I wrote earlier in the season that league is going soft. Well this weekend did absolutely nothing to dispel that theory after Jason Ryles was sent off for playing footsies with Jeff Lima.

When a front rower is sent off for something like that I wonder what the game is coming to?

Now I have got over that it’s time to look at our game from the weekend.

Things were looking good until after Tony Williams scored in the second half. After that try it seemed like we simply forgot how to attack and pushed too hard trying to create something out of nothing.

We certainly didn’t benefit from any of the referee’s decisions on the night and I am adamant Chad Robinson scored a try. I thought the attacking team was supposed to get the benefit of the doubt?

I also thought there were a couple of other things which went against us including Brett Stewart not being penalised after Jarryd Hayne had stripped him and Snake held Haynesy down for a while. There were a couple of other calls as well.

But at the end of the day we can’t blame the ref and have to look in the mirror. The truth is we lost another game we should have won.

When Manly lost Matt Orford before the game we were licking our lips and then they lost Jamie Lyon early on. With the loss of Orford and Killer we should have been able to dominate them. It became even clearer when big Jason King did his ankle later on in the game but we failed in our task.

I may sound frustrated in this post, but it’s hard not to be.

Despite being able to knock us over I don’t feel like Manly are a genuine premiership contender. I think they lack that X-factor teams need to win the comp. If Michael Monaghan was still there I don’t think I would feel that way.

Manly are a very good team but that is as far as I think it goes. I have no doubt they can make the Grand Final but I don’t believe they can win it.

As for what we need to do, well I have said to the media we need to improve on our goal line defence and I stand by it. You can’t stand on your goal line and expect to be able to stop the opposition.

That try Anthony Watmough scored against us was just about the worst try a team I have played in has conceded. Tries from dummy half are bad enough but that one was atrocious!

With tries being scored from dummy half mentioned I am hoping Mark Ridell can snag one this week. I think Piggy is on the bench to provide an impact and I look forward to seeing some trademark Piggy runs.

I really hope we can get a huge crowd of the Eels faithful out to Parramatta Stadium for our clash with North Queensland on Friday night. I know 13th v 16th doesn’t look great on paper, but we need the support.

The Cowboys will be motivated as well. No team wants the wooden spoon and with the finals now out of their reach they will be looking to shed the kitchenware. Even without Thurston they showed last week they still know how to attack.

I’m off to St Josephs College this arvo to give their union side a hand, but there is no hint of a code switch, unless I get offered a contract a la Gaz!

Back at home and we took the kids down to Robertson for the weekend. They loved it but with the whole family there and seven kids it was a bit of a headache.

Hindy

I can’t say the mood at Parramatta is great at the moment. The boys are down and after two losses in games we should have won it’s not hard to see why.
 
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