Why we lost – my take

[84 Baby]

We lost because we changed our attack. Not enough support meant not enough offloads at the crucial times. Similar how we played against the Dragons in the final season game... therefore, like against the Dragons, I believe we'll smash Melbourne next week!

 

[yy_cheng]

I knew we were in trouble when :

i) We were in the Gold strip
ii) Archer was the ref
iii) Harrigan was the video ref

 

[Eelogical]

I felt the Eels GF was played against the Dogs and this was stated as such by those far wiser than me. The Dogs game was built up as a GF in my opinion and getting them to lift again was always going to be hard. No excuses though, Melbourne paced themselves nicely throughout the finals and were at their peak on GF day. They took their chances, the Eels did not. Time to let the wounds heal and concentrate on 2010. Hopefully, next year the media will find another team to talk up the hype.....I sensed a loss after after that rediculous caricature poster in the telegragh of a Storm mascot harpooned on a bolt of "eelectricity" that was held by a big grinning Eel.

 

[Eelementary]

Please stop mentioning the ref. He may have made a few bad calls to both teams but in the end Melbourne were far too good - no dishonour in losing to them imo.

 

[lil_eel]

Why we lost – my take
Why we lost the grand final? This question will be in heart and minds of PARRA fans for months to come. Some says Tony Archer‘s horrendous decision robbed us the GF, some say we conceded some soft tries. But this is my take on this. The first two quick tries was the disaster. I don’t know what happened there. Our goal line defence was good for last 10 matches. Why we let those two tries was beyond me. Probably Ando knows.
We were not up to the game. We all know Inglis, how devastating he can be. Yet we weren’t ready. That surprised me a bit.
5th tackle option was terrible. We kept on kicking to Steve Turner, yet we never tried putting a bomb across Slater. Slater has history of bucking under pressure. We saw that when we eventually put a high bomb on Slater. I do not know whether it is a game plan or we did not do our homework.
Again – 5th tackle option, we did not have sting in our attack. I would squarely blame on Robson. I would think being No 7 he is a playmaker. That brings to the topic of Robson. He is a defensive No 7 but I think he lacks creativity. His kicking game is terrible. With a young No6, we needed experienced No 7. I do not think KK can fill the No 7 shoe. We need to have a good No 1, No 6/7 and No 9.
Hayne, was no shower. Yes gentleman Hayne was a passenger to me. What he showed he can do, in last couple of weeks, against Storm he was completely shut out. In fact I felt, he was not himself against Dogs. I thought he would go 1 level higher in GF, which was not supposed to be.
The last but not least important factor is attitude of NRL towards Melb storm. I understand they want to promote the game, but at what cost. They get special preference in terms of media coverage as well on the field. I would like to know how Storm manages so many Rep players every year. They are doing something which we are not doing. Yet team like us, we loose players in abundance after every GF appearance. Referring sucked big time. Storm was continuously slowing down the game yet ref turned blind eye. Some of the forward passes were not called. I mean, how much NRL can stoop low.
A big rap on Fui from me. He played out of his skin. In fact he brought sparks into the sleeping, lethargic eel.

Mate, I agree with you about robson. His not a half-back. Full stop. All these people saying that his a good defensive half half are out of there mind. His a hooker, playing half back. All he does is tackle. He has no long passing game, terrible long kicking game, havent seen him do good grubber kicks. He is so over-rated by eels fan. When Kris Keating starts next year, every1 will be saying rob who.

