playing ugly

[yy_cheng]

Wow, talk about playing ugly.

There was nothing exciting about our play. Souths and Easts were exciting.

But at least the guys are fit and they were playing to our strengths.

Our defense in the middle was excellent. Not even a sign of the warriors poking their heads through.


Hayne did the long kicking.

We played an organized forward pack game and both hookers kept the pack rolling and rolling.

Fui was my man of the match. Things got quicker when he made his charges. Horo a close second. Followed by Mannah

The beast got hunted down.


Mortz and Robson stayed away from most of the ball playing.

Robbo was ok, no mistakes.

No improvement for mine from Mortz. Same old same old.

Again too slow to kick and head down so a charge down resulted, hospital pass which was dropped.

For next week, Lasolo off and Benny back. He should sure up that right defense.

Morgan off and Reddy back.

I really would replace the halves but that's not going to happen.

Hayne 7
Burt 7
Walker 6
Morgan 5
Etu 6
Mortz 4
Robson 5
Allgood 7
Casey 7
Mannah 8
Hindy 7
Lasalo 5
Horo 8

MK 7
Fui 8
Shack 7
Smith 5

 

[Eels Dude]

At this stage of the season playing ugly is ok. 2 points on the board is what matters. It's better to win games this season then play with flair and lose, only to have to play catch up to the rest of the pack like we usually do. Not pretty. But if we can win playing ugly at this stage of the season and continue grabbing those 2 competition points it allows us to open up a bit more when it really matter.

We will need to be more creative throughout the course of the season, no doubt. If we play like this every week we'll finish well outside the 8. But it's round 1, good gameplan to just get a win on the board and that's all that matters at this stage of the season.

 

[mrpwnd]

Didn't see the game, but based on all reports and the highlights reel I'd wager that the Eels are much more prepared than other teams that have played so far. At least the club is starting on the front foot early in the season for once, all the extra spark and whatnot can come later in the season when the players get more comfortable after a few rounds.

 

[strider]

i thought it was beautiful

 

[Snoochies]

Whether you win ugly or pretty, the value of 2 points is still the same.

 

[TheParraboy]

yes we are the ugly ducklings who will turn into beautifull princesses come GF day

 

[Snoochies]

Actually, my definition of playing ugly is when we drop alot of balls, kick out on the full, no direction etc etc and still win.

Tonight we had direction, controlled the ball, had purpose but Mortimer had a few shocking kicks but all in all, not ugly at all.

 

[boxhead]

Wow, talk about playing ugly.

There was nothing exciting about our play. Souths and Easts were exciting.

It doesn't matter if we aren't exciting. We haven't got anywhere near as much attacking talent as Souths or Easts. What matters is that we play to our strengths, meaning defence and a structured attacking game to suit the halves.

But at least the guys are fit and they were playing to our strengths.

Our defense in the middle was excellent. Not even a sign of the warriors poking their heads through.


Hayne did the long kicking.

He didn't do all the long-kicking. Interestingly, I mostly noticed Hayne and Mortimer sharing the role, the latter being a surprise considering one would expect Mcguire or Robson to do more long-kicking than Mortimer.

We played an organized forward pack game and both hookers kept the pack rolling and rolling.

Fui was my man of the match. Things got quicker when he made his charges. Horo a close second. Followed by Mannah

The beast got hunted down.


Mortz and Robson stayed away from most of the ball playing.

What are you talking about? They controlled the whole game, or if you want to look really closely, Mcguire and Keating helped them immensely in controlling the game. Our halves controlled the game through precise kicking and good passing.

Robbo was ok, no mistakes.

No improvement for mine from Mortz. Same old same old.

Again too slow to kick and head down so a charge down resulted, hospital pass which was dropped.

Your picking out only a few incidents and ignoring the overall performance from Mortimer? Talk about blind bias. Robson and Mortimer were both decent and that's all we want; they aren't amazingly talented halves and what they have to do is do their job to control the game, which they did pretty well. Mortimer had a few brain-snaps near the end but overall his and Robson's kicking and passing was up to scratch and certainly far improved on last year.

For next week, Lasolo off and Benny back. He should sure up that right defense.

No. I see why Kearney started Lasalo ahead of Smith and I definitely think he should stay there. Smith is not an impact forward but our starting pack was brilliant in every aspect, with our bench players all adding good spark and contribution.

Morgan off and Reddy back.

I think Morgan is being overly criticised, you have to remember that he was up against one of the most dangerous left-side's in the competition - even if they lost Vatuvei early. Him and Etu looked shaky, but they did well considering what was thrown at them. I agree though.

I really would replace the halves but that's not going to happen.

Nope and I doubt it will barring injuries. What more do you want from them? Neither are very talented halves and yet they did their job well and off our forwards they controlled the game tightly and precisely.

