Smith blew it big time.

[Misty Bee]

If ever there was a game plan that lost a match, it was that one. Firstly, full credit to Penrith - our early lead galvanised the team, and from the 5th minute - they were better. The ref didn't help, but if you are up 12-0 atfer 5 minutes, you shouldn't be blaming the ref for the loss!

But back to the game plan.

Parra started like the team we all know that they can be. Hindy running off McKinnon was a sight to behold, and to see McKinnon outpace Wesser TWICE was magic.

Obviously, the nucleus for every attacking side is the halves. At that point, the Witt/Thorman combo had been responsible for 100 odd points in the previous 170 minutes. It's a fast game, the forwards are tiring. On comes Cayless. Off comes Thorman. No forwards - Thorman. Wagon to 5/8. Misty's head sits in his hands.

Who is our best attacking hitup man? Hindy. Smith masterstroke? PLay him a 5/8 from the scrums against little Preston Campbell: full credit for going low on him all night. Hindy can push off hercules up high, but the old theory about the bigger the are, the harder they fall, applies.

Later in the game...ok, Thorman back on, in place of a big, tiring forward? Nup. Witt off. Back to the halves combo that couldn't score diddly against a woeful Tigers a few weeks back. Hindy/Wagon still share 5/8, and the crisp bal service to Widders/Burt is gone. Penrith, funnily enough, don't put forwards in the halves, and score points.

Toward the end of the game, when there is still a chance, our forwards, having played like demons all game, just run out of energy, and can't set the platform to the final assault. Meanwhile, Witt and Thorman, their confidence gone by being hauled earlier, can't deliver the final blow.

Result? Another failed campaign. Another underachieved season. Another Smith f**k up.

I suspect that as we all grieve, The SMith lovers will be celebrating. I await their defence, but I reckon it won't be quick. They will still be delerious with joy at what Smith has wrought.

Brtian Smith must be sacked. If he is coach in 2005, we will not make the semi finals.

 

[Eels Dude]

You are the eternal pessimist. Stop bagging Smith and get a life!

 

[Suitman]

You are the eternal pessimist. Stop bagging Smith and get a life!

He may well be......but he also makes some extremely valid points, to which I noticed you had no reply.

Suity

 

[Eels Dude]

The same points are made over and over again every single week, i'm sick of making replies.

 

[strider]

Mate, do you see Thorman through rose coloured glasses or something?....the guy played completely shit last night - his defense can be woeful and last night it was just that.....if he was playing half decent he wouldn't have been dragged.

I have no problem with Hindy standing first receiver off the scrum - Broncos generally do the same thing with Tallis.....and if you actually watch properly, Wesser was responsible for just about all the tackles to stop him - Campell may have stuck his head infront of Hindy's knees once or twice, but if he had gone one-on-one against him all night he'd be a trampled wreck.

If our gameplan was so screwed, then why the hell were we a real chance of winning the game against a top 4 side?
- we only squandered the early 12 pt lead by screw ups from our players....can't blame smith for them
- that try of ours that was disallowed late in the game which would have left us 2 pts behind with 12mins to go was one of the worst video ref cockups I've seen...things may have panned out very differently had that been rightfully awarded.


Your constant Smith bashing is a joke Misty - seriously....our whole team (coaching staff included) put in a big effort tonight.....we came up short - the refs didn't help and we made some shocking mistakes to hand them easy points....yet its all one man's fault in your eyes - you are blinded by your dislike of him....I suggest u get over it and try to look forward to next season, because Smithy is gonna be there no matter how much you obsess and bitch about him.

 

[1eyedeel]

No, can't agree with this analysis at all. Penrith's bigger men were absolutely starting to get on top of again. Smith's interchange stopped the momentum as far as I was concerned. Did you see the previous game against Penrith? We had the game in our control and then Penrith's interchange turned the tide for them. It was starting to happen again. When Wesser scored I was fully prepared for Penrith to bang on another 12 points before half time. Smith stiffened the defence we held them out and in fact got in front again shortly after half time.

