Parramatta Eels 24
St George Illawarra Dragons 10
The Good: |
It wasn’t our most emphatic or encouraging win of the season (I’ve actually got the last time we faced the Dragons in that spot), but it was a solid, arguably 80 minute performance.
I also want to give a shout out to the kicking games of both Corey and Mitch this afternoon. The boot to ball of both our halves was precise and pivotal in the flow of the game. The importance of a quality kicking games is underrated. |
The Bad: |
It was pointed out to me that 2 of our 4 tries came as a result of a Dragons error, but nonetheless, I think our defence deserves some serious credit for pressuring their play. We aren’t there yet, and a better opposition would have made it a completely different ball game, but I just wanted the two points this afternoon. At least those hints of shaky game management in the first half were replaced by cool heads and a controlling all round performance in the second.
Regarding our play itself, I don’t have a great deal of complaints. We got the job done and didn’t really give the (admittedly understrength) Dragons a chance. The 34 missed tackles (to the Dragons 19) is less than ideal, but still we obviously scrambled well enough to only allow 2 tries. Similar story with the Dragons’ 14 offloads to our 5, but that’s also what St George Illawarra do best. Kaysa’s seemingly serious injury is also a gutting blow for both the team and him personally. Hoping to hear some good news in the coming days. |
X-Factor: |
It’s been well publicised already, but waiting until the 71st minute for our first penalty is mind blowing. Less blowing our minds and more blowing that whistle, thanks refs. |
The MVP: |
238 metres, 12 rusn, 3 tackle breaks, a linebreak, no errors and a partridge in a pear tree. Crown the King.
This is Clint Gutherson’s world people, we’re just living in it. |
The Starters
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1- Clinton GuthersonFullback, Parramatta Eels The fans called for it, the media wanted it, and several of our followers on Twitter claimed Brad Arthur had been reading their tweets; but whatever it was, moving the bus to fullback worked a treat. I think we’re getting to the point where the question needs to be asked – is Clint Gutherson actually now our best player? Has he taken the mantle from Normy? Is the bloke with the weird hair and Elvis’ ‘Return To Sender’ as his try celebration song suddenly now our go-to guy? |
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2- Semi RadradraLeft Wing, Parramatta Eels Post Game Grades 101 – anytime a bloke hits the ball up 16 times for 170 metres, give him a good grade. |
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3- Brad TakairangiLeft Centre, Parramatta Eels I’m a sucker for the Taka/Semi connection and thought the former played pretty well, particularly in the hit up (11) department. The 94 metres and 3 tackle breaks were also pleasing. Speaking of those metres and hit ups, it’s going to be interesting to see who drops from the backline when Hoff returns for our next game; and my bet (completely a guess) is this guy. With Taka’s highest number of hit ups in a game this season, I wonder if he’s preparing to become a hit up focused impact second rower from the bench? No idea. In other Taka news, I admittedly haven’t watched a replay yet, but apparently he was the cause of the defensive lapse that led to Semi coming in field, which led to the first Dragons try. Is that true, sports fans? More news as it comes to hand. There were 4 blokes who made less but missed more tackles than Mitchell Moses, but Taka’s 8 made with 4 missed is as unsatisfying as watching an episode of the NRL Footy Show. He’s should be/usually is/will be much better than this. |
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20- Michael JenningsRight Centre, Parramatta Eels If you don’t notice the difference Jenko makes to our side, you haven’t been paying attention. The 8 hit up for 118 metre factor was also very welcome addition to our squad a week earlier than expected. Mixed in with all of those warm feelings, he also missed a team high 4 tackles, and allowed 2 offloads. Nonetheless, I think the Dragons score a couple more tries if he’s not there today.
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5- Bevan FrenchRight Wing, Parramatta Eels Trevor Gillmeister, Tonie Carroll, Beau Scott and now Bevan French. What an incredible defensive game from the Flying Frenchman. Simply outstanding. Not only does his shift from custodian allow The King to reign in the number 1 jersey, but as an added bonus, at this point in time I think Bev might actually be a better winger than he is a fullback. He was once again outstanding under the high ball (has anyone ever seen him drop a high ball?), but also terrorised the Dragons in defence (file that under “Sentences I Didn’t Think I’d Be Writing About Bevan French”). Sure Bevo had 3 missed tackles, but he also had a tackle break of his own. Very encouraging return to the wing.
