STATS THAT MATTA
Round 7
EELS 14
(Tries: M. Sivo, M. Ma’u. Goals: M. Moses 3 from 3.)
Defeated by
KNIGHTS 28 (Tries: K. Ponga, L. Fitzgibbon, J. Gavet, M. Pearce. Goals: K. Ponga 6 from 6.)
Sunday, April 28 2019
McDonald Jones Stadium
Crowd: 19,604
The NRL could be an interesting study. What is it with sides having the wood over other sides? As a code, rugby league is littered with teams that are bogey sides for certain opponents.
At Parramatta, we are literally the epitome of a team with a bogey side. In fact, we don’t muck around with just one, we have several!
To that end, why can’t Parramatta travel and win outside the Sydney Metro area? Why can’t the Eels put in a polished performance over sides we should be beating? Why, why, why????
As supporters, we don’t have answers, and we’ve been watching this happen year in, year out.
After the Tigers thumping, everyone knew this Knights clash was a match that just felt uneasy. It doesn’t matter how either side is travelling, the Knights just have the wood over the Eels.
Here were the Knights, ripe for the picking, playing some trash football over the last few weeks against a side who were so white hot the week before you had to wear sunnies to watch them.
But once again, the Eels put in the type of performance that left the football department and the Blue and Gold Army collectively scratching their heads.
I am going to be super critical because in reality it is the same thing over and over again with the Eels.
Newcastle got the jump on us early. They wanted this match come rain, hail or shine. And we just let them run riot over us. We looked out of our depth. We had no answers. No punch up the middle, along with errors in vital parts of the field. With a lack of direction and cohesion it felt like 2018 had returned big time.
Only two forwards cracked the 100 metre mark, and they were both bench forwards in Mannah and Ma’u.
Terepo did not deliver what was needed from a starting forward. Mannah provided what the team needed when he came on and in retrospect would have been a better option once Alvaro was ruled out with concussion. For mine Peni is better utilised off the bench against a tiring defensive line. Mannah has been sensational this year and that enthusiasm and quality would have been better suited at the start of this game.
Taking off my stats hat, and donning the pure supporter cap, it’s very frustrating when you see what this team can do, but then they put in a performance like this against a side that was coming dead last. Some of the tries that Parra conceded were like the players were thinking “someone else will get to it’ or dare I say just lazy. The 2018 mentality.
Let’s be brutally honest, our ‘A’ defenders (defenders closest to the ruck but not markers) were very poor. We made Danny Levi look like a cross between Cameron Smith and Damien Cook on Sunday.
Score Flow
| Parramatta Eels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H | Minute | Name | Event | Score |
| 1 | 6 | K.Ponga | PENALTY GOAL | 2 – 0 |
| 1 | 7 | K.Ponga | TRY | 6 – 0 |
| 1 | 8 | K.Ponga | CONVERSION | 8 – 0 |
| 1 | 10 | L.Fitzgibbon | TRY | 12 – 0 |
| 1 | 11 | K.Ponga | CONVERSION | 14 – 0 |
| 1 | 26 | J.Gavet | TRY | 18 – 0 |
| 1 | 27 | K.Ponga | CONVERSION | 20 – 0 |
| 1 | 36 | M.Sivo | TRY | 20 – 4 |
| 1 | 37 | M.Moses | CONVERSION | 20 – 6 |
| 1 | 40 | M.Moses | PENALTY GOAL | 20 – 8 |
| 2 | 51 | M.Ma’u | TRY | 20 – 12 |
| 2 | 52 | M.Moses | CONVERSION | 20 – 14 |
| 2 | 58 | K.Ponga | PENALTY GOAL | 22 – 14 |
| 2 | 68 | M.Pearce | TRY | 26 – 14 |
| 2 | 70 | K.Ponga | CONVERSION | 28 – 14 |
Game Stats
 |
Team Stats
Full Time |
 |
|---|---|---|
| 53 | Possession (%) | 47 |
| 29/38 (76) | Complete/Total Sets (%) | 25/35 (71) |
| 46:46 | Time – Opposition Half | 34:36 |
| 23:31 | Time – Opposition 20 | 12:48 |
| 2385 | Metres Gained | 1813 |
| 6 | Scrum Win | 10 |
| 0 | Goal Line Dropout | 2 |
| 8 | Penalty Conceded | 8 |
| 0 | Forty Twenty | 0 |
 |
Team Stats
First Half |
 |
|---|---|---|
| 53 | Possession (%) | 47 |
| 14/18 (78) | Complete/Total Sets (%) | 14/18 (78) |
| 27:27 | Time – Opposition Half | 13:50 |
| 13:36 | Time – Opposition 20 | 7:08 |
| 1257 | Metres Gained | 941 |
| 1 | Scrum Win | 5 |
| 0 | Goal Line Dropout | 2 |
| 5 | Penalty Conceded | 4 |
| 0 | Forty Twenty | 0 |
 |
Team Stats
Second Half |
 |
|---|---|---|
| 54 | Possession (%) | 46 |
| 15/20 (75) | Complete/Total Sets (%) | 11/17 (65) |
| 19:19 | Time – Opposition Half | 20:46 |
| 9:55 | Time – Opposition 20 | 5:40 |
| 1128 | Metres Gained | 872 |
| 5 | Scrum Win | 5 |
| 0 | Goal Line Dropout | 0 |
| 3 | Penalty Conceded | 4 |
| 0 | Forty Twenty | 0 |
The Newcastle Knights got over our advantage line with ease. With the Knights gaining nearly 600 extra metres, Klemmer ran riot. It was almost embarrassing watching Levi repeatedly splitting us up the middle for great roll ons. From that opening set, we just weren’t up to the pace of it all.
