Parramatta Eels 22
South Sydney 16
The Good: |
We managed to win.
We’re in the Top 4. We didn’t pick up any injuries. End of list.
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The Bad: |
The Blue and Gold Army were there in force. Our opposition were significantly weakened, minus 6 of their best players in Johnston, Reynolds, Gray, Crichton, Sam Burgess and even Greg Inglis. The Eels are about to enter the finals for the first time since 2009, and a Top 4 finish was on offer (a first since 2005). With all of these factors in play, you’d think the Eels would turn up and put away the Bunnies easily. However, yet again it’s almost as if the Eels are trying to conserve energy, only playing an iota or two better than they expect from their opposition.
The first half was deadset woeful, and at times it even felt a little bit like the Newcastle game from a few weeks ago. A try right on halftime concealed a gaping problem that, although theoretically shouldn’t be an issue in the Finals, speaks to a questionable collective attitude against lesser quality sides. This is an issue I doubt we’ll be able to continue to get away with in 2018.
This is a difficult game to grade – we were one good set of six from a hungry yet incredibly depleted Bunnies side stealing a win, and letting a Top 4 position slip through our fingers. Nonetheless, we still didn’t find a way to lose this game, and now we’re locked in the Top 4 as a result. |
X-Factor: |
The Rabbitohs came to play, and credit to their players for ripping in. Thankfully we had a little bit more class, despite almost shooting a full clip’s worth into our foot at different parts of the game. |
The MVP:
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It’s a first time MVP tonight. After 6 or so weeks of outstanding consistency, the Polar Bear has evidently found his niche in our team.
The Great White Hope churned through 139 metres in his 14 hit ups, had a massive 39 tackles and absolutely no other stats worth writing about. Still, visually it was a tough, gritty performance from Danny Boy, and I could barely be more pleased with his progress in 2017. So tonight, you the MVP, Daniel. You the MVP. |
The Starters
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1- William SmithFullback, Parramatta Eels Sorry William, you’re obviously very beautiful, but I can’t have you as our starting fullback any longer if you can’t run straight at the defence. Sure the 2 try assists and 2 tackle breaks were excellent, but tonight it almost seemed fitting to pair your tendency to run across field with the Benny Hill theme. |
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2- Semi RadradraLeft Wing, Parramatta Eels It was a dreadful opening quarter for Radradra, whose miss on Damien Cook lead to both a line break and eventual Bunnies’ try. Yet Semi went full Radradra in the final 45 minutes of the game, scoring a treble of tries in 3 different ways. Semi was also seen taking the tough hit ups in our 20, even putting his hand up for multiple hit ups in the same set on a couple of occasions. The result was 154 metres from his 16 carries, 5 tackle breaks, 3 tries, 2 line breaks and a partridge in a pear tree. Bula! |
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3- Michael JenningsRight Centre, Parramatta Eels I love a good afterburner try, and Jennings effectively slid through the grasps of three Souths defenders for our first meat pie. Combine that thought with stats of 9 runs for 133 metres plus another massive 20 tackle tally, and you can see why Jet deserves yet another A grade this week.
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4- Brad TakairangiLeft Centre, Parramatta Eels Hey, Bradley. Ps – That last short kickoff block was not even close to penalty worthy. |
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5- Kirisome Auva’aRight Wing, Parramatta Eels I like Kirisome Auva’a as a centre almost as much as I dislike him as a winger. Souths had a clear intention to bomb to Kirishaky in the second half, and were rewarded with repeat sets on a couple of occasions (and were unlucky for to miss out on a couple more). Imagine what the Storm, the team who beat Souths by 60 points, will do to him. On second thought, it might be better not to.
Me too, Matthew. Me too. |
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6- Corey NormanFive-Eighth, Parramatta Eels That pass for Semi’s second try was one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen. It’s always good to see Normy choosing to run at the line, rather than automatically passing, but it just didn’t seem to happen for him tonight in that department. Come to think of it, it wasn’t actually all that great a night for a lot of our big guns (Normy, Moses, Browny), particularly that stupid forward flick pass in the first half that resulted in Turner’s try. Nonetheless, the job still got done at the end of the day. On a more serious note, our thoughts are with Corey after an awful week personally, losing a friend in horrific circumstances. |
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7- Mitchell MosesHalfback, Parramatta Eels Tonight, the Prophet became the first player in 110 years of Australian rugby league to play against the same club four times in the regular season. Despite the extended practice against the cardinal and myrtle, it’s probably fair to say Mitchell had a so-so performance, offsetting his incisive runs with miss-kicks, and his good touch off the boot with a couple of forced passes. For those playing a long at home, he had another freakishly close passing load comparison with his halves partner; the final pass tally reading 35 to Corey and 36 to Mitchell, with kicks 9 to 8 the other way. |
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16- Siosaia VaveProp, Parramatta Eels It seems odd that Beau Scott was on a strict minute restriction tonight, but still only played two minutes less than our starting prop. Nonetheless, there was quality to be had in Vave’s small sample size, busting through 66 metres from his 6 carries, breaking a tackle and making 12 of his own without a miss. Not bad, big fella. |
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9- Cameron KingHooker, Parramatta Eels The Return of the King’s 44 tackles were terrific (although he missed 5), and his service was, for the most part, timely and crisp. Nothing to see here. |
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10- Tim Mannah (c)Prop, Parramatta Eels What an outstanding second half play to chase down and tackle Robert Jennings as he streaked down the Western touchline, one of 30 he made this evening.
