Round 11 Drink Of Choice – Chivas Regal 12YO
Margin Of Error – 2 Games
Did you hear the one about how the Eels threw away a win due to costly errors and lapses of concentration? Yes? Oh dear. It wasn’t funny the first seven times? Now that you mention it, that does seem like a rather cruel jape.
The rather unfortunate truth of this god awful season is that the Eels can only blame themselves for a staggering eight of their nine losses, excluding Round 2 where they were simply blown off the park by Manly. Five times. FIVE TIMES. Five freaking times have Parramatta scored the same amount of tries as their opponents only to lose the game.
Removing the outlier that is Round 2 at Brookvale, the Eels have lost their other eight games by combined differential of 72-points. That is a losing margin of just 9-points on a weekly basis. Each and every one of those games has been completely winnable save for a litany of self-inflicted wounds.
The most formidable opponent for the Parramatta Eels this year has been bar none themselves.
Half arsed first half
While the game may not have been lost in the first half of play it certainly went a long way to cementing the Eels’ 9th loss of the season. The shocking opening to the game featured a woeful 68% completion rate (13/19 sets), Clinton Gutherson bombing a try assist to Bevan French, a costly kicking error from Cameron King and a forgettable defensive lapse from George Jennings.
The Warriors gleefully accepted gifted chunks of territory and possession as they eased out to a 12-2 lead. To their credit the Eels staunchly refused to go away in the second half but that 10-point margin would prove to be the difference between the two teams at full time.
You could feel the desperation creep into the play of the men in blue & gold as the Warriors opened up the early two-score lead. An otherwise exemplary Manu Ma’u forced an unnecessary offload while Michael Jennings played his worst game as an Eel as we failed time and time again to get out of our own half. It was painful, almost pitiful viewing.
Peni for your thoughts
One Eel who was enhanced his reputation in these trying times is Peni Terepo. The Butcher has carved out a place in the starting front-row (despite wearing #13) and has added a nasty, probing run to his offensive arsenal. The try that he set-up for Manu Ma’u in the second half was the complete antithesis of everything the Eels have done this year in that it featured two forwards working in support of one another.
145m from 13 runs and an unblemished 27 tackles to go with that linebreak/try assist to Manu are everything you could want from a starting bookend. It is no secret that the Eels will be looking to add some heavyweight pieces to their pack in 2019 but Peni is making a strong case for his inclusion there regardless.
On the origin of species Moses
Brad Arthur seemed none too pleased about the surprising talk that Mitchell Moses is a front-runner to debut for NSW this year, understandably pointing out to the media that his young play-maker’s immediate responsibilities to the Eels trump anything else. Still the spotlight was firmly on Moses on Friday night and I felt he turned in his most complete game of the season – even if it wasn’t enough to get the Eels over the line.
The Warriors barely contained his attacking raids down their left edge. He applied spectacular touch to a number of short passes in the red zone and it took a number of superb shoe-string tackle to prevent momentum changing tries to Beau Scott.
Most pleasingly though was the game management skills that manifested in the second half as the Eels finally moved away from senseless mid-field bombs and finally worked the sidelines with a degree of precision that was far more familiar in 2017.
It will likely be forgotten in the wash up that is our 9th loss of the season but he rallied the team to the point of giving Clinton Gutherson an unlikely chance to win the game at the death. Prior to the game-sealing Isaac Luke try the Eels orchestrated an attacking shift down their right-edge. Moses found Gutherson out wide but unfortunately ‘Gutho’ found the wrong Jennings with the final pass.
We would all have a very different take on the game had that pass found George rather than Michael but that my friends is footy.
As far as the Origin hopes of our young halfback, given that Brad Fitler evidently has predilection to selecting Moses over James Maloney I dare say he would have liked what he saw on Friday.
Corey in no-man’s land
By contrast Corey Norman struggled to make an impact against the Warriors. He bottomed out early in the game after failing to find touch from a penalty but what troubled me more was how backline movements constantly stalled with the ball in the hands of the mercurial five-eighth.
