The Eels and Bulldogs came together for their first major junior pre-season hit out on a warm summer’s day at the Terry Lamb Sports Complex in Chester Hill. Unsurprisingly, Saturday also presented me with my first chance to run an eye over the state of the Eels’ juniors heading into next year as well as begin to formulate to an outlook on our twin campaigns in the Harold Matthews and SG Ball.

A short foreword before I get into the good stuff! I apologise if I come across as vague when it comes to my coverage of the Under 14s and 15s talent squads. It is a deliberate measure taken for the benefit of the club given how aggressively other NRL clubs pursue our talent.

Parramatta Eels Under 14s Talent Squad – In-house Trial  

The sole in-house trial of the day, the Eels fielded a blue team and a gold team and played the only standard two-half fixture (the other three matches were played as thirds rather than halves). In a pleasingly high quality affair, the blue team ran out 5 tries to 1 victors as both sides acquitted themselves extremely well.

There was a diverse range of athletic and skill profiles on show in the Under 14s. For the most part, the spine/skill positions gave away a considerable handicap in height and weight but encouragingly, showed plenty of ticker and discipline in defence and in a further show of solid fundamental coaching – deliberately played to the line in attack. Both teams benefitted from clever dummy half work throughout the game.

The blue team had the benefit of a tireless backrower and a strong centre duo that hunted effectively down both edges coming out of their own half while both the blue and gold teams were well serviced by their front-rowers who all played with tremendous hustle.

Parramatta Eels Under 15s Talent Squad – vs – Canterbury Bulldogs

In the second high quality match of the day the Eels over ran the Bulldogs 3 tries to 1. The Eels (and presumably the Bulldogs as well) played two distinct squads across the first two thirds of the trial before weaving in players from either squad in the final third of play.

Speed was an obvious factor through the backline of the Eels and it featured prominently throughout the game as Parramatta racked up several explosive plays from their outside backs.

The Dogs fielded a traditionally large and aggressive pack who did a stellar job of winning them field position throughout the early exchanges but the smaller but perhaps more athletically robust talent in the Eels’ pack saw them edge their way back into the contest before taking over the ruck in the back-end of the match.

Both 1^st and 2^nd division players stood up for the Eels throughout the game while the Dogs too should be able to take plenty of positives from their loss.

Parramatta Eels Harold Matthews – vs – Canterbury Bulldogs

The Eels were never in this particular match as the Bulldogs thumped us 6 tries to 2. While it makes for less than pleasant scout work, you often learn more from a loss than you do from a win and a few players improved their stock for the Eels as they chose to go down fighting.

Before I get down to the particulars it is worth remembering that the Eels are rotating in essentially an entirely new Harold Matthews squad in 2017 as their National Championship winning squad progress to the SG Ball. Additionally, the Eels were also without seven of their first-choice players.

With those caveats laid down, the Bulldogs deserve all the credit for the day as they took our boys to task. Our line-up in the first third of the game were run off the park as the Dogs dominated possession and territory while we squandered our handful of red zone chances with poor kicks.

Parramatta eventually found some footing in the match through the back end of the second third and throughout the entirety of the final third of play but the gap was insurmountable at that point in time.

David Hollis, a wonderfully athletic prospect at prop, was the recipient of a beat down by the big Bulldogs’ pack in the early exchanges of the game. Hollis struggled with the speed and intensity of the game initially and chalked up errors on both sides of the ball before returning in the final third with a much-improved stint up the middle.

Cecil Lahood was brilliant in the role of a defensive lock throughout the difficult opening to the game and capped off his day with a superb try-saving cover tackle down the right sideline. Sam Hughes and Sam Wilmot were the other picks of the forward pack with Hughes having an impact in both attack and defence while Wilmot straightened the attack with a number of powerful carries and provided the Eels with some second phase ball.

My notes from the day indicate that there were a number of splash plays from the forward pack in the second squad including a near 1-on-1 strip and a forced line drop out and some penalties drawn via good runs but both the first and second squad forward packs were far too inconsistent throughout the game.

The real silver lining to our loss to Canterbury came in the sensational game played by Jandamurra Stewart from fullback. Stewart was everywhere on Saturday. He defused a potential try with a reaction catch from an unexpected deflection that would have made Steve Smith proud on his goal line and later saved a certain try after chasing down not one but two Bulldogs across 60m on a break against the run of play.

Stewart showed his class in attack as well, displaying the ability to offload and scoring a lovely individual try after deceiving the Dogs with his sleight of hand and footwork.

Nick Fonua had the misfortune of copping a knock to his head early in the fixture and I believe he may have fractured his eye-socket. Our best wishes are with him and his recovery from the injury.

Parramatta Eels SG Ball – vs – Canterbury Bulldogs

This was a tricky one. The Eels would end up 5 tries to 4 victors but arguably got by on their superior fitness after falling behind to the Dogs due to a lack of cohesion and defensive discipline in the red zone.

The Eels fielded plenty of fresh faces in spite of the considerable depth and talent it had at its disposal already for the SG Ball (between the 2016 SG Ball class and the graduating Harold Matthews class) and they definitely played that way with players across the park seemingly trying to stand out on an individual basis. The Dogs on the other hand played an uncomplicated brand of football but drove down the field regularly and punished sloppy goal line defence from the Eels with some very simple ball work from their forwards.

There was a solitary bright spot in the early moments of the game for the Eels as their custodian (hailing from QLD but alas unnamed at this point in time) scored a brilliant, length-of-the-field try – beating several defenders with speed and strength en route to scoring.

The turning point in the match came with the injection of PJ Vaigalu, who missed the 2016 season for injury and developmental reasons. Vaigalu was a powerhouse at lock for the Eels and completely swung the momentum around the ruck in both attack and defence with his punishing physical play.

Parramatta’s halves came to life as a result and with momentum and superior fitness levels guiding them the Eels came home over the Bulldogs in the final third of play.

Much like with our Harold Matthews Trial Squad, the Eels were missing a number of key personnel which also played into the lack of cohesion across the team. The narrow victory was a nice affirmation of the work the team has done in maintaining their fitness levels but they will likely be keen to work on a raft of issues on both sides of the ball.

A few final thoughts from the game:

John Paul Nohra narrowly missed out on a handful of try assists chiming in from the back. The first was called back as a marginal forward pass (if I recall correctly) while the second had him placing his pass just out of the reach of his winger.

Munduk/Mumduk (sp), a player hailing from African descent, impressed with a number of quality touches at five-eighth before showing some versatility and shifting to the left wing. There were glimpses of vision and deft touch in his running and kicking games and he is someone that I look forward to seeing more of in 2017.

All in all, it was a largely successful day for the Eels, with the notable exception of the injury to Nick Fonua. There were plenty of positives to come from both of Talent squads while the Harold Matthews and SG Ball squads will regroup and forge ahead from their gruelling hit outs against the Bulldogs.

Stay tuned for more junior and ISP updates moving forwards!

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