Round 23 Drink of choice – Whiskey Sour
So, uh, that happened. With a guaranteed place in the Top 4 at the end of the round up for the grabs the Eels, and there is no pretty way to say this, shat the bed. From the moment Cameron King shanked his clearing kick out of dummy half the Eels were behind the eight ball. Newcastle definitely wanted it more than the Eels but I don’t think they were especially brilliant, Parramatta just gave them so much ball and so much territory that their victory was almost inevitable. Of course framing this capitulation was an all-time awful officiating performance from none other than Henry Perenara.
Usually this would be the point where I tell you all there is plenty to dive into from the game but I am going to keep it short tonight. We all know the team should, and will, be better than that so there isn’t any need to delve too deeply into the frustrating pile of errors and ill discipline they served up tonight.
Perenara…
Back in Round 17 Henry Perenara earned my ire following a sloppy effort with the whistle in our one-point victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs. Tonight he not only eclipsed that prior performance but he practically went supernova. I hate prefacing these sorts of rants with the whole ‘it doesn’t excuse the poor performance of our players’ line because that should be a given. We played like piss. Perenara was so bad that he deserves each and every foul-mouthed tirade uttered by disbelieving Parra fans tonight. The booing he copped from a vocal crowd of ~13,000 was indicative of the estimation in which his performance should be held and my only grievance with the crowd is that they didn’t boo for long enough.
The incident of course that most people will be talking about was the Rugby Union-esque moment in the second half where Ken Sio was bizarrely allowed to pass from the ground. The illegal extension of the sixth tackle play allowed the Knights to force a line drop out from which Brock Lamb would go on to score a crucial try. In and of itself the incident was a diabolical failing of the system which would have normally had me futilely calling for Perenara to be dropped from NRL duties.
It wasn’t until after the game when my brother called me to chat about that polarising moment that my rage became untethered. As a purveyor of the game from the stands I was not able to bear witness to what transpired between Corey Norman and Perenara in the wake of the Lamb try. I was promptly informed by my sibling that not only did Perenara not apologise for the error – he went on to defend the call as correct!
Perenara claimed that Sio’s ball carrying arm never touched the ground so he was within his rights to pass the football. This of course begs the logical follow up question, when is a tackle completed?
Sio has a defender draped over his hips and another placing downward pressure on his shoulders, all whilst he is clearly laying on the ground with clearly no forward progress. If that does not constitute a completed tackle then Mitchell Pearce is actually a competent Origin player. Don’t make me such a bare faced liar, NRL.
This blatant ignorance of one of the underpinning tenets of the game can not be tolerated by a NRL official. I am honestly not sure if standing this man down is even the right path of action. In nearly any other job, this sort of work place incompetence would warrant getting sacked.
Brad Arthur was typically measured in his post-match presser, much to my chagrin. I felt contextually this was really THE game to let rip about the sub-standard officiating blighting his team. With the Eels pressing for a breakthrough berth in the finals, putting the NRL on blast for a $10,000 cheque and getting a small of rub of the green as a result could go a long way.
One thing that is clear is that the Eels NEED Perenara to stay the hell away from their games in any capacity.
The film review session is going to be brutal
I wouldn’t mind being a fly in the room for the team film review of this game – even if it meant watching this atrocity for a second time. From Norman’s lazy backpedaling in the lead up to the second try to Kirisome Auva’a struggles under the high ball, the entire team will be on the rack from this game. Fifteen errors (15!) and a measly 66% completion rate speak to the shoddy attitude and application of the team tonight.
The most infuriating part is in the few times the team respected the ball and their patterns they rolled the Knights through the ruck and started to punish some flimsy edge defence. We of course undid any good done with those efforts with our complete lack of poise in the red zone where we simply threw bodies at the goal line hoping for a lapse of concentration from the Knights.
Where was the incisive short kicking game of the last few weeks? What happened to our willingness to wear down our opposition with a patient attacking plan that always had an eye to the long game? ‘BA’ noted in the presser that his charges were switched on all week, even right through to the warm up. They just didn’t bring it once the first whistle was blown.
Spinal Tapped Out
Even with season ending injuries to Clinton Gutherson and Isaac De Gois along with a supposed season ending injury to Kaysa Pritchard (I see you in those training pics!) the Eels have managed to settle nicely with their most recent iteration of their spine in Corey Norman, Mitchell Moses, Cameron King and Bevan French. I think tonight showed that we are probably one injury away from being tapped out of finals worthy spine talent though. French’s absence was telling in the loss as the meagre kicking game of the Knights still exploited the positioning of both Kirisome Auva’a and Will Smith. There were also a number of half chances in attack that died in their infant moments without a fullback of French’s nous pushing through in support.
French should be back next week while I hope Josh Hoffman will also be ready to come into first grade calculations. The Eels don’t have time to sit around licking their wounds, they need to bounce back with venom when they host the Titans in Round 24.
The Final Word
Like I said, a concise Whiskey Musings this week – at least by my standards. That was as essentially as bad a game as well could have played given the circumstances. Perenara’s woeful effort should not go forgotten in the wash up of our own failings though. He deserves to be bagged from pillar to post and if the NRL really have a pair there should be a fallout from this game.
We are still right in the hunt for the finals. We now need a slice of luck to land a spot in the Top 4 but is secondary to the focus of getting ourselves back on track and playing the football we know we can play. Bring on the Titans.
Well said! As bad as Parra played tonight if we fix our attitude the talent is there.
