In case you somehow hadn’t heard yet, Mitchell Moses made his debut for the Eels on Saturday in the 22-16 loss to the Canberra Raiders. Conditions were far from ideal for the young man following the controversy surrounding his mid-season transfer along with the absolute bare minimum of field work he enjoyed (1 field session and the Captain’s Run) with his new team mates. Despite these factors, Moses proved to be a solid contributor for his new team and that is all you can really ask for given the circumstances.

Although the film breakdowns technically began last week in the Round 10 Whiskey Musings, it is fitting that the first proper episode of The Film Room gets right back to Rugby League 101 as we analyse the straight forward responsibilities that were entrusted to Mitchell Moses in Round 11.

Let’s get cracking on a rather big debut blog!

 

Defence

Wests Tigers fans will be very quick to point their fingers at just how big a defensive liability Mitchell Moses has been in their team. The criticism is far from unfair given how badly both Moses and Luke Brooks have struggled on the edges for the joint-venture club. With the Eels facing an intimidating pack in Round 11 headlined by the likes of Junior Paulo and Josh Papalii, it takes little effort to guess why this aspect of Moses’ game was thrust into the forefront of the news cycle by the media.

So how did Moses go? Reasonably well now that the dust has settled.

Depending on who you source your statistics from Moses either did quite well or fell within an acceptable range when it comes to missed tackles. Our friends at Champion Data have Moses pegged for 1 missed tackle while NRL.com jotted him down for 3. As I scrubbed through the tape on Moses I counted one bad missed tackle on Josh Papalii (although there is a reason for it) and one bad ineffective tackle on Jarrod Croker. Beyond that Moses displayed more than adequate effort levels and commitment to putting his body on the line. Maintaining that standard of effort will be the key moving forwards.

Moses vs Papalii – Parramatta goal line (2:35)

While the post-contact metres (so hot right now!) Josh Papalii makes here are impressive, Mitchell Moses actually does an excellent job to meet the rampaging backrower up high and wrap the ball up. Support from Tepai Moeroa and Josh Hoffman arrives in time after Kirisome Auva’a misses initially on an attempt at Papalii’s ankles. Moses was caught in an isolation play here after Moeroa nibbled ever so slightly on the decoy line by Shannon Boyd so the effort on display here is truly commendable.

Moses vs Papalii – Parramatta 30m mark (51:46)

This is the play that caught the attention of the Fox Sports commentators as Papalii brushed off Moses with apparent ease. It certainly makes for a bad miss on first take but there is a little more at play here. Moses actually assists in the tackle on Jack Wighton and pushes back to the defensive line to allow Kenny Edwards and Daniel Alvaro to settle at marker. Wighton rattles off a reasonably quick play-the-ball which allows Papalii to catch Moses back-pedaling and without any sort of stable base the halfback never stood a chance. Good cover defence from Kirisome Auva’a helps force an error from Papalii immediately afterwards.

Moses vs Croker – Canberra 38m mark (70:17)

Fatigue is clearly in play here with the clock ticking into the 70th minute. Jarrod Croker takes a hit-up down the left edge short side where he is met by Moses and Auva’a. The pair make contact near simultaneously but Moses falls off for a moment – triggering an ineffective tackle counter – which in turn allows Croker to flick the ball out to Jack Wighton pushing up in support. Unfortunately every metre in this set would prove to be crucial with the Raiders ultimately completing the set with a kick by Aidan Sezer that forced a line drop out, which in turn resulted in the match winning try by Jordan Rapana.

 

The Canberra Raiders scored two tries down Parramatta’s right-edge in their 22-16 victory with Nic Cotric and Blake Austin getting their names stamped in to the scorer’s book. Let’s take a quick look at how and why the Raiders scored on these two occasions.

 

Nic Cotric Try (3:08)

The first points posted by the Raiders were done in a completely straight forward manner. After working the ball to the right of the posts following a ruck penalty from Manu Ma’u, the Raiders shift the ball to their left. Parramatta correctly identify the single-block pattern run by Papalii and immediately push out to match numbers. Moses is the spy on the sweeper (Wighton) and looks to make contact before Canberra can develop the play outside. Wighton opts for the cut-out pass to Cotric which results in Josh Hoffman making what frankly can only be described as an awful one-on-one attempted tackle.

