The Cumberland Throw

Stats That Matta – Round 13, 2019: Sharks Defeat Eels

 

STATS THAT MATTA

Round 12

EELS 22

(Tries: M. Sivo x 2, J. Hoffman, M. Jennings. Goals: M. Moses 3 from 4.)

Defeated by

SHARKS 42

(Tries: B. Xerri x 2, A. Fifita, J. Dugan, C. Townsend, K. Flanagan, A. Gray. Goals: K. Flanagan 7 from 8.)

Saturday, June 8 2019

PointsBet Stadium

Crowd: 12,386

Things just didn’t go well for the Eels in the Shire on Saturday night. Gutherson knocked out in the opening stages, a knock on not called then a try, some vital refereeing calls and the Eels not playing any football.

Those first couple of things are out of our control, but not turning up and putting in another poor performance is just not on. This Eels team is literally bi-polar. Extreme highs one week, and demoralising lows the next. When the opposition captain actually comes out to say, “we only let points in because we were bored” and calls your forwards soft, surely such an insult drives your team to fire up? If it can’t, who knows what will!

We were lucky to get within 20 points of the Sharks. Our away form is at an alarming stage because we just don’t turn up and you can confidently predict that with most away games. The opposition teams would be looking at the draw and thinking about when they get to play Parra as it’s a guaranteed way to work into some form. Look at the Knights and Panthers since they have beaten us.

Is this post opener just written out of frustration? Damn right it is.

And probably no one is more frustrated than coach Brad Arthur.

Score Flow

Parramatta Eels
H Minute Name Event Score
1 3 B.Xerri TRY 4 – 0
1 4 K.Flanagan CONVERSION 6 – 0
1 15 K.Flanagan PENALTY GOAL 8 – 0
1 24 A.Fifita TRY 12 – 0
1 25 K.Flanagan CONVERSION 14 – 0
1 27 M.Sivo TRY 14 – 4
1 28 M.Moses CONVERSION 14 – 6
1 39 J.Dugan TRY 18 – 6
1 40 K.Flanagan CONVERSION 20 – 6
2 43 C.Townsend TRY 24 – 6
2 45 K.Flanagan CONVERSION 26 – 6
2 56 K.Flanagan TRY 30 – 6
2 58 K.Flanagan CONVERSION 32 – 6
2 59 B.Xerri TRY 36 – 6
2 61 K.Flanagan CONVERSION 38 – 6
2 66 M.Sivo TRY 38 – 10
2 67 M.Moses CONVERSION MISS 38 – 10
2 73 J.Hoffman TRY 38 – 14
2 74 M.Moses CONVERSION 38 – 16
2 75 M.Jennings TRY 38 – 20
2 75 M.Moses CONVERSION 38 – 22
2 79 A.Gray TRY 42 – 22
2 80 K.Flanagan CONVERSION MISS 42 – 22

Game Stats

Team Stats

Full Time

50 Possession (%) 50
22/36 (61) Complete/Total Sets (%) 29/36 (81)
43:34 Time – Opposition Half 37:53
17:29 Time – Opposition 20 11:08
2126 Metres Gained 2108
4 Scrum Win 10
1 Goal Line Dropout 1
10 Penalty Conceded 6
0 Forty Twenty 0
Team Stats

First Half

54 Possession (%) 46
13/20 (65) Complete/Total Sets (%) 16/17 (94)
27:15 Time – Opposition Half 13:19
7:28 Time – Opposition 20 5:49
1236 Metres Gained 1068
0 Scrum Win 4
0 Goal Line Dropout 1
6 Penalty Conceded 4
0 Forty Twenty 0
Team Stats

Second Half

46 Possession (%) 54
9/16 (56) Complete/Total Sets (%) 13/19 (68)
16:19 Time – Opposition Half 24:34
10:01 Time – Opposition 20 5:19
890 Metres Gained 1040
4 Scrum Win 6
1 Goal Line Dropout 0
4 Penalty Conceded 2
0 Forty Twenty 0

These game stats suggest that the match was a tight knit affair that went down to the wire. Obviously, it was far from that.

The overall completion rates from the Eels were really solid, with the 94% first half rate suggesting that the Eels would have been well on top. You could make a case that the Eels were hard done by with decisions and injury in the first period.

But as Eels fans, we know that overall good stats don’t always equate to good footy. Stats are supposed to tell a story. But sometimes the final numbers just don’t add up.

 

 

Player Stats

Round 13 Statistics (Click to open)

 

Forward Rotation

Games Avg Mins Last Week This Week
Kane Evans 8 25 34 32
Reed Mahoney 13 74 80 80
Junior Paulo 12 53 42 58
Shaun Lane 13 78 80 75
Manu Ma’u 7 59 80 67
Tepai Moeroa 11 41 37 40
Peni Terepo 11 42 41 43
David Gower 6 44 38 78
Marata Niukore 13 68 30 40
Nathan Brown 2 32 45

The most obvious change in rotation occurred with David Gower. After being moved to 5/8 after only two minutes, this was as close to an 80 minute performance as Gowie would ever play. The return of Nathan Brown featured an unexpected 45 minutes. There wasn’t the intention to play so many minutes, but he’ll be good for that run.

