The Cumberland Throw

Titans Analysis – The Walking Wounded

After a dominant display against the Red V in Wollongong last Sunday, the mighty blue and gold of Parramatta tonight continues their early rounds road trip as they travel north to the beaches of the Gold Coast to take on the Titans.

If the early signs from the Eels were encouraging against Manly the week before, they were outright damaging with the first touches of the ball against St. George Illawarra. A try within the first minute of the game, followed by precision link play from the halves, edge runners  receiving early ball and finding space at will. It was poetry in motion and it lead our boys to the top of the table after only two rounds.

Our opponents the Titans however, were on the end of a very different fate. Untimely injuries to key players have left them depleted, a loss to the Newcastle Knights who hadn’t won a game in close to a year and their very existence and brand coming into question, following a public push for the re-instatement of the black and red Bears.

Yes, it’s all looking like a formality that the Eels will put 50 on this mob from up north isn’t it?

But rugby league is seldom so careless, so as to allow a narrative to get in the way of a game on the weekend.

This match has all the ingredients of a club defining victory for the Titans. Their backs are against the wall and their seems to be a real case of Murphy’s Law being spread around the strip right now, but that’s just the way our opposition will like it Eels fans.

They want to be the underdogs, they want to be dismissed and they want the pressure off. It’s just part and parcel of claiming an upset victory.

For those of you who presently work or even just enjoy a good yarn about the footy, I’m sure either your colleagues or friends gave you a positive ribbing this week following the Eels victory over the Dragons.

A few “Your boys looked really sharp against St. George” or “They are so well coached, they’re going to smash the Titans this week. 13+ for sure!” probably followed you around plenty of conversations. And as you were nodding away, smiling, momentarily enjoying being the competition leaders for the first time in a dogs age, I bet you were all telling yourselves the same internal story, as those who have heaped onto you the past nine years, were finally starting to sing the praises of your team. Come on, admit it, you were thinking words to this affect, weren’t you?

“Yeah, but it’ll be harder than you think without Norman” or “The Titans still have a good forward pack, we’re not going to just steam roll them” or like what was mentioned above “As much as I want to be confident, this has all the makings of an upset and I’ve got to be honest, I just haven’t been shown enough in the past to have the faith that my team can go up there and get the job done the same way everyone else thinks they can”.

Controlled: Eels Five-Eighth, Clint Gutherson, will be looking for a controlled performance this evening

All reasonably minded thoughts and feelings to have Eels fans. Which is why tonight will be such an important game in the scheme of our season. We need to prove to ourselves that it’s not just the Corey show, we need to prove to ourselves that we can handle being favourites, but most importantly, we need to heap the pressure back on the Titans.

I mean let’s face it, the Titans have to play a side that has been to hell and back in the Parramatta Eels. A side that has a tight bond and competes the full 80 minutes. A side that has withstood every bit of adversity and come out the other side of it and that is building towards something big.

The Titans can play the victim and act like all the pressure is on us tonight, I have no doubt that that’s the way that they’d like it to be, but the truth is the pressure is on the Titans.

They’re 0/2, are under an injury crisis and are trying to justify their existence. The only way they can do that is by getting a result against a side that’s mentally tough and endured more drama than they can even begin to imagine. The Titans are going into the lion’s den tonight and it’s time we started seeing our team as that type of side.

Now that doesn’t mean the game is going to be a walk in the park, we will still have to very much earn a victory tonight and there are still many threats on the field wearing Gold Coast colours, but it’s time as Eels supporters we start showing the same toughness our side has and feed that back into our public support for the team.

This is by no means a call to be arrogant about our side, but let’s be ruthless. Let’s nullify the Titans attacking threats and let’s exploit their defensive weaknesses. Let’s start sharing the attitude our players already have. Let’s be the side, no one wants to play.

With that being said, let’s see how the Titans will try to play this one and what we must do to keep them at bay.

Tyler Cornish: Some may question why I have a debutant, of all people, on my list of threats. Well let’s start with the obvious, debutants are largely unknowns. It’s difficult to study them because little to no readily available video exists to analyse their play. Secondly, if you’re bestowed the honour of donning a fullback jersey in the NRL, you obviously have some ability. Thirdly, there has been an alarmingly high rate of debutants scoring in their first game across the NRL in the last season or two. These factors alone make Tyler Cornish (younger brother of former Eel, Mitch) a person of interest to the Eels defence this evening. Similarly, a lot can be said about a player who has spent all their time in the juniors playing in the halves, only to come into grade in the fullback position. He can obviously use the ball and must have some type of aerobic capacity. Cornish will likely try to play the sweeping linkman roll with the ball in hand, so it’s important that we test out his lungs by kicking to spaces, tire him out with dominant tackles and not allow him the opportunity to be involved in plays.

Debutant: Tyler Cornish will fill the boots of Jarryd Hayne tonight

Konrad Hurrell: Konard is one of two x-factors in this Titans side who can create a play that can turn the game in the Titans favour. Whether it’s a barnstorming run or a barge over try, we all know that Hurrell will use his size to get one over his opponents. Knowing it and then stopping it is another thing altogether. Our brilliant line speed will be particularly key here. If we rush this man and hit him with gang tacklers, we can prevent him from stamping his authority on the match, but if just one player makes the line staggered and they don’t keep their form, he can punish us. Wrap the ball up on this guy with multiple tacklers and we’ll keep him quiet.

