Parramatta Eels 10
Newcastle Knights 29
The Good: |
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The Bad: |
I’m not really sure how to write this post. We pride ourselves on being fans first and foremost here at The Cumberland Throw, and I find myself struggling to see what I can say about such an inept performance without coming across bitter or vindictive.
We very obviously continue to struggle with playing teams at their level (compare our performances vs the Tigers and Knights with how we played the Broncos), the only difference in recent weeks is that we’ve managed to find a way to finish on top. That obviously was not the case tonight – too many opportunities given to a Knights team that came to play – I can’t take anything away from their performance. It seems to me that we also started to believe our own hype, and thought we would just turn up and grab an easy win. We didn’t build any pressure and seem determined to ice the game with every touch.
As fans we can only hope that this is “the loss we had to have”. I guess we’ll find out Thursday night vs the Titans. |
X-Factor: |
Do you really want me to bring up the standard of refereeing? I couldn’t believe my eyes with some of the decisions, but the refs didn’t miss 29 tackles, make 15 errors or complete at a woeful 66%. We also received more penalties (7 to 5) so it’s a tough case to make statistically.
With all that said, the Ken Sio pass off the ground decision was absolutely, beyond ridiculous and ended up costing us big time. There was actually 3 or 4 other moments that I found very, very perplexing. Nonetheless, we need to be oh so much better. |
The MVP: |
In almost a case of last man standing, in maybe the most depressing Post Game Grades I’ve ever written, tonight our MVP was Nathan Brown.
He was really good even though as a team we were really bad. … this is depressing. Why are you even reading this? Why am I even writing it?
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The Starters
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1- William SmithFullback, Parramatta Eels I don’t care how good looking you are William, that was not a good looking game. |
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2- Semi RadradraLeft Wing, Parramatta Eels Semi had 3 tackle breaks and 4 tackles. He also only ran for 77 metres and made 2 errors. Pretty bland. |
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3- Michael JenningsRight Centre, Parramatta Eels One of our best when we were collectively at our worst. That sentence sounds worse than it is – 119 metres, a try, a line break and 3 tackle breaks is actually a pretty good outing. The burning of Dane Gagai was also a thing of beauty. |
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4- Brad TakairangiLeft Centre, Parramatta Eels Taka made 8 runs for 72 metres, including a particularly impressive run for 15 metres early in the second half. He also made a timely bat back for our second try just before the break. But like Semi, Jenko and Kirisome, he also made 2 errors. In the complete opposite of times gone by, tonight Semi and Taka had the chemistry of two awkward teenagers on their first date. |
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5- Kirisome Auva’aRight Wing, Parramatta Eels The drop heard around the Parramatta world. The Knights did exactly what I feared teams in the past two weeks would do – send the bombing blitz Somi’s way, and tonight the Knights reaped the rewards. Triple A was also caught out of position for Newcastle’s first and last tries, and dragged over the sideline in our attacking 20 early on in the game. He did made a quality line break through 3 would-be tacklers but it was still definitely not Kirisome’s night, and tonight we paid the price for playing a centre on the wing. |
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6- Corey NormanFive-Eighth, Parramatta Eels Nope. |
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7- Mitchell MosesHalfback, Parramatta Eels So 5 missed tackles, 2 further ineffective and a team high 3 errors? Channelling the Moses of old, it seems. Not in the cool, biblical way, either. |
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8- Siosaia VaveProp, Parramatta Eels So just the 24 metres tonight from Siosaia, then. |
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9- Cameron KingHooker, Parramatta Eels Kingy’s first loss in Eels colours was a brutal one. He did make a massive 57 tackles (missing 5 including a crucial miss for Brock Lamb’s try), but that weird miss kick in the first 5 minutes seemed like a microcosm of things to come for Parra. |
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10- Tim Mannah (c)Prop, Parramatta Eels Although his performance was middle of the road for the team, I feel for a bloke who has to remember tonight’s momentum killer as his 200th game. |
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11- Manu Ma’uBack Row, Parramatta Eels Tonight’s result was almost as horrific as Manu Ma’u’s driver’s licence photo. |
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12- Tepai MoeroaBack Row, Parramatta Eels Tep made 35 metres (below average) and 25 tackles with only 1 miss (above average). I’m still disappointed he’s wearing a singlet in this photo when almost everyone else is wearing a shirt. |
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13- Nathan BrownLock, Parramatta Eels On a night where his teammates played like they had already won, Browny still went to work. A surprisingly solid 109 metres (from 11 hit ups) and a massive 52 tackles pops out on the stat sheet, particularly when surrounded by such collective ineptitude. Both Nathan Browns should be proud of their performance tonight. |
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Interchange
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14- Daniel AlvaroInterchange, Parramatta Eels If the man above wasn’t such a freak, tonight’s MVP would be headed to Parramatta’s Polar Region. Danny Boy made 107 metres and a massive 51 tackles. Despite the dreadful result, that game is nothing to sneeze at. |
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15- Kenny EdwardsInterchange, Parramatta Eels The 31 tackles were encouraging, the 78 metres was less than ideal, but it was the timely error that really took the winds out of our sails. With that said, Kenny wasn’t the only bloke out there in blue & gold guilty of such an offence. |
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16- Suaia MatagiInterchange, Parramatta Eels A barnstorming run where he ate Jamie Buhrer for breakfast, a very solid 88 metres (from 8 hit ups), 2 tackle breaks and 22 tackles. Poke. The. Bear. |
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17- Peni TerepoInterchange, Parramatta Eels Sure it only took you 2 hit ups, but I reckon I made more than 19 metres tonight, Peni. |
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If you’re an Eels fan who is hurting like me, good on you for reading this far.
