Rd16: Parra v Penrith GAME DAY THREAD @ Bluebet Stadium 2/7/21

[lingard]

BA's bench rotation has been awful for a few seasons now.

That's another thing: he drops Cartwright to reserves to give him more game-time, but then only uses him for ten minutes last night. What's the go with that? And he moves Marata from centre (where he was doing a great job - and only getting better) back into the forward rotation, but under-utilises him there. Meanwhile Hipwell and the Emu, who could be getting some game time in the NRL, are left to languish in reserves.

 

[hineyrulz]

If we score 30% of our tries off kicks, that means we score 70% of them some other way.

Tries from kicks	24 (30%)
Tries by Sivo	15 (19%)
Tries by middle forwards (incl. dummy half)	14 (18%)
Tries by spine (exc. dummy half)	17 (22%)
Other ways that I cant be bothered working out	9 (11%)
TOTAL:	79 (100%)

Seems we have a few different and balanced ways to score tries IMHO.

I wonder how those stats will look when we don't have 3 of the worst defensive sides to pick on.


All our tries against the top two sides were off kicks, our attack also struggled to break down the saints or Manly's defence. Even against the Sharks and Roosters it took us very late in the game with all the ball against injury depleted sides. It will be very exciting to see if our attack can hold up against the better teams coming into the finals.

 

[Angry_eel]

How many do we score against the top sides???

Well we scored 1 last night.

I think last nights gameplan to wear down the Panthers and it didn't work.

 

[hineyrulz]

Well we scored 1 last night.

I think last nights gameplan to wear down the Panthers and it didn't work.

That’s our point, it works against the shit teams which their are plenty but it doesn’t work against the top ones. We need something more to compete and break the top sides defences down.

 

[Obscene Assassin]

I think we should ignore the bottom 8.

We should just look at the top 8 teams as it's a totally different game.

We struggle to score against the top 8.

Against the lower teams, their errors and lack of fitness allows us to score easily

Well go out the back door come semis time

Supreme attacking machine penrith scored the same amount of tries as us last night. Both teams had key spine players out.

 

[emjaycee]

I wonder how those stats will look when we don't have 3 of the worst defensive sides to pick on.


All our tries against the top two sides were off kicks, our attack also struggled to break down the saints or Manly's defence. Even against the Sharks and Roosters it took us very late in the game with all the balls against injury depleted sides. It will be very exciting to see if our attack can hold up against the better teams coming into the finals.

I am more worried about our defence against the top 2 sides.
Against Melbourne we let in a soft try to Remis Smith and Olam scored after he collected a kick and stepped back inside. And against Penrith we let in soft tries to both May and Api.

Attacking kicks are a valid way of getting past (or over) strong defensive teams and if it is a strength you have I am not sure why you are so against us using it. Oh and Junior's try against Melb wasn't from a kick.

 

[lingard]

This is why they're good defences. Because no team is good at scoring against them.

You've just described two dimensions.

He's just described two movements within the same dimension.

 

[Obscene Assassin]

True, but for me the difference between a win or lose (apart from the obvious 80m missed goal) was the Gutho to Carty forward pass.

There was a few other moments between a win and a loss. Lane dropping it after getting tackled 1v1, would've resulted in a quick ptb in penrith's half. Gutho throwing an intercept, the short ball was on and Waqa likely breaks the line. Sivo centimetres away from one of the best put downs you'll ever see. Papa not watching the play and letting may score. Opacic not being able to hold onto an intercept he read perfectly.

Those are just the ones I can come up with currently. Putting a win or loss down to one play or one player oversimplifies an 80 minute game.

 

[hineyrulz]

I am more worried about our defence against the top 2 sides.
Against Melbourne we let in a soft try to Remis Smith and Olam scored after he collected a kick and stepped back inside. And against Penrith we let in soft tries to both May and Api.

Attacking kicks are a valid way of getting past (or over) strong defensive teams and if it is a strength you have I am not sure why you are so against us using it. Oh and Junior's try against Melb wasn't from a kick.

Who said i am so against is scoring tries from kicks, but against the better sides it seems to be our only option at times. So you don't think our attack isn't a problem against the better sides.

And fair call on our defence both those we let in last night we're pretty soft especially the first one after we had most of the ball.

