Parramatta Eels 22 – Penrith Panthers 8
The Good: |
Our aggression in defence. At times it felt unfair. |
The Bad: |
The amount of penalties we conceded. Ridiculous. |
The X-Factor: |
The on again off again element of the rain reminded me on a ex-girlfriend, and not in a good way. It would be too easy to blame early season rust for all the handling errors. |
The MVP: |
Kenny Edwards – the game went up a gear when he came on. |
The Starters
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1- Michael GordonFullback, Parramatta Eels An efficient game from an experienced player. I suspect we’ll be more aware of how valuable is as the season wears on. |
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2- Semi RadradraLeft Wing, Parramatta Eels Brutal in defence and as good as ever in attack, particularly coming out of our 20. Hopefully continues to get early ball (see below). |
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3- Michael JenningsLeft Centre, Parramatta Eels Remember how excited we were when Foran, Gordon and Gutherson signed with us? This guy will be pretty good too. One of Taka’s strengths last season was getting early ball to Semi – hopefully something we see often from Jenko. Good to see him get his first try, albeit in a meaningless trial game. A couple of brutal hits in defence too – who knew? |
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4- Brad TakairangiRight Centre, Parramatta Eels Somehow looks bigger – might be the hair. Still working out his combinations with Gutherson, both in attack and defence. It’ll come. |
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6- Corey NormanFive Eighth, Parramatta Eels This man just keeps getting better. His pass for Jenko’s first half try was something special. Well, he actually seems to do this sorta thing all the time, so maybe that pass is his new normal. |
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7- Kieran Foran (c)Halfback, Parramatta Eels The wait is over. I would describe Foran’s game as quiet but solid. It was nice to see he and Corey combining on a number of plays, most noticeably Gutherson’s try in the second half. More than up to the task in defence. The best is yet to come. |
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8- Junior PauloProp, Parramatta Eels Huge game. Solid on both sides of the ball and a great solo try late in the second half. |
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9- Nathan PeatsHooker, Parramatta Eels The attacking tone of the Eels noticeably slowed when he left the field. We just look better when he’s out there. With that said, tonight he was solid without being spectacular. |
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10- Tim MannahProp, Parramatta Eels Not his best game. |
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11- Manu MauBack Row, Parramatta Eels Manu looks like he’d mug Santa Claus. If you think I’m giving him less than an A, you’re kidding yourself. |
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12- Beau ScottBack Row, Parramatta Eels Not a terrific start in the Blue and Gold – several handling errors, but did he best to make up in the defensive side of the ball. He’ll be better in the future. |
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13- Tepai MoreoaLock, Parramatta Eels Looks to be developing his passing game in anticipation for his move to the middle. It’s scary how good he’ll be. |
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Interchange
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14- Isaac DeGoisInterchange, Parramatta Eels The tone changed when he subbed on for Peats, but it wasn’t that he did anything poorly.An adequate game gets an adequate grade. |
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15- Peni TerepoInterchange, Parramatta Eels The handling errors are hopefully a thing of the past, with Peni backing up an impressive performance in the Nines with a more than impressive game tonight. A smokey for a spot in the 17 for Round 1, as the coaching staff love him – tonight he showed why. |
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16- Daniel AlvaroInterchange, Parramatta Eels Solid hit ups and impressive leg drive through initial contact. Solid first foray into 2016. |
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17- Kenny EdwardsInterchange, Parramatta Eels As I said above, the game changed when he came on. Brutal in defence, elusive in attack. He is almost a prototypical ball-playing back rower. The most impressed I’ve ever been with him. |
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All photos courtesy of the Parramatta Eels.
NRL team logos courtesy of the NRL.
Pretty fair assessment…I think you were rough on Beau Scott. Apart from spilling a few balls, I thought his defence was strong and hard hitting.
I am a big fan of David Gower as well. He is a handy player to have in line. He can get a pass away that’s for sure. Very underrated imo.
Peni Terepo has greatly improved his handling. He looked good. Hard bastard.
you’re probably right on Beau, but I wanted a good spread of marks. He’ll be better.
Peni looks like a different player. Great to see. I didn’t even have him in my top 20 or 25 players a few weeks ago but the coaching staff are raving about him.
Scott had an excellent run outta dummy half and also milked a couple of penalties on the panthers line. Went looking for work towards the end of the half.
agreed, he certainly wasn’t all bad, otherwise he would have received an F.
he wasn’t even mostly bad, but he’ll be much better in the future.
What was Tepai doing running on the wing? He was very dangerous out there and I’d love to see a bit more of it in the future.
Gutho was very strong close to the line almost scoring making something out of nothing.
I’m almost hoping choc is injured for a little longer so we don’t have to sack him from the 17 just yet. I agree with your assessments Miatch provided they are tempered by sixties comments on scott , taka and mannah. French’s time will come so I think the rd 1 back line should be foran , Norman , taka , Jennings , gutho , semi , gordo. Starting fwd pack tim , peats, Jnr , Scott , manu , tep . The pine , kenny , alvaro , gower , wicks or peni. If we are going to play a second hooker / dh because of peats neck vulnerability and because our pack is already big enuff for the smallish mobile broncos pack , then Kaysa or degois get a spot, I would probably go for Kaysa because he may be that little bit nippier.
Miatch and I are simply operating from a different rubric. Such is the difference between High School and Primary teachers! I reckon his grades will be the source of great debate and great fun. Personally, I’m looking forward to them.
Mitch, was Peni in our bench discussion post match last night? On exposed form this year, he is close to a must.
He wasn’t actually. We were discussing Kenny and the first three below. I think when everyone’s fit, and assuming you’re not carrying a hooker – your must haves are Watmough, Wicks and Alvaro.
