Eels 28 Broncos 12

Crowd: 12, 182

Wow – what a game of footy! These are not simply the words of a parochial Eels supporter. For most commentators, this high standard match was reviewed as September arriving early.

The game was played side to side, end to end, at a high pace. There was speed, aggression, great defence, and some great tries. Both teams came out and played this match the way footy should be played.

Everyone was up for this game – the players, the coaches, the crowd. Sitting right next to the players bench you could feel Parra’s intensity. The players in the ‘dug out’ were all very vocal, especially one C. Gutherson, yelling out encouragement and assistance like he was still out there.

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

Parramatta Eels
H	Minute	Name	Event	Score
1	4	M.Gillett	TRY	0 – 4
1	5	J.Kahu	CONVERSION	0 – 6
1	7	J.Roberts	TRY	0 – 10
1	8	J.Kahu	CONVERSION	0 – 12
1	13	T.Moeroa	TRY	4 – 12
1	14	C.Norman	CONVERSION	6 – 12
1	16	K.Auva’a	TRY	10 – 12
1	18	M.Moses	CONVERSION	12 – 12
1	38	J.Kahu	PENALTY GOAL	12 – 14
2	55	M.Moses	PENALTY GOAL	14 – 14
2	69	M.Moses	PENALTY GOAL	16 – 14
2	73	K.Auva’a	TRY	20 – 14
2	75	M.Moses	CONVERSION	22 – 14
2	78	B.French	TRY	26 – 14
2	80	M.Moses	CONVERSION	28 – 14

Full Time Stats

	Team Stats
51	Possession (%)	49
33/40 (82)	Complete/Total Sets (%)	27/32 (84)
44:51	Time – Opposition Half	35:31
20:17	Time – Opposition 20	11:16
2474	Metres Gained	2270
5	Scrum Win	3
1	Goal Line Dropout	0
6	Penalty Conceded	9
0	Forty Twenty	0

Both teams completed at a very high rate, but it was the Eels who took control of the match after the Broncos shot out to an early 12 point lead. The Eels used a very compressed defensive line early on and Broncos took full advantage of that using their right edge speedsters to get around the Eels. After a couple of minor adjustments, the Broncos fast men were soon shut down.

1^st Half

	Team Stats
48	Possession (%)	52
15/17 (88)	Complete/Total Sets (%)	15/17 (88)
15:13	Time – Opposition Half	24:56
8:11	Time – Opposition 20	7:33
1160	Metres Gained	1338
1	Scrum Win	1
1	Goal Line Dropout	0
4	Penalty Conceded	3
0	Forty Twenty	0

The first half was played at a blistering pace. There were only 2 scrums in the entire half and very high completion rates from both teams meant that neither team got much respite. The Broncos had the better time with the ball, but after their first 10 minute onslaught, the Eels defence answered every question asked of it. The 2^nd phase play from the Broncos was readily defused and the Eels scramble was excellent.

Mitchell Moses was on song, even when he received those special moments of extra attention.. His deft little grubber for Tepai to regather and score was a classy touch under so much pressure from Adam Blair. And his long ball to put Auva’a over untouched in the corner showed his vision as the whole Broncos left edge sprinted up off the line. It was a superb example of playing what’s in front of you, a rare commodity in the modern game.

2^nd Half

	Team Stats
53	Possession (%)	47
18/23 (78)	Complete/Total Sets (%)	12/15 (80)
29:38	Time – Opposition Half	10:35
12:06	Time – Opposition 20	3:43
1315	Metres Gained	933
4	Scrum Win	2
0	Goal Line Dropout	0
2	Penalty Conceded	6
0	Forty Twenty	0

 

Masterful game management from the Eels was the feature of the second half as the Broncos tried everything they could to regain momentum. Parramatta were dominant in every aspect in the 2^nd half. The Broncos frustrations were clear to see as they couldn’t nullify the Eels in either attack or defence. The Eels gave them nothing.

Listening to Brad Arthur on Triple M on Saturday, he said the score didn’t indicate the tight affair of the game. This might be true, but In looking at these second half stats, the Eels did deserve to win by that margin. After being down 12 points within 10 minutes the result really could’ve been anything. A couple of years ago the score would’ve been in the 50’s after a start like that. But the Eels hit back and hit back hard with only a penalty goal scored against them in the next 70 plus minutes of football. A score line of 28 – 2 in the final 70 mins of footy sounds like an awesome result for mine,  especially against a competition heavyweight.

 

Attack

 

Top 5 Runs
	Name	R
	N.Brown	20
	J.Pearson	15
	B.Takairangi	14
	J.McGuire	14
	K.Auva’a	14

Top 5 Run Metres
	Name	RM
	N.Brown	205
	J.Pearson	197
	T.Moga	171
	M.Jennings	158
	J.Roberts	156

What can you say about Nathan Brown that already hasn’t been said. It was another outstanding performance in attack from a player who’s making the league world sit up and take notice, this time with another 200+ metres run game. If you take out the first 10 minutes of the game, the top 3 Broncos runners barely get to 100 metres all game.