 

[hineyrulz]

He's just described two movements within the same dimension.

*Bowel

 

[Avenger]

I am more worried about our defence against the top 2 sides.
Against Melbourne we let in a soft try to Remis Smith and Olam scored after he collected a kick and stepped back inside. And against Penrith we let in soft tries to both May and Api.

Attacking kicks are a valid way of getting past (or over) strong defensive teams and if it is a strength you have I am not sure why you are so against us using it. Oh and Junior's try against Melb wasn't from a kick.

We let in soft tries against the top teams because we defend so much more because they usually complete their sets and are relentless. It’s not like the players are lazy or forget to defend. They are physically spent. It’s why Lane missed that tackle on their hooker that let in a ‘soft’ try.

The problem is it seems to be rectified with other top coaches whilst ours appears to be too loyal to the usual suspects that let us down.

Yes he has dropped Fergo but that was a long time coming but I’d be also moving Marata back to centre and Blake to the wing and dropping Dunster who hasn’t been impressive to me at all.

 

[strider]

OK. I don't think Dexter was a real robot.

And greg evans wasnt a real host

But debbie newsome was a bit of alright

 

[Eelementary]

You need more than just the one trick though. You need an all round balance to create opportunities in different ways. I'm sure most of the other teams in the Top 6 could score more tries the same way if they had to, but alas their attack is more balanced and they don't have to.

Being able to score tries from kicks is an asset, but why can't we come up with other ways? I'd be surprised if the only thing we practiced at training in attack was scoring from kicks, but it is not showing on the field. You can call every play we do before it happens it is that predictable. We're relying on individual brilliance to do it all, rather than any kind of team cohesion.

Every time Gutho swings around to the left, you just know he will be engaging the defence, and passing it to Sivo.

It may be effective, but it's predictable.

 

[emjaycee]

Who said i am so against is scoring tries from kicks, but against the better sides it seems to be our only option at times. So you don't think our attack isn't a problem against the better sides.

And fair call on our defence both those we let in last night we're pretty soft especially the first one after we had most of the ball.

I think last night showed that against the better sides, getting through the defence is not easy - that's why they are the better sides. If it needs a good kicking game to get over them and score tries, I am kinda glad we are so good at it. At the end of the game, they dont give the 2 points to the team that scores the most tries from non-kicks, so realistically I dont give a f**k how we score them, if we score more and win the game.

 

[Matty Bhoy]

I thought we were extremely gallant last night. Sivo not getting the ball down in the corner turned into a huge turning point. Penrith were then given set restart after set restart (I’d love to know what some were for) and we tackled our hearts out.

We offloaded the ball well, playing expansive footy for the most part. Sadly Mitch missed the penalty, but fk me, that’s footy. I’m not buying into the “Eels struggle to win the close ones” rot. We were brave and just came up short. On to next week… ok the week after.

 

[Eelementary]

I'm pretty happy, tbh.

It sucks to lose, and our attack needs work - but damn, we were up for a fight last night.

And I've said it before, and I'll say it again - Lussick has been great, but we are badly missing Reed's attacking creativity.

 

[yy_cheng]

Supreme attacking machine penrith scored the same amount of tries as us last night. Both teams had key spine players out.

Yep, but what about Souths and Manly

 

[yy_cheng]

I thought we were extremely gallant last night. Sivo not getting the ball down in the corner turned into a huge turning point. Penrith were then given set restart after set restart (I’d love to know what some were for) and we tackled our hearts out.

We offloaded the ball well, playing expansive footy for the most part. Sadly Mitch missed the penalty, but fk me, that’s footy. I’m not buying into the “Eels struggle to win the close ones” rot. We were brave and just came up short. On to next week… ok the week after.

It took way too long b4 we started offloading.

 

[The_Frog]

I hope we rip off their Panthers Cocks and shove them down their smug Panther throats!

Maybe next time.

 

[emjaycee]

It took way too long b4 we started offloading.

You have to earn the right to offload and the defence from both sides in the early stages was clearly the focus meaning less chance to offload and more risk if you do. Ivan wasn't the first coach to comment recently about the strength of our forward pack and theirs is up there with us as one of the best in the comp.