His 7 runs for 80 don’t necessarily tell the story on the offensive side of the ball, either, but tonight was nonetheless vintage Mannah. |
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11- Manu Ma’uBack Row, Parramatta Eels The World’s Scariest Man could have easily been the MVP tonight with some monster stats of his own. Manu had 186 metres, 5 tackle breaks and 20 tackles, and was stellar in the bulk of his return from suspension, particularly after some questionable decision making on both sides of the ball in the early stages of the game. In other news, as of this week, I hear Manu Ma’u is now only behind heart disease as the leading cause of fatalities in Australia. |
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12- Tepai MoeroaBack Row, Parramatta Eels Particularly after returning from last week’s ugly failed HIA, 108 metres and 38 tackles is a very impressive showing from Tepai, and give a glimpse of his potential. |
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13- Nathan BrownLock, Parramatta Eels The Ken Thornett Medalist was crook with a virus all week, and to be brutally honest, didn’t look like himself out there tonight. For the first time in living memory, Browny failed to crack 100 metres (88 from 9), but his 38 tackles were still brilliant, and I hope he doesn’t know what I look like. |
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Interchange
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8- Daniel AlvaroInterchange, Parramatta Eels Despite him winning MVP, I didn’t even tweet about Daniel’s game tonight. If I did, you can bet it would have no doubt been somewhere between dreary and mildly entertaining. |
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15- Kenny EdwardsInterchange, Parramatta Eels There’s something to be said for the fact that each time I go to grade Kenny, my first thought is “Did he do anything stupid?” In good news, I’m going with a mostly ‘no’ tonight, and his 50 metres from 5, and 26 tackles are just as strangely normal. For the record, I thought the penalty called against him was wrong. Maybe the return of Beau Scott has reset him or something. |
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17- Suiaia MatagiInterchange, Parramatta Eels How about that monster hit on Jason Clark? If Jason Clark were a jam donut, there would be jam everywhere. The 32 metre total is less impressive, and to be brutally honest, some of his hit ups were borderline pedestrian. Bigger and better returns next week, no doubt. |
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20- Beau ScottInterchange, Parramatta Eels The bad boy is back, and he seemed pretty pissed when he ran on. As mentioned earlier, Killer was on a pretty strict 20 minute restriction tonight, but he’ll be better getting some game time into his legs.
There seemed to be a greater calm when he came on, and we’ll no doubt need his cool head in the coming weeks. |
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It wasn’t pretty, but hey, we got the points. I’ll always take an ugly win over an encouraging loss, and tonight is no different.
It’s Finals time, and the rubber is about to hit the road.
See you kids in Melbourne.
Go you Eels,
Mitch.
Photos courtesy of the Parramatta Eels. Stats courtesy of Champion Data.
Got me puzzled mitch ,saying how bad we played yet most ratings suggest a great effort and thats what it was ,souths turned up and were given a great leg up by atrocious refereeing yet the boys toughed out a win that they use to lose 9 out of 10 , granted not a classy win but a tough one none the less and maybe a beneficial one , removes the euphoria of broncos win and renews our focus at the right time .if souths played like that every week they wouldnt be where they are , Just my opinion .
This is a difficult game to grade Chika – we were one good set of six from a hungry yet incredibly depleted Bunnies side from letting a Top 4 position slip through our fingers.
I agree it wasn’t classy, and I guess that’s trying to work with the limitations of giving one grade to players – you can’t give one grade for an attacking run, but another for collective line speed or attitude at others.
I take your point but as such, I try to speak to the collective result in the opening comments and the individual players in their grades.
Love it Mitch matey, great read and superb summation. It was hard in the UK to keep track, as time wise we were shopping here in Brighton, so i used some strategy and we went to the pier with games etc. and managed to sneak out a few times to keep updated.
Seems we were somewhat patchy and that’s a bit concerning with the defence and errrors; tell me Moses missed 8 tackled according to the nrl site….and he wasn’t the only one who had an avg evening it seems….
Good on you for chasing down what you could mate. Not the prettiest win of the season, but still worth a watch. Re Moses the NRL’s stat counters are always pretty generous with the missed tackle counts, but Champion Data had him at 4. Still concerning, but well short of 8.
The refereeing was terrible.
The lop-sided penalty count was rubbish and completely undeserved.