In an impressive team display, nine Eels ran for more than 100 metres against the Broncos.

Nathan Brown	205m
Michael Jennings	158m
Semi Radradra	152m
Kirisome Auva’a	146m
Manu Ma’u	132m
Tim Mannah	123m
Brad Takairangi	119m
Kenny Edwards	111m
Bevan French	108m

Line Breaks

Eels – 7

Broncos – 3

Run Metres

Eels – 1759m

Broncos – 1583m

Set Starts

(teams running left to right >>>>>)

Eels

The Eels had some quality field position against the Broncos.

Broncos

The Eels gave the Broncos nothing and made them work hard for their field position.

 

Tries

 

T. Moeroa (13’)

K. Auva’a (16’)

K. Auva’a (73’)

B. French (78’)

Hit Ups

 

Eels

Broncos

Most of the match was played between the 20 metres lines. The Broncos utilised their runs for the main to the middle part of the field whereas the Eels again were using their hit up merchants deeper into opposition territory.

I have included some match ups from the game.

French v Boyd

French

Runs : 12 for 108m

Boyd

Runs: 12 for 104m

Mannah v Blair

Mannah

Runs: 11 for 123m

Blair

Runs: 5 for 37m

Norman v Milford

Norman

Runs: 5 for 67m

Milford

Runs: 5 runs 35m

These heat maps illustrate the quality efforts from some of our boys against their much hyped opponents.

 

Kicks

 

Eels Kicking Metres – 24 kicks for 716 metres

Broncos Kicking Metres – 18 kicks for 688 metres

Corey Norman

Kick Metres – 5 kicks for 220 metres

Mitchell Moses

Kick Metres – 11 kicks for 324 metres

There was a big turn around in our kicking game this week compared to the Tigers game.

The Eels kicked for an extra 300 metres against the Broncos and both kickers predominantly used the right side of the field.

 

Defence

 

Top 5 Tackles
	Name	TAK
	N.Brown	45
	M.Gillett	43
	D.Alvaro	42
	C.King	36
	A.McCullough	36
Top 5 Missed Tackles
	Name	MT
	J.McGuire	6
	C.King	4
	J.Roberts	3
	N.Brown	3
	C.Norman	3

What a machine Nathan Brown is. After notching up 200 plus run metres he again tops the tackle count with 40 plus tackles. If not for being knocked out by his own team mate, Nathan would have again played 80 minutes. Surely he would be buy of the year now.

Seven Eels made 20 or more tackles. A special mention goes to Mitchell Moses who came up with 18 tackles and 2 misses. His defensive game is becoming more and more solid each week.

	Tackles	Missed Tackles	Ineffective Tackles
Eels	333	28	21
Broncos	340	26	21

Discipline

 

Penalties Conceded

Penalties finished Parra 6 – Broncos 9. Incredibly, the Eels conceded less penalties than the competitions best disciplined side.

 

Errors

 

Eels – 6

Broncos – 8

So as we close off Round 21 with a superb performance, now comes the harder part of our late season draw. Aside from playing the Broncos again, all the teams we face now are well below us and not in any position to push for a finals run. These teams will be dangerous and will want to finish their own season on a high by taking out as many top 8 sides as they can. Parra need to keep the ball rolling and show that we have the ability to push for the title. The boys will need to ensure that complacency does not become a major factor for the Eels in the next month of footy. Four games at ‘home’ for the Eels will no doubt help in all this.

The band wagon will now get rolling and I would expect the Blue and Gold army to come out of the woodwork starting this Thursday against the Bulldogs.

Yes it is a Dogs home game but let’s make it our home game with more Blue and Gold than Blue and White.

 

STAT ATTACK PLAYER OF THE WEEK

 

 

MITCHELL MOSES

 

As I’m a bit old school, I believe that Mitchell should have seen out his contract at the Tigers.

BUT, in saying all that, I am glad that he was released and he is now showing what he can do. He certainly looks so much happier doing it for the Eels than the Tigers. His early season form for the Tigers was pretty top notch, especially that break out game against the Cowboys when he demolished their defence.

Since his move over to Parramatta, Mitchell has more than impressed. His attack has gone to another level and his defensive work, though still a work in progress, has been outstanding. He is working on both sides of his game and it’s looking sensational. His combination with Corey still needs work but again this is becoming better week after week and they played all over the Origin pair of Milford and Hunt.

Moses has been well targeted in recent weeks, but he gets up, dusts himself off and gets in there again.

As you will see with his stats, it’s a well deserved honour for him this week.

Well done Mitch.

Possessions	45
Points	10
Conversions	3 from 3
Penalty Goals	2 from 2
Runs	5
Run Metres	49m
Line Breaks	1
Line Break Assists	2
Try Assists	3
Kicks	11
Kick Metres	324m
Tackles	18
Missed Tackles	2
Minutes Played	80

 

Colmac

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.

Champion Data

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