The NRL has far bigger problems either Mr Perenara is and always has been a diabolically bad ref who actually stops, not hinders but stops teams from playing a good, quick entertaining game or he simply cheats. Which ever one it is everyone from all clubs can see can see it and he keeps getting picked. NRL either need to investigate him or ask Mr Archer why he keeps getting picked.
Not the reason we lost tonight but he has been in the past and will be cost us games in the future if this is not sorted. He has a problem with Parra. Bernie and BA need to demand answers, try through proper channels at first but if not sorted ASAP go through the media. It can not continue. When as a fan I see the ref appointments on Tuesday and immediately think boy we are going to be up against it, the NRL has a problem, a big one.
Let’s go back two weeks where kenny got fined for finishing a tackle off. The willingness to compete and the unity of the team build momentum for a win. The knights should have ended up a carbon copy of the broncos game.
The team embarrassed themselves tonight and placed a huge question mark above the claim to a top 8 finish.
They didn’t push for an arm wrestle and you knew the game was over from 25 to go.
Ba publicly pleaded for the fans to get an early mark support the team. What an embarrassing effort to repay the faith.
Hmmmm i am sorry i missed this one but seems some inept plays. Sorry but always next week. the errors and missed tackles do look bad stats; and completions…..and Mr Perenara….maybe not entirely to blame but he’s a v poor ref; and one has huge ego
Perennial actually forces teams to change their strategies when he refs, that’s the terrible part. If he’s not punished for last night’s effort then something is very wrong.
That aside, we didn’t need him to lose this game, we did it ourselves. Where did that structured, disciplined, “trust the plan” footy go we’ve seen the past weeks?
This loss hurts because the two points were there for the taking and we chose not to take them. A team with nothing but pride to play for beat a team with a potential Top 4 spot to play for. Zero excuses for that.
Next week I’ll be looking for the team to make amends. The week after I’ll be looking for the team to prove they’re worthy of the finals. Prior to last night I’d seen a loss to the Broncs in a few weeks as “the loss we had to have”. Well, now we’ve had that loss – to the last placed Knights.
One loss does not a season make. It’s how we respond to this that tells us who we are. Anything less than a clinical high completion rate performance next week will not be good enough.
Again, Parra have proven that sometimes we’re a team that just loves to make things hard for ourselves.
I’ll reserve my judgement until after next Thursday night.
*Perenara (stupid phone). Although he is a perennial pest.
Sorry 40/20 I cannot write what I want to write so I won’t write anything except @$%$#@&^
That says it all Joe
They thought they had the points “in the bank” but got knocked off on the way to deposit.
Police are looking for a tattooed Kiwi with a whistle in his hand…TURNING POINT OF THE MATCH….NO bloody doubt….
Further analysis of the Sio pass in the 59th minute of #NRLEelsKnights.
“Due to the delay of the pass, the referee should have determined the tackle was complete.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/NRL/status/895990635626233860
Boy am I fortunate I missed seeing this one! Think we were also to complacent & believed all the hype & just expected to win the game for Timmy’s 200th (bit like what happened in last nights game with the Sharks & Gallen’s 300th). By the sound of it there also were other contributing factors but lets hope it was a one off & we return to (our recent) form next week. There’s been some strange results in some games (not just us) this year where the unexpected has happened (eg most recent Manly, Saints, Broncos being flogged), makes you wonder re the influence gambling may have these days on the game. I don’t mind the occasional punt on the races or a lotto/lottery ticket but I think it’s gone too far with sport particularly in the NRL.Betting on “if your team leads by 12 points at any time, you win” or any of the other forms (there’s about 150 on sportsbet) is just asking for some form of corruption in some games whether it be players, referees, the bunker etc.
Oh well, being a Parra fan =exhalation one week,devastation the next!
Thanks for the report Forty20, It at least gave mean insight into what happened & that there still is hope.
It was like reliving the 2001 grand final! Ten minutes into the game, the bloke in front turned around and said “different team’s turned up this week” and whilst we can talk about the referee and decisions that were made, we were (and maybe still are) top 4 contenders playing the potential wooden spooners. Last night nobody would have believed that to be the situation.
It seems that we started the game too slowly and got our pants pulled down. From there we started to panic instead of trusting the plan. A big mistake that I hope our key players at least have now learnt. The game against Brisbane showed that we can be patient even when down, we didn’t do that last night.
I don’t think I am the only one that think the send off of will smith was dodgy. He was penalised for making a tackle from an offside position preventing the opposition scoring.
Watching the replay he was not onside at the play the ball but put a foot in goal prior to becoming involved in the play. Is that not the same as retreating ten metres to put yourself onside prior to making a tackle?
Probably seen with my blue and gold glasses on but I still think it was wrong.
I’ve given myself some time to respond rationally.
Reasons for Parra’s loss
1. Parramatta’s substandard effort
2. Knights had moments of good play (they have actually played better recently)
The officiating of Perenara did not cause our poor play, but the man has an undeniably poor attitude when it comes to controlling Eels games. The off the ground pass was not a poor decision. The play unfolded too slowly to excuse it as an error of judgement. Anybody with a rudimentary understanding of rugby league would not have missed that, but this “senior referee” even “justified” his decision moments later. If that moment alone didn’t raise a red flag for Archer, then what would? At best, it was incompetence of the highest order.
If Kenny Edwards smashed Sio on the ground like he did against the Broncos, would he have been penalised?
Yep, most likely
We played terrible but refs never help us (including this ex-eels player who I think still does training sessions with us). Bring on the Titans.