Round 1 v Manly game thread

[TheRam]

Good to see you're full of positives tonight Ram.

Sorry mate, but this team has ruined me for positivity. Until they prove me wrong, I stand by my words.

For mine we are a better team in the forwards, but a very average team out wide and we are still ill disciplined and can't hold on to the ball as well as we should.

 

[oldmancraigy]

Good position Ram.
Nothing to be positive about after belting the best team of the last decade by 30. Lets whinge instead.

 

[Twizzle]

I bitched like hell about our defence at the end of last season.

That was some of the best defence I've seen from an Eels team, especially on their line.

Good to see Footy back

 

[Glenn]

Indeed the defence on the Try line was light years ahead of the defence last year, hopefully they can continue with that.

 

[Joely01]

Anyone watch the post match media conf with Arthur?

We certainly made some silly errors, and conceded dumb penalties, but I've never seen a coach so annoyed/pissed/angry after a 30 point win in my life. Understand he wants to keep them grounded, it's only round 1, but he didn't seem satisfied in the slightest!

He answered exactly how he should. Don't give the media much at all.
Before the game finished he was down at the bench shaking hands etc, it's clear he was happy with the result.
No need to spill your guts to the media.

 

[TheParraboy]

Manly definitely have a few issues, how could they pick Mateo. What did he do during the offseason - he was so unfit and over weight, f**k look at his belly !!! Most NRL coaches wouldnt have a let a player in that shape take the field.

Plus they bought Willie MASON who is good for 10 minutes tops, and the 4th best (and by far worst) Burgess brother in Luke. Replacing Watmough for Mateo

With Rumour mills around both Foran and DCE are leaving, it really does delight me with whats happening over there at Brooky.

 

[Gronk]

The ruck is so open now that I think that a bench hooker is imperative now.

Playing just the one hooker is a risk unless he is super fit and can remain sharp for 80.

Happy with our 2, especially how Peats can play tight forward if need be.

 

[TheParraboy]

With the new ruck laws

Is this gonna be Parra circa 2001?

 

[Joely01]

So Mason got smashed all night, didn't he say he would retire if that happened?

 

[Twizzle]

who needs Foran ?

 

[pedge]

who needs Foran ?

Tis a good question
Woukd rather have a gun fb ( are there any off contract) or strike centre (hurrell?) and another prop

 

[lingard]

On Hopa. We have the slowest fullback in the comp. He is very talented, but speed is vital in his position. So we shouldn't expect to many great moments from him, like chiming in with speed and busting the line wide open like all the great fullbacks can and do.

In fact I have a feeling that coach, may eventually move him back to centre after a couple of months. He will give him apple opportunity to make the position his, but I don't think long term he will it in that position.

What I think will happen, is when coach finally has had enough of our backline conceding simple line breaks and tries, If he can find another player from the lower grades that he feels could handle fullback, he will drop Champion and move Hopa into the centres again.
Or he will move Robinson to the back. Either way, if the backline doesn't improve defensively and Hopa doesn't contribute with sparkling mojo to the backline, expect these sort of changes to take place as the season unfolds.

I agree with you completely on this. My thinking would be to try Robinson at fullback and move Hoppoate back to the centre. I know it's very early days, but my concern is that, in a thirty-point flogging, our fullback played such a small role in attack. Can you imagine what Moylen or Stuart or Tomkins would have done in similar circumstances?

 

[guruminga]

I liked Taka's post match interview. With Semi outside, I just have to feed him the ball. He said it a couple of times. We'll make some good points off Semi this year and I reckon he'll get that Try Scoring title!

G

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

We won. Yay!

Good stuff, Ricky.

 

[hineyrulz]

So Mason got smashed all night, didn't he say he would retire if that happened?

I can't be buggered to find my post but i did say Mason would be retiring today The old loudmouth got smashed.

 

[eel01s]

Great win last night but let's not get too carried away. Dogs next week will be a good test for our pack.

I thought we looked good up the middle, attacked well, and had a good kicking game. We did struggle in defence out wide (Robinson came in off his wing a few times), but it is round 1 and hopefully that will get sorted out.

What I liked was that there were no easy yards up the middle. Taka and Champion did well in defence. Loved the aggression from Moeroa, Watmough, Lussick and co.

Gee Moeroa is a weapon, hopefully his shoulder is OK. The opposition forwards won't want to run at him!

Sandow looks electric. Hoppa did nothing wrong. Impressed with Taka. Semi was typical Semi.

Peats looked a little rusty, but he will improve as he gets match fit. Overall, very good start to the year, let's hope we can back it up against the dogs. How nice would it be to get two wins over our arch enemies in consecutive weeks?

 

[hineyrulz]

I agree with you completely on this. My thinking would be to try Robinson at fullback and move Hoppoate back to the centre. I know it's very early days, but my concern is that, in a thirty-point flogging, our fullback played such a small role in attack. Can you imagine what Moylen or Stuart or Tomkins would have done in similar circumstances?

So we score 42 points and you worry about the fullbacks contributions???? After only letting in 12 after all that ball they had????

I thought Hoppa was very good, and the buy of the century Robinson went very well on the wing like i predicted :sarcasm:


Why change it????

 

[The Elephant In The room]

Listening to the post match interviews (or at least trying to). How hard is it for the NRL video guys to actually capture the questions being asked to the captain/coach? Been almost inaudible for the past two years.

 

[strider]

yeah - none of our outside backs have ever played a real game together - we put on 42 points and concede just 12 despite a large possession imbalance against us for much of the game ..... but we need to plan to pick apart our backline :roll: ..... I'd hate to know how we'd react if we'd won by 50

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

That was bloody good to see, been a long time since I watched Parra attack with their defense.

Bring on r2.