Sean Russell slammed as ‘schoolboy’ blunder sums up Eels’ season

If there was any lingering glimmer of hope of the Eels ending their 38-year premiership drought, it was washed away on Thursday night.

The South Sydney Rabbitohs have moved a win outside the NRL’s top eight in a 32-16 win over the Parramatta Eels.

With five straight wins and two byes in the past seven weeks, the Rabbitohs are now unbeaten since their round 11 loss to the Cowboys on May 18.

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But at a rain-soaked CommBank Stadium, the Eels’ sorry season was washed away in a night of wasted opportunities as the 2022 grand finalists sank back to the bottom of the ladder.

In a weird twist last weekend, the Eels moved off the bottom of the ladder after the Tigers were thumped 40-6 by the Roosters to move behind Parramatta on points differential.

However, the Eels returned to the bottom of the ladder with their fourth straight loss.

The 2024 season has been an unmitigated disaster for the Eels, with long-term coach Brad Arthur moved on as fans wait for a new coach to be announced — which is expected on Friday.

But it doesn’t change the fact that the longest drought in the NRL will continue into a 39th season.

A moment that summed up the Eels’ disastrous season came in the 25th minute of the match after a Mitchell Moses fifth tackle kick and a Dylan Brown chase earned a line dropout.

As is the case more often than not in the modern game, Latrell Mitchell went for a short kick-off.

But it didn’t appear to be going far enough and would have fallen about a metre short.

Would have fallen, if Eels centre Sean Russell hadn’t let it hit his legs as he stepped over the 10m line.

Watch in the video player above.

That's an unforced error from the Eels. Photo: Fox Sports

“What happened there?” Andrew Voss screamed. “It hit Parramatta. How can you make that mistake?

“Eels fans would be saying ‘well that’s our season, that’s what’s been happening’.”

For the record, if one of the receiving players touches the ball before it breaks the plane of the 10m line from a drop out, it’s a penalty to the kicking team.

It was a blunder the Eels couldn’t afford as they just couldn’t get over the line

Journalist Bernie Coen commented: “Why the hell do players even go inside the 10 from dropouts. Another schoolboy error.”

Another fan said of the moment: “How dumb can you be?”

While it was only 4-0 at the time, the Rabbitohs opened up a 16-4 lead at halftime and never really looked under pressure despite the Eels snapping at their heels until a 76th minute Jack Wighton try finally put the game to bed.

The season from hell just got worse. Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Eels skipper Clint Gutherson was a frustrated figure at full-time, blaming silly mistakes for the side’s current predicament.

“It is the fundamental errors that are killing us at the moment. catch pass or forcing mistakes,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you are playing in the NRL, you give them enough ball and enough cheap possession, especially tonight Latrell, Cody, Jacky Legs, Cam Murray, you give them enough ball and they’ll make you pay.

“That is what has killed us the last month or so.

“It is frustrating when you are doing so many good things and putting a much effort, stopping tries, and then not turning up through the middle, stopping for a split second and they go bang and score. It is really disappointing.

“It has been our season probably the last month. We will keep fighting.”

After the match, Andrew Johns told Channel 9 that there was “some soul searching got to go on in that forward pack”, saying debutant Charlie Guymer had “embarrassed the whole forward pack”.

Guymer received rave reviews for his 46 minute stint on debut, making 113m in 12 runs and 26 tackles.