I can see where you're coming from but I just see it differently to you. I can throw my hands up and cop a loss when we were comprehensively outplayed (particularly in defence) by a very good opposition on the night. It's the games where the opposition are there for the taking (like NQ) but we show up and have no respect for the football that really grinds my gears. I'd take us having a go and going down to a good side over not having a go and getting done by a poor side any day of the week.
I get that a loss where we were just outplayed and couldn't blame it on lack of footy or poor ref decisions would depress you (I think it does all of us) but those glaring weaknesses we have (particularly in the forwards) that usually get skipped over due to something more obvious (I.e. Dropped balls, penalties, etc) are still there no matter how many times we stick our heads in the sand and think possession is our only problem. It certainly isn't and I think last night proved to us again that it doesn't matter how much chance we give ourselves through controlling the footy and not giving away penalties if we don't have a pack of forwards that are capable of doing damage we're never to trouble the good sides that can defend. The same point was hammered home last night as it was during the Roosters semi last year. Is knowing that depressing? Oh shit yeah! but we're not in a better place by sticking our heads in the sand and thinking we'll be okay against the good sides if we control possession.
I can guarantee that we'll win more games playing like we did last night than we will playing like we did against NQ.
Well for two people who started off disagreeing, I agree with everything you've just said.
I suppose it's how we interpret the same situation. Personally last night, not that I needed it because I've been saying the same thing for two years, proved to me once and for all that anyone who thinks we are a genuine top 4 or 6 side that needs to get our sh*t together is kidding themselves.
Us at our best smashes poor teams at their worst. That's about it.
I also said earlier this season that when we win, we'll win easily. It's the way the game goes because we're only good when we dominate early and skip out to a lead, then grind our poor opponent playing catch-up footy.
But in real football games against real opposition with both skill and determination, we're a bit of a joke. I mean look at our losses - basically 5 drubbings with various contributing factors.
It's something I felt I had to constantly drum home to a friend of mine who supports the Eels. It's not the refs, it's not lack of heart, it's not tactics, it's not silly errors, it's not Ricky Stuart (well, it kinda was), it's not a million things he would name... it's the fact the roster was garbage and they couldn't compete with better teams.
In the end that lack of overall quality manifests itself in visible 'errors', missed tackles and big scorelines. Fans want to put it down to smaller issues like attention to detail, when the reality is that they are supporting a team that on balance is a poor one.
The Broncos defence was good, but in my opinion our attacking structure under Bennett has always been one-dimensional and useless against organised defences. The Broncos turned up and picked Bennett's game plan about 3 months in advance.
