STAT ATTACK REVIEW: ROUND 11

EELS – 14 (Tries: C. Gutherson, M. Ma’u. Goals: M. Moses 3 from 3)

Defeated by

WARRIORS – 24 (Tries: D. Fusitu’a, P. Hiku, J. Tevaga, I. Luke. Goals: M. Lino 4 from 5)

ANZ Stadium

Crowd: 9,467

I’m not sure if these are getting easier or harder to write. It’s easier because there is really nothing more you can say about our 2018 performances. It’s harder because you have to relive these games over in your head to come up with some sort of analysis on what is going on.

But analyse we must, so let’s plough on.

Full Time Stats

Looking at the full time stats you would have thought that we played pretty good. We led in all major facets of the game but in the one area you need to win the most, Completed sets. We even won a penalty count for a change but still couldn’t hold onto the ball to build pressure.

Game pressure. Game management. Which ever you want to call it we aren’t doing either well at all.

1^st Half Stats

The least said about this half the better. Dropped balls. The Peta Hiku try.

Consider this – the penalty count was 8 to 3 in the Eels favour and yet the Warriors still ended up with 52% possession and nearly 200m extra in attack.

This was just a really, really poor half of footy.

2^nd Half Stats

The opening 10 to 15 minutes saw what the Eels can do. But yet again we went away from basic footy fundamentals. We fought our way back to lead the match and enjoyed the type of territory and possession which should have won.

Attack:

I thought Joseph Paulo didn’t play at Parramatta anymore? So what is with all this crabbing across field? We have one of the quickest players in the game in Bevan French and yet his involvement is negligible. In the first half, our forwards failed to create line breaks or bend the line, besides Manu. Yet then, they were able to do so in the second half.

Is possible to utilise the speed we possess in our backline via an attacking kicking game?so why not use kicks to go over the defensive line? French on one side and the Jennings boys on the other. Both Norman and Moses do posses great kicking games. Use it.

* MP: Minutes Played, R: Runs, RM: Run Metres

Run Metres:

Eels – 1603m from 167 runs (9.6m per run) – 2 Line Breaks

Warriors – 1265m from 133 runs (9.5m per run) – 2 Line Breaks

Defence:

Our online defence was very poor. We can excuse that wicked bounce on Mitchell Moses, but that George Jennings miss on Peta Hiku – what was that??? Never have I seen anything like that before. Was it poor defending or just an attitude thing? So many questions and really not many answers unfortunately. That one play pretty much summed up the Eels season. Just not going on with it.

The ref didn’t blow the whistle, what happened to playing to the whistle?

What can we say about our defence at times?

How far away are the Eels drifting from their match plans?

* MP: Minutes Played, T: Tackles, MT: Missed Tackles

Tackles:

Eels – 303

Warriors – 352

Missed Tackles/Ineffective Tackles:

Eels – 18 missed / 16 ineffective

Warriors – 25 missed / 15 ineffective

Effective Contact:

Eels – 89.9%

Warriors – 89.8%

Penalties and Errors:

Penalties Conceded:

Eels – 7

Warriors – 11

Errors:

Eels – 12

Warriors – 7

Heat Maps

Hit Ups

Not a bad looking heat map considering what we saw Friday night. Our forwards tried but up against the monster pack from the Warriors we just couldn’t bend them enough, or take advantage of when we did. Support play?

Set Starts

Plenty of opportunity to attack in the Warriors half but we just didn’t do anything with it. There were eight starts in the Warriors 30 metre area and the Eels could only come up with two tries.

Final Word

This was another game that got away from the Eels with poor execution. Our discipline was pretty good, but our execution was just not good enough.

Poor hands cost us as we just let the Warriors off the hook time and time again. Pressure would begin to mount then the ball goes to ground. If it wasn’t dropped balls it was loose carries. So many unforced errors just killed any momentum we tried to build.

A question to think about is ‘Who would win, a team of champions or a champion team?’ I do believe that Parramatta falls in one of those two categories. It is pretty plain to see which one the Eels are at the moment and also answers the question.

Stay strong Blue and Gold Army.

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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