Round 24 Drink of choice – Old St Andrews Scotch Whiskey
Well I say Titanomachy 2.0 (or War of the Titans) but it was truly a one-sided rout tonight. Not only did the Titans suffer heavy casualties to their playing group throughout the game but the Eels cruised to a 22-point victory that firmly puts the (k)nightmare of Round 23 behind them. Parramatta left A LOT of points on the field tonight mind you as near misses and misplays saw as many as seven tries by my count go begging. Still, a win is what was required of Brad Arthur’s men tonight and that is exactly what they brought home. The lingering question mark over Bevan French’s hamstring takes some of the gusto out of the 30-8 win but the divine hands of Mitchell Moses Mozeus made for a remarkable note to finish the game on.
All this and more in the Round 24 edition of Whiskey Musings!
Titans fall well short on assault on Mount Eelympus
A week after bleeding 29-points and 6 linebreaks to the Newcastle Knights it was clear from early on tonight that the Eels had rediscovered their mojo in defence. The line speed was back, there was venom in the shots and most pleasingly the Eels largely controlled the ruck throughout the night. The Gold Coast scored just 8-points with their two linebreaks coming from both tries and rarely looked threatening to the Blue & Gold defensive line.
Sitting in the stands it looked like Daniel Alvaro (40 tackles, 3 missed) and Tepai Moeroa (27 tackles, 1 missed) were the primary engineers for our defensive ascendancy through the ruck. Both young players are our most technically proficient wrestlers and generally shoulder the brunt of the defensive work in the middle in conjunction with Nathan Brown.
It is worth nothing that we did pile up some unnecessary pressure on ourselves in the second half which resulted in 7-consecutive sets for the Titans on our goal line. The prolonged goal line stand was certainly admirable and might serve us well in the long term but you do not want to be handing the Storm or Roosters that sort of possession and territory.
Parramatta can ill afford to rest on their laurels defensively though with the imminent return fixture against the Brisbane Broncos. While the Eels triumphed over the Brisbane franchise in a high quality showdown in Round 21 the Broncos have since caught fire in attack and have hammered both the Titans and the Sharks. This game will be the best barometer that BA and the Eels will get for their charge into the post-season.
Referees do nothing to restore my faith
Let me preface this with the comment that both teams copped bad calls tonight. On the whole it was an embarrassingly over-officiated effort with a whopping seventeen stoppages in the game for penalties. It was no where near Perenara-tier but with the finals looming I think it is fair to say that the officials are nowhere near post-season form. From Semi Radradra’s puzzling green light on a length of the field kick scoop-n-run (awesome fend on Ash Taylor though!) to missed obstructions and woefully inconsistent offside markings, this game did not help with my increasingly disillusioned stance on officiating in the NRL.
Opportunities aplenty but Eels still searching for polish
Much has been made of Parramatta’s paltry for-and-against this year. Plenty of tight wins and a couple of nasty blow outs led to a negative differential coming into Round 24.The Eels could have turned that around to quite some extent tonight if they had capitalised on as many as seven missed different try scoring opportunities. While some were shut down simply due to desperate defence like Bevan French’s incisive sortie down the left edge of the Titans early in the game, others were simply butchered. From Corey Norman losing the ball 2m short of the goal line to Kirisome Auva’a lacking finesse in putting the ball down or passing the Eels could have dropped the half century on the Titans.
Of course such errors aren’t as costly when your opponents are the struggling Titans but with sudden-death football on the horizon the Eels will not want to be left ruing squandered opportunities and what-if moments.
French hamstrung once more
Regardless of the capitulation to the Knights, Brad Arthur made the right call in resting Bevan French last week. Alas, given the fickle nature of hamstring injuries, it would seem that once more there will be an injury cloud hanging over the head of our rising star in the coming week. Will Smith was by and large capable in assuming the duties of the numero uno for the Eels – although there were two handling errors in our red zone.
A pair of tries to Smith, the first of which showcased some impressive strength, did help soften the loss of Bevan and Smith looked a great deal better at the back this week when compared to our loss to Newcastle. Arthur was non-committal after the game in offering a timeline for French, describing his young star’s injury simply as a tight hamstring. French now has 7-days to overcome the troublesome hammy as the Eels enjoy back-to-back Thursday night games.
Will Smith is the obvious choice to replace him should he fail to pass the requisite fitness tests but Josh Hoffman will also be lurking on the fringes next week.
The Pass
You know the one. Sensational.
The Final Word
Above all the Eels returned to the winner’s circle tonight and thus kept their hopes of a Top 4 finish alive. It was impossible not to enjoy the grit and hustle in defence as the Eels continually rallied on their goal line in the second half. Conversely, our attack amazed and frustrated in equal measure as the Eels eviscerated the Titans on numerous occasions before falling short of scoring due to poor passes and sloppy finishing. Mitchell Mozeus bounced back to form in a big way and in my mind has now established himself as the #1 shotcaller at the Eels. On to the Broncos now and one of the big tie-breakers for the Top 4 this year.
Thanks 40; as someone who’s not seen the game it was good to see the win when i had wifi….seems French may be hindered with the hamstring and that’s not good news; i cannot see Smith as the best option but respect the teams call on it. Hoffman???
