Round 1 Eels V Broncos

[forward pass]

Just a quick further point, are some saying that if you selected in an NRL team you should be immune from criticism and review because someone suggests you are a back up selection

They still get paid as a full time player after all, if you play as badly in A grade or U15s, you will still get criticised

Couldn't agree more. BUT, criticism is one thing, but completely blaming one person for a loss when that clearly is not the case is something else - and I am not necessarily pointing the finger at you.

He made errors and a few wrong decisions and deserves to be criticised for them. Absolutely.

But for people to get their back up because a reserve grade footballer couldn't get us home against the premiership favourites just seems totally ridiculous to me. But if fans want to mope around and feel better to blame him - well each to their own.

 

[Dibs]

Mine was a rhetorical question so I don't really care.

Which translated means as good as brisbanes defence was it is not the cause of Luke Kelly stifling the attack.
In fairness to Kelly it wasn't his fault we loss and in fact considering out bad 5th tackle options and general kicking game we weren't to far away from Brisbane. Quite possibly the only difference was the Broncos defence. However none of that or even the fact he is only a back up excuses the fact he can't pass for shit and he is like a prop forward getting the ball during an attacking raid making it all come to an end. F*ck me but if being able to pass the ball isn't a preresiquite for even a back up half I don't know what is. if he has to be in the side then catch and pass straight away should be all he concentrates on, possibly getting into position for a 2nd option to kick every now and then

 

[hineyrulz]

Kelly is immune from criticism, he is the best back up depth half money can buy and without a doubt done a better job then Cornish.........

 

[Gary Gutful]

Kelly is immune from praise. He is the worst player ever to wear the blue and gold. Even worse than Paul Kent.

 

[hineyrulz]

Kelly is immune from praise. He is the worst player ever to wear the blue and gold. Even worse than Paul Kent.

Come on mate stop being so negative.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Which translated means as good as brisbanes defence was it is not the cause of Luke Kelly stifling the attack.
In fairness to Kelly it wasn't his fault we loss and in fact considering out bad 5th tackle options and general kicking game we weren't to far away from Brisbane. Quite possibly the only difference was the Broncos defence. However none of that or even the fact he is only a back up excuses the fact he can't pass for shit and he is like a prop forward getting the ball during an attacking raid making it all come to an end. F*ck me but if being able to pass the ball isn't a preresiquite for even a back up half I don't know what is. if he has to be in the side then catch and pass straight away should be all he concentrates on, possibly getting into position for a 2nd option to kick every now and then

I mostly agree, however his passing (and kicking) is fine. I think his decision making under pressure isn't good, and he's a poor playmaker because his weak running game doesn't attract defenders.

His defence is below average for an NRL player, but so is probably every other half in the NRL. I'd say for an NRL half his defence is well above average. Better than Norman's, even, but not as good as the best defensive halves like Foran and Cronk.

 

[84 Baby]

I mostly agree, however his passing (and kicking) is fine. I think his decision making under pressure isn't good, and he's a poor playmaker because his weak running game doesn't attract defenders.

His defence is below average for an NRL player, but so is probably every other half in the NRL. I'd say for an NRL half his defence is well above average. Better than Norman's, even, but not as good as the best defensive halves like Foran and Cronk.

It seems to me that he has positioning problems in attack. He is usually too deep if we are getting a roll on, or he is too flat if we aren't making metres. This is all magnified by how slow he plays. Athough he isn't David Crusoe in that regard

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

It's my theory that he plans the game, play by play, before the game starts. The moment something unexpected happens, he goes to shit.

It's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

 

[^b0ss^]

Just thought i would add something i dont think anyone has mentioned.Brocs also had the advantage of playing in the world cup challenge.

Thats a few good hit outs before the NRL starts,i thought the brocs should have been alot better for there first NRL game.

Foran and norman on the park at the sametime with wicks and gower on the bench.

think we are fine, i dont think kelly lost us the game he just played bad.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

It's my theory that he plans the game, play by play, before the game starts. The moment something unexpected happens, he goes to shit.

It's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

You're probably right. I think when he has time and space he executes well, like Mitchell Pearce. The difference with Pearce is that he is fast and strong, so when he gets rushed he can tuck the ball under his arm, take on the defence, and still manage a linebreak or quick play-the-ball.

Kelly knows if he gets tackled it will result in a slow play-the-ball, which is the last thing you want late in the tackle count. So when his runners are covered he panics trying to come up with a play.

Plus when you're the sole kicker, as he was for 40 minutes last night, playing the ball on the fifth means someone else has to do the kicking. You would want to avoid that at all costs.

 

[Swiftstylez]

Not even Luke Kelly himself would defend that performance. Some of the kicks he put in were as pointless as one of caspers rants. Ugly football, the 2nd half was as painful as any 2013 performance. Positives were apart from our right hand side some admirable defence, especially in the forwards. Broncos looked like they were on a training run in the 2nd half so i'll pretend it didn't happen. I will also echo that the support play was not there at the most opportune times.

