Round 7 Drink Of Choice – Balvenie Double Wood 12yo

Margin Of Error – 5 Games

Well shit, it is about damn time.

It took six agonising, painstaking and frankly brutal weeks but the Eels have finally arrived in Season 2018. For the last two weeks they have desperately scrapped and scrounged for any sort of hideous victory but fell short against the Penrith Panthers and Canberra Raiders. Today though, that breakthrough victory arrived and it did so in emphatic fashion.

On a glorious Sunday afternoon the Eels poured on the style over a hapless Manly outfit and rectified just about every wrong that had chained them down for the last month-and-a-half. It certainly made for glorious spectating and while the immediate question may be ‘where has that been?’ the more important one will be ‘can the Eels carry this momentum forwards?’.

Pour out a long one folks, it is a watershed Whisky Musings this week.

Lost – 1 Monkey (responds to ‘King Kong’), Found – 1 Identity

Frequenters of this particular blog (and my inane ramblings in general) will recall how invested I am in the concept of a team identity. This week was significant in that Brad Arthur called out his charges for losing their way, and in doing so their identity. Whether it was a training session marked by fire and brimstone or Arthur’s public comments, the Eels finally made the turn they had been so desperately chasing this year. They are finally back.

A willing, if scrappy, start to the game gave way to the vintage Parramatta play-style that we were all expecting this year. The turning point came as Manu Ma’u crossed for the opening try after the Eels desperately kept the ball alive on the last tackle which resulted in Manu showing great aplomb as a makeshift winger to finish off the movement.

From there it was almost a near perfect showing of the vaunted team identity. The forwards ran hard and hit even harder in defence. The spine in its entirety were masterful in their orchestration and execution of attacking raids. The one-percenters were clear and present as the Eels swarmed Manly with their kick chases. It wasn’t flawless though. The defensive application was marred by two lapses in the second half but on the whole it was a roaring return to the form shown in 2016 and 2017.

Apocalypse Ma’u

You would be a bold criminally insane man to say it to his face but the prolonged dip in form from Manu Ma’u had become a cause for concern among plenty of fans this year. The Blue & Gold enforcer was in prime touch today though and his superb outing was marked by a degree of freedom previously unsighted since first carving his name out back in 2014 as a dynamic presence on the left-edge.

Manu’s involvement on and off the ball was stellar but what really caught my eye was his appearances across both the left and right edges. He was the lead decoy in the right-edge set piece that saw George Jennings cross and he terrorised the big Manly forwards through the middle with his incisive runs and ridiculous leg drive.

We will have to wait an see whether this signals a permanent change in his job description but for now I am simply happy that Parramatta’s brooding hero is back.

Running Man

While Manu Ma’u’s bounce back to form had me yahooing and fist-pumping, arguably the most important individual effort today came from Kaysa Pritchard. Pritchard has always possessed deceptive strength and ridiculous acceleration to go along with his lion heart but it has rarely manifested cohesively in the NRL.

Today was the beautiful coalescing of those three attributes as Pritchard ran riot through the middle of the Manly forward pack en route to 76m from just 6 runs and a wonderful heads-up try. It was a superb individual effort from Kaysa and it really sets a (lofty) benchmark that he should aspire to from here on out.

I think it is fair to say that Pritchard’s dominance out of dummy half elevated a strong showing from the Parramatta forwards to a commanding display and both Mitchell Moses and Corey Norman profited massively from the extra resources the Sea Eagles had to divert to the ruck as a result.

Let Johnnie Walker keep on walking, Kaysa – you just keep on running.

Propped Up

It was a busy day in the engine room for the Eels…and that was before the game had even kicked off. Brad Arthur made three late adjustments to his forward pack as he dropped Kane Evans to the Intrust Super Premiership, shifted Tim Mannah to the interchange bench and then promoted Suaia Matagi to the starting roster from the shadow bench.