 

 

Totals

Runs 155 163
Run Metres 1387 1676
Tackles 301 298
Missed Tackles 34 29
Tackle Ineffective 17 30
Effective Tackle Rate 85.5% 83%
Errors 10 15

Heat Maps

Set Starts

We did have some decent territory to start our attack but nothing came of it. We got into the Sharks 20m zone but there was no polish in the attack. No questions were being put towards the Sharks online defence. Just side ways running, a lack of ideas and no forward penetration to put the Sharks online defence on the back foot.

Hit Ups

This map show’s exactly what I just said in the above map. The red area shows the majority of where the Eels were doing hit ups from. Where is the forward hit ups in the Sharks 20? We had plenty of set starts in that area but no forward leadership. Just disappointing to say the least.

Summary

As we lock away Round 13 2019 of the Telstra Premiership, we can again say ‘What’s the Matta Parramatta’. Another frustrating away game with a hell of a lot more questions than answers.

Before I sign off, I would like to thank Timmy Mannah for his service at our club. It is a shame his time at Parra has ended this way, but what has transpired is between him and the club and ultimately should stay that way, but as we know the league media will delve into this to try to find out what happened.

It would have been great to see him finish a one club player, but with the NRL how it is, unfortunately it won’t come about for our ‘former’ captain.

He has copped plenty of flack in the last few seasons, but he always gave his all and was very proud to pull on the Blue and Gold every time without question.

I thank you for your service Tim to our great club and wish you all the success at your new club.

Yours in Blue and Gold

Colmac

https://i0.wp.com/thecumberlandthrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Champion-Data.png?resize=194%2C79

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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6 thoughts on “Stats That Matta – Round 13, 2019: Sharks Defeat Eels

  1. Colin Hussey

    What I notice in these stats tells me a heck of a lot that if a team losing can actually do better as far as having equal possession, time in opposition half is not great but fair, win more scrums, concede less penalties, & make just 20 odd metres less than the Sharks in attack, but concede more twice the points than we score, bar 2 points.

    We have three forwards who play 80 or close minutes, have a greater percentage of effective tackles yet the general tackle numbers are higher than the opposition who also have higher missed tackles, even our error rates are less than the winning side.

    I doubt even Einstein could work that out.

    Also my question is how can a player who has been out injured for most of this first half of the season play more time than a player who has been not out injured and is again selected in the front row?

    Glad I did not see the game. Can only hope that the team selected for the horses game does not turn them in to thoroughbred stallions, and we become gummy eels,

    1. John Eel

      Colin I did not see the game either but what stands out for me is time in the 20 metre zone. It was quite low. As Colmac pointed out this is likely a result of poor attacking options.

      1. Colin Hussey

        John The whole of the stats when put together give an impression of a school team perhaps at high school level with basic abilities at best. Add all the stats and in some areas the eels are far better than the sharks but incapable of capitalising on them, reality is when also looking at the team you have 10 forwards mentioned and given that Nathan Brown is 2nd game back from long term injury can play more time than some who have been playing all year and should be match conditioned, tells me the match has been burnt to the end.

        4 of the forwards each played less than Nathan. Our young hooker plays the whole game, an over 30’s player retiring at the end of this year plays the next highest at 78 minutes, following by lane at 75minutes and Ma’u at 67, and Jnr at 58minutes.

        The others don’t deserve to be playing NRL tomorrow night but considering the wonderful players at Wenty and their effort last weekend no wonder there’s only one change in the team, and guess which player is wearing the women in league eels jersey? head to the eels webb site to see, the way he is going would likely be flat out making that team as well, & he was a player I liked and defended, but now exhausted in that dept.

        1. sixties

          Colin, I feel your pain. We saw what Nathan Brown delivered in his first game. He literally demanded to be left on the field. I was confident that his conditioning would hold up. He’s done more than his share of it during his rehab process, and in speaking to him, he seemed to be in a very good head space about it.
          What the stats emphasise to me, is that when we concede points, we do so very quickly. Look at how fast the score got away from us. Some teams lift in intensity in defence after conceding points. The Eels do the opposite. It’s time to weed out those who are the worst offenders.

  2. DDay

    The reasonable possesion, ineffective tackles, penalty, metre stats just don’t aign with the score. Similarly the Player Stats suggest Moses & Hoffman missed a lot of tackles, Tep went MIA but otherwise the stats suggest the workload was shared around. Clearly the stats don’t show how important the missed tackles were

    1. sixties

      DDay, those points come far too easy when we open up. The spaces are there after players are left on the ground after quick play the balls. Then an ineffective or missed tackle by an isolated player like Moses or Hoff looks crucial. Players like Moses or any half will always be targeted, but whenever Moses gets his body in front of bigger blokes like he is doing, I won’t question him. What I question is what is happening elsewhere to create the space for him to get isolated.

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