Kane Elgey & Ash Taylor: Two of the hottest young halves in the game will tonight play only their third game together. However it is a momentous occasion because it is the first time they play together without Jarryd Hayne. With Tyler Cornish filling the boots of Hayne, his absence could provide the Titans halves the confidence to play the game their way. As we saw, when Jarryd played for Parramatta, his teammates were often caught ball-watching and in admiration of the raw skill and talent he displayed. As such a aura developed around Jarryd and it’s something that still exists to this day. His injury could provide the Titans halves with the subconscious permission they need to control the game and could spell trouble for the Eels. In our most recent match against the Gold Coast, Ash Taylor tore us apart. Similarly, the last time Kane Elgey played against the Eels, he too dominated. Let’s win the forward battle and extinguish this candle before it has the opportunity to flicker.

Point-scorer: Ash Taylor scored plenty of points against the Eels in their previous encounter

Ryan James: The try-scoring forward is on the verge of representative honours, and you don’t start being talked about in those circles if you’re a run-of-the-mill forward. Titans Captain Ryan James plays aggressively and gets over both the advantage line and the try line.  He’s also very handy at producing second phase play. No doubt the Titans will go in with an offloading policy this evening to try and stretch the Eels defence and give Elgey & Taylor every opportunity to play in front of a retreating defensive line. No doubt it’ll work, if successful, and it’s why our middle third has to be particularly vigilant in controlling the ruck and shutting the play down. It’ll all start with this man and his middle forward partner in the 13. We stop them, we go a long way to taking it.

Kevin Proctor & Chris McQueen: Both these edge forwards are representative players and premiership winners. To suggest that Titans, who although undermanned, are weak, when these two are still in the side, aren’t doing justice to the Titans forward pack. McQueen is still fast enough and agile enough to be playing in the three-quarters, while Proctor can run as good a line as any backrower in the competition. With the backline slightly down on troops, it’s likely the Titans halves will look to hit these edge forwards with angled runs both against the grain and with it, after getting their middle forwards to produce some second phase play. This could spell danger signs inside our 20 metre zone. Jeff Robson and Clint Gutherson will have to be particularly selective with their defensive decisions this evening, while Tepai Moeroa and Manu M’au will have to be there ready to finish these boys off.

Agnatius Paasi: If Konrad was x-factor number one, Agnatius is x-factor number two. Not because of their unusual and eccentric names (love them both by the way), but because their big-bodied men who offer a point of difference and have shown in the past that they can take a game away from someone with some subtle skill and brute force that the opposition isn’t prepared for. As mentioned earlier, it’s likely that the Titans will try to generate second phase play through their middle men. They know it’ll be challenging trying to go toe-to-toe with the Eels forwards for the full 80 by purely playing the power game, so throwing the ball around to help give the Titans halves some space will be the order of the day. Like Ryan James, Paasi will be the player to limit a sneaky offload from. If we stop these two from getting the ball away, we will stop a lot of their attack dead in its tracks. However, it only takes one slip up to give our rivals momentum. Some strong Tim Mannah & Beau Scott ball-and-all tackles are the order of the day.

Offload threat: Wrapping players like Agnatius Paasi up will be key to stemming the forward roll on of the Titans

The Titans are not going to be easy-beats tonight and as Coach Brad Arthur said during the middle of the week, it’s now up to us to show some consistency.

With Corey Norman unavailable for selection, seasoned half, Jeff Robson comes into the side. We all know what to expect from Jeff. He’ll shoulder the kicking responsibilities, make his tackles and give early ball to his outside men. The question for us attackingly doesn’t come from either of Jeff Robson or Clint Gutherson standing up, it’s the men outside of them that have to do the damage with the ball in hand.

Corey Norman served some tries on a platter to our side over the opening rounds of the competition, with astute passing and smart kicking in behind the line. Both Gutherson and Robson can do this for us this evening, but they will need to the support and to active communicate to their outside players to ensure it happens. Neither read the game as naturally as well as Corey, but both are still amply skilled enough to execute the passes and kicks Corey has produced over the opening two rounds inside the opposition’s 20 metres.

Similarly, it’s this exact area we must concern ourselves with if Elgey or Taylor are afforded any space inside our 20 metres. Both are good for sneaky little grubbers in behind the line and both are good for subtle face balls that hit outside runners on the chest.

Controlling the ruck and field position continues to be the most important part of our game and every game that we play in. A few lapses took place against the Dragons last week and they managed to expose us. We can’t allow halves with the creativity of Taylor or Elgey this type of room, because they might have enough points in them to see us off. If we shut it down however, it will be lights out.

The Titans are ripe for the picking this evening, and although they’ll be fancying their chances against us by playing the underdog card, it’s really them who should be worried. They have to come up against an Eels side that has seen more adversity than they could even begin to dream of.

The walking wounded the Titans may be, but I say let’s wound them until they can’t walk.

Clint

All images courtesy of the Parramatta Eels, NRL.com and Getty Images.

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2 thoughts on “Titans Analysis – The Walking Wounded

  1. Colin Hussey

    Clint you have done a very good summation of the game tonight and the eels opponents. There are unknowns in the opposition team and there are knowns, the halves both are known and have talent, The forwards have some tough hard players, Cornish the halfback at 1, were not some eels supporters wanting the opposite for our #1, so the unknown sure is there with him.

    The eels should win if they stay focussed and don’t treat the opposition as underdogs something that BA has drilled into the team following the lapses last week, cannot afford them again. Heavy track, who will it favour?

    In some respect the amount of past detractors who are now backing the eels may be creating a scenario that is very dangerous for the team with them getting a bit over confident. With Normie out I think they have to pull together as a team and not rely on one smart player to control the game.

  2. Pou

    It certainly turned out to be the danger game many predicted. We should have won but we didn’t. What does this mean for our season? Nothing I reckon. Early season is full of upsets, and the footy’s back on next week.

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