How did King go? And who were the best performed forwards?
We are going to need our defence and errors in order next week; and of course the refs will not help….but no excuses
In my opinion I’m not a great fan of Smith, But the job he did at full back although a few mistakes was very good. Hoffman is a winger at best. I don’t know who else they have who can play fullback apart from Tua who plays Nsw cup.
King I thought tonight wasn’t that good, I watched him carefully & he falls off a lot of tackles. His service was good, Id like to see him run a little more & get out to bring the slow forwards onto the ball.
Alvaro is getting better every week, He is a work horse in both attack & defence, Not an explosive player who will break the line but a work horse every team needs.
Manu was good tonight he just pushed a few passes he didn’t need to.
Our line speed tonight was great I thought, We put a lot of pressure on the Titans and our defence held up, We were our own worst enemy with 5 back to back sets caused bye mistakes on 5th tackle, either knocking the ball on, trying to intercept the ball ect.
At the moment we are a top 8 team not playing consistently. Fingers crossed we can get back to the form we showed against Brisbane a few weeks back and and secure a top 4 spot
Ok, cheers mate; i am not sure about Smith but he’s done well. Hoff imo is good. Maybe King is still getting back to 80 min games, and he has spent some time in the reserves…he is good too and has done v well.
I am sure 40 and Sixties have some good points to add…….v soon.
Benny, overall, I agree with much of what you say.
However, must disagree with your comment about King.
Firstly, he had a missed tackle count of 5, but that was with 50 effective tackles! He shoulders an enormous workload and shut down attacking moments with great scramble. When you look at missed tackles you also need to consider how this miss occurs and whether the miss has actually assisted another defender by impacting the ball carrier. As a measure of that, look at the line breaks last night by the Titans. Non event.
Furthermore, you mention his good service. It’s actually outstanding and coincides with our (Knights game aside) improved showing in attack, both in forwards metres and the opportunities created by our halves.
Yes, overall we need to lift our consistency to be considered a top 4 team.
Tua wouldn’t be an option at fullback. As for Hoffman, he will play for Wenty on Saturday. In my opinion, he is a total professional and I couldn’t find any fault with his form this year.
Yes well said mate, I take everything you say on board & cant disagree with what you said. Thanks for the feed back
1st let me start of by saying what another poor showing from the refs. Disgraceful to say the lease.
On our team but was I watching the same eels who rolled the bronco’s 2weeks ago …IMO no not even close.
Let’s just after last nights performance I think (wait I know) Brisbane bronco’s will do a number on us.
Yes I know we lost French just b4 half time but anyone who thinks will smith is a fullback is kidding themselves yes he scored 2 tries.
I think we put Hoffman at fullback for the remaining 2 games let French rest those hamstrings.
I think it’s time we shift Jennings to wing n but karisome a’vua in the centres. Still can’t get over that shocking pass ….try gone begging.
I just hope we play a lot better next week n that vave plays …can anyone tell me why he didn’t play ?
Our halfs played well but will need to lift I thought the teams cohesion needs a lot of work done. Our defence was good but in saying that we only played the Gold Coast Titan’s. we should have scored atleast 4 maybe 5 more tries.
Anyhow a wins a win n 2 competition points.
#Eeels4life#
Rev, you’re right about not close to the Brisbane effort, but no team will be up like that every week. The Storm get the job done through sheer professionalism, and peak for key games. The Sharks were a perfect example of that last year.
I think Vaves let himself down against the Knights. It was a performance that he’d want to put behind him. However, I’d suggest he also paid the penalty for Parra needing to include Smith on the bench given Bev’s injury (a wise move as it turned out).
Jennings to the wing? Rev!!! Jenko has been a key part of our improved right side.
I would have given Jennings MOM last night based on his reads in defence. He might go ok on the wing, but you wouldn’t do it.
I was gutted when they took that try off Jenko. What is it with these referees who have affiliations with the club (Perenara, Atkins )
What about the trick shot by Mitchell for the Try Assist for Will Smiths last try. It was a great effort by Will also he had a lot of work to do after getting the miracle pass from Mitchell
On the teams performance I guess your right about being up for every game not every team can.
On Jennings it was just an idea avau’a under the high ball really worries me a lot n that pass still can’t get over it it was like 4 on 1 n some how we bomb a certain 4 or 6 points.
Oh well onto to next week big game vs bronc’s
I know we didn’t convert every opportunity but we played well enough to bring the 2 points home.
Just like we expect our halves/team to have good game management (raising the tempo when needed, looking for repeat sets when tries aren’t on offer etc) the coaches/team must have good season management. That means resting players if they can afford it, putting the best team on when we’re facing the better opponents, and trying things out in match conditions as the scoreline allows.
I would have taken Bevan off too and wouldn’t be surprised if he plays next week. Similarly, resting Corey for next week was a good move.
Someone needs to tell Will Smith to run forward, then sidewards if he’s trying to allow his offence to get back on side. He must waste at least 5m each kick return with the BS sideways stuff he’s been doing. Other than that, I think he’s a capable 2nd string fullback. If Bevan isn’t right for next week, I’d still prefer Hoffman though his form hasn’t impressed me yet. I know he can do it, and I think he would rise up for a game against the Broncos.