Evans to his credit responding positively to the demotion as he helped inspire the Wentworthville Magpies to an upset victory over the Penrith Panthers. In fact, all three props handled their respective promotion or demotion spectacularly with both Mannah and Matagi providing plenty of grit and impetus for the Eels through the middle today.

Throw in Daniel Alvaro’s tireless efforts (including a monstrous opening stint) and the surprisingly deft ball skills shown by Peni Terepo and you have the sort of platform that the Parramatta play-makers have been starved of in the first quarter of the season. I guess it makes sense in that regard that the likes of Mitchell Moses, Corey Norman and Kaysa Pritchard would feast on the Sea Eagles after being starved for territory and possession for weeks upon weeks.

With Nathan Brown scheduled to rejoin the team next week the Eels have no recourse but to build on today’s outstanding effort if they are to give themselves any realistic chance of making the post-season.

The M&N Show

Everything the Eels did right today from their robust work through the middle, to their aggressive defence and their excellent kick chases, all of it was reflected in the performances of Mitchell Moses and Corey Norman.

While Parramatta showed the same worrying signs of scratchiness and inefficiency in the redzone earlier on in proceedings, once the first blow was struck by Manu Ma’u the Eels erupted. Moses cast the off the shackles that had weighed him down so heavily this year as he thew precise cutout passes, perfectly chip-kicked and tormented the Manly forwards with his short-area quickness.

Norman on other hand just eased his way through the game, kicking with fiendish precision, before exploding to life with a scything run that left the Sea Eagles grasping at thin air. He would go on to put Kenny Edwards over with a well-timed pass as both halves put in timely reminders of their immense talents.

It was a breakthrough games for every unit in the Parramatta line-up but none hold more sway over the fortunes of the Eels than these two men. Hopefully today was the shot in the arm they needed.

Defensive lapse mar the victory

Once it became a genuine possibility that the Eels might eclipse the humiliating Round 2 scoreline of 54-0 I have to say that it actually hurt quite a bit that we let the Sea Eagles cross our line not once but twice. Some defensive fragility on our left-edge could be excused due to the injury to Jarryd Hayne and subsequent reshuffle that saw Will Smith take his place but it was galling that Manly scored twice so simply.

For the most part the Eels were brilliant in defence. Mitchell Moses forced an error out of Jake Trbojevic early on while the forwards hammered their opposites all day. It makes those two lapses stand out so starkly by contrast. Today they were but a minor blemish but tomorrow they could potentially cost you a game and I am sure that the Eels will drive that home in their video review next week.

Hayne grounded again

It began so well for Jarryd Hayne as he lined up on the left wing for the Eels. He showed customary signs of explosiveness as he nearly engineered a try out of nothing down the left sideline before eventually putting Manu Ma’u over for the first try. Alas, that very action would result in Hayne re-injuring a troublesome hip/quad injury. Jarryd took no further part in the game and fans will await the results of his scans with trepidation with their outside back stocks already taking a hit.

Still, it was an encouraging if brief stint from Hayne and there were suggestions that he could potentially be a real weapon for the Eels on that left flank once fully fit.

The Final Word

While it is easy to swept up in the giddiness of a breakthrough victory, both fans and the team must temper their reactions against the knowledge that Manly are indeed a club truly in crisis. The emphatic nature of the victory definitely warrants commendation though. The Eels have been chasing any sort of win in the last six weeks, no matter how ugly, but to cast off that King-Kong sized monkey on their back in such fashion is massive validation and reaffirmation of the processes the team and their coach have employed over the last few years.

Make no mistake though folks, one win is just the beginning.

It is time to get to work.

It has been seven weeks in the making but finally it is time for me to direct you the way of my man Parramatters should you feel like imbibing in the afterglow of a superb victory and buying something from that good-looking 2018 apparel line! In fact, you would be crazy not to buy something tonight just so you can say you were part of the Eels going undefeated for the rest of the season turning their season around against Manly. Hit up the link/picture below and don’t forget to punch in that code for a double discount!

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