We did it again

[cirque]

I was shocked with the result. I could not see the match since I had another committment to attend to. Thanks god I did not witness the match. It was a disgrace. Here we started again...... Untill now I was resisting myself not to blame coach but enough is enough. Can we do PENRITH like last year, I gues SMITHI is not LANG. I am not sure what is hurting us much. We do not have commitments- why ? Are we heading like sharks. I was suprised to see SOUTH playing against Roosters. I have seen a gutsy performance like SOUTHies. They were so attacking.
I hate to see EELS at 9/10 position at the end of the season.
Smithy and his associates has to go. We need fresh look at the game. I agree he has done a lot for our team but we did not achive as Newscastle, Broncos or shitty team like Storm.
It is a disgrace,

 

[Eelementary]

Can we do a Penrith, you ask?

NO.

Why is that?

Simple. While last year Penrith and Souths constantly got beaten, they played well and with passion.

What I saw Saturday night was forwards afraid to break the defensive line - too often our forwards were submitting in tackles. Ironically, our smaller backs were trying to break the tackles and thus lost the ball.

Itis true that the Bulldogs were playing for pride and to attract some new sponsors. However, our team had next to no pride. We had a winger who was pathetically useless in defence and subsequently made a great centre look mediocre (although it wasn't his best night); forwards who played well for the first 10 and then decided they had done enough; a (IMHO) great but smallish winger marking up against a huge SBW; a lock with no attacking flair or creativity filling the number 6 jersey; and an injury riddled halfback who (IMHO) had a blinder. EVERY good attacking move was because of Dykes.

I believe players may have had off days. I am willing to excuse:

* Burt - because he hasn't played any First Grade in a year; it will take a few games to get back to his best

* Hindmarsh - I thought he was very ordinary, but he has always showed passion and pride and done his best for us

* Hopkins - I feel he was targeted, like Hindy. EVERY time he got the ball he was smashed. Plus he has a lot of pride and passion for the club.

* Cayless - his first First Grade game as skipper in a different position than usual.

To me the Man of The Match for us was Dykes, with Grothe not far behind. Cannings and Stapleton were much better than Pearson and Vella, and Vaealiki and Armit stabilised things somewhat when they cmae on - but it was by then too late.

No doubt that Brian is not happy and will do all he can to improve the situation. But as to whether we can come back?

Sure we can. But I think we need to look seriously at our team and say, "What were you doing? You missed easy tackles. looked lazy and uninterested." I think it takes strength, skill and determination to be a great player.

But we are currently missing a team ethos of PRIDE. Without PRIDE, Penrith would never had won last year.

 

[cirque]

Ele you are right. It seems we forgot the smple ball playing. It is right too that we are missing pride. We did not loose becuase Bulldogs played well but we lost becuase we played terrible game. I think Salary Cap has also made the game bad. NRL needs to wake up. I think teams like Roosters, Broncos, Knights- I wonder how they can keep their team years after years intact and we keep loosing players like PJ Marsh, Adrew Ryan, Bred.

 

[JessEel]

i keep looking at the roosters team, year after year, and wonder why it is we can't have all our players at once when they can have 5-6 internationals at a time.
either they are being payed less then we expect or we are ripping ourselves off!!

 

[Twizzle]

Smithy's Rule: Fringe players are cheaper, so then you can buy more of them.

 

[JessEel]

and a player once told me that the curse of this club is that we have too many players

 

[bartman]

i keep looking at the roosters team, year after year, and wonder why it is we can't have all our players at once when they can have 5-6 internationals at a time.
either they are being payed less then we expect or we are ripping ourselves off!!

Maybe it's the $$$ from those Shampoo commercials :roll: , Wing's gig on FoxTV :roll: , Freddy's sponsorships etc, and the eastern suburbs "beach lifestyle" :roll: that keeps them all there within the cap?

 

[cirque]

What about othe clubs like Broncos, Knights. Look at their coaching style I feel Hagan is more innovative than our Smithy. I hate to say we are not playing for our pride. I am scared to watch the next match for EELS. Whenever EELS loose I go into some kind depression which spoils the whole weekend. Thank god Idid not see last week's match.

 

[JessEel]

buck up mate, or this season could be a loooooooooooooooooong one for ya :?
we'll be right

 

[Maroubra Eel]

What about othe clubs like Broncos, Knights. Look at their coaching style I feel Hagan is more innovative than our Smithy. I hate to say we are not playing for our pride. I am scared to watch the next match for EELS. Whenever EELS loose I go into some kind depression which spoils the whole weekend. Thank god Idid not see last week's match.

I know what you mean. It spoils my weekend too.