STATS THAT MATTA
Round 5
EELS 0
Defeated by
RAIDERS 19
(Tries: J. Papalii, E. Whitehead, J. Wighton. Goals: J. Croker 3 from 4. Field Goal: S. Williams 1 from 1.)
Sunday, April 14 2019
GIO Stadium
Crowd: 16,059
Let’s begin with the obvious. Our attack just wasn’t there. We had no composure, and without sustaining any pressure we offered nothing. The last month seemed so long ago.
But it’s not all gloom. The one ray of light to take from the game was that the Eels defence was awesome and there is no denying that. A crash and burrow over try by Papalli after repeated sets, a lucky ricochet kick for Whitehead and a cross field kick for Wighton were the sum total scoring methods from the glut of possession enjoyed by the Raiders. In reality, only one try emanated from broken defence.
An aspect of our play which baffled me was why we didn’t use our left side more often once Ferguson went off. Even if Ferguson stayed on we need to use both sides of the field. Two strike weapons on our left just weren’t used. Both Jennings and Sivo had to come to the right side just to make some carries.
Jennings looked good with ball in hand and Sivo looked damaging with his runs and capacity to get an offload away. But for whatever reason we just didn’t utilise them. Marata was out on his feet trying his best with Gower and Takairangi on either side of him.
With that out of the way, let’s look (or not) at the Stats that (don’t really) Matta.
| Parramatta Eels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H | Minute | Name | Event | Score |
| 1 | 27 | J.Papalii | TRY | 4 – 0 |
| 1 | 28 | J.Croker | CONVERSION | 6 – 0 |
| 1 | 37 | J.Croker | PENALTY GOAL | 8 – 0 |
| 2 | 48 | E.Whitehead | TRY | 12 – 0 |
| 2 | 50 | J.Croker | CONVERSION MISS | 12 – 0 |
| 2 | 61 | J.Wighton | TRY | 16 – 0 |
| 2 | 62 | J.Croker | CONVERSION | 18 – 0 |
| 2 | 75 | S.Williams | FIELD GOAL | 19 – 0 |
Game Stats
 |
Team Stats
Full Time |
 |
|---|---|---|
| 57 | Possession (%) | 43 |
| 29/41 (71) | Complete/Total Sets (%) | 18/34 (53) |
| 47:18 | Time – Opposition Half | 32:50 |
| 21:35 | Time – Opposition 20 | 8:56 |
| 2420 | Metres Gained | 1626 |
| 8 | Scrum Win | 8 |
| 1 | Goal Line Dropout | 4 |
| 6 | Penalty Conceded | 5 |
| 0 | Forty Twenty | 0 |
 |
Team Stats
First Half |
 |
|---|---|---|
| 62 | Possession (%) | 38 |
| 16/22 (73) | Complete/Total Sets (%) | 7/14 (50) |
| 31:11 | Time – Opposition Half | 8:53 |
| 15:19 | Time – Opposition 20 | 2:18 |
| 1239 | Metres Gained | 740 |
| 6 | Scrum Win | 4 |
| 0 | Goal Line Dropout | 3 |
| 1 | Penalty Conceded | 3 |
| 0 | Forty Twenty | 0 |
 |
Team Stats
Second Half |
 |
|---|---|---|
| 52 | Possession (%) | 48 |
| 13/19 (68) | Complete/Total Sets (%) | 11/20 (55) |
| 16:07 | Time – Opposition Half | 23:57 |
| 6:16 | Time – Opposition 20 | 6:38 |
| 1182 | Metres Gained | 886 |
| 2 | Scrum Win | 4 |
| 1 | Goal Line Dropout | 1 |
| 5 | Penalty Conceded | 2 |
| 0 | Forty Twenty | 0 |
Just by looking at the Possession and Completed stats can tell you how this game unfolded. We were starved of possession from the get go, and we have to examine our errors for that. You can’t mount any attack or put pressure on when you can’t hold the ball.