 

[grapeape]

Why we lost – my take
Why we lost the grand final? This question will be in heart and minds of PARRA fans for months to come. Some says Tony Archer‘s horrendous decision robbed us the GF, some say we conceded some soft tries. But this is my take on this. The first two quick tries was the disaster. I don’t know what happened there. Our goal line defence was good for last 10 matches. Why we let those two tries was beyond me. Probably Ando knows.
We were not up to the game. We all know Inglis, how devastating he can be. Yet we weren’t ready. That surprised me a bit.
5th tackle option was terrible. We kept on kicking to Steve Turner, yet we never tried putting a bomb across Slater. Slater has history of bucking under pressure. We saw that when we eventually put a high bomb on Slater. I do not know whether it is a game plan or we did not do our homework.
Again – 5th tackle option, we did not have sting in our attack. I would squarely blame on Robson. I would think being No 7 he is a playmaker. That brings to the topic of Robson. He is a defensive No 7 but I think he lacks creativity. His kicking game is terrible. With a young No6, we needed experienced No 7. I do not think KK can fill the No 7 shoe. We need to have a good No 1, No 6/7 and No 9.
Hayne, was no shower. Yes gentleman Hayne was a passenger to me. What he showed he can do, in last couple of weeks, against Storm he was completely shut out. In fact I felt, he was not himself against Dogs. I thought he would go 1 level higher in GF, which was not supposed to be.
The last but not least important factor is attitude of NRL towards Melb storm. I understand they want to promote the game, but at what cost. They get special preference in terms of media coverage as well on the field. I would like to know how Storm manages so many Rep players every year. They are doing something which we are not doing. Yet team like us, we loose players in abundance after every GF appearance. Referring sucked big time. Storm was continuously slowing down the game yet ref turned blind eye. Some of the forward passes were not called. I mean, how much NRL can stoop low.
A big rap on Fui from me. He played out of his skin. In fact he brought sparks into the sleeping, lethargic eel.

u call that analysis?

gelatinous ameba

 

[lingard]

The one I'm thinking of that I thought people were referring to was knocked down by Turner (Burt unmarked outside him) and we got the scrum feed 10m out.

It was a good tactic, to kick to Turner - but it was not smart to keep on doing it long after it proved not to work. We simply played him into the game. He had a blinder. When he took three kicks successfully, we should have left him alone and gone for Slater or the other young winger.

 

[lingard]

I have to agree that more credit is due to Melbourne. They were very, very good. They lifted a gear.

The good sign for the Eels - we still nearly pinched it in the end.

I thought the Storm's first half tries were just very well constructed. They got the Eels worrying about the "stars" which allowed Hoffman and Blair to hit holes HARD. They weren't the most flashy or entertaining tries, but they were very skillfully crafted.

The tries that were killers were the Inglis and Slater tries, especially the former. It just shouldn't have been scored, PERIOD.

I think there was an element of stage fright in the Eels' performance with the footy and especially in terms of fifth tackle options ... that said, I think they acquited themselve reasonably well. Moi Moi and Grothe in particularly were AWESOME, while Hindmarsh bared his soul in defence.

In closing - what was wrong with the Inu offload? If it hit the mark, it was a try for sure ... and we got it back from the scrum with six more tackles regardless. Good stuff. Inu losing the ball on the first tackle coming out of our end earlier in the match was the burner.

I agree with just about everything there. I just can't help but wonder - if Reddy is on the field just after half-time, does Inglis still score his easy try? And then it's a whole different ball-game, right?

 

[lingard]

Perhaps a better thread title would have been WHY WE ALMOST WON. You could write a novel about that. GO PARRA.
Sh*t they did well.

 

[Ike E Bear]

I think Reddy would have been more likely to be positioned better and, being pretty good under the high ball in attack, would have made an attempt at it. There's the possibility that Inglis might have nabbed it anyway, but then Hayne mightn't have been racing across as fast and MIGHT have been able to stop him short.

We'll never know, but I think the situation would have been better with Reddy on the field ... even if Inglis still scored. The fact he did it easy hurt team confidence, I reckon.

 

[Trop_eel]

My thoughts - At half time I told my teenage son I thought we would win 22-16 and that we would score after half time, Melbourne would score and we'd run away in the last 15 minutes because they were alreday blowing bad after the first 40 minutes. I thought Melbourne would only get one more try.

Inglis try killed it for me. Reddy was off and I can't help wondering whether he would have affected Inglis's easy catch. What transpired was a kick contest not fitting of a grand final....that was the difference.