If you’re a Knights fan, quit messaging me.
In summary, tonight Parra were heavy favourites, with everything to play for and were beaten by the Newcastle Knights at ANZ Stadium …
“Look, it’s not great, but we’ve got to move past it.”
– Brad Arthur, 11th August, 2017.
Go you Eels,
Mitch.
Photos courtesy of the Parramatta Eels. Stats courtesy of Champion Data.
Can’t argue with any of those grades. Polar, Brown, and Matagi our best. Surely Hoffy will have to replace Somi next week. Having French back will help too.
Thanks mate. I really like Somi, but as I’ve been saying through positive grades in the last couple of weeks, and as BA has admitted, the man is not a winger.
Not sure what grade you would give Perenara, but his game managing is to slow the whole play th ball down which impacts severely on our game, and basically makes the night boring even when good teams are playing
Not sure when I was at the game I understood what was going on, stopping a quick tap on the 20 when allowing the. Knights to do it all game. Any momentum we got on attack was stuffed by allowing the game to degenerate into slow motion football. He can’t be blamed for our overall performance, but FMD he definitely plays favourites, and the Eels aren’t one of them
Unlikely to watch a replay, but did Auv’a actually touch the ball when he ruled 6 again, how was the pass off the ground allowed and even worse it looked like he tried to justify it. Numerous times stopping the game in the Knights 25 , which enabled them to get set several times
Frustrating and deflating night,no doubt Archer will say it was all good . Personally the refereeing was an F
I could have easily dissected it above, but I didn’t want that to be the focus, or the excuse. If we want to be real, we need to know that sometimes you don’t get the calls, and other times they plain go against you.
To answer your question however, I would have given it an F. I HATE complaining about the refs, but the Ken Sio decision in particular was the worst live decision I’ve seen in a long, long time.
Love my club and its player but that was poor, just so poor in every aspect. They played terribly in defence and attack but there was something much worse tonight.
As a teacher of senior high school students this is the quote that is above my door as the students enter the room.
“Let me tell you what winning means…. you’re willing to go longer, work harder, give more than anyone else.”
– Vince Lombardi, American Football
Sure Parra lost tonight 2 points but to me we lost much more. As a fan I lost that faith in the resilience and spirit of the boys. I knew after the first set that we were in trouble and they did nothing to try and correct it. Sorry to say but they were soft and we saw tonight how much Gutho means- attitude, toughness and desire lacking and NO leadership at all. Not one person stepped up, spoke up and took control and said this is how we will do it. Not one.
While most played poorly I have some real concerns going forward. Will Smith has played brilliantly for us this year when required but he is no fullback( it is a speciality spot and so many times he was out of position and slow to back up or move play along in attack) and Auva’a will be terrorised by Ash Taylor and his kicking game next week; he is not a winger. He was exposed tonight, I am surprised it took this long and other teams will target him big time. He looked like dropping every kick put to him. Please Hoffman and French be ready next week and I know BA is normally loyal but please if Hoffman is fit put him on the wing.
But after all this rant we will be there next week cheering and supporting the boys. That’s what we do and this group have given us much fun in the past two years, it’s a real shame they let themselves and fans down tonight.