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6- Corey NormanFive-Eighth, Parramatta Eels I love Corey’s game, but at halftime I wasn’t particularly enamoured with his previous 120 minutes of football. Both in the 80 minutes of the Cows game, and the first 40 of today’s clash, I thought Corey looked a little hesitant, wasn’t managing the game, and seemed to frequently take the wrong option. The second half felt like a return to the Corey of old. Strong passes, pointed kicks, deft touches. All that is missing is a return to his terrorising running game (5 for 39m today), and Corey could almost single handedly kick start a legitimate run to the finals. The aforementioned kicking game of both halves was outstanding. |
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7- Mitchell MosesHalfback, Parramatta Eels Firstly, I know Eels fans come to The Cumberland Throw for all their questionable photoshopped player profile picture needs. You. Are. Welcome. Today was another chapter in Mitch’s acclimatisation process with all things Blue & Gold, and I think it’s safe to say he’s tracking forward, not back. It is a huge ask for a half to swap teams mid season, and I think 5 weeks down we can be safely pleased (albeit short of ecstatic) with Moses’ progress. I suspect many will skim through this part of the post for Moses’ missed tackle count this week – a measly 2 (with another 2 ineffective) from 20 makes. So on that front: not bad, Mitchell. Not bad at all. Throw in a try assist, a solid passing game, a half break, and his first points in Eel NRL colours; I think that will quieten down the hate for a couple of weeks. Keep the faith people. |
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8- Daniel AlvaroProp, Parramatta Eels The Polar Bear had 12 runs for 93 metres, 1 tackle break, 23 tackles and 3 misses in his 32 minutes. His game was apt, but not particularly memorable. Just like this description. |
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9- Kaysa PritchardHooker, Parramatta Eels Somehow managed 20 tackles in only 23 minutes in what hopefully isn’t his last game this season. Any serious injury is awful, but for a bloke who has already come back from so many, this one was particularly gutting to see. If you’re the praying type, pray for Kaysa. |
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10- Tim Mannah (c)Prop, Parramatta Eels At what point does Tim Mannah’s head knock tendencies become concerning? Tim had 10 hit ups, 81 metres, 19 tackles and his about his 13th HIA for the season. |
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11- Manu Ma’uBack Row, Parramatta Eels If Gutho wasn’t playing I think this bloke would have got my player of the game. A huge 20 hit ups for 173 metres, a ridiculous 41 tackles (with only 3 misses) and several additions to the highlight reel. A well deserved silver medal in tonight’s MVP race, and the skeletal remains of a Dragon player running cross field for his mantlepiece. |
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16- Kenny EdwardsBack Row, Parramatta Eels Yeah, nah. The two early errors had Eels fans baying for blood, but thankfully two is where that count remained. Speaking of stats, the sheet says 11 runs for 68 metres, but imagine if they counted cross field metres. I’ve always been a big fan, but just tuck it under your arm and run straight at the defence, Kenny. |
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13- Nathan BrownLock, Parramatta Eels Shut-It-Down, Nathan Brown. Imagine running at the Dragons defensive line 23 times for 184 running metres, and then having enough energy to make 33 tackles and break 2 tackles. Sure, the 4 missed tackles are a concern, but you can tell him. |
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Interchange
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14- Beau Scott (c)Interchange, Parramatta Eels Is there an injury update on Killer? You knew something was up when Paul Vaughn ran right over the top of him for the Dragons’ second try, and Beau was seen coming from the field moments later. He had 8 hit ups for 69 metres, and 29 tackles during his 42 minutes. |
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15- Suaia MatagiInterchange, Parramatta Eels Matagi had 10 runs for 83 metres. He also had 17 tackles and 3 misses in 32 minutes. In other words he’s basically another Daniel Alvaro, who is basically Tim Mannah without the HIAs. |
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17- William SmithInterchange, Parramatta Eels Imagine what a mess we would have been in today (and the Warriors game for that matter) if we didn’t have this bloke on the bench. What he misses out on in tackles (1 miss, 3 ineffective with 31 made), he makes up for with his boyish good looks and deft attacking kicks that put the opposition under pressure. |
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19- Siosia VaveInterchange, Parramatta Eels I think our forward pack missed Vave’s impact minutes more than many realise. Still, he only had 59 metres (from 8) in his return from a calf injury. I suspect he’ll be better for the run, but more so for the rest afforded by upcoming week off. |
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Lucky we got the win, then.
A quick shout out to all those people who had The Guthbus for first try scorer.
Go you Eels,
Mitch.
Photos courtesy of the Parramatta Eels. Stats courtesy of Champion Data.
What happened to last weeks ???
what an odd first comment.
just wasn’t possible last week mate.
