Parramatta Eels 26
Wests Tigers 22
The Good: |
Hey, we won. Some of our attacking plays looked energetic and engaged and it was pleasantly very tough to pick out our best on ground. |
The Bad: |
If I’m honest, we deserved to get beaten today. We had little to no control of the ruck for basically the whole game. The Manu Ma’u forward pass in our own 20 nearly killed me and at halftime we had made 140 metres less than one of the worst forward packs in the NRL. If you’re feeling down, scroll back up to the final score. |
X-Factor: |
I feel like I’ve seen this game before, but we were in the Tigers position – the less than perfect team in complete control of a game 60 minutes in, and then it vanished into thin air for reasons I could not understand. Yet today it was the Eels who (finally) capitalised on most (definitely not all) of our chances today, and somehow we won. Taka’s kick for Auva’a’s second try completely changed the game. |
The MVP: |
Honourable mentions to Kirisome Auva’a, Michael Jennings, Tepai Moreoa and Nathan Brown, but I’m going with Brad Takairangi. I know I’ve gone close to naming half the team but Clint Gutherson was also very close, and went even closer with this rev up: |
No, I don’t think that was Shakespeare – but it worked. Great to see that sort of passion.
The Starters
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1- Clinton GuthersonFullback, Parramatta Eels I heard someone in the crowd say Gutho is our best value player, and I can’t disagree. I don’t really mind where he plays (he was terrific at the back today), but I think he’ll end up finding his feet for us at centre. Today, the Guthbus was maybe the only bloke who busted his ass for 80 minutes. Clinton helped himself to 14 runs and 149 metres, 1 linebreak and 2 linebreak assists. He also has a really great head of hair. |
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2- Semi RadradraLeft Wing, Parramatta Eels There he is. At least for today, the big Fijian was back. A try, the try assist to Jenko, 11 hit ups and 126 metres is a solid showing. Welcome back, Bula. |
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3- Michael JenningsLeft Centre, Parramatta Eels I think Jenko should send the Tigers’ right edge defence thank you cards for constantly leaving him so much room. Normally The Jet plays well when our forwards are dominating, but today he went looking for and found plenty of work. The opening try, 7 tackle busts, 13 hit ups and 206 running metres is the good news. On the down side, he had 4 errors, and he apparently had 4 missed tackles and 3 ineffective tackles. At a guess I’d say they were all on Idris, but those latter numbers are like a statistical horror film. |
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4- Kirisome Auva’aRight Centre, Parramatta Eels I would have pronounced his name four different ways today, but they were all complimentary. His best game in Blue and Gold, but you’d probably know that from his 2 tries, the Hoffman try assist, 4 tackle busts and 8 runs for 94 running metres. Concentration in defence was much improved although he still had his moments. I don’t recall anyone swearing at him from the crowd today, so that’s another plus. |
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5- Josh HoffmanRight Wing, Parramatta Eels Got himself another meat pie, and only had the one missed tackle on one of the NRL’s biggest wingers in Moses Suli. The Hoff churned out 79 metres from his 8 hit ups, and is evidently also the proud owner of probably the most excited try celebration video in the NRL. |
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6- Brad TakairangiFive-Eighth, Parramatta Eels Easily Taka’s best game of the season, despite the team high 6 (good gosh) missed tackles. Nonetheless, we don’t win the game without him, hence why he got my MVP nod. |
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7- Corey NormanHalfback, Parramatta Eels I found this a tough grade to award, as I’m still waiting for him to take over a game like he did in Round 2. On one hand, I acknowledge he has been playing with serviceable, but nonetheless makeshift halves partners since Kieran Foran left. But if Corey wants to lead this team in the future, we need him first to lead us out of ruts like the one we found ourselves in today. Maybe I’m being too hard on him, particularly under the circumstances, but it wasn’t Corey the players looked to today – and as our best player, I get a feeling it should have been. |
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8- Suaia MatagiProp, Parramatta Eels Had a much better second stint than his first, but 77 metres is not one of his more dominant performances. Hopefully he uses it as a building block to destroy his old team next week. The 3 ineffective tackles are also something he’ll want to get out of his game. |
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9- Kaysa PritchardHooker, Parramatta Eels Apparently Fox Sports said he might have been injured, but to me it looked like he was hooked after the Tigers second try. With that said, his 65 minutes look like a very round number, so maybe it was strategic. Lead the team in tackles (41), and like Matagi, thought his second stint was much stronger. Although, 2 missed tackles and 4 ineffective tackles is an improvement, it still stings a little. Defensively, a good starting hooker takes control of the ruck – to be honest I’m yet to see Kaysa prove he’s that guy. |
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10- Tim Mannah (c)Prop, Parramatta Eels Timmy almost had more minutes leading the team song in the sheds then he did on the field. In Round 5 I privately wondered (on a public forum) why our Captain and starting prop only played 31 minutes. This afternoon he played 28 minutes. I’m not sure what is going on, and I love me some Mannah time, but it’s hard to get excited by his 7 hit ups and 65 metres. |
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11- Manu Ma’uBack Row, Parramatta Eels It’s pretty rare I don’t have this guy in my MVP calculations, but 10 runs for 73 metres continues a worrying form slump for the world’s scariest man. Manu’s fury about his 4 missed tackles and 2 ineffective tackles will likely cause something, somewhere to burst into flames. |