I am glad BA did not give the boys an out by blaming the refs. I have to say however I am someone who would normally help anyone in trouble but if I saw Mr Perenara in trouble I would think twice. Some refs are bad but I
really think he simply has it in for Parra, or dare I say conveniently makes mistake frequently when refereeing us.
It can only get better next week, I hope!!
I haven’t watched the game, I was at work tonight, and frankly, I probably won’t watch it. It sounded painful. However, I did see the Sio gaffe and I have to ask the question “WTF???”.
Please make this the last worst performance of my lifetime.
Kudos to Newcastle for beating us up when we were obviously already knocked out by our own inept hands.
Feel free to watch the “highlights”, but I’m not sure you’d want to stomach much more mate.
I’ll just cut to the point. I’m embarrassed for BA, I’m embarrassed for the fans who genuinely did a great job at packing out the stadium for that Friday night game and I’m so disappointed in the team who turned up and played like that.
I won’t cop the refs as excuse. we were beyond poor! The respect for ball was was horrendous and the will to compete for a win non existent.
For a team who has simple game plan we couldn’t have been more dysfunctional.
I hope the team is tossing and turning in bed like I am as I write this at 1am in the morning.
Thanks in advance for negative headlines i get to read this coming week.
#salty
I’m just as salty mate. It was simply an embarrassing way to end our win streak, and it wasn’t close, either.
One loss can be an aberration, depending entirely on how we respond next week.
Last night royally stunk, and it’s a blunt reminder not to believe the press hype, but the boys have one way to erase this from, everyone’s memory and that is by how they respond against the Titans and then the Broncos.
Are we finals pretenders? We’ll know very soon.
Well said mate. Thursday night can’t come quick enough.
Well, that performance stuffed my weekend. I hate it when they do that. I thought BA had scrubbed that it of them.
We were crap and I’m not sure it bothered them too much. They couldn’t be arsed to even argue with the ref over some of the diabolical calls.
Poor Timmy. The boys let him down big time.
Agreed. If they’re not shattered about the loss already, in the narrative of our season, the Timmy’s 200th will sting even more.
Apologies for making the post about Perenara, but at the ground it seemed pointed
That effort from the team was disgraceful, it does happen and difficult to then grab the initative. Scoring just before half time appeared to make them over confident
One of the few times it felt as if the should be an apology to the fans for turning up at a difficult time slot, then served that display.
For mine, only Browny and Alvaro should feel good about their individual performances, but I suspect they’ll instead be reflecting on the dismal collective performance.
The Perenara aspect is a side story, but certainly one worth commenting on nonetheless. I’m actually surprisingly ok, but it won’t cost us a spot in the Finals at this stage – now we just play with this scarred in the back of our minds each week.
From the first tackle Knights came to play while Parra didn’t, we were slow and lethargic. Vave looked totally disinterested and was hooked off the field after 15 mins.
What the game showed that Knights forwards totally dominated our forwards. They surprised me with the size of their pack and hopefully this is not a precursor to how we’ll perform against the larger packs in the top 8.
Lastly Perenara, I’ll ignore the inconsistencies in his performance but the pass for the Knights 3rd try was at least half a metre forward for me and along with other forward passes not one was picked up.
for mine it was the cam king ‘kick’.
it screamed something was wrong with our attitude/cohesion.
how does that happen ?????????……….really
Good summary of the players Mitch, if I take anything out of the game it is the game by game improvement of Alvaro each week. Not only a workhorse but having impact as well. As far as the refs go it is enough said on them. But that didn’t loose us the game that’s for sure!!
completely agree JJ on both points. I haven’t always been Alvaro’s biggest fan (never thought he was bad, just wasn’t sure what he added), but I think Season 2017 has been his unheralded coming out party in regards to consistently bringing that workhorse role each week. I think he’s found his niche.
Good read Mitch.
Unlike most on hear I see this lose as a positive ….why … you ask.
Well lets say it’s a lose we had to have … The sharks went thru it last year n look what happened there. Title #1
What we must do as a team is to stop reading our own hype.
When we look at the storm games that’s what we want to see with our team.
They know there a very good n consitant team but they play every game like if it’s there last.
We (eels) need to stop looking at teams as easy n think we just have to turn up n it’s a simple 2 points.
I can’t comment on the ratings Mitch didn’t see the game was at thredbo with family.
Still I see us doing the (BBF) bounce back factor vs Titan’s.
#Eels4life#