Hayne 7
Burt 7
Walker 6
Morgan 5
Etu 6
Mortz 4
Robson 5
Allgood 7
Casey 7
Mannah 8
Hindy 7
Lasalo 5
Horo 8

MK 7
Fui 8
Shack 7
Smith 5

My ratings for the players are;

Hayne 8
Burt 8
Walker 7
Morgan 7
Uaisele 7
Mortimer 7
Robson 7
Allgood 8
Mcguire 8
Mannah 8
Hindmarsh 7
Lasalo 7
Horo 8

Keating 7
Moi Moi 8
Shackleton 8
Smith 7

 

[Redback71]

i enjoyed the game awesome stuff just wished I had tipped them but i did have 10 on the eels/storm double

 

[Redback71]

any reason why webb was the one dropped for moimoi

 

[Captain BF]

Mortimers right foot is an absolute radar! He can put the ball on the opposition back 3's chest from a distance of up to 60meters away!

 

[parra-matters]

think he had a hamstring soreness from the panthers trial

 

[Y2Eel]

I dont think we played ugly it was a more reserved game being the first hit out..

 

[Eels Dude]

My ratings for the players are;

Hayne 8
Burt 8
Walker 7
Morgan 7
Uaisele 7
Mortimer 7
Robson 7
Allgood 8
Mcguire 8
Mannah 8
Hindmarsh 7
Lasalo 7
Horo 8

Keating 7
Moi Moi 8
Shackleton 8
Smith 7

Oh C'mon Boxy. At least admit Morts had a shocker tonight. He was woeful. Apart from one good kick his kicking game was awful. He may have taken his part in the lock kicking game, but his long kicks were terrible. Hayne has to be our last tackle option when kicking inside our own half. Robson played well, his short kicking game was solid. Morts on the other hand, was probably the worst player on the field for us tonight apart from Walker.

The fact that you cannot distinguish enough between players' performances that every member of our side is either a 7 or 8 shows your judge of assessment. There were a couple of 9's... there were a few 8's... but there were also a few 4 or 5's.

I don't exactly agree with yy's ratings either, but it's far better than yours.

 

[boxhead]

I think Webb had a niggling injury and as such Fui was called in...

Feel sorry for Webb, unless there's an injury I can't see him being picked over anyone in our forward pack at the moment.....

Forward pack should stay as it is. Allgood on debut, and starting, was phenomenal and should not be moved. Rest speak for themselves.

 

[muznik]

Disagree.

I thought the only ugly bit was after 60 mins.

I was very impressed with the clinical first hour considering it was round one.
Add to tonights performance a little more flair that the season progression can bring, I think we look OK.

 

[WaznTheGreat]

Next week will really tell us if the Eels have turned the corner because firstly they will start favs and secondly there will be a huge crowd.


Parra are hopeless as favs and hopeless playing in front of big home crowds,this should be interesting

 

[jk13]

ugly was mateo throwing it around and losing it. every time the camera focused on him, it looked like he wanted to trade jerseys. if winning ugly is wrong, i don't wanna be right

 

[boxhead]

Oh C'mon Boxy. At least admit Morts had a shocker tonight. He was woeful. Apart from one good kick his kicking game was awful. He may have taken his part in the lock kicking game, but his long kicks were terrible. Hayne has to be our last tackle option when kicking inside our own half. Robson played well, his short kicking game was solid. Morts on the other hand, was probably the worst player on the field for us tonight apart from Walker.

The fact that you cannot distinguish enough between players' performances that every member of our side is either a 7 or 8 shows your judge of assessment. There were a couple of 9's... there were a few 8's... but there were also a few 4 or 5's.

I watched Mortimer very closely and he was solid. He wasn't good at all but he was solid and he was much improved on last year. His kicking game was weak but it wasn't terrible. Some of his long kicks were decent actually. Mortimer was a 6 or a 7 behind a team of 7's and 8's. If he was the worst player on the field it wasn't by much, or rather he looked solid where most others were great.

Don't "c'mon" me when you have been criticising the kid for the whole off-season.
I can distinguish between them and I definitely could inflate the ratings either way for several players, but the way I saw it was that it was a very good team effort and as such I had my system was a lot closer in marks then what others may have been. I was more going off a player was 7.1 or a 7.9 than thinking of a straight 10 point system. But that's another matter entirely.

I'm not going to be overly harsh or overly praising on one particular player because they all performed as a well drilled machine. Robson and Mortimer - and Mcguire I should add - controlled the game well. What more do you want? They are no frills halves and they did their job.

I can say your judge of assessment is equally flawed, does your opinion automatically equate to being elevated over mine because yours differs from mine?
Both halves were heavily involved and both performed to the expectations that would have been set on them. Neither are world-beaters and we shouldn't treat them as such. Both had their hands in most of our attacking plays and we looked good going forward - mostly off the back of our forwards, but regardless they controlled the game.

I think anyone could see that even if they weren't crash-hot tonight our halves still out-performed their more highly praised counterparts.

Mortimer's kicking was very ordinary but his passing was good. Hell I went into this game knowing several people who have been extremely critical of Robbo and Morts in the past, and I can say now that all of them were impressed. It's a start and that's all we can really hope for.

 

[Angry_eel]

It was good to get a win to start the season. Our forwards were Awesome. Morts was ok. Lets wait a few games. Whats the point of expecting miracles from him in one game.