Melbourne then got the try I expected and we surged home and just fell short when Lowrie kicked and when Archer choked. Inglis kicked the field goal and my son started dismantling the lounge suite.....

 

[Ron Jeremy]

Why we lost – my take
Why we lost the grand final? This question will be in heart and minds of PARRA fans for months to come. Some says Tony Archer‘s horrendous decision robbed us the GF, some say we conceded some soft tries. But this is my take on this. The first two quick tries was the disaster. I don’t know what happened there. Our goal line defence was good for last 10 matches. Why we let those two tries was beyond me. Probably Ando knows.
We were not up to the game. We all know Inglis, how devastating he can be. Yet we weren’t ready. That surprised me a bit.
5th tackle option was terrible. We kept on kicking to Steve Turner, yet we never tried putting a bomb across Slater. Slater has history of bucking under pressure. We saw that when we eventually put a high bomb on Slater. I do not know whether it is a game plan or we did not do our homework.
Again – 5th tackle option, we did not have sting in our attack. I would squarely blame on Robson. I would think being No 7 he is a playmaker. That brings to the topic of Robson. He is a defensive No 7 but I think he lacks creativity. His kicking game is terrible. With a young No6, we needed experienced No 7. I do not think KK can fill the No 7 shoe. We need to have a good No 1, No 6/7 and No 9.
Hayne, was no shower. Yes gentleman Hayne was a passenger to me. What he showed he can do, in last couple of weeks, against Storm he was completely shut out. In fact I felt, he was not himself against Dogs. I thought he would go 1 level higher in GF, which was not supposed to be.
The last but not least important factor is attitude of NRL towards Melb storm. I understand they want to promote the game, but at what cost. They get special preference in terms of media coverage as well on the field. I would like to know how Storm manages so many Rep players every year. They are doing something which we are not doing. Yet team like us, we loose players in abundance after every GF appearance. Referring sucked big time. Storm was continuously slowing down the game yet ref turned blind eye. Some of the forward passes were not called. I mean, how much NRL can stoop low.
A big rap on Fui from me. He played out of his skin. In fact he brought sparks into the sleeping, lethargic eel.

Stopped reading after that.

 

[Ike E Bear]

My thoughts - At half time I told my teenage son I thought we would win 22-16 and that we would score after half time, Melbourne would score and we'd run away in the last 15 minutes because they were alreday blowing bad after the first 40 minutes. I thought Melbourne would only get one more try.

Inglis try killed it for me. Reddy was off and I can't help wondering whether he would have affected Inglis's easy catch. What transpired was a kick contest not fitting of a grand final....that was the difference.

Melbourne then got the try I expected and we surged home and just fell short when Lowrie kicked and when Archer choked. Inglis kicked the field goal and my son started dismantling the lounge suite.....

I wasn't quite as confident as you at half time, but I had similar ideas.

When Hindy pushed Cronk in the back and forced the knock on near the end of the first half, I thought "this is it". I thought that'd be the catalyst for the fight back and a much, much stronger second half. Hindy showed what it would take to win it and it was just a matter of the rest snapping out of it and following his inspirational lead - leave nothing in reserve.

Then Grothe scored that try and my blood was well up. It was ON!!!

... and then the Inglis catch and stroll in. Deflated.

It took the Eels another 10 to 15 minutes to recapture the momentum and by then, the clock was against us.

 

[vic_champs]

you lost cos you were playing the best team in the country, plain and simple

 

[The Colonel]

you lost cos you were playing the best team in the country, plain and simple

I love people who come onto a forum after the event and talk it up...... bandwagoner of the highest order. Will you hang around next year or will you wait and see if they win again?

 

[mickdo]

I love people who come onto a forum after the event and talk it up...... bandwagoner of the highest order. Will you hang around next year or will you wait and see if they win again?

Nah, he'll be in high school then so he'll have homework to keep him busy