Dont rate anything you said in the bad , trys of errors ,good rushing defence brings about errors , and as for a better opposition we made them look ordinary and would have tested anyone on the night ,it wasnt through lack of effort on thier part ours was just better on the end of bias refereeing and i dont know how many forward passes , old saying , you can only play as good as the oppostion lets you play !!!! We didnt let them !!!!!!! I didnt really see poor game management in first half i saw a commited team effort , i did see some disgusting bias refereeing though and we managed that as well !!!!!
fair enough. I thought the missed tackle count is concerning, particularly against a relatively inept looking Dragons outfit yesterday. I’d like to think we would have tested anyone on the night, but I still suspect we’re a ways away.
Mitch Moses’ kicking game saved us on a few occasions – maybe a better way to phrase it is this – our game management in the second half was streaks ahead of what we were able to show in the first. the running it on the last is frequently a good idea, but even if semi held onto the pass (which he should have), there was still nothing on; there wasn’t enough room and the Dragons had it covered even if there was. it was just our decision making seemed off to me, an issue evidently remedied in the second half.
Your opinion is as relevant as mine wether we differ or not mate ,will say letting an opposition stand offside and go early all game affects decision making in any team ,seen it beat the best of them ,good thing there we adjusted and knuckled down . Lot of people went into that game wouded too mitch but it didnt show in thier attitude .
a very welcome bye round coming up. all good mate, appreciate you reading.
you think Gutho stays at 1 now? BA didn’t seem too sure in the post game presser.
2017 anyway beyond that ??
I think that’s a wise call. Looking forward to the rest of 2017.
Given the game stats one would have to consider it was the Norman and Moses kicking game that got us the bickies. I agree, still lots of defensive issues but we scrambled much better yesterday. That period just prior to half time was scarey. I really hope Beau is ok. He is irreplaceable in my opinion.
agreed re Beau. we need someone with that starchy defence. a lot of people are talking about us post Mannah and Beau. I can’t imagine what that will do to our middle defence, particularly if Kaysa isn’t reliably on deck.
like swiss cheese.
Unfortunately, Kaysa is very reliably “on the deck” being attended to for his injuries. The good thing is Kaysa is also incredibly courageous in how he plays the game and in his desire to represent the Parramatta Eels. It’s blokes like Kaysa that put the “Mighty” in “The Mighty Eels”.
well said Rowdy. we’ll miss him for the rest of the year. looking forward to him returning in 2018.
In Vave’s defence, he copped some rubbish passes from dummy half during that game.
Yeah you’re probably on the money – I still haven’t had a chance to watch the replay, but I was just glad to see him back out there. Huge fan of what he brings to our forward pack.
Im with you on anything you say about taka mitch , this guy is a defensive liability and a serial mistake offender , has to be on shakiest ground in team , bad reads in defence every game and always abuses semi or hoffy and passes blame
ha, I actually really like Taka, but his defensive stats from yesterday make for brutal reading. will be interesting to see Team List Tuesday in just over a week’s time.
You need to look a lot further back than yesterday mitch , you might not be so generous . Has let in the most trys in the team simply by bad reads
ha, I was talking about his game in general, but agreed. he hasn’t been a beneficiary of any stellar grades from me this season for such reasons as that.
he shift to the bench for future games you think?
Sadly true re Taka and the Saints try, he was out of sorts and for some reason Semi was on his inside and Taka was slightly in his way, making the diving tackle attempt by Semi miss cue.
I also wondered with Norms for a while as I thought he was hesitant, maybe the injury and Darwin was on his mind but when he finally clicked with Moses, the pairing is looking good.
there is something to be said for Semi’s tendency to let opposition wingers get on his outside, but that could also be a product of our up and in defensive structure.
Love your comment on Manu. One of your best.
thanks mate. appreciate you reading.
Regarding forward passes there were many when Kaysa was on, not sure if his fault (slow service) or receiver not being far behind enough. Seemed better when Smith on.
sure, but Kaysa is a much greater threat to run from dummy half. we don’t seem to have a reliable answer now Pritchard is injured. Will be an interesting couple of weeks.
There was one stage there where Smith threw 3 passes from dummy half in a row. The first went high to Vave, the second went low and third was straight in the bread basket.
Practice makes perfect in this case
Should read John Eel. Sorry Anonymous
ha looking forward to spotting that on the replay tonight.
Really mate watch every club game and tell me how many bad passes from dummy hallf you see every week ,its in the hundreds some coming from the best of them , on another site their whingeing if we signed licha , passing is one of his best features but they dont want him , dammed if you do dammed if you dont , they want gutho to hooker ,so tie down your best attacker that makes sense ,doh !!!
