In short I just reckon the Eels looked just much fitter than us, sharper than us and wanted it more than us from the get go which is disappointing considering last years semi. We looked like the team that flew up on the morning of the game.
We can blame the refs all we want but than you’re just enabling and making excuses for this team. Granted it is still a young team but some of these guys now have played a decent amount of first grade to at least be competitive for 80 mins. The reason we were so badly exposed is because the last couple of years, we have been a team where when the opposing teams have the momentum, we struggle to swing the game back in our favour. That could be because we still lack a forward leader who can change a momentum swing with their physicality in defense. TPJ could be that guy for us if we could grow a brain and stay on the field. We still haven’t learnt how to absorb pressure and swing momentum and this new rule has badly exposed that. If we don’t get it right and soon, this will not be a one off.
Also after watching 5 games I am a huge fan of the new rule, even though we were on the wrong end of it Thursday and that’s because we didn’t handle the Occassion well at all. This new rule seems to have eliminated 90% of the wrestle and the games have a better flow to it and we are seeing more attacking footy without diminishing the collisions and physicality. I think the product has been outstanding considering we have had a 2+ month lay off. Still need to see a bigger sample size but so far so good.
The real negative though is there are going to be more blow outs than ever before as we now don’t have the refs manipulating games and giving out square up penalties to even out games. At least the better teams should be the ones who win the games.