Storm 18 defeat Eels 16

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How can you win a game and lose on the scoreboard? Unfortunately for the Eels, that’s exactly what happened in their match against the much fancied Melbourne Storm.

The Eels put every premiership aspirant on notice with a very clinical display against a raging hot favourite.

With so much hype about Cameron Smith’s record breaking game, the pre-match focus on the game itself was virtually put on the back burner by much of the visual media.

But the Eels showed everyone that the Storm can be beaten. There’s no need to continue the debate about the officiating – everyone has seen and heard enough about it. What must be talked about is how the Storm can be beaten and that the Eels are well in line to take the 2017 premiership.

Of the top four finalists, the Eels were the most impressive, followed by Melbourne, the Roosters and Brisbane. Yes we didn’t get the win, but this performance has reinforced that the title isn’t just the Storm’s to lose.

Score Flow

Parramatta Eels
H	Time	Name	Event	Score
1	3	J.Addo-Carr	TRY	4 – 0
1	5	C.Smith	CONVERSION MISS	4 – 0
1	22	K.Auva’a	TRY	4 – 4
1	25	M.Moses	CONVERSION MISS	4 – 4
1	31	W.Smith	TRY	4 – 8
1	32	M.Moses	CONVERSION	4 – 10
2	45	K.Bromwich	TRY	8 – 10
2	46	C.Smith	CONVERSION	10 – 10
2	49	B.Slater	TRY	14 – 10
2	50	C.Smith	CONVERSION	16 – 10
2	62	C.Smith	PENALTY GOAL	18 – 10
2	65	S.Radradra	TRY	18 – 14
2	66	M.Moses	CONVERSION	18 – 16

Full Time Stats

	Team Stats
52	Possession (%)	48
26/35 (74)	Complete/Total Sets (%)	26/31 (84)
42:11	Time – Opposition Half	37:58
16:02	Time – Opposition 20	12:02
2041	Metres Gained	1880
3	Scrum Win	7
0	Goal Line Dropout	0
5	Penalty Conceded	9
0	Forty Twenty	0

Parramatta completed well and gave the Storm an almighty shake. Unfortunately penalties remain a concern and definitely helped the Storm to get better field position. Giving any team a leg up with a lop-sided penalty count makes winning a difficult proposition. To help the Storm out in this manner in a final’s match would not be wise. Yet Oarra almost pulled it off!

1^st Half Stats

	Team Stats
49	Possession (%)	51
11/17 (65)	Complete/Total Sets (%)	16/18 (89)
22:13	Time – Opposition Half	17:54
5:25	Time – Opposition 20	8:38
938	Metres Gained	1054
1	Scrum Win	5
0	Goal Line Dropout	0
4	Penalty Conceded	3
0	Forty Twenty	0

The Eels showed that if you hang on to the ball, scoring opportunities will happen. A great completion rate to the Eels in the first half set up an exciting game and the Storm were well and truly battered by the Eels in both attack and defence.

2^nd Half Stats

	Team Stats
56	Possession (%)	44
15/18 (83)	Complete/Total Sets (%)	10/13 (77)
19:58	Time – Opposition Half	20:04
10:37	Time – Opposition 20	3:24
1104	Metres Gained	826
2	Scrum Win	2
0	Goal Line Dropout	0
1	Penalty Conceded	6
0	Forty Twenty	0

We witnessed a repeat of so many second halves this season, as the Eels gave away too many penalties and received few in return. The Storm were judged to be near perfect in the second stanza, with Parramatta’s only penalty coming in the dying stages. Those extra sets to the Storm were telling though the Eels held strong against an attack that spent over 10 minutes in their red zone.

Attack

Top 5 Runs
	Name	R
	W.Smith	17
	K.Auva’a	16
	N.Brown	15
	W.Chambers	15
	B.Slater	14
Top 5 Run Metres
	Name	RM
	W.Smith	145
	K.Auva’a	130
	N.Brown	130
	W.Chambers	120
	J.Bromwich	114

It was great to see the Eels leading the Attacking stats. Will Smith was sensational at fullback and was the best Smith on the field without a shadow of a doubt. Again Nathan Brown played a great attacking game. Ideally, I’d like to see support players hanging off his hip to take advantage of the occasions when he pokes his head through the defence line. One of Browny’s great attributes is his offloading capability, but with no support he can’t utilise that part of his game.

With this game being tight, only 4 Eels made 100 metres or more. As evidence of the tightness of this clash, the Storm only had 5 players run more than 100 metres.