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12- Tepai MoreoaBack Row, Parramatta Eels Not only did he play the full 80 minutes, the attack was terrific (8 for 88 metres) and the brutal defence (28 tackles and only 1 miss) was there in spades. But yes, I’m still annoyed he’s in a singlet in this photo, while everyone else is in a shirt. |
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13- Nathan BrownLock, Parramatta Eels The only Eels forward to crack 100m (119), and had the most hit ups of any bloke in Blue and Gold (14). Shut It Down was also the only Eels forward with multiple tackle busts (2). Still, as our starting lock, we need him to shore up that ruck area, and the 3 missed and further 3 ineffective tackles probably partly explain some of our aforementioned ruck control issues. |
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Interchange
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14- Beau Scott (c)Interchange, Parramatta Eels I hear Beau was injured today, so that explains the 18 minutes, and I guess it explains the 2 runs for 18 metres. With that said, although they’re middle forwards, Beau’s apparent injury makes Timmy and Danny’s (below) low minutes even more perplexing. In other news, Beau was the only player not to miss or have an ineffective tackle, and there are rumours he was seen with a sniper rifle just before Jamal Idris pulled up lame. |
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16- Daniel AlvaroInterchange, Parramatta Eels I almost played more minutes today than Daniel Alvaro (18). Put up some quality numbers while he was out there though with 6 runs for 66 metres. Keep chipping away, Danny. |
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17- Siosaia VaveInterchange, Parramatta Eels Went awfully close to joining Shut It Down in the 100m club (97), and managed it from only 9 hit ups. Played as many minutes as Mannah Time (28), but did a little more statistically. Looked exhausted each time he left the field, which is a mix of both good (effort) and bad (fitness). |
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Hey, we won.
Go you Eels,
Mitch.
Photos courtesy of the Parramatta Eels. Stats courtesy of Champion Data.
Remember when the majority of our forwards were cracking the 100m mark? They were the days.
Seems like a silly choice to play guys like Tim and Daniel for so few minutes – if they were the “destructive” type of runner like Vave maybe, but they aren’t and it makes their time on the field seem ineffective. I wonder if the return of Kenny Edwards will even things out a bit?
The control (or lack thereof) of the ruck is probably our biggest concern, but a lack of troops makes it very difficult to make any changes that might be for the better.
Re: Kaysa – I know I mentioned on Twitter that the Fox commentators talked about an injury to Kaysa, but they never mentioned it again either at half time or when he came back on, so that does make me think that you were right about the hook!
I’m looking forward to a replay, but it could have just have easily been strategy from BA. Thought he played pretty well when he came back on.
Yes he was much better in his second stint. Really allowed Brown to be much more effective.
Your hard marking was in my opinion, “no glitch Mitch” today mate.
Even with Taka’s poor stats in D it would be hard to argue your MVP tag on the big fella.
I’ve been critical of Jenko recently but he has upped the ante in the last two weeks and his involvement and unselfish attitude to share the centre position with Semi and with 206 running mtrs was commendable and appeared to bring out the best in Semi as they really do appear to enjoy playing together.
Gutho is a freak, his ball playing when he chimed in on both sides of the field was excellent and I thought took pressure off Corey tonight something that will continue with or without Mitchell Moses joining the club next week.
Although our forwards didn’t clock up the mtrs we would like it was noticeable how strong the Tigers D was through the middle and they dominated the ruck preventing quick play the balls even from Mannah and Trippo who usually excell in that area. From my perspective I thought we were very willing through the middle inspite of that and there was some good individual yards stolen by Kaysa without support.
Another point I would make is we have 4 forwards who are new to the club (3 played today) Big Frank was injured and with Penni having his 2nd game with them and Kenny Edwards debuting next week with these new boys who have all had to get used to one another’s play. This may well be exacerbated by the arrival of M. Moses too.
I believe if we can get the confidence from today repeated against the Riff next week along with better ball security we might just start to show some consistent gradual improvement.
Thanks Mitch, a good platform to comment on.
If we went down yesterday (which was looking very likely at about the 60th minute), I would not have been looking forward to playing Penrith at all. We looked bored, disinterested and there was no talk.
One little try, one magic kick from Taka changed the game. I hope it’s the play that changes our season.
I thought Corey was involved in almost every try we scored. He was the second receiver in most of those too.
I think he’ll be the go to guy when he doesn’t have to worry about directing the forwards around the park.
You could probably see how I wrestled with Corey’s comment above. I agree with you, was involved, but I just didn’t see him take control when we needed him too. At the end of the day, he definitely didn’t have a bad game, just an interesting one.
He’s really good, I just think he’s ready to become great.
I really think mannahs best days are behind him and shoild star from the bench. Honestly it was a lucky win but id take that every day
It was a very lucky win, but I don’t agree on the Mannah comments. He was terrific in our first two wins, and was given the minutes to do so.
I’m not sure what’s going on there at the moment, but BA must have his reasons.