Player Stats
Forward Rotation
| Games | Avg Mins | Last Week | This Week | |
| Peni Terepo | 5 | 44 | 42 | 38 |
| Reed Mahoney | 7 | 73 | 80 | 80 |
| Junior Paulo | 6 | 56 | 67 | 43 |
| Shaun Lane | 7 | 77 | 72 | 80 |
| Marata Niukore | 7 | 76 | 50 | 80 |
| Tepai Moeroa | 6 | 43 | 46 | 45 |
| Manu Ma’u | 1 | 42 | – | 42 |
| Tim Mannah | 7 | 38 | 46 | 27 |
| Oregon Kaufusi | 4 | 25 | 41 | 28 |
| Ray Stone | 2 | 26 | 37 | 16 |
The pattern of 80 minute performances for Mahoney, Lane and Niukore continued. There were significantly less minutes for Stone and Mannah – a little surprising considering Mannah’s impact.
Totals
 |
 |
|
| Runs | 147 | 170 |
| Run Metres | 1336 | 1829 |
| Tackles | 359 | 314 |
| Missed Tackles | 36 | 39 |
| Tackle Ineffective | 12 | 10 |
| Effective Tackle Rate | 88% | 86% |
| Errors | 10 | 11 |
Heat Maps
Set Starts
There was a scattering of decent set starts but we just didn’t capitalise on the. The Eels should have done a whole lot more, especially when we were in a position to take this game.
Hit Ups
Look at the story told from this heat map. The red is almost entirely contained in our own half. There was minimal work through the middle in the knights half – certainly nothing that was bending the line or setting up attacking opportunities.
Summary
As a way of steering away from doom and gloom, we should highlight the stand out performances from Reed Mahoney in defence, the attacking threats provided by Jennings and Sivo, and the solid return from Ma’u.
Of course, the beauty of the NRL premiership is that we have next match to turn things around.
Returning home to Bankwest Stadium against the Dragons, should see a much better performance from the Eels. This clash is close to game of the round as we know both teams can produce when it counts.
The return of Corey Norman will spice things up a little, as we see him up against his old team mates for the first time.
I’m really looking forward to this encounter and I hope there is close to a full house again this Sunday.
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.
Good summary Colmac; poor middle defence, lack of metres from the forwards and away bogey teams.
The roles are reversed this week; Eels at home, we have a good record against Saints so here’s hoping for a reversal of fortunes.
Thanks for the stats Colmac. I have been brutal in my assessment of the team from the last game. We are a team on the rise, similar to 2017. We were hammered in the ruck and when the tide did turn our way, we were not good enough to capitalise. Whilst I am not a half full type of person, I believe we have a bloody good team. I just dont know why we had the 2018 spoon year!! The team can only get better. Looking forward to the dragons game, even if the last 20 minutes of the first half I will be blinded with the sun setting.
I just watched the Moses and Gutho videos on the Parra website. These two young lads are all about themselves, and I have not issue with that. I just ask the Recruitment and Retention committee to let the go. Their behavior and approach is super disappointing. We do not need players like these two guys in our squad. Just because they cannot get what they want they and behave like sour grapes, move on. No one will give you more than Parra has offered you. You are not representative players, you have achieved nothing in your careers to date.
Grammar corrected!
I just watched the Moses and Gutho videos on the Parra website. These two young lads are all about themselves. I do not have any issue with that. I just ask the Recruitment and Retention committee to let them go. Their behavior and approach is super disappointing. We do not need players like these two guys in our squad. Just because they cannot get what they want they behave like sour grapes, move on. No one will give you more than Parra has offered you. You are not representative players, you have achieved nothing in your careers to date. This is a new era for Parra, we dont pay overs and if you are not happy we dont want you. We want players like Mannah and Fegro.
First I’ve got to thank Colmac for the inspired stats. Sadly it has begotten an Esau who puts no value on the very things that us Jacobs cherish.
But !0 I suspect your grammar is consistent with your exclamation/nil year member nom de plume? I could be wrong but the reading of your comments about two of our best young performers who have actually held up our incredibly inexperienced spine each week wreaks of someone who knows nothing about the conviction both Gutho and Moses have expressed in their desire to remain at our club long-term. If either of them are reading TCT may I sincerely ask them to disregard your ignorance and hopefully come to terms with the club sooner than later. There are many Parra fans who really appreciate and even admire your efforts and commitment on and off-field while under such enormous pressure during these current negotiations.
touché
It’s interesting looking at the run meters from the “spine” players – almost non existent. These guys need to be able to attack the line better to produce breaks, and this just did not happen last week because our attack was under so much pressure. The fact that Moses was hammered every time he got the ball to kick down field suggests that the opposition did not have to guess who was kicking downfield. We desperately need those other spine players to take some of the pressure off Moses and keep the opposition second guessing. Having our hooker make so many tackles is a great testament to the fortitude of Mahoney, but he is not meant to be a tackling machine – that is what the other middle forwards should be doing, and we certainly missed Alvaro in that respect. We need to keep Mahoney fresh at dummy half to run and kick more – use him as an attacking player, not just as a defensive player.
We lost this game during the pre-game ceremonies. You could see in the players faces that their heads were not even in Newcastle, let alone the game in hand. We need the players to be able to focus and rise to each game, or we will continue to languish as also-rans.
Tks Colmac, along with the lack of punch in the middle,the 30% more run metres probably says it all, the Knights got onto the front foot and we never quite dealt with it. Possession 53/47 isn’t an avalanche but plenty when you’re on song. Penalties/errors even. We made more tackles and missed less, a sign that we hung in, but they must have excluded the misses on Levi.
Did you see the Annesley stat that our game had highest slow release? 34% of Knights releases were above 4 seconds, Eels 31%. The speed of the game forced this. The refs consider 30% as maximum acceptable.