Edwards, Peni, Gower, Nelson or a hooker to take that last spot.
(Written in my order of preference)
Watmough and Wicks’ potential injuries might lessen the selection pressure, however, and give a couple more guys a shot early on.
Miatch is an honest albeit tough marker.
I couldn’t mark Scott, Mannah or Taka as harshly. Scott contributed to some brutal defence and Taka strode out nicely a few times in attack. Scott and Mannah had some bad moments with their handling, but their aggression in defence was important.
Ha no one wants to read a suck up post. You’re a teacher Craig – C is adequate, right? I don’t expect to be giving out a lot of As or A+s this season, not because we won’t play well, but rather because I think you should save those grades for sublime games. If you’re getting a B or a C, you’ve done alright. Except for Manu, of course, he always gets an A.
True…I like ‘tough task masters’..Continue your excellent work.
Nah, not sucking up and not a doubt that your reflections are going to garner respect for their honesty. In NRL, I’d give my D or C- to blokes who might have put in a performance that questions their place in first grade. I reckon that a couple of bad handling errors overshadowed solid games. I’d go with B- for Scott and C+ for Mannah.
I disagree, but that’s all part of it. No worries.
Besides, how then would I ever use my F grade?
I think you know!!!
Mannah was a C and Scott a D.
As long as you’re the one to tell him.
Scott dropped an absolute sitter near our own line. Apart from that, everything he did was quite good. He will need some support runners though in the future. At one point he looked annoyed nobody was running off him.
I couldn’t agree more about Scott, Taka and Mannah, Sixties. Infact, I believe our entire forward pack was dominant against formidable and experienced opposition.
We were not at all disadvantaged when our forward bench came on either, it appeared to me that the replacement of our halves was the cause of our demise late in the game.
Overall, I was very pleased with the squad’s performance.
And to boot, even though I agree that we looked flatter in attack when most of our starting 17 came off, we still didn’t concede a second half point. Very impressive start, albeit with some ‘rusty cobwebs’ to unfairly misquote BA.
Oh and if we are going to make way for Kaysa or degois then I would take out wicks because he is under done.
Wasn’t foran captain? You’ve got mannah with the (c)
A good read and pretty much agreed with your comments and rating.
Taka with a C+ a touch unlucky not to be given a B-
Spot on. Again that was the result of me not changing all I should from when I drafted weeks ago. Amended.
Yeah Taka was good. First half right side collective defense affected he, Guthers and Scott.
A pretty fair assessment Miatch. I would give Mannah, Taka and Scott all B’s for defence alone. A couple of dropped balls in the wet are to be expected. There are no more weak defensive links in our team. Overall grading of Miatch’s ratings A-. I would say this is going to be a very good addition to the site with a 95% chance of being very popular. Although there’s only a 10% chance of that (credit to Leslie Nielson). I don’t think you’ll get an F this year Miatch.
Haha appreciated mate. I think.
Maybe favourite line from Naked Gun:
“White guy, 6 foot 3, mustache”
“That’s an awfully big mustache”
Well im not grading anyone mate but in total reversal of your assesment re peats and degois ,peats will have to really start asking some questions of defence and his ball service slow and inaccurate to often ,just not smart enough,will strugle to get new contract at big dollars of us ,king ,kaysa and wouldnt rule out nelson ,only my opinion mate
Is that you Isaac?
Kidding. Appreciate your input mate, hope you’re enjoying the site.
How about an overall score for the team, based on the first 60 mins when we were pretty much at full strength.
All things considered, including the fact there were alot of new (and very classy) faces and it was a trial, I would give them a solid B. I thought overall it was a really nice performance 🙂
Overall – I’d say a B or a B+, depends how forgiving one is for it being the first game of the season.
Here’s the irony after my debate with Miatch. I’d give it a B-. The attack was too rusty for me to score it any higher. But Manu, you still get that A!
You’re an enigma.
A little bit harsh on IDG imo.
It would be interesting to see how he would go with Norman, Foran, Jennings and co on the field for a decent period?
Yes, the attack did slow down but was it IDG or the squad he had to utilise?
Scott “C-”
DeGois “C+”
Not sure we were watching the same game.
Scott may have dropped the ball a couple of times but his effort in both attack and defence was enormous.
Gazza
Thanks for the feedback Gaz. We saw it a little differently and evidently the Beau Scott score has had the most people disagreeing. Maybe he under-delivered to my lofty expectations. However one of those dropped balls was very disappointing. As with Isaac, an adequate grade for an adequate game.
Hate to come to Miatch’s defence, but the whole TCT crew was watching the game from the second last row of the grand stand. Miatch’s posted these scores without the benefit of watching replays at length. By the way at Pepper stadium they have two screens, although they are perhaps smaller than the single one at Pirtek.
Chris, I might be getting old, but I seriously needed binoculars to view those screens! Nonetheless, I have little doubt about Miatch’s rating of Manu.
Scotts seconddrop was off a degois pass that died before it reached him and the first was never going to stick and shouldnt have been given ,any coach worth his salt will tell you the first onus is on the passer ,on both occasions the service was poor , first game with the team a bit harsh methinks .
Hmm, the first pass he dropped was perfect. Anyways opinions are good. I’m not speaking on behalf of every Parra fan, these are just the ratings I gave.
Miatch i will have to concede 1st pass should have been caught ,de goiss pass definetley died but a lot of his do,1all mate .
Scott looked much better in the middle IMO. Still, only his first game so lets not be too harsh. I am sure he will be fantastic for us this year, wherever he plays.
I agree. I can’t wait for more Beau Scott.