Parramatta Eels 36 – Canberra Raiders 6 
The Good: |
Everything really, but I’ll single our attack’s coming out party. The first 40 minutes was electric. The second half wasn’t bad either. Oh, we’re currently second on the ladder, too. |
The Bad: |
I could very well leave this box empty, but the 16 missed tackles (to Raiders 11) and 11 errors (to Raiders 12) isn’t ideal. The scoreboard seems to indicate they turned up for each other in defence, however. |
The X-Factor: |
The Eels resounding respond to a) last week’s game, b) the media, c) the ghost of Ricky Stuart, d) pending points deductions, e) Shannon Boyd’s BFG impersonation. |
The MVP: |
Pretty much anyone wearing Blue and Gold. Michael Jennings? Michael Gordon? Beau Scott? Junior Paulo? Kenny Edwards? Nathan Peats? Kieran Foran? I’m halfway through the team. However, this week my MVP is Corey Norman. 3 try assists, 1 linebreak, 12 runs and 134 metres. Yeah, nah. |
The Starters
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1- Michael GordonFullback, Parramatta Eels The 6/6 conversions alone would be a terrific game. He was brilliant in attack, too. Sweet faceball to Jennings Gordo. |
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2- Semi RadradraLeft Wing, Parramatta Eels A little quiet by his lofty standards – 10 runs for 83 metres and a couple of errors. Loves that second carry after a kick, though. |
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3- Michael JenningsLeft Centre, Parramatta Eels It’s hard to give a bloke who scored 2 tries in 15 minutes less than an A. That left edge of he, Semi and Mau is begin to fire. Today he started the game scorching. |
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4- Brad TakairangiRight Centre, Parramatta Eels Good to see him easily out leap Jarrod Croker for a well deserved try. Each week I find myself happy he plays for us. |
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5- Clinton GuthersonRight Wing, Parramatta Eels Hey there Gutho. 92 metres and some very good reads in defence. Great game. |
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6- Corey NormanFive Eighth, Parramatta Eels Bounced back in a BIG way. Huge game. |
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7- Kieran Foran (c)Halfback, Parramatta Eels Well there he is. The running game came together and the passing game followed. Sublime game. |
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8- Junior PauloProp, Parramatta Eels Great game you giant, incredibly talented jerk. Another magic 10 game with 148 metres from 14 runs. Enjoy falling asleep under a Canberra sky on top of a huge pile of money. |
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9- Nathan PeatsHooker, Parramatta Eels Judging by the change in the team’s attack, you’d have to give his service a lot of the credit. 38 tackles and 81 run metres from a bloke wearing 9 on his back is also huge. |
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10- Daniel AlvaroProp, Parramatta Eels Outstanding game from the youngster. 1 metre short of a Magic 10 game – 109 from 11 runs. |
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11- Manu MauBack Row, Parramatta Eels There is post game footage of Manu crying into the open wounds of the Canberra Raiders forwards. I’m reliably informed it was for the strict purpose of getting salt into said wounds. |
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12- Beau ScottBack Row, Parramatta Eels Rounds 1-5 tackle count: 35, 22, 31, 39, 28. However this afternoon the Beau Scott force was in full effect – he had 12 tackles. That is not a misprint. Sure he only had 34 minutes, but still. It must have been in the Raiders game plan to stay away from him. The man’s a human health hazard. |
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13- Tepai MoreoaLock, Parramatta Eels Tep’s best game of the season IMO. Running for 118 metres is a great day’s work. A team high 39 tackles is even better. |
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Interchange
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14- Isaac De GoisInterchange, Parramatta Eels Had relatively limited time on the park, but he made himself known in defence. As usual. |
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15- Peni TerepoInterchange, Parramatta Eels 13 runs for 121 metres and no errors. Yes, Peni. |
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16- Danny WicksInterchange, Parramatta Eels The Raiders did well to slow him down today, but I enjoyed how quickly he came in defend Michael Gordon after Fensom unceremoniously dumped him on his head. Ps – You still owe me 50 bucks, Wicksy. |
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17- Kenny EdwardsInterchange, Parramatta Eels Someone get this man some bigger shorts, or find a way to reduce the size of his legs – he looks like a video game character out there. Another 100+ metre performance, and good to see he was Johnny-on-the-spot for our 5th try of the afternoon. Quickly becoming our secret weapon. |
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All photos courtesy of the Parramatta Eels.