Will Smith	145m
Nathan Brown	130m
Kirisome Auva’a	130m
Suaia Matagi	105m

• Manu Ma’u 97m

Line Breaks

Eels – 3

Storm – 6

Run Metres

Eels – 140 runs for 1210m (8.6m per run)

Storm – 166 runs for 1377m (8.3m per run)

Set Starts

(Running left to right >>>)

Eels

The Eels had some decent set starts against the Storm but at times our hands weren’t our friends and errors were made. A few unforced errors in the second half killed off our momentum and invited the Storm back into the contest.

Storm

The Storm also had some decent field position to start some sets but resolute defence from the Eels thwarted much of their attack. A few errors from Melbourne at the end of the first half indicated how rattled they were by the Eels defence.

Hit Ups

Eels

The Eels were made to work hard out of their own end with some quality kicking from the Storm. Parra’s pack made some solid yardage which earned the halves the right to shift the ball in the latter part of the sets.

Storm

Melbourne has a very similar heat map to the Eels. Again good kicking from the Eels had the Storm working it hard out of their end. The Storm used their left side more for their metres in getting out of trouble. In the Eels danger zone, the Storm used guys like Kaufusi on the right side and Harris on the left to try to make metres getting close to the Eels goal line.

Tries

Auva’a (22’)

Smith (31’)

Radradra (65’)

Kicks

The Eels kicking game was good without being brilliant. Some kicks found targets on the full giving the return runner ample room to move and create something. I was a little disappointed the kickers didn’t aim more at Vunivalu. He didn’t look comfortable with kicks all game and spilt his lollies on one occasion.

Kicking Metres

Eels – 21 kicks for 607m

Storm – 18 kicks for 664m

Corey Norman

7 kicks for 285m

Mitchell Moses

11 kicks for 307m

Defence

Top 5 Tackles
	Name	TAK
	C.Smith	46
	T.Harris	41
	D.Alvaro	39
	C.King	39
	N.Brown	35
Top 5 Missed Tackles
	Name	MT
	M.Moses	5
	C.King	5
	B.Scott	3
	C.Smith	3
	N.Brown	3

Good to see we made the Storm work hard in defence. In retrospect, the Storm’s recent easy games weren’t great preparation for a finals clash. The Eels put a lot of questions to the Storm defence which they found hard to keep out. The Eels unstructured attack certainly upset the Storm’s structured defence.

Eight Eels made 20 or more tackles. The Eels really need to work on wrapping the ball up as seen in the Storm’s second try. In this passage alone there were a number of ineffective tackles, and not withstanding their great scramble, the Eels will benefit from shutting down the offloads.

	Tackles	Missed Tackles	Ineffective Tackles
Eels	337	29	17
Storm	309	18	3

Discpline

(Penalties Conceded)

Eels – 9

Storm – 5

Errors

Eels – 7

Storm – 9

Even though we lost I was very proud of the boys performance. That’s all I really wanted out of this game, especially with the odds heavily against us.

BA came up with a superb game plan which was executed well by the players and this gave the Storm a right royal fright.

The game management from both Norman and Moses was impressive and Norman is capable of getting better. Their partnership is one of the best in the premiership and the more games Mitchell plays the more we see why the Eels wanted him this year.

It coukd be a big headache this week for BA and the coaching staff with Bevan French rumoured to come back from a hamstring complaint.

Both Will Smith and Kirisome Auva’a have been playing exceptional over the last month and I think both should be in the 17. My thinking is that Bevan will go to fullback, with Will Smith to go to the bench as a utility. With concerns over Tepai, who once again failed a HIA, and Cameron King’s arm injury could see some reshuffling. Kaysa would be on stand by for Kingy with Will Smith as back up dummy half and also there in case Bevan pulls up short again.

Only Team List Tuesday will answer these questions.

Tickets have been bought, and I cannot wait till Saturday night. Get out to ANZ. We should get 30,000 plus there. Anything under that will be a disappointment.

Stat Attack Player of the Week

Will Smith

‘Wilbur’ played an outstanding fullbacks game on Saturday and was without doubt the best Smith on the field.

His kick returns had sting in them and his positional play was exceptional. And let’s not forget his presence of mind to take that inside ball from Mitchell Moses. Great play. Nothing short of sensational.

Has more than fulfilled his role at fullback to cover for the injured Bevan French and has virtually made the role his own in the past month.

Will definitely got ‘jiggy’ with it on Saturday with an outstanding performance. Whether he starts on Saturday or comes off the bench, he’ll take any opportunity given to him and embrace it with both hands.

Well played “Fresh Prince”

Possessions	19
Tries	1
Runs	17
Run Metres	145m
Line Breaks	1
Tackle Breaks	3
Minutes Played	80

 

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.

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