Clearly, the error Smith made was not persisting with the halves combo that had put us back in front, and instead swapping Witt for Thorman. We were in front, so IMO Smith should have stuck with the safer option which was Witt, I doubt Preston would have pushed him off.

Thorman's little grubber through, that should have been scored from, hardly looked the play of someone with shattered confidence to me.

And: "Penrith, funnily enough, don't put forwards in the halves, and score points."

Again, I'll make note that Penrith scored because one of our halves were beaten in defence - it had been threatening to happen all game. Witty managed a couple of bootlace tackles that just pulled down the man, but he was barged over a number of times too. Penrith's big men excel at running at smaller backs - I thought the Eels gameplan worked well, I just wish he'd have persisted with Witt instead of Thorman.

As much as Thorman is an exciting attacking player, he needs to go home and work on his defence. He lets in a try just about every game with a defensive blunder and we can't afford that against the top teams.

 

[strider]

One correction here fellas......when Thorman came back on Witt was still on the field.....Witt came off when Webster went back on.

 

[AlexTheEel]

So i suppose Thorman was gunna stop the roll on the Penrith Forwards were getting.

 

[1eyedeel]

You are the eternal pessimist. Stop bagging Smith and get a life!

He may well be......but he also makes some extremely valid points, to which I noticed you had no reply.

Suity

I didn't see a valid point in the entire post.

 

[1eyedeel]

So i suppose Thorman was gunna stop the roll on the Penrith Forwards were getting.

Like I said, I think the mistake Smith made was putting Thorman back on. The team we had at that point was working fine.

 

[strider]

I agree with one-eyed.....Penrith ran big buggers at the likes of Witt, Thorman, Burt all night....it is Penrith's strength - they have some mobile big buggers in Puletua, the other hair-bear (who's now be shawn), Waterhouse etc.

No team can afford to have 3 defensive liabilities in their backline like this - and by that I mean small guys who find it hard to bring down big guys who run at them constantly....the best teams have no small player who is a liability....the Broncos, Knights (prior to this yr), Roosters have had defensive strength across the park for yrs and it tells on the competition ladder.

I am not saying I want Wags at 5/8.....but having 3 small guys who aren't very effective tacklers hurts against a big mobile team like the Panthers.

 

[AlexTheEel]

No, can't agree with this analysis at all. Penrith's bigger men were absolutely starting to get on top of again. Smith's interchange stopped the momentum as far as I was concerned. Did you see the previous game against Penrith? We had the game in our control and then Penrith's interchange turned the tide for them. It was starting to happen again. When Wesser scored I was fully prepared for Penrith to bang on another 12 points before half time. Smith stiffened the defence we held them out and in fact got in front again shortly after half time.

Clearly, the error Smith made was not persisting with the halves combo that had put us back in front, and instead swapping Witt for Thorman. We were in front, so IMO Smith should have stuck with the safer option which was Witt, I doubt Preston would have pushed him off.

Thorman's little grubber through, that should have been scored from, hardly looked the play of someone with shattered confidence to me.

And: "Penrith, funnily enough, don't put forwards in the halves, and score points."

Again, I'll make note that Penrith scored because one of our halves were beaten in defence - it had been threatening to happen all game. Witty managed a couple of bootlace tackles that just pulled down the man, but he was barged over a number of times too. Penrith's big men excel at running at smaller backs - I thought the Eels gameplan worked well, I just wish he'd have persisted with Witt instead of Thorman.

As much as Thorman is an exciting attacking player, he needs to go home and work on his defence. He lets in a try just about every game with a defensive blunder and we can't afford that against the top teams.

You read the game very well.

 

[fish eel]

Misty....the reason thorman came off was not smiths tactics, he was injured. He was met by Michael Johnson who took him striaght up the tunnel.....cant blame smith for that change!

 

[Eelementary]

If ever there was a game plan that lost a match, it was that one. Firstly, full credit to Penrith - our early lead galvanised the team, and from the 5th minute - they were better. The ref didn't help, but if you are up 12-0 atfer 5 minutes, you shouldn't be blaming the ref for the loss!