Cotric channels a bad habit that a young Greg Inglis possessed and actually carries the ball in his wrong hand, the inside right hand, and fends across his body with his left hand. Cotric is obviously a freakishly strong young man but that sort of terrible technique should be punished every time by a defender. Hoffman however is swatted away and Bevan French is then caught slightly out of position and left unable to make a play at the ball.

 

Blake Austin Try (55:33)

In a surprisingly rare occurrence on Saturday given the attacking potency the Raiders possess, the Eels are caught short down their right-edge and face a 2-man overlap. Josh Hoffman pinpoints Wighton sweeping to the edge and correctly jams on him but impressively crisp handling from the Canberra custodian allows him to link up with Croker on his left. Auva’a and Moses execute the defensive protocol that follows a jam by the winger and immediately push out to their right to match numbers against Croker and Cotric.

Alas both are caught over-committing to the realignment by the light-footed centre as he steps infield off his left foot to make the break. Hoffman shows great hustle to bounce up and converge on Croker in tandem with Kenny Edwards but the hefty numbers the Eels throw into tracking down the ball backfires as Croker frees his left arm to throw a genuine speculator back infield. As he so often is, Blake Austin finds himself in the right place at the right time to pluck the Harbour Bridge offload out of the air and run between the gap left by Moeroa and Alvaro and score the equaliser.

Unlike the Cotric try, Moses has a greater share of the responsibility here. A correctly executed slide would have seen him tackle Croker as he began to cut back inside – where he would have been bereft of second phase options. Obviously he wasn’t the only Eel at fault here and it is a case where the right-edge as an entirety will need to sit down and sort out their positioning and timings together.

 

Kicking Game

With Corey Norman stuck riding the pine for roughly another month with a MCL injury, perhaps the single most important skill that Moses brings to the Eels is his kicking game. For the most part he showed up big time in that regard, securing multiple line drop outs and regularly finding space between the back three of the Raiders. It wasn’t perfect though. Both Moses and Gutherson were guilty of gifting the Raiders 7-tackle restarts – although Moses copped some seriously shoddy service from his hooker Kaysa Pritchard on several of these kicks.

 

Long Kicks

Moses really found range with his long kicking game on Saturday. Across the seven attempts I have captured above, only one (the third GIF) netted a negative result. On that occasion, Moses overcooked his bomb which allowed Wighton to comfortably field it in-goals. He found the grass three times and allowed Hoffman to make a great play on Cotric late in the game. Kinder fortune could have seen that kick and chase result in an error from the visitors.

In the same vein, Moses’ excellent 40/20 attempt approaching the 10th minute of play could have completely swung the early momentum of the game. Any sort of off-break from the ball would have seen the Eels claim possession on the 10m line.

 

Short Kicks – Grubbers

Moses went 2/3 when it came to rolling the ball along the carpet but he did it with little aid from his hooker. In the first GIF, a poor pass from Pritchard results in Moses having to reach behind as he angles his run to his right. He quickly collects himself and displays excellent vision to pin Cotric in-goals. He has less success two minutes later in the second GIF when a Hoffman pass forces him backwards on the last tackle, giving Josh Hodgson the time needed to close in on Moses and force pressure on the kick. The subsequent rushed kick is hit with far too much force and easily rolls dead despite a good chase from Michael Jennings.

With the game there to be won in the championship moments, Moses shows plenty of poise to force his second goal-line drop out of the night with a perfectly weighted grubber. The real key to this play comes in the three small steps Moses takes before kicking to sell the threat of a short ball to Kenny Edwards. It is subtle but it draws Croker off the goal-line and opens up the channel for the kick. In spite of that excellent little passage of play, the Eels would go on to squander the opportunity presented in the next set with Tim Mannah dropping an inside pass from Moses on the third tackle.

 

Short Kicks – Bombs

If Moses was desperately unlucky not to make one or two impact plays with his long kicking game, he managed to produce big time off his close-range bombs. Jack Wighton really struggled under the Mitchell Moses high ball – dropping two in the above GIFS and nearly fumbling a third in an earlier long-range bomb GIF. While both the above kicks (especially the second) are well positioned to allow his chasers the opportunity to make a great play at Wighton, both errors really just come down to sloppy work from opposing fullback.

Curiously, the Eels only directed one attacking bomb towards Semi Radradra throughout the entire game and it came off the boot of Clinton Gutherson.

Hopefully Brad Arthur and Mitchell Moses find ways to start integrating Radradra and Bevan French in the coming weeks as the primary kick reception options for Moses in the red zone. Both present unique attacking threats with Radradra making for a superb vertical target while French possesses Slater-like slipperiness in the pursuit of grubber kicks.