NRL team logos courtesy of the NRL.
Regarding Scott I am 90% sure he did not play in the second half, which accounts for his less tackles.
Agree with Peats, he has coped a fair bit of criticism over his attack on 1ee, today really emphasised his attacking value.
I am also sure Scott played none of the second half and not even all of the first. Was massive when he was on though, even had 4 offloads. One of the tackles he made was on Edrick Lee I think where he got him from behind by the shorts after Lee intercepted. There was no one home and a try to the Raiders then may have changed the game. Huge effort. And I think Junior deserved a plus for the hit of the year so far late in the second half.
Oh and Junior should be marked up for slotting in at halfback beside Kenny at 5/8 for the last 7 minutes of the game. #utility
you are spot on. I’ll add it to the detail.
How good was that defence after half time when the referee kept us pinned on our line. Incredibly impressive stuff.
It was impressive Canberra had 6 sets and 27 tackles for no reult and ended when Blake Austin knocked on. I think in frustration.
Peats was fantastic today. We are undoubtedly a better team when he is there. In an outstanding field he was my MVP today. I think Peatsy is about to find the form he was displaying a couple of years ago – good on him 🙂
Got goosebumps when the crowd stood as one and applauded the boys after that fantastic multi set shut out on our line after half time. Havent seen defence like that for a while.
Us Parra supporters dream about days like today. This is what we live for 🙂
Loving the site lads 🙂
Kramerica mate! Great to see your comments. Have to agree about that standing applause moment. It was sch stern defence against a barrage of possession.
I stood up, turned to those around me and screamed “get up!”
It was ridiculously good.
On Peats, and I’m admittedly being Devil’s Advocate – how much of yesterday’s success can we attribute to his presence? He did have a great statistical game, but did he significantly contribute or simply return at the right time?
Bit of both. I thought he brought the forwards onto the ball better than he was before his injury and his running out of dummy half was a lot better. I also think better game management from him helped, only 38 tackles means he was able to provide more in attack.
I agree with the golden hamster..
How good was yesterday. A 3pm home game in excellent conditions that saw the team turn in a first class performance against a backdrop of negativity that I had my doubts they’d overcome. Although there had been some good attacking moments like Semi’s 2 tries against the dogs but yesterday was really the first time that we got to see our playmakers do what we’d been hoping they could. Apart from that some highlights for me were Scott’s offloads in heavy traffic; the continuing good form of Junior and although Peni is often criticised he can’t be for the vigour that he runs the ball back. The biggest highlight though had to be Ricky chant…pure gold.
I keep having to question which games make my mental “10 favourite Eels games” list; this one won’t really be remembered for anything but the dominant scoreline, and the surrounding scenes of the past couple of weeks will be forgotten – but that was a classy performance from a side who was under a lot of external pressures and needed a win.
let’s get this other stuff out of the way already so we can just focus on the footy.
Only an A for Norman? Worth much more (what is above A+?), his 2 try assists in first 20 minutes started ball rolling. That sublime pass for Jennings 2nd try was magic. Continued on with his good form for entire 80. Good to see halves both starting to hit their straps, by far best game from Foran in B & G, and their combination together on the field producing results at last. Outstanding effort from whole team and that 10 min performance after halftime was indicative of their performance over entire game. They just didn’t want Raiders to score any points.
Foran and Norman playing side by side as opposed to strictly right and left is working well and could start a trend.
More schoolteacher grading ,try footy grading 1 to 10 like everyone else mate
You say that each week. I noted it the first time mate.
Just give me a scale i can associate to , im still using an abacus mate .
Scott only played 30 minutes that makes the defence even more impressive ,his body wasnt there but his influence was ,thats his greatest contribution .
When the lowest grade Miatch gives is a B, you know the game was a good one!
Mate, I even considered giving everyone an A. Killer game.
We were a lot happier than BA apparently mate from what i heard (know) when i watched again some really silly errors stood out and i heard (know) hes annoyed with these repetitive unforced errors
Good – I love that about BA. Until we’ve won a comp he won’t be satisfied.
We need to extend him ASAP.