The last Rabbitohs try was off a hugely forward pass.
We were awful for much of it and they were excellent.
And we still won.
Bring on the Storm!!
Yeah I left out the referreeing tonight, I think it would have been four straight for me complaining, and I thought we got a couple of fortunate calls (as well as several against us including the final pass you refer to and Taka’s conceded penalty for example).
As you said, we still won.
Can’t wait for next week.
Grades seem a bit kind in my opinion Mitch. Especially the forwards. Perhaps the stats paper over some worrying cracks. Our line speed was non existent, we hung back waiting for Sowfs to charge at us all night.
Edwards did plenty stupid from my recollection, gifting penalties and losing possession.
Moeroa played like first priority was to avoid injury.
Also concerned with some of King’s looping passes from dummy half that have to be taken above the melon of the first receiver.
Wins a win, and perhaps I’m being tough on them.
Look forward to an upbeat effort next week.
Ha some say too kind, others too harsh. Again, a tough game to grade – collectively disappointing, but yet we still mananged to get the win. Still, I disagree on both Edwards and Moeroa. I can see why you could come to those conclusions based on the outcomes of the moments you refer to with Kenny, if the flick pass is one, I thought it was actually a good play that should have come off, and the penalty he conceded was just wrong in my opinion.
I thought Tepai was solid tonight, and it’s the first time I can remembe in a while him clocking over 100 running metres.
I havent watched the replay though, so I might reconsider when I do, particularly Kingy’s.
One thing I loved about Scott’s stint was that he was straight away supporting every runner. The rest of the team had fallen into the habit of setting up for the next play, and not fully playing out the current one. If you don’t want to get gang tackled, run in twos and threes. Beau knows.
I noticed it a couple of times too, and it took me back to one of Beau’s close to the line offloads against a Bulldogs side (last season I think) for a Taka try. Opportunities like those disappear without such support play.
Sixties and I were discussing Kaysa pre game, and were both glad to see him get another week off. Yet I suspect Sixties will agree that Beau’s inclusion last night was just as a prudent decision.
In short, welcome back Killer.
How good is it to be in the finals and to get the 2 points however we need to remember Mr Arthur’s direction and demonstrate we can be disciplined against all teams not just the top 8. We were lucky last night.
On a positive note we are off the Melbourne next weekend to play in the finals. Play how I know and have see you play. Get into the Storms face and disrupt the rhythm . Good luck team. GO EELS
Pretty kind headings I thought.. Now that I have calmed down. I know Brownie was sick but really he shouldn’t have played… He was downright terrible. He missed two crucial tackles in the first half – Cook on the long run and the one near his line where they scored under the post. I know he was keen to okay but BA should have drawn the line. IMHO I couldn’t give any of them anything over a B -they were dead set ordinary and I hope they have got that out if their system be because they can’t afford an ordinary game from now on.
Mitch agree with your gradings; Alvaro, Jennings, Semi, Ma’u, Scott and Mannah were strong. A number of the usual high performers were below par; Brown (sick?), Norman, Moses, Vave, Matagi – would be surprised if they don’t bounce back to high performance levels next week. Will be interesting to see if BA persists with Auva – the Storm will give him plenty of attention if he starts.
I suspect he will, although the coaching staff is no doubt aware of his limitations. Will be an interesting subplot.
I think Browny was less than 100% with his virus from the week – just looked a bit off to me mate.
Hope to watch another game with you soon mate.
Well Mitch, I must say. After watching the game then reading your grading for each player I was a little confused about the number of high scores you’d attributed to some of our players. That is until I read your excellent response to some critical posts of same, above. They made a lot of sense.
I agree in principle with all comments you’ve made of individual players, although I too was very disappointed with our team “effort” as a whole. It is difficult to mark individual players down for a team performance that lacked enthusiasm off the line in D and a general lack of support play across the board as you explained. Beau Scott showing why we so desperately want him there in our 17. Timmy too was fanatastic. Timing being everything having two Capt’s leading the way in a game like that was encouraging.
It did seem to me watching the game unfold, that we could click the switch at any time and blow Sowfs away. Taking nothing from the opposition who were right up for this game with the young fellas playing with the same pride and enthusiasm as we did against the Broncos in the first half of last weeks match. They were well supported and led by their experienced hooker and new hooker playing fullback and Goodwin who all showed the way.
Bottom line is, we did win, albeit it, ugly with a lackadaisical attitude it seemed.
I really am looking forward to Melbourne next week.
I actually thought Souths were pretty terrific, but we still should have blown them away IMO. Credit to them nonetheless.
We got the job done, Top 4 locked in. It feels really good.
You heading down to Melbourne Rowdy? Love to meet up for a chat pre game.
G’day Mitch,
My son is down there doing a training course so I have considered it, but I won’t make a decision until late in the week. If I go we’ll catch before the game for sure.
Let us know mate. Sixties and I will be there.