The preparation leading up to this match was too dysfunctional to draw lasting conclusions, other than we might've been a little hasty in pencilling them in as minor premiers after two matches. The Eels were clearly the better drilled team on the night, and deserved their win. How they got that way under the prevailing conditions might raise other questions.
If this were two months into a real comp I'd be writing them off. But, from what I saw last night, they'll need another month of proper training to get into shape.
With that in mind, I'm going to credit Brad Arthur with the win. Whatever he did in preparation was superior to Seibold. They looked fitter, better disciplined, and more comfortable as a playing unit. That said, they also made too many errors. Just fewer than us.
On the positive side, while I won't go so far as to rate our Croft and Turpin pairing in the upper echelon of the comp just yet, they look capable of laying a foundation for a brilliant Five Eighth and Fullback to shine. We don't really have the latter, but Milford has no excuses left. This has to be his year.
Despite the loss, I think we're already showing signs of being a better team than last year. We at least have a first grade standard halfback and dummy half pairing.