?
[[last year we were horrible when it came to winning games, but from round 11 onwards we lost by 13 or more only 3 times, and lost quite a few games in the last minute or in extra time.]]

If you took rounds 11-26 of last season as the measuring stick, you'd say we competed hard but didn't have the class to win games.
This season it really feels like we recruited the "class" - but do we HAVE to wait until round 11 before the team starts competing again?

 

[Raudonikis]

it could be worse.could have lost to manly and be 0 and 6

 

[Chipmunk]

This is the most disappointing thing for me.

We brought in a new halves combination, and only teed up 2 pre-season games. The first few games of the year it really looks like we're still fiddling with combinations, and still trying to get Sandow to learn his place in the team.
Todays game against Newcastle looked exactly like a pre-season game. A couple of silly errors, same mistakes in attack (ie, running the wrong way, holding it when we should pass, not being calm under pressure) - all in all if it was a pre-season game I'd say "exactly what was expected, no big deal, should be a fun season"

Unfortunately it isn't pre-season, and because we're playing against teams who have done their pre-season prep well, we seem to be well off the pace.

I can't for the life of me figure out why they'd play that way 6 games into the year, but then I remembered that it took us 10 games last year before we started to "click" - is there some kind of trend?
[[last year we were horrible when it came to winning games, but from round 11 onwards we lost by 13 or more only 3 times, and lost quite a few games in the last minute or in extra time.]]

If you took rounds 11-26 of last season as the measuring stick, you'd say we competed hard but didn't have the class to win games.
This season it really feels like we recruited the "class" - but do we HAVE to wait until round 11 before the team starts competing again?

We lost by less than 13 points today, but I can tell you that we were just as dreadful as we were against Penrith and North Qld....we were just dreadful in other ways...

I think we are far worse in 5 of the our first 6 games than we were at any stage last year. This team has major problems that are not going to be fixed anytime soon. The next win will be when Hayne is on fire. The next win after that will be when Hayne is on fire agin and the next win after that will once again be when Jarryd Hayne is on fire in another game.

We have got nothing.....absolutely nothing

 

[Poupou Escobar]

It's taking time for the new halves to gel, that's for sure.

 

[oldmancraigy]

It's taking time for the new halves to gel, that's for sure.

But why should it be taking so long?

I'm worried that we're spending way too much time on the sand hills, and nowhere near enough time in the 'skills + sets' department.

Feels like we start working on the drills more intently once the season is underway, but failure to execute in the modern game leads to losses. Also leads to poor defensive performances on occasion.


The bad thing is that we're treading in the same footsteps as last season - first 10 rounds just seems to be a time to try things and work on combinations. Perhaps we should've teed up 2 more trial games for that?

 

[IFR33K]

It's taking time for the new halves to gel, that's for sure.

It's not only the halves, the whole team is failing to gel. We are playing as a pub team, at best.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Not true. Our defence has been quite good these past two weeks. As for our disjointed attack, don't rule out the influence of new halves - these guys are central to any attack.

 

[oldmancraigy]

Just bumping this thread.


I want to use it was support for why we should immediately fire Kearney.
Last season our first 10 rounds were shambolic, we then came together and played pretty decent footy the rest of the way (losing every close game that came our way).
This season is the same - inside the first 10 rounds we look horrible, and players just don't seem to have any combinations.

So here's the point
I think the reason we're playing so badly is because SK has used too much of his off-season mental space on the Kiwi national team.
He hasn't got back and focussed on OUR team, and we are suffering as a result.
Perhaps in a couple more weeks, those combinations will be in full swing again - but it's 10 weeks too late. He should've taken care of this stuff in the pre-season, not the season proper.

If he wants to coach the Kiwis, that's fine, but we shouldn't suffer as a result. No doubt we have been.

It's time he paid the price for his negligence.

 

[IFR33K]

Not true. Our defence has been quite good these past two weeks. As for our disjointed attack, don't rule out the influence of new halves - these guys are central to any attack.

Yep, our defence has kept us in games in recent weeks. Thank god.

 

[yy_cheng]

Just bumping this thread.


I want to use it was support for why we should immediately fire Kearney.
Last season our first 10 rounds were shambolic, we then came together and played pretty decent footy the rest of the way (losing every close game that came our way).
This season is the same - inside the first 10 rounds we look horrible, and players just don't seem to have any combinations.

So here's the point
I think the reason we're playing so badly is because SK has used too much of his off-season mental space on the Kiwi national team.
He hasn't got back and focussed on OUR team, and we are suffering as a result.
Perhaps in a couple more weeks, those combinations will be in full swing again - but it's 10 weeks too late. He should've taken care of this stuff in the pre-season, not the season proper.

If he wants to coach the Kiwis, that's fine, but we shouldn't suffer as a result. No doubt we have been.

It's time he paid the price for his negligence.

he has to keep his nz job in case he loses the parra job

 

[oldmancraigy]

he has to keep his nz job in case he loses the parra job

Come sunrise that sentence better read "because" in place of "in case" and "lost" in place of "loses"

 

[Eels Dude]

I dunno about the Kiwi thing. When he was overseas coaching the Kiwis all the players would have been on their annual holidays anyway. It's food for thought though on the mental thing. He obviously has a lot more passion for the Kiwi side than he does for the Eels side.

 

[oldmancraigy]

I dunno about the Kiwi thing. When he was overseas coaching the Kiwis all the players would have been on their annual holidays anyway. It's food for thought though on the mental thing. He obviously has a lot more passion for the Kiwi side than he does for the Eels side.

So he's coaching the whole time over there - when is his mental break/ holiday?

Could it be that he comes back a little less fresh than he ought to be?

The proof is in the pudding. Last year first 10 rounds diabolical - we were "competitive" in almost every game after that.
This year, first 9 games we've been competitive in 2 or maybe 3 games. The rest have been out and out thrashings.

Sure, it's POSSIBLE that we'll perform better from rounds 11+ again - but it's just not good enough IMO.

 

[Eels Dude]

So he's coaching the whole time over there - when is his mental break/ holiday?

Could it be that he comes back a little less fresh than he ought to be?

The proof is in the pudding. Last year first 10 rounds diabolical - we were "competitive" in almost every game after that.
This year, first 9 games we've been competitive in 2 or maybe 3 games. The rest have been out and out thrashings.

Sure, it's POSSIBLE that we'll perform better from rounds 11+ again - but it's just not good enough IMO.

Can't argue with that. He definitely needs to get his priorities straight, and his priority should be the club. Even when we had rep round the other week the weeks leading up to it some of his focus must have been on the Kiwis leading up to to the Test instead of being on club football. We're in such a dire situation now that surely he has to stand down and make club football his number one and only working priority.

Agree on your latter point also, being somewhat competitive in the back half of the season is not good enough and that won't cut it with me either. What's the point in being competitive once your season is already over. The competitiveness we showed in the back end of 2011 didn't flow through to the start of 2012 so why would we expect any different this year to next year.