But back to the game plan.

Parra started like the team we all know that they can be. Hindy running off McKinnon was a sight to behold, and to see McKinnon outpace Wesser TWICE was magic.

Obviously, the nucleus for every attacking side is the halves. At that point, the Witt/Thorman combo had been responsible for 100 odd points in the previous 170 minutes. It's a fast game, the forwards are tiring. On comes Cayless. Off comes Thorman. No forwards - Thorman. Wagon to 5/8. Misty's head sits in his hands.

Who is our best attacking hitup man? Hindy. Smith masterstroke? PLay him a 5/8 from the scrums against little Preston Campbell: full credit for going low on him all night. Hindy can push off hercules up high, but the old theory about the bigger the are, the harder they fall, applies.

Later in the game...ok, Thorman back on, in place of a big, tiring forward? Nup. Witt off. Back to the halves combo that couldn't score diddly against a woeful Tigers a few weeks back. Hindy/Wagon still share 5/8, and the crisp bal service to Widders/Burt is gone. Penrith, funnily enough, don't put forwards in the halves, and score points.

Toward the end of the game, when there is still a chance, our forwards, having played like demons all game, just run out of energy, and can't set the platform to the final assault. Meanwhile, Witt and Thorman, their confidence gone by being hauled earlier, can't deliver the final blow.

Result? Another failed campaign. Another underachieved season. Another Smith f**k up.

I suspect that as we all grieve, The SMith lovers will be celebrating. I await their defence, but I reckon it won't be quick. They will still be delerious with joy at what Smith has wrought.

Brtian Smith must be sacked. If he is coach in 2005, we will not make the semi finals.

Are you SERIOUS? I didn't notice.

No wonder our attack was stiffled.

 

[Twizzle]

Playing a bloke like Hindy at 5/8 from the scrum is nothing new, normally its the opposite winger.

I thought that was a good idea, but not necessarily a master stroke

but I have to agree about the halves. Penriths halves were satble all nigth.

Witt and Thormans played half and 5/8 against the chooks, sharks and warriors, and played well enough for us to win.

When Thorman came back on, he played half and good old Wags at 5/8, with Witt sitting off.

This is the formula that caused us to be a contender for the wooden spoon, yet when we are starting to look good, BS reverts back to the things that dont work.

We were going OK, until about the last third of the game, when the halves were changed around continiously.

If we can see that, why cant he.

 

[AlexTheEel]

Thorman did not play against the Roosters. Wagon was at 5/8.

 

[strider]

Thorman did not play against the Roosters. Wagon was at 5/8.

Now now Alex - don't let the truth get in way of a good Smith bashing

 

[Redback71]

i noticed that too and was wondering what smith was up to what ever it was it was never gonna work splitting up the halves like that was always gonna be sucide not even the rabbits or warriors coaches would do that especillay in the middle of a game we handed the panthers that game when it was ours for the taking and im afraid smiths tactics did not help.

 

[strider]

The Panthers were getting on top of us in the latter stages of the 2nd half - yes we started very well, but then we gave them 2 tries and they were going better than us towards the end of the 1st half.

We stopped their roll when Thorman came off and Cayless went on.

Everyone's so frickin keen to blame the loss on one positional move (that in my opinion helped us).....what about the bloody dropped balls, bullshit passes, getting pushed in goal, totally bullshit refereeing and one completely crap video ref decision.....none of that played a part eh!

 

[Suitman]

The Panthers were getting on top of us in the latter stages of the 2nd half - yes we started very well, but then we gave them 2 tries and they were going better than us towards the end of the 1st half.

We stopped their roll when Thorman came off and Cayless went on.

Everyone's so frickin keen to blame the loss on one positional move (that in my opinion helped us).....what about the bloody dropped balls, bullsh*t passes, getting pushed in goal, totally bullsh*t refereeing and one completely crap video ref decision.....none of that played a part eh!

All those things played their part Strides but we also don't do a lot to help our own cause. Things have been working with Thorman and Witt.......why change it?

Suity