For whatever reason the Eels have struggled to get the best out of both Norman and Moses at the same time this year so perhaps Brad Arthur needs to ride the hot hand now. Playing resources are stretched thin as it stands but with Jarryd Hayne due back in Round 12 there is some flexibility to rejig the halves between Jarryd and Brad Takairangi.
Dropping Norman to the Intrust Super Premiership may not be the answer but the Eels might just need to quite literally put the ball in the hands of Moses and trust him as the dominant play-maker.
The great Scott
It would be remiss of me not to say anything about a game that could very well the last for Beau Scott. While his tapering form was a concern for plenty of fans, to go out in such ignominious fashion is undeservedly cruel for one of the codes real warriors (no pun intended given the opposition). A suspected ruptured ACL will all but end the storied career of the premiership winning forward and his immense contributions in 2017 and especially 2016 should be fondly remembered by all fans.
The old man and the young bull
The timeless David Gower continues to flourish beyond expectations this season as he turned in another effort where he genuinely impacted the game from the bench. Like Peni he produced a sterling effort with 135m from 14 runs and 25 tackles with nary a miss.
Gower’s light feet before the line and for lack of better term ‘old-man strength’ have been a real feature in this dismal season and if he is willing to do this dance one more time I would be all for the Eels re-signing him for another year.
In complete contrast age wise was the rookie debutante Marata Niukore. Kept somewhat conservatively in reserve until late in the clash Marata’s numbers suffered as a result but he showed plenty of willingness to get involved on both sides of the ball. Season (and sadly potentially career) ending injuries to Beau Scott and Tony Williams along with the departure of Kenny Edwards have left the Eels desperately thin at EDGE so there is a good chance that Niukore will see a fair bit of playing time in first-grade.
Farewell Kenny
It had to happen but it doesn’t make hurt any less. For Kenny Edwards it was sadly one indiscretion too many as he and the Eels parted ways in a statement released by the club today. Parramatta had to take a stand on the issue and I certainly agree with the outcome but it does suck to see one of the few genuine characters of this great game leave our team.
For Kenny, I salute you for the contributions you made to our club and hope that you can find stability in your life away from the game. God speed you magnificent bastard.
A Payne-ful reminder of the risks of promoting youngsters
Undoubtedly there will be some raucous clamoring to see Brad Arthur accelerate young talent into the NRL team with the season essentially lost. While the limitations of the Top 30 do not facilitate such an approach depending on your roster composition, our gruesome injury toll has potentially opened a path for both new inductees to our Top 30 and dispensation to play development players.
Jaeman Salmon, Reed Mahoney and Oregon Kaufusi have attracted some attention in recent weeks as they ply their trade in the Intrust Super Premiership – especially Salmon who earned Man of the Match honours against Wyong last week. Ray Stone, Dane Aukafolau and Greg Leleisiuao (Injured, Round 15) are other potential options as well.
I would certainly love to see more young blood injected into the team down the path this year but there is a cautionary tale to be had here with the fate of Payne Haas. Young Payne is one of the most impressive physical specimens to don a jersey in first grade and fans of the Broncos were almost impatiently demanding that he get the call up to the NRL. He got his shot alright and three games later the young prodigy is looking at missing the rest of the season due to a shoulder reconstruction.
This doesn’t mean that Arthur and the Eels should sack the concept of promoting and developing a young gun or two this year but there is a very serious risk you undertake when doing so. Parramatta’s depth at hooker is reaching rock bottom given Cameron King’s struggles so there could be merit in promoting Mahoney while Salmon’s versatility could be valuable in a season where injuries have plagued our team.
The Final Word
The season slipped that much more into the abyss on Friday on the back of a first half effort that had me hurling all sorts of obscenities at the television (6:00 games are unfortunately impossible for me to attend due to work). As has been the case all season, the second half rally proved to be too-little too-late but I did take some comfort in finally seeing one of our halves take some ownership over the team. With two more losses left as a buffer, hope could spring eternal for the most optimistic fans but the colder reality of the situation is that the Eels will likely have the rest of the season to build for a make-or-break 2019.
How they approach this will be intriguing. Blooding some more players certainly is an appealing angle from a fan perspective but as I mentioned above, there are genuine risks you take when pitting a young and not quite fully-developed man against the grown men and monsters found in first grade.
