Round 1 Drink of Choice – Suntory Hibiki 17 Year Old Whiskey
On anything but a picturesque Sunday afternoon at newly christened Lottoland (erm, oval? land?) the Eels took great and painful lengths to dissect a surprisingly plucky Manly outfit 20-12. Welcome back to the footy!
Corey Norman, of course, was at the heart of the victory. The laughing assassin tormented Manly with his weaving runs down the left edge and Allan Langer-esque kicking game. Seriously, if anyone participated in a footy drinking game that involved line drop outs than you have my condolences on the trip to the hospital to get your stomach pumped. There was also an audacious 40/20 on a broken play that made a complete fool of boom fullback Tom Trbojevic. Just your average Sunday outing for one of the NRL’s newly minted elite halfbacks. You can probably still get tempting odds on our field marshal for the Dally M but I can’t imagine them lasting for long over the next few rounds.
Mind you, Norman’s partner-in-crime Clinton Gutherson had a fair game himself. Gutherson was sitting on the hottest seat – at least from a fan perspective – coming into the game as the team’s work-in-progress five-eighth but I imagine he has bought himself some breathing space with the armchair coaches with today’s effort. He managed the right-edge in a very tidy fashion, scored a try after beating his opposite Blake Green and backed up relentlessly. If not for the lack of peripheral vision from Michael Jennings, he would have been the chief architect of a brilliant final quarter try after pushing up in support for the human wrecking ball more commonly known Suaia Matagi. Gutherson also allayed the other set of fan-fears in our goal kicking, sending over 4 shots at goal from 5 attempts in an impressive goal-kicking debut.
As far as club debuts for the Eels go, Suaia Matagi had himself a rather cracking one. 150 running metres or near enough were the official statistics for his shift at Lottoland but you might be better off going back to count the bruises and trample marks he left on the Manly forward pack. His running battle with Sea Eagle’s firebrand Marty Taupau was a thrilling throwback to the forward tussles of yesteryear but I don’t think it is unfair to suggest that Matagi took the points victory – both literally and figuratively.
Since the decline of Fui Fui Moi Moi the Eels have long settled for two diligent workhorses in the starting front row but the addition of Matagi may have finally brought the missing bruiser element in the starting pack to complement the workhorse play-style of Tim Mannah. Mannah himself was at his industrious best today, notching up 173m and 29 tackles in an effort that will undoubtedly barely earn plaudits among the wider fan base but will be a testament to the value that he brings to this team. You can hit CTRL+C/CTRL+V (or copy/paste for those unfamiliar with keyboard shortcuts) those comments right next to the name of Daniel Alvaro who was fantastic from the bench for the Blue & Gold.
At this point I could honestly just rattle off names from the team list and just wax lyrical about their efforts today but lets at least have a little bit of direction in the back end of the first proper installment of Whiskey Musings. So with that newfound direction, let’s talk about Tepai Moeroa.
I raved about Tepai following our final preseason hit out against Penrith and went on to suggest he was primed for a big year. Bearing in mind it is only eighty minutes of NRL footy but Moeroa has made a compelling start to his campaign in 2017. The box score for his game against the Sea Eagles is not going to jump off the page with 12 runs for 82m and 28 tackles to his name but this is very much a case of the numbers not telling the whole story. Moeroa manhandled the Sea Eagles in defence today. Scratch that. He belted the ever-loving piss out of them. In fact, Tepai Moeroa out Beau Scott-ed Beau Scott. It was ugly. It was brutal. I loved every bloody minute of it.
There were also some nice running lines coming back against the sliding defence and as he and Gutherson forge a tighter understanding between each other there is some serious upside to be had there – especially in the red zone. One interesting thing to note out of today’s game is that Frank Pritchard replaced Manu Ma’u on the left edge. It remains to be seen if this will be the norm or if Brad Arthur will deploy the senior Pritchard as a swiss army knife on a weekly basis but it does speak towards greater trust in Moeroa’s ability to patrol the right edge for eighty minutes.
So with Round 1 done and dusted what did everyone else think of our trip to the Northern Beaches? Did Kaysa Pritchard impress you with his eighty minute effort? Or was Nathan Brown’s injection into that game what caught your eye? Either way break out the good drinking glasses, pour a tipple and join the chat.
love this new blog.
I must say I agree with everything bar your assessment of Alvaro.
thought he was average, but admittedly I wasn’t at the ground (thanks to my youngest for the vomiting bug).
I had an end on view from the Fulton Menzies Stand and have to agree with Forty’s assessment of Tepai. Outstanding defence.
Great choice of whisky!!! mulling over the Balvenie 17 double wood as read this.
I’ve been eyeing off the Balvenie for some time but am yet to pull the trigger. I dare say it will have to feature sometime this year in a future Whiskey Musings!
Avoid the 12 and go the 17, lovely drop worth the money, great sherry influence.
My other tip for good budget buy is kavalan port wood.
Ps great blog!
Duly noted!
Woo hoo!! Great to get another win over thoae turkeys!! ‘Could someone, anyone, tell what Timmy has to do to get support from the supporters!! FFS, consistently makes 10m a run. He’s my 1 pointer tonight
Matagi ….WOW, what a debut..
