Eels 32 defeated Warriors 24

Crowd: 9, 489

What a gutsy display from the Eels this week! After ten minutes the Eels were already down to 3 bench players as a severe head knock to Kaysa Pritchard forced him from the field. Add in David Gower’s busted hand along with Josh Hoffman’s knee injury and the Eels were down to 1 bench player during the second half. Things were made that much tougher with Auva’a injuring his knee late in the encounter, but he bravely remained on the field. Entering this clash with Nathan Brown nursing his ribs and Mitch Moses recovering from a hip complaint, there were always going to be demands on a clearly busted Eels team.

This will surely go down as Parra’s gutsiest win thus far in 2017.

So let’s look at the stats that matter for Parramatta.

Score Flow

Full Time Stats

With an even possession rate, the Eels took full advantage of their time with the ball and completed at a very good 81%.

A pleasing sign was that this completion rate led to a domination in game time in the Warriors half and red zone, and was ultimately converted into points. This would be a stat that would be pleasing to BA and his coaching staff.

1^st Half

As per the full game the 1^st half was quite close across all major areas. Both teams competed well but Parramatta’s ball security and match play meant that they made better use of just under 50% of the ball. They were rewarded with an 18 – 12 lead as they hit the sheds at half time.

2^nd Half

The second half is where the Eels dug deep. With a mounting injury toll and a Warriors come back looming, Parramatta found that inner strength to hold on and take the game out. With the Eels defence came crucial errors from the Warriors. Parramatta’s defence and self-belief snuffed out the Warriors who held the ball for more game time but couldn’t get a decent foot hold in the Eels 20 metre area.

Attack

This numbers make for great reading. It was an outstanding attacking effort from Parramatta. Fearless charges into the Warriors defence saw the Eels dominate these Top 5 attacking statistics. Nathan Brown put in a monumental performance and he was ably supported by Daniel Alvaro who again took his starting opportunity with both hands. Importantly, Matagi played his best game since Round 2 with quality hit ups and kick returns to start the Eels sets rolling during his stints on the field.

In all, eight Eels made 100 metres or more with Auva’a just falling short with 98 metres. This was simply an incredible effort right across the team.

Eels Run Metres – 1616m     

Warriors Run Metres – 1403m

Defence

With the early exit of Kaysa Pritchard, the defensive hole was impressively filled by Will Smith with 41 tackles and only two missed tackles. When you consider that our bench utility player is new to that role in the middle, and had to play an unexpected 70 minutes, it makes his effort even more meritorious.

In total, six Eels made 20 or more tackles against the Warriors.

Eels – 301 tackles with 21 missed tackles

Warriors – 307 tackles with 23 missed tackles

When all is said and done, this was a great win to lift the Eels back into the 8. The team are looking a stronger unit game after game.

This week we do our annual pilgrimage to Darwin where we take on a desperate Cowboys outfit who sit one place above us. They will be hoping for one J. Thurston to be fit and play. But in saying that, the Eels should welcome back Corey Norman. If so, we will finally get to see the halves pairing of Norman and Moses.

Fortunately or unfortunately, BA will this week make the decision on where to play Gutherson. With Josh Hoffman looking at some time on the sidelines, this has made BA’s decision a little easier. But wouldn’t matter where ‘Guts’ plays he will be as dominant on the field as if he was still at 6.

I really think we can make it 2 from 2 against the Cowboys this year with a win in the Top End.

STAT ATTACK PLAYER OF THE WEEK

NATHAN BROWN

Browny is fast becoming an Eels favourite with his hard running, brutal defence and his all out work ethic. Last Friday’s 80 minute performance was next level in the toughness scale, and indicative of where his game has gone under Brad Arthur’s coaching.

Going into the game needled up after sustaining rib damage, Nathan put the team first and put his hand up to take the field. Not once did he shy away from any work against a big, hard running  Warriors forward pack.

He is undoubtedly one of the buys of the season and possibly entering calculations for a Blue jumper in the very near future.

Colmac

Champion Data

Stats courtesy of Champion Data. All these stats and more can be viewed on our match centre at http://mc.championdata.com/nrl/ including live game stats.

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