Lack of experience kills the Eels
By Todd Balym, 5 Oct 2009 Todd Balym is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- Melbourne Storm, NRL grand final, Parramatta Eels
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The trouble with grand final experience is that there is only one way to get it.
Parramatta came to ANZ Stadium riding a wave of momentum but the young Eels found themselves in foreign territory and learnt very quickly you can’t fake experience.
The rookie grand final team were guilty of rookie mistakes.
Unfortunately Dally M medal winner Jarryd Hayne, the star who’d carried them to an unlikely grand final appearance, started the snowball rolling when he packed two left boots in his playing bag.
It took a police escort for a team official to go back to Hayne’s home for the classy fullback to have the correct footwear for the biggest game of his life.
But while the right shoe arrived on time, you could be forgiven for thinking Hayne was playing with two left feet if you looked at his kicking game.
Kicks that for the past 11 weeks hit targets were now rolling dead, being caught on the full in goal, or worse still going out on the full.
Parramatta’s only premiership winning halfback Peter Sterling slammed the Eels’ first half attack.
“The last play options from Parramatta have been disgraceful to be honest,” said Sterling.
Melbourne on the other hand were everything you’d expect from a team playing their fourth straight grand final – clinical, committed and composed.
It started with Cameron Smith’s discreet grubber that resulted in Cooper Cronk pinning Hayne in his goal area in just the fourth minute.
Then Ryan Hoffman running off Brett Finch to bust through some weak defence by Jeff Robson to score the opening try after just five minutes.
Hoffman had more trouble breaking the Melbourne Storm banner when he ran onto the field at the start of the game than Robson’s one-armed attempt.
It was the perfect case of two Storm players in their third grand final picking on an Eels halfback who until this season had played most of his rugby league a world away from the 82,538 fans that greeted him on Sunday.
Rookie Eels prop Tim Mannah was the next victim caught with stage fright, as Cronk drifted past his out-stretched arm to put Adam Blair across for a 10-0 lead after just 24 minutes.
Parramatta settled their nerves with an early second half try to Eric Grothe, but it all fell apart again only four minutes later as no fewer than four Eels watched Greg Inglis snatch an uncontested bomb and score beneath the posts.
The killer blow came soon after when Billy Slater capped a brilliant game by running off a superb offload from Blair to score a try and give the Storm a 16-point lead with 25 minutes to play.
And an experienced team like Melbourne never loses from that position.
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George said | October 7th 2009 @ 3:30pm | Report comment
Lack of experience? Are you kidding? Parra was the form team of the second half of the comp. In the first half? Yes it probably was lack of experience and therefore nerves. In the 2nd half when it mattered, Parra finally had settled, gathered momentum and were coming home strong. At the most crucial part of the game either Archer or, Harrigan, in Archers ear, chose to penalise Fui for ridiculous, now, reasons, which do not make any sense whatsoever. The tackle was CLEARLY incomplete and Slater CLEARLY lost the ball. There was no strip,(original ruling) as it was one on one (oops). In the feild position which the refereeing clanger occurred, Archer knew it was highly possible to go to extra time, if he allowed common,basic sense. Instead of that, I strongly believe he chose throwing in a undue and unjust penalty. Now no one will know for sure, if we missed out on a thrilling extra time GF. It was lack of fair refereeing in the end. Archer allowed Melb to continuously slow the play the ball down with their “grubby tactics”, as the game went on,which favoured Melb greatly. Then there was a knock on you could see from the stands,literally.What was Archer or Harrigan thinking? Maybe because Archer couldn’t keep up with the required speed for a Grand Final and State of Origin for that matter.Things gradually slowed down. Or maybe because Archer didn’t deserve to referee 1st grade in the 1st place. I believe its both. I hope D Gallop and hmmmm R Finch, Bretts father, encourage Archer to retire. He’s had more than enough 1st grade, and now like Bill(I’m always right never wrong) Harrigan. Archer can continue his bad decisions in the comfort of the video ref box, if the NRL choses, which they sadly and traditionally will. Look at S. Clarke and most recently, P Simkins, perfect examples of bad refs perpetuating bad and crucial decisions…..RIP NRL integrity. What a disaster for the game. There goes winning a game with player merit. Once again a lame penalty decides a match and now a Grand Final. Last Sunday was a very sad day for the fairness of the game.
Your team could easily be next, make sure you check out the replay. For the games sake aswell as fairness. I hope for everyone’s sake, common sense and logic eventually prevails.