Eels season finished by Tigers

At Parramatta Stadium, the Eels faced a heart-wrenching loss of 20-18 to the Wests Tigers, leaving Burt feeling responsible. With mere seconds left in the game, and the finals aspirations hanging in the balance, Burt—who holds an 85 percent accuracy rate as the NRL’s top kicker—attempted a penalty goal from 25 meters out, slightly off-center, that could have sent the match into extra time. Sadly, he missed.

“He had an opportunity to equalize the score for us, but unfortunately, he couldn’t convert,” remarked Eels co-captain Nathan Hindmarsh, clearly empathizing with his teammate.

“The hardest part is that Burty would nail those blindfolded on any other day.”

However, today was different, and the Eels are now left reflecting on missed chances. “He’s taken it pretty hard. This game can be cruel,” noted Eels coach Daniel Anderson. “That memory will sting for him.

“Perhaps we should have capitalized on our chances before that moment. It’s tough to place the blame solely on one individual in a match like this.”

Incredible as it may seem, the Eels had somehow positioned themselves to consider extra time, especially after trailing 20-6 with just over ten minutes to play. True to their season’s pattern, the Eels waited until the last moment to make a push.

In truth, the Tigers could have sealed their victory by halftime, given the way they dominated the first 40 minutes; the score of 10-6 at the break hardly reflected their performance.

The visitors had two tries denied by the video referee—one when Robbie Farah failed to ground the ball after a brilliant grubber by Benji Marshall—and Chris Lawrence twice chose to set up a pass instead of utilizing unmarked winger Lote Tuqiri, who was just five meters away. Eventually, Lawrence and Tuqiri linked up to score, and after Beau Ryan secured his first try of the game, it seemed the scoreboard was finally aligning with the Tigers’ dominant play. Joel Reddy and Krisnan Inu managing to evade tackles to narrow the gap to four points at halftime felt almost unfair, yet Ryan scored again along with Andrew Fifita following a contentious tackle restart to bring the Tigers close to victory.

As has become routine over the last two seasons, the Eels made a late-game surge, with Justin Horo and Anthony Mitchell each scoring just three minutes apart. The Eels came close to equalizing on multiple occasions until the referee identified a strip by an unrecognized Tigers player on Feleti Mateo, giving Burt another shot that he ultimately squandered.

“I think there were about five hands on the ball—I had no clue,” Mateo explained when questioned about the strip.

“It just popped out, and I was worried they’d call it a knock-on.” Tigers coach Tim Sheens accepted the win with relief, acknowledging that the better team had prevailed.

“We received a bit of luck with him missing the kick, but I still believe we were the more deserving side overall,” Sheens commented.

“`html

* Melbourne Storm has lost all premiership points for the 2010 season
“`