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As usual Forty has outlined the game and the unfortunate problems that have reared their heads.
Looks like the biggest question that will be critical to the club going forward will be, have we the right people in place to recruit, retain and develop our NRL team, there seems to be good prospects finally emerging from our junior rep teams as they recover from poor administration in junior development.
initial thoughts are a well respected Bernie Gurr, and a coach that appears to have players trust and not least a favourable cap position should place recruitment in a healthy state. The crunch is that if that doesn’t translate into an improved and balanced roster for 2019 , and obviously results then it will be hard to make a case for their tenure at our club.
How important will the remainder of this season be, you can’t open a shiny new stadium, sell memberships and season tickets on that fact alone. This upcoming period of player signings , roster upgrade and younger players retention and development is the most crucial for the club and the senior officials, the deafening silence on possible signings needs to be a sign of professionalism not lack of intent and results.
The most important and crucial 4/5 months since Super League is coming at Bernie and BA.
#Eels for Life
We aren’t too far off with our losses but one thinks other teams only need to do enough to beat us.
There’s gotta be something deeper happening at the club to explain this apathy.
It’s not Gutho, Gowie or Moses – all of whom appear to be genuinely distressed at our performance and committed to improving and winning back our faith. Manu and Jenko are still putting in, but after that my confidence in players start to slide.
I’m looking forward to our march away from the spoon which I think can be our only motivation for the rest of the year.
Norman is a cancer on and off the field,his performances are not much different to Sandow and his off field behaviour is every bit as bad if not worse. The sooner he goes the sooner we start the comeback. Actually our 3 worst performers are probably eating up most money. All of their contracts end in 2019 then we actually progress in recruiting players willing to earn their money and respect the club and its supporters. SACK NORMAN !!! ! !
The other player I think who has played himself into form is Peni Terepo.
Your discussion around. Blooding new players is on the mark. Blooding Props at 18 yrs of age is very risky and there are a lot of case studies to back up this comment.
At the other end of the scale blooding Salmon in my opinion would not present the same risks. Bringing in a bunch of youngsters is not the solution.
Thinking ahead to 2019 and avoiding the spoon needs to be the focus from now.
Very good words about Kenny. I loved everything about Kenny apart from the fact that I always feared an email from the club entitled ‘statement on Kenny Edwards’. I hope he plays somewhere else but he needs to get help to sort himself out otherwise his problems will go with him. I think his loyalty, team mentality and energy was a very important factor that kept the playing group together in 2016. The club could have sacked him and got the cheap easy headline about making a stand on culture but Kenny and the club made the right choice. Kenny deserved to be able to leave with some dignity and I am glad he did. It gives me confidence that the management and coaches will make the right decisions to see out this storm and not the easy or media demanded one.
On the game in all honesty I don’t know anymore. I suspect the players don’t and are too uptight, nervous, apprehensive and we may only start to turn it around when the season is officially over, as in can’t mathemtacially make it. That might free them to start to work on fixing things.
As far as mathematically cant make it, in reality we have basically reached that point now I feel.
I share your pain on Kenny but the club just ran out of options as far as chances go.
First time i havent really agreed with you shelley re kenny only, take it from me theres a lot more incidents than those mentioned. People at club have bent over backwards for him and hes repaid them with nothing but lies and continual offences ,good riddance. Yes, he was alowed to leave respectfully ,its a shame he never showed any towards team mates,coaches and officials and mainly fans. As I said, GOOD RIDDANCE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Footnote theres 3 stupid mistakes per game gone, corey then butterfingers jennings next i hope !!!
I agree with him leaving and would have been disappointed if he stayed. I agree he has had many chances and ultimately he is responsible for his actions. I simply think the situation, re his dismissal was handled well.
Fair enough ,just probably more than he deserves but understand you want our club to be respected for fair play , just wished it was reciprocated shelley .