Not everyone over there knows what they’re talking about.
Suggesting Gutho play at 9 is like saying BA should grab some pom poms and become a cheer leader.
Preach it. Gutho to hooker is seriously one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard, and plenty of people whose opinions I respect have been saying it. I’m sorry, but Gutho to hooker is a mind blowingly bad idea.
On that note, assuming the price is right, Michael Lichaa is a low risk, potentially high reward option. If he stays at the level every Bulldog fan says he is, then he plays for Wenty. If he reaches his potential, we’ve struck gold. I think it’s a smart play – a cheap, calculated risk.
Its a strange one licha , cronulla were really upset to lose him,at sharks he was dangerous out of dummy half, went to dogs and des changed his game to suit dogs boring style , anyway can tackle can pass ,des just wont let him run and people bag him , peats hardly ever does to and he wants 500k to play 12 games a season ,spends rest in rehab .
I love Peatsy, but this is exactly my thoughts on the matter. If they’re the same price I can see the argument, but Lichaa could be as good as everyone once thought he was. He’s a perfect purchase at the current price.
It’s going to be a very interesting team list tuesday with hoffman coming back. I disagree with BA in that i think right now French’s best position is wing and i’d use him instead of Hoffman (which is hard because i rather like hoffman). French’s insane attacking ability i think outweighs the concern in his defensive game and i think the team benefits more by having him on the wing and Gutho at number one. I also thought putting Jennings inbetween Moses and French was a masterstroke!
P.s great read, i love coming to this website to get my daily eels fix.
thanks mate. what if you love for Hoffman meant he played centre and Taka became the odd one out? it is Hoff’s natural position.
I wasn’t aware he could play centre! Well this surely gives BA the right sort of headache.. i’d love to see Taka become a dynamic forward – similar to the role that John Sutton plays for Souths, however i’d suggest he would need a pre season in that role before going there..
On another site, gutho to hooker ,do these people have any idea about football ,couldnt believe some of the names agreeing , NFI
Chika.
I am one of those who have endorsed the idea/concept, my reasoning was put on here a while back as well.
Since that post here I am still of the belief that Gutho could play in that role, especially now with Kaysa out of the picture until pre-season training and that’s likely after the Christmas break. So there are changes in the circumstances as well as who is now playing and likely to be able to take over the roll of the 9 position.
Where I have primarily changed my view is that since my original concept is that rather than have Gutho as the full time 9 I would see him along with a couple of others share the role over the match time. I am of the view that Smith should keep the number on his back and be the primary hooker, thing is as the season unfolds the games are not going to get easier so the original idea of the coach wanting a complete forwards bench is something that will definitely be wanted, so the question is who is able to play those longer minutes, personally I do not see the alternatives in King or Nelson being the answer and Smith has done well as the backup so far and deserves the shot at the spot.
Against the dagrons, in the first set of attack play and first couple of play the balls, guess who came into the dummy half position? it wasn’t Kaysa on both occasions rather it was Gutho, while Kaysa was not in position for the first play he was put aside by Gutho in the second.
Once I saw that and watched the play the balls a bit more closely, and noticed throughout the game how Gutho, as well as Norman along with Moses cropped up at the dummy half position, likewise MJ, Semi and even French as well. Making for some interesting plays. So were these plays off the cuff or planned for when both Kaysa and Will were playing?
For me it happened too often for it to be purelly off the cuff, and as one other person put it in regard to Smith here is another small player that can be targetted by the opposition just like Kaysa was, coaches will soon work him out and plan how to counteract his game.
Gutho in each of plays from Dummy half provided for good options, and for me, I would see no reason in fact it reinforces my view that he could be used in the role more often especially in attack. If that happens along with the others especially with Gutho it will make it harder for the opposition to read.
The other vital area would be it allows for a bench with 4 forwards and a stronger utility possibly with Taka going to the bench when all the other backs are on deck.
All off the cuff for mine , at training col 9 is 9 but people are encouraged ,thats certain people if they see something they play what they see, mixing it up is one of your best attacking weapons , dont wish to sound harsh mate but gutho to 9 is probably why none of us is a coach , you never rob one position to prop up another and im sure you have ideas to move this and that but every change you make involves disruption to others and so on ,at the moment people are in their best positions so the trick is to fix the one affected without affecting the ones that are working , to many people want to move players willy nilly !!!
Col were they angry enough for you on Sunday
John They are getting there, but just need to play like it every week and have it in their mindset of how they should feel if they lose, but that word or thought should not be in their dictionary.