 

Running Game

Billed as one of the real strengths (and rightly so) in the attacking repertoire of Mitchell Moses, his production from his running game was relatively lackluster on Saturday – although that was to be expected to an extent. A lot of the Eels’ shape down the right-edge came through Kenny Edwards and Siosaia Vave as Arthur obviously spread the onus of play-making on to more seasoned members of the squad.

The first run Mitchell Moses took for the Eels will go down recorded as an error. There isn’t much more to say really. Moses thought he spotted a gap between Papalii and Sezer only to be squashed between the two before losing the ball.

In the second GIF we get a hint at his ability to create space back in behind the ruck as the A-marker in Clay Priest is forced to respect the threat of his run. Moses ends up turning the ball inside to Edwards who is able to exploit the space between the two markers in Priest and Soliola and offload to support.

What we witness in the third GIF is both the most exciting and frustrating of what we have in Moses right now. His cleverly disguised change of pace draws in both Aidan Sezer and Josh Papalii hook, line and sinker as he fades to the sideline. There is a yawning chasm between Papalii and Priest but Kirisome Auva’a has over run the play likely thinking there was a kick coming. Auva’a eventually receives the ball but he is left flat-footed and the Raiders are able to recover their defensive integrity.

Looking further to the edge, Croker is also fixated on Moses so alternatively if Auva’a had worked to Croker’s outside shoulder and run an overs line there is a very good chance that he or Hoffman cross out wide.

These sort of janky moments are to be expected as both the Eels and Moses grow accustomed to each other but by the same token it has me thoroughly excited to see how far Moses can take us as he settles into the Blue & Gold.

 

Bonus – Support Play and Combinations

(side note – Kenny Edwards had some filthy footwork before and through the defensive line all game long!)

Here are two little extra GIFs where we see Moses flash some of the tantalising qualities he can bring to this roster.

Kenny Edwards and Moses had a pretty simple deal throughout Saturday night with the half and backrower linking up early before the line and letting Edwards pin his ears back at the defensive line. The reciprocal nature of their relationship in the future will be key to the success of our right-edge as Moses starts to trust Edwards later at the line while Edwards continues to feed Moses with second phase ball – which as you can see above makes Moses quite the dangerous runner.

The final GIF in this blog is the real money GIF. It is the GIF that should have all Parramatta fans salivating as their boom half and fullback begin to formulate a combination after only a week together.

The Eels align around the ruck with Moses (right) and French (left) split to either side. Moses feigns a run to his right before angling back to his left and threads a pass between Kaysa Pritchard and Jarrod Croker that finds Bevan French perfectly on the fly as he works in behind the ruck.

Marker isolation play like this is a treat to watch and the Melbourne Storm are the kings of it. On this particular occasion only a desperation last-ditch tackle attempt by Junior Paulo is able to trip French up otherwise the speedster was away free to score. Who knows how that plays out if the young flyer was operating at 100% instead of coming off his first game back from a PCL injury? Perhaps he high-steps his way through that tackle attempt on an other day.

Variations of this play, including kicking ahead instead of passing and running a second option (Gutherson?) off the hips of French mean the Eels could turn this into a reliable and multi-faceted weapon.

 

The Last Word

When all is said and done Moses made a really solid debut for the Eels. His kicking game was extremely encouraging while there is plenty more to be unearthed in his running and passing games. The Raiders were able to capitalise a couple of times on his fragility in defence but it was no more than I expected and well within the margin of error you allow for a half in defence.

The burden of fan expectation will be massive moving forwards but there was enough on show on Saturday to be genuinely encouraged by and as Moses starts to build combinations within the roster and as our young spine grows (and stays healthy damn it!) the Eels could stand to make a real run of the latter season gauntlet.

Of course it should go without saying that the Eels need to lift and then maintain their standards around the ruck if we are to get full value out of any of Moses, Norman, Gutherson and French!

I look forward to revisiting Moses in a future Film Room blog but in the coming weeks we will turn the focus on other players and concepts.

On that note I am out, hope you enjoy this monstrosity!

 

Forty

 

All images and GIFs are sourced under Fair Dealing (Copyright Act, 1968) for criticism and review. The rights for all imagery used belongs to the NRL and their broadcast partners; Channel Nine, Fox Sports and Telstra.