Player Stats
Forward Rotation
| Games | Avg Mins | Last Week | This Week | |
| Daniel Alvaro | 5 | 44 | 33 | 48 |
| Reed Mahoney | 5 | 70 | 80 | 70 |
| Junior Paulo | 4 | 57 | 57 | 60 |
| Shaun Lane | 5 | 78 | 80 | 80 |
| Marata Niukore | 5 | 80 | 80 | 80 |
| Tepai Moeroa | 4 | 42 | 33 | 35 |
| Peni Terepo | 3 | 47 | 47 | 55 |
| Tim Mannah | 5 | 38 | 33 | 28 |
| Kane Evans | 5 | 26 | 23 | 24 |
| David Gower | 3 | 38 | – | 35 |
Alvaro and Terepo were both up on their minutes played compared to last week. Polar’s increase was not unexpected given his limited minutes last week and his season average. Terepo’s minutes appear to be increasing. Given the late high tackle on Mahoney, his reduced minutes can be easily accounted for. Tim Mannah’s 28 minutes was a significant drop on his season average.
Totals
 |
 |
|
| Runs | 133 | 175 |
| Run Metres | 1239 | 1820 |
| Tackles | 395 | 296 |
| Missed Tackles | 38 | 24 |
| Tackle Ineffective | 16 | 18 |
| Effective Tackle Rate | 88% | 88% |
| Errors | 18 | 12 |
Heat Maps
Set Starts
This is telling. The Eels didnt start a single set in Canberra’s red zone. No pressure applied. No points scored.
Hit Ups
This is an interesting heat map. There was a distinct lack of engagement through the middle as the Eels tried to apply pressure on the Raiders edges and nothing worked. We couldn’t bend the line back and the Raiders edge defenders were having a training run at some stages. Were we prepared to do the hard grind and win the middle before we shifted the ball? We just couldn’t get any momentum going.
Summary
The statistics and heat maps really speak for themselves, so there’s little point in providing any further analysis. Round over. Move on.
So we now look forward to returning home and opening up the new Parramatta (BankWest) Stadium in style.
A sold out Bankwest Stadium will have the Blue and Gold Army buzzing with excitement.
There’s excitement at the sell out, and a buzz over the prospect that this will be an awesome game. The Tigers will be up after their last second victory against Brisbane and the Eels will be looking to bounce back hard after such a poor performance against the Raiders. I think everyone in the NRL is looking forward to this encounter.
I missed the open day on Sunday, but I am very much looking forward to the open training session on Wednesday night and super excited for next Monday.
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.
Thanks Colmac; the stats definitely tell the story; as I didn’t see the game it shows a sorry picture but as mentioned it was good defence at times.
It is hard to comment after not watching but what do we make of the team? The same as the one who beat Cronulla but composure was not there? Missed tackles up; completions down.
Shame but we have to bounce back as we must come back strong against wests who mind you will be very hard to beat. I always have issues tipping against them to be honest.
I also wish we were playing Canberra again v soon to pay them back!! Dislike with a passion…..and it has a lot to do with their coach!
I saw the traits of the first four weeks in the Eels efforts but not in the composure. I feel similarly re Raiders.
Interestingly I have seen some other stats that show Mahoney going higher in the tackle count, however for 70 odd minutes those are good figures.
Why the ball did not get out to MJ and Sivo begs a question as to why, if it was with Brown on that side playing as 5/8 there was ball going that side, was the ball getting to Salmon and stopping there? While I did not see the game, given the stats it seems that there is a bit of a weak spot there.
Any team that has to tackle 100 times more than the opposition, also concedes more than 800 more metres compared to the opposition is not going to draw a game let alone win.
I certainly hope when the return match comes round and its at the new stadium that the eels can play the game with the same intent-isty as the Canberra did, and that includes showing the poms in their team that the eels can give better then they did.
Thanks for this, it really helped explain the game and why we all kept saying go through the middle in frustration. For some reason they went away from what has worked, through the middle quick play the balls and then shift, let’s hope they go back through the middle this week. the player video review would have been interesting to witness.
Thanks for the stats Colmac. Agreed, our defensive display was one for the ages considering the crap we dished up in offense. That is the one think I took away, the boys just never gave up, but 100 more tackles and 50% completion is not good enought. Interesting highlight about getting the ball out left, I noticed MJ was coming around the other side just to get his hands on the ball. If we put up that defensive effort on Monday and handle the ball a bit better, it will be a cracking game.
Dropped ball | possession | metres gained statistics plus the horse shoe heat map tell the story, more than happy to move on and forget the game.