2020 Parramatta Eels Thread......Lets not get carried away.

after the back end they had in 2017, many many people, including myself had them tipped for a top 4 or grand final appearance.

Clearly there is shit going on behind the scenes there that is bringing them undone eg
Norman v Arthur
Moses v everyone
Hayne v himself

The side, on paper, isnt that bad. They clearly need a hooker - fergo will help them next year big time with starting their sets, I like french but he is just too small for the modern game when the side isnt going forward. Excellent finisher but he just isnt well suited to the modern game where your wingers are meant to be tanks for the first 2 plays. The kid needs to seriously get into the gym and put some weight on if he is to continue an NRL career.

Jennings... what an absolute shit season from him that culminated in a teary breakdown last night after he was binned. The guy needs to lose some weight and get some of that speed back that made him into the dangerous player he once was.

Hayne, lol. As soon as serious contract talks came up he started playing well again. Sign him for another year with an incentive based contract, if he doesnt start the season the way he finished, then fuck him off.

Paulo coming in wont help unless the bloke plans on losing 15 kilos too, stuart plays all his forwards (and some of his backs) too heavy IMO and Paulo wasnt exactly small to start with. I duno how you can be a first grade forward and put on weight during a season.

Another spoon is just a massive shock for the eels and no one would have seen this coming.

As I e said before, people who looked at our squad and seriously thought we were a GF or top 4 chance have zero clue. Yep, we showed courage and fight and surprised a lot of people towards the end of 2017, but there is ALWAYS a team like that that invariably drop away the following year.

Seriously, a cursory glance at our squad indicated Top 8 at best was gonna be a good season. We just didn't have the experience across the park in our first choice 17 or behind them. I'm just baffled that people always get carried away with how a team builds to a finals effort in any given year and expects it will be significantly indicative of how they will go the following year, save for the likes of star studded sides like the Storm, Brisbane, Roosters.

All that said, I didn't think we would be near the spoon so yes, it is a shock.

Hayne, he should be on a week to week contract for mine.

Agree with most of the rest.

zero clue, as if lol

They were close to a grand final spot last year, they add hayne, an off season with moses and norman, another season under the newest "supercoach" of course people would expect they would go as well if not better than last year.

missing the 8 - I reckon no one predicted that, getting the spoon - i guarantee no one predicted that.

The boys are starting to arrive at the leagues club for Mad Monday in fancy dress. Jarryd's come in his training gear

Pieman wrote:zero clue, as if lol

They were close to a grand final spot last year, they add hayne, an off season with moses and norman, another season under the newest "supercoach" of course people would expect they would go as well if not better than last year.

missing the 8 - I reckon no one predicted that, getting the spoon - i guarantee no one predicted that.

I think those of us who had them top 4 have overestimated BA rather than the squad.

Have you guys looked at the squad? Seriously, the second youngest in the comp. Hayne again played out of position most of the year. Honestly, I think people who thought they were genuine GF chances are kidding themselves and just looked at where they finished and though well they must improve. That to me shows little insight and though "zero clue" might be overstating it, I stand by it.

Hayne playing out of position most of the year, is that a reflection on a poor coach, a younger player better in his chosen position or the sacrifice he made for the team to win the spoon ?

Finishing top 4 in 2017 was an over-achievement on the back of some really good football for half a season with a really soft draw. Having said that, any time you go from top 4 to missing the 8, let alone wooden spoon, the season has been bad.

Cowboys also over-acheived in 2017. They limped into the finals then caught some form and a relatively soft finals draw. Then got back the greatest modern player and added a test prop (well 18th man anyway) so anything less than say a preliminary final was a bad season, and finishing 13th was a disaster. Only thing that makes theirs not as bad as Parra's is that in a couple of years, no-one will remember who finished 13th, but people will still be making perenial wooden spoon jokes about parra.

Horse shit ice
They finished well last year, had an off season to build on combos, they have the newest "supercoach" who had them for another season and they had a homesick superstar come back to improve the side.

They made the top fucking 4 last year! They lost 1 player - Its well and truly reasonable to expect them to be in a similar position come the end of this year.

to say "oh they were always going to drop down the ladder, anyone who didnt see this is clueless" is using hindsight to predict the past. Literally no one picked them to get the spoon and just no one predicted them to miss the 8.

They may have overachieved last year but far out the totally underachieved this year after the successes they had to build on in 17.

Yes, their squad is good!!!! Yep they had some injuries as well that didnt help.

Absolutely a terrible year from the Eels, no doubt about it. I had us finishing 8th at the start of the year and even then I was worried, so yep, I think it was terrible and not trying to justify it. We should have finished closer to the top 4 than to the Spoon in my view. It was a debacle of a year.

But again, I'll stand by my comments that those with confidence to pick them as Top 4 and possible GFinalists, didn't do their homework in my view and so it's proven. I can't help,if that is predicting the past, it just is what it is.

Pieman wrote:Horse shit ice

to say "oh they were always going to drop down the ladder, anyone who didnt see this is clueless" is using hindsight to predict the past. Literally no one picked them to get the spoon and just no one predicted them to miss the 8.
.

..?????.......at least 6 people in the ladder predictor thread tipped them to miss the 8.....

Ice wrote:

..?????.......at least 6 people in the ladder predictor thread tipped them to miss the 8.....

yep so the majority didnt tip them to miss the 8
and none predicted the spoon?

Pieman wrote:

..?????.......at least 6 people in the ladder predictor thread tipped them to miss the 8.....

Ice wrote:yep so the majority didnt tip them to miss the 8
and none predicted the spoon?

Here's the actual stats for your enjoyment

12 9 10 6 6 4 8 4 3 7 7 6 7 4 5 4 12 8 4 5 7 4 6 15 7 5 6 4 3 5 4 2 4 4 7

Ave: 6.114285714

What a deadset inane argument.

Here's a free revelation that you can take forth and use in your daily lives:

Just as a team who has won a premiership, automatically looks good on paper......a team who has just won a spoon, automatically looks shit (OSM, 2018).

I don't care about their roster or whether they only perform well on odd numbered years or any other theory, Parra were inexplicably shite this year.

Pieman wrote:
yep so the majority didnt tip them to miss the 8
and none predicted the spoon?

Yep, so were you said no one predicted them to miss the 8 in the post I quoted you were wrong.

Oz Sport Mad wrote:What a deadset inane argument.

Here's a free revelation that you can take forth and use in your daily lives:

Just as a team who has won a premiership, automatically looks good on paper......a team who has just won a spoon, automatically looks shit (OSM, 2018).

I don't care about their roster or whether they only perform well on odd numbered years or any other theory, Parra were inexplicably shite this year.

Fair point, very true, no argument from me about that. they were, you might say "The OSM of the comp" or were you the Eels of the Ladder predictor thread??

Ice wrote:

Yep, so were you said no one predicted them to miss the 8 in the post I quoted you were wrong.

What about where I said - hardly anyone - before that?
lol.. all good mate, my bad, what ever makes you feel better about one of the worst seasons the club has ever had

Ice wrote:

Fair point, very true, no argument from me about that. they were, you might say "The OSM of the comp" or were you the Eels of the Ladder predictor thread??

Yes Ice (you arsehole) unfortunately both are appropriate in this instance.

Oz Sport Mad wrote:



Yes Ice (you arsehole) unfortunately both are appropriate in this instance.

Haha, thought you'd appreciate that.