Bottom Line is, there are many different issues affecting the club on and off the field at the moment and certainly a lot more Questions than Answers
Fairly obvious observation from the fanbase and experts alike over the last few weeks are
Our forwards are definitely light on and fairly one dimensional, something that surely we are trying to rectify
Need a top shelf 9- Never has the position been more important in controlling a match and giving a team another point of attack
Norman definitely is badly out of form and has’nt developed into a top line half who can perform on a regular basis and at 28-29 yrs of age you wonder if he ever will (a change of clubs may do him the world of good)
As for our gameplan this is one of my major concerns and our instructions to continually run the same block plays and shapes from 2017- which also stops us from pushing up around the ball as everyone is back getting set up for the rehearsed play- this one factor alone has me thinking Arthur has run out of ideas as it is claerly not working and we look at our most dangerous when we start pushing up around the footy and play straight and fast and look for an offload also. WE KEEP RUNNING THE SAME SHITTY PLAYS WEEK AFTER WEEK AS WELL AS OUR MIDFIELD BOMBING CAMPAIGN
Play to the F&%ken corners when we r in the grind
I take your cautionary tale in relation to Payne Haas Sixties, but by that same token for every Haas there would be a heap of Kikaus, Pongas, Duffys, Fields etc who come in as young rookies and really step it up.
Heck, I still remember Hayne in ’06.
We definitely need to manage the bodies, minds and egos of any rookies that take the step to the NRL, but fear of breaking them isn’t a reason to hold them back in my mind. Sure, maybe not 80 mins week in week out, but I think with this season all but over and our injury toll opening some doors now is the perfect time to get some games under these kids belts to see how they’ll cope with NRL.
Sure, some may sink, but if there was ever a time for us to unearth the next Hayne, now is that time.
I’d love to see Stone, Mahoney and Salmon all get a run this year at the least. More if the NRL permit. It’ll also give fans another reason to see out the games this season if we’re able to watch some of our potential future stars play their first games.
Obviously the coaching and medical staff and the NRL will have the final say, but if it’s feasible, let’s see some of these up and comers shine!
And while I’m writing, a big thanks to Beau Scott. He was one of the most influential player involved in turning around our culture these past years. I know we’ve derailed this year, soon to be righted again I hope, but the steel and “lead by example” toughness shown by Scott has been a massive credit to himself and a massive help to the club. He’ll be remembered very fondly in the Blue and Gold.
As for Kenny. Always sad to see things end this way. I hope he finds the environment he needs to thrive, he’s a character but he’s got some personal work that’s more important than footy. Here’s hoping he sorts it out and lives a happy life. His cheeky antics will be missed, they were fun to watch (most of the time).
Some good points Captain; and Beau was superb for us. Gee it would be good to have him with the club in a defence role?
As for Kenny, if i was earning what he is and i guess its over $200k a season, I would have made some changes to my behaviours a while ago. Some people do not learn. Issue will be who picks him up…….personally a younger guy should be given a shot.
Great piece Captain. In Salmon’s first ISP game a couple of weeks ago, he was hit very late, and was stunned on the ground for a while. None other than Beau Scott ran up to him and wanted to know the player who had hit him so late. Scott was furious. What a great example of a tough no-nonsense forward on the look out for a young player. He will be missed.
Forty, most of your comments are Ok and lets say predictable.
That is not a criticism but the most obvious aspects of that game was our poor defence in our red zone and equally our poor options offensively in the same.
The only times they got into our red zone they virtually scored.
I said at the beginning of this season we have to restrict the opposition to two tries if we are to win games. The reason being that our attack is going to be weaker.
The Elephant in the room hasn’t been addressed…..Why is our goalline/red zone defence so poor…..every side we play scrambles so well in these areas.
I said to my wife as we watched the game on Friday night that good sides win these games from these positions…..unfortunately we are not a good side!
We need to understand why we are not better and stop shuffling the deck chairs….
There are so many knives out for the coach through all levels of social media, I fear we will act prematurely by the pressure that is being built. A lot of Unicorns are being turned to the dark side…..we need to be managed out of this by Bernie and a lessor extent Max.
Bernie needs to step up at the moment I sense his DNA is all over the issue of recruitment.
Max on the other hand needs to stick to the administration and leave the comments on the team to BA and Bernie. His comments the other day about culture and Hayne were not helpful