6pm, Friday, 11^th August 2017

ANZ Stadium, Homebush, NSW

The Eels will be looking to keep their winning ways rolling as they come up against last placed Newcastle Knights in the early Friday night fixture.

The Knights are on a high with back to back victories in the past fortnight, and they could upset the apple cart a bit if they can upstage the high flying Eels on Friday.

The Eels are on a roll and have the competition heavy weights looking over their shoulder. If the Eels win this week they will move into the Top 4 and if all goes their way it places them in the ideal position to cement their spot in the Top 4 for that all important second bit of the finals cherry.

Let’s look at the numbers between these two sides.

Last 10 Games

The past 10 matches have seen a majority victory to the Knights with 7 wins to Parra’s 3.

Score Aggregate

Eels – 124

Knights – 218

Score Average

Eels – 12

Knights – 22

Quick Facts

• The Eels and Knights have played each other 48 times with the Knights leading 26 – 21
• At ANZ they have played each other only once with the Knights recording a victory (guess which game??)
• The Eels at ANZ have played 72 times with a 35 – 36 win loss record. Their last 10 games there have yielded a 9 wins 1 loss record.
• The Knights at ANZ have played 23 times with a 10 – 13 win loss record. The Knights last 10 games at ANZ sees them with a 3 & 7 win loss record.
• 2017 – Eels 13 wins – 7 losses scoring at 19.1 points pg and conceding 18.5
• 2017 – Knights 4 wins – 16 losses scoring at 17.1 points p/g and letting in 26.1 points p/g

By Quarters (And Golden Point)

Don’t let the Knights table position fool you. They have been in more games than most teams, but they just don’t have the cattle to complete a game. That said, they have turned that around a little in the last few weeks over the Dragons and Warriors.

The Knights will be hurting after the injury sustained by Nathan Ross but that aside they can still  definitely make life hard for the Eels in this game.

The Eels will need a solid start and knock the wind out of the Knights sails early to begrudge them any chance of causing an upset.

The Eels have won 11 games after leading at half time whilst the Knights have lost 8 times after leading at oranges.

Attack:

*average per game (Ranking)

Defence:

*average per game (Ranking)

Discipline:

*average per game (Ranking)

As you can see by these stats, the Knights can be a nuisance and could cause a bit of frustration to the Eels and force unforced errors and silly penalties.

Cool heads and patience will be the order of the day here as you don’t want to give the Knights cheap early ball by thinking you can score on them with every single play.

With Bevan French expected to be sidelined as a precaution, there are options as Josh Hoffman or Will Smith could slot easily into the custodian possession. The Eels spine shouldn’t be too effected with the change. Moses’ and Norman’s combination continues to grow and this is where the Eels will out play the Knights. Moses’ kicking game and game management lately has been sensational and having Norman back at 6 this week only bolsters our attack.

Being a 6pm game will no doubt test the ability of many of the Blue and Gold faithful to get there (let alone those travelling from Newcastle!). So if you are available to make it, please get out there and cheer on the boys as we rattle the cages of the 2017 premiership.

Don’t forget, it’s Tim Mannah’s 200th game, so let’s make sure it’s a big night for him too!

Yours in Blue and Gold

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

Follow @championdatanrl

mc.championdata.com/nrl/

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