STATS THAT MATTA

EELS 36 (Tries: B Ferguson x 2, C. Gutherson x 2, S. Lane, D. Brown Goals: M. Moses 6 from 6)

defeat

BULLDOGS 16 (Tries: K. Foran, R. Smith, D. Napa. Goals: K. Holland 2 from 3)

Sunday, March 24 2019

ANZ Stadium

Crowd: 20,134

As we wrap up round 2 of the 2019 NRL Premiership. There isn’t much more to say or add to the performance of the Eels over the past 2 weekends.

So lets just bask in the glory of very well deserved win to the Eels.

If this opening 10 minutes was last season, the Eels would have never bounced back like they did. What a massive turn around in 12 months in attitude for this playing group.

	Team Stats Full Time
52	Possession (%)	48
27/35 (77)	Complete/Total Sets (%)	23/35 (66)
40:13	Time – Opposition Half	40:03
13:53	Time – Opposition 20	20:04
1991	Metres Gained	2277
11	Scrum Win	3
3	Goal Line Dropout	2
3	Penalty Conceded	3
0	Forty Twenty	0

	Team Stats First Half
52	Possession (%)	48
14/16 (88)	Complete/Total Sets (%)	12/17 (71)
16:02	Time – Opposition Half	24:06
9:27	Time – Opposition 20	10:31
957	Metres Gained	1021
8	Scrum Win	1
2	Goal Line Dropout	1
3	Penalty Conceded	1
0	Forty Twenty	0

	Team Stats Second Half
52	Possession (%)	48
13/19 (68)	Complete/Total Sets (%)	11/18 (61)
24:11	Time – Opposition Half	15:57
4:26	Time – Opposition 20	9:33
1033	Metres Gained	1256
3	Scrum Win	2
1	Goal Line Dropout	1
0	Penalty Conceded	2
0	Forty Twenty	0

Even with less ball and a pretty poor completion rate, the Eels held strong and stuck to their structures and game plans.

Usually when you see those sort of stats, you would expect to see a lower scoring game and even a loss, but well played to Eels.

Player Stats

Totals

Runs	161	161
Run Metres	1780	1335
Tackles	342	318
Missed Tackles	22	36
Tackle Ineffective	16	12
Effective Tackle Rate	90%	87%
Errors	17	9

Heat Maps

Set Starts

A few set starts on our own line. Oh hang one that’s because of all the game restarts after tries. 😊

Runs/Hit ups

Not bad overall. Forwards didn’t really need to do much in the opposition half as there work was very solid in getting the Eels out of their own half then the back took over.

Summary

A sensational effort for the Eels especially after the Dogs got the jump on us in the first 15min of the opening half. As stated before, if this was Eels circa 2018, heads would of went down and who knows how much the Bulldogs could of ended up beating us by.

The middle 40 mins from the Eels was electric. The closing 15 minutes for mine was a bit of a dog’s breakfast – no pun intended. I would of liked to have seen the Eels go on with it. Foot on the throat type stuff. Whatever may be, perhaps they thought they had the game won which resulted in unfortunate concession of the Napa try. There is still a bit of tweaking to be done by Brad Arthur and his team.

Then again, all this wont mean much if we don’t aim up against the competition heavy weights and 2019 favourites the Sydney Roosters.

One opportunity that potentially presents itself for the Eels is that the Roosters haven’t outscored their opponents in the final quarter of the game. Both their opening games haven’t seen them win this period and this is where I think the Eels can pounce. Are the Roosters looking tired in the final 60 – 80 min period? Last Saturday against the Sea Eagles certainly lends credibility to the thought. Closing out matches in those moments is the sign of a very good team so hopefully the Eels can do just that tomorrow!

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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