Set to become a cult hero like Fui Fui and Tooooookey.
I thought he was fantastic.
Can’t wait to see what Vave adds to the pack….
Thankfully matagis effort and work rate are a lot better than those two , actually fui never put in 100% in his career and tookey was good for 10 min tops ,the thing about crowd favourites is that its based on popularity not footy
The numbers you needed at Lottoland today were 7 – 1 -6 – 3 – 4 – 20 -Supplementary 12 … Norman French Cutho 3 tries 4 goals 20 points to 12.If you had that you were a WINNER……
If not you were a LOSER for the sixth straight time….
Firstly thats the first game this spine has ever played together ,rookie 5/8 rookie no1 kaysa,s first 80 min game and normy hasnt played for 7 months , brown ,matagi hoffmans frank pritchards first game for the club , yep the effort was rusty but it was the effort that stood out , yep we forced heaps of repeat sets that we didnt score of but thats what all the top teams do ,its called pressure , people whinged regularly on another site that we couldnt do it , well now we can ,so our game plan worked ,our composure held ,our fitness lasted and our new members and new spine showed a taste of whats to come ,christ im happy ,we went there to get 2 points and we did !!!
Good points Bubbles. We assembled a very raw spine for the variety of reasons you listed and they got the job done. The fact they have a ton of room to improve is a very encouraging aspect for our club.
A point I forgot to mention in my post is that if we can string together a run of victories over the first two months of the competition we are positioned incredibly well both short and long term. Our bizarre draw sees us barely get a home game over the first six or seven rounds but that is flipped on its head in our home stretch where we rarely leave ANZ over the course of three months or so (away games at ANZ are a factor there mind you).
A gritty win over a willing Manly outfit is a fair way to kick start the campaign. There is little chance of the team resting on its heels with the knowledge that they can be a great deal better.
Good calls 40’s and, often there are names that capture more to some than others. In that regard and only from a box vantage point, Tepi while being busy seemed to get caught pretty easy but he put in his time.
I coin the name of the 3 musketeers, Mannah, Ma’u and Matagi as having huge games and could have been in any order of best from the 3, but Matagi, with the hits he copped he seemed to be made from heavy duty springs as to the speed he rebounded to his feet. Mannah? How can any eels supporter put him down, he is inspirational, and Ma’u, can’t add anything to whats been said.
So to the last 2, Gutho, he’s no Foran, or Kenny, but dare I say or add, YET, he was solid and tried and for the first game at 6 with a new partner in crime, well he will do me and as he gets the combo working with Norms they will form a very good syndicate together. Or and who was the goal kicker? say no more!
So the last 1 is actually the 9, Kaysa. he’s not NRL level and won’t last 80, my comment, stick it to them Kaysa and the only thing he needed was to get to run on at the start and stay there to show that he has the goods.
Thoughts on Hoffman?
I thought he did well. Took some pressure off the forwards rucking the ball up.
It was a solid debut for mine. As Al points out, he got involved in the middle and he also had a really nice finish on the Bevan French forward pass no-try. Was probably caught too flat when Takairangi looked to tap the ball on after that long run of line drop outs but that chemistry will come will time and reps.
Should Gutho have thrown a cut out pass there. Easy to muse over with hindsight.
And it’s great to get another test next week against the surprisingly impressive Dragons at Wollongong. No resting on our laurels, Parra!. Let’s kick butt!!
Good tough win I thought; and Manly forwards had a dig too; I thought the entire pack played well, Matagi and Mannah lead them with runs. I for one think we will only get stronger and crisper with the ball; and the way Bevan followed the play was v pleasing; and I will say it, he followed like Burt used to do.
Very pleased to start the season with a win and seeing it was the first round I didn’t expect an overly polished performance given new team members, playing at Brookvale and the nerves that players would naturally have so no surprises for me.
They did look bunched at times and the few opportunities that they failed to convert just before and after half time had a familiar feel to previous years, but hopefully that won’t be a factor once combinations have time to form.
I thought Brown overplayed the offload early on and he needs to be more selective and even though Scott didn’t have a standout game his ability to legally force a turnover, several times, was outstanding.
Overall I’d give the team 7/10 on the day but with the firm belief that they have some genuine improvement left in them.
Thanks for the blog 40:20, it was a good read.
Really solid start to the season. Agree with comments above about Guth, Matagi, Mannah and co but wanted to add two aspects that caught my eye:
1) significantly more offloading from the forwards (Mau’s offload was particularly clever) and the back-up was there and ready to receive the offloads
2) the bench tactics worked; rotating four forwards kept Manly on the blackfoot all game. Whether this will be the ploy every week remains to be seen?
Enjoyed that read almost as much as the game.
Tim should be put down for MoM in my opinion. A workhorse effort sprinkled with a couple of pass/offloads. Inspirational!
I’d like to see more structure in our attack though. I know it’s early days, but we won’t be able to rely on individual brilliance all year.
Alvaro has a lot of ticker and seemed to be making metres however, he needs to find the ground faster for a quick pay off the ball.
Forty is TCT’s own version of Bevan French, chiming in with inspirational bursts of brilliance.
Twice as heavy and half as fast. The numbers don’t lie…I am pretty much Bev’s spirit animal.