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

You're probably right. I think when he has time and space he executes well, like Mitchell Pearce. The difference with Pearce is that he is fast and strong, so when he gets rushed he can tuck the ball under his arm, take the tackle, and still manage a linebreak or quick play-the-ball.

Nah, I was just talking rubbish.

 

[Delboy]

The criticism aimed at Kelly is because he has not improved since his debut,and there seemed little point in retaining him as we should know and understand what he offers,,even as a back up

Certainly, the coaching staff think he can do a job, the question is why, as basically we have seen little to support this view, and the arrow of blame is slowly changing direction from the player to the people who continue to select him

That's the bottom line and I want to support BA to the maximum, but at the same time, blind faith and ongoing selection for someone who doesn't appear to have it in him to provide a decent game consistently is a bigger question

 

[Redback71]

would have preferred to keep joseph paulo

 

[Poupou Escobar]

The criticism aimed at Kelly is because he has not improved since his debut,and there seemed little point in retaining him as we should know and understand what he offers,,even as a back up

Certainly, the coaching staff think he can do a job, the question is why, as basically we have seen little to support this view, and the arrow of blame is slowly changing direction from the player to the people who continue to select him

That's the bottom line and I want to support BA to the maximum, but at the same time, blind faith and ongoing selection for someone who doesn't appear to have it in him to provide a decent game consistently is a bigger question

Mate, he was good enough to be an NRL backup when he was 20 years old - that's the role he filled in Bellamy's team six years ago. Since then he has improved but not enough to be a top 17 player in the NRL. That's why he is still a backup. So if he is good enough to be a backup that's why he still has a job as a backup half at an NRL club. If he had potential to be better, like he thought back when he requested a release from the Storm, then he wouldn't have re-signed with a club that has Norman and Foran on the books. He would have done like Ash Taylor and gone to a club with more opportunity.

I think you're overrating the kind of quality you can expect from a backup player. Not every club has a Mbye or Elgey coming through, and those that do eventually need to make a choice. But we will soon possibly have Dargan and/or Turnbull knocking on the door, and if they turn out too good to be backups you can bet your death riding arse they won't be happy to hang around on peanuts playing backup to Norman and Foran.

 

[Eelogical]

My take on what I saw last night. The Eels started off strong but faded progressively throughout the match as the Broncos kept scoring. Only atrocious goal kicking from Parker kept the Eels in the game as we then tried to play catch up footy with no real spark or direction. Stupid handling errors, a weak right side defence and injuries cost us any chance against a more polished, patient opposition. BA has a lot to ponder over before next weeks game against the premiers. While it wasn't a massacre I thought it could have been if the Broncos were more hungry. They seem contented not to go up a gear unless they had to. As a team the Eels need to pick themselves up from that and learn something from it. Some bright individual displays on a positive note. Next week, if we get both our starting halves on deck and a decent game plan we should give the premiers a decent game.

 

[mackdadday]

I thought Kelly did ok considering he was our only half on the field in the second half. If the Jennings try had been ruled momentum then who knows what we might have gone on to do. Semi had his worst game ever with about 4 or 5 mistakes and Gutherson looked like a fish out of water but other than that i thought we were very solid. Ma'u was our best player on the field by a country mile. The only thing that worried me was that the Jennings/Semi combo doesn't seem anywhere as potent as the Taka/Semi combo of last season. Hopefully that will change in the weeks to come. All in all i thought we did pretty well considering we were playing the premiership favourite without our halves.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Ultimately those defensive lapses in the first half hurt our attack and helped the Broncos, in that they were in a position to remain patient while we were forced to increase our risk level. This is why defence is the key.

 

[hindy111]

Kelly is average....He gets paid for being average. He is not in our top 17. And by rnd 6 he may be behind Cornish as well.

If we lost foran/norman id look at perhaps taka or gutherson at 5/8 and bringing in a back. Let the main half take control.
The other option would be Bevan. Has played half in under 20s.

Look Kelly in a team like Melbourne would go ok. But at parra we have a hooker and fullback who have no real ball playing skills. That means we rely on our halves to do all the work.

Penrith have average halves in Soward and Wallace but they have attacking weapons in Peachey-Cartwright-Moylan-Segyaroo.....
Dogs are more like us. Two halves who have to run the complete show. If one goes down they are in trouble to.

Cowboys halves are helped by having Granville and Coote. We do not have multiple play makers. Why the two we have need to play together most games or we wont win many!

 

[hindy111]

Ultimately those defensive lapses in the first half hurt our attack and helped the Broncos, in that they were in a position to remain patient while we were forced to increase our risk level. This is why defence is the key.

And a good kicking game.