Date: Sunday, July 21, 2019
Venue: Lottoland Stadium, Brookvale
Kick Off: 4:05pm
Referees: Matt Cecchin, Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski
Head-to-head: Played 152 Eels 56 Sea Eagles 90 Drawn 6
Odds: Eels $2.65 Sea Eagles $1.50
Broadcast: Foxtel, Nine, Kayo
Last Four Encounters:
Eels 44 Manly 10 ANZ Stadium (2018)
Manly 54 Eels 0 Lottoland (2018)
Eels 20 Manly 12 Lottoland (2017)
Eels 10 Manly 9 Parramatta Stadium (2016)
The Warm Up
Another chapter in the rivalry story of these two clubs will be written at Brookvale Oval this Sunday. The past matters little when assessing the likely outcome of this clash, but the rich history and tribalism associated with Eels and Sea Eagles matches always adds colour to the lead-up.
Cue the Tooheys Beer commercials.
With Manly and Parra sitting 5th and 6th respectively, there’s great importance in securing the two points. Furthermore, the winner will look to gain a psychological advantage with the team’s due to clash again at BankWest Stadium in Round 25.
Both sides are performing much better than expected in 2019. Both have a very real opportunity to jag a Top 4 berth.
They might be the team that everybody loves to hate, but you have to admire the Sea Eagles. Injuries to key backline players had little impact on their results in the first half of the season as they structured wins on the back of their vastly underrated pack.
The Turbo brothers, Cherry-Evans and Taupau add the touch of class to a gritty team and that makes Manly a genuine contender.
Eels supporters are probably happy to go into this clash as underdogs. Parra has flown under the radar for most of this season, despite the fact that they’ve been in the Top 8 at the conclusion of every round. Their defeats have attracted plenty of criticism. Their victories earn few plaudits.
In a late change, Ethan Parry comes into the team for Blake Ferguson and joins Dylan Brown, Reed Mahoney and Jaeman Salmon as recent Eels NYC graduates in this week’s NRL team.
There’s plenty of confidence in both camps and Brookie will be bursting at its antiquated seams.
This should be a cracker.
Having a Punt
The line/over under double continued to deliver for my tips last week. If you’ve followed these, you’re well ahead for the year. Therefore, I’ll adhere (get it) to that old saying about sticking with a good thing again. Take the Eels getting 5.5 points start coupled with over 42.5 match points at the generous odds of $3.80.
For those not convinced about an Eels victory, you can take a TAB special market bet – both teams to score 20 points or more @ $3.75.
The favourites in the first try scorer market are:
Eels: Sivo $10
Sea Eagles: Taufua $10 Garrick $10
Feed Your Footy Brain
Few will forget the 54 to nil shellacking that the Eels copped in heatwave conditions at Brookie last year. The impact of that loss was profound, as it seemed to strip Parra of their confidence.
Yet, just as last season is starting to look like an anomaly, so too was that loss. Indeed, it marks Manly’s only victory in their last 8 clashes with the Eels.
Since Brad Arthur’s short stint as an assistant coach at the northern beaches club, his record coaching against them is very impressive – seven wins, two losses.
Have the Eels become a bogey team for the Sea Eagles?
Tracking: Junior Paulo
You can sense that the Eels big man, Junior Paulo, is really warming into this season. In the early rounds, the Samoan Sumo was doing his best impersonation of a plus-size five-eighth with some wide running ball play.
However, in the last few matches his impact through the middle has been as damaging as at any stage of his career.
Go Junior, go you good thing!
Consider the numbers he’s returning.
He leads the running metres for Eels forwards with an average of 120.3 metres per game. He is the leading Eel for offloads with 2.5 per game. And to complete the trifecta, he tops the Eels forwards for tackle breaks, at 1.9 per game.
At the start of the season, I spoke to Eels trainer Adrian Jimenez about the conditioning goals for a big unit like Paulo. His answer was straight forward. Junior was expected to meet the same standards as his team mates and in doing he’d be among the fittest big men in the NRL.
His form seems to be backing that up.
Danger man: Curtis Sironen
Manly second rower, Curtis Sironen, has hit a purple patch of form, and in his eighth season of NRL he finally seems to be realising his enormous potential.
To be fair to the big fella, he looked for many years like a backrower playing out of position in the halves. Seriously, the bloke is 195cm and 105kg!
Sironen’s powerful running has been causing chaos for the edge defence of opposition teams in the last month. However, his time in the halves has provided the talented forward with his share of ball skills.
His attacking capabilities are summed up in some key stats.
In a team which tops the NRL for offloads, Sironen leads his team’s averages with 2.1 per game. His 2.2 tackle breaks per match is the third highest for Manly forwards, only bettered by Taupau and Fonua-Blake.
The Eels defence might just be working overtime on Sunday.
Team Lists:
Eels: 1. Clint Gutherson 2. Maika Sivo 3. Brad Takairangi 4. Josh Hoffman 21. Ethan Parry 6.Dylan Brown 7. Mitchell Moses 8. Kane Evans 9. Reed Mahoney 10. Junior Paulo 11. Shaun Lane 12. Manu Ma’u 13. Nathan Brown
Interchange: 14. Jaeman Salmon 15. Marata Niukore 16. David Gower 17. Tepai Moeroa 18. Oregon Kaufusi 19. Daniel Alvaro 20. Will Smith
Sea Eagles: 1. Tom Trbojevic 2. Jorge Taufua 3. Dylan Walker 4. Moses Suli 5. Reuben Garrick 6. Cade Cust 7. Daly Cherry-Evans 8. Addin Fonua-Blake 9. Manase Fainu 10. Martin Taupau 11. Joel Thompson 12. Curtis Sironen 13. Jake Trbojevic
Interchange: 14. Lachlan Croker 15. Corey Waddell 16.Morgan Boyle 17. Taniela Paseka 18. Brad Parker 19. Brendan Elliot 20. Haumole Olakauatu 21. Lloyd Perrett
Clint Gutherson vs Tom Trbojevic
An established Origin star against a fringe Blue.
As quality custodians, both are vital contributors to their teams successes.
With his exceptional pace, Tommy Turbo presents danger from all over the paddock. His fingerprints are all over every contest.
Here’s a few average numbers for the Manly fullback:
Possessions – 32.4
Running Metres – 179.8 (with an astonishing season high of 334)
Offloads – 1.4
Tackle Breaks – 4.4
You can read plenty of attacking havoc in those statistics.
The King
Likewise, Clint Gutherson is just as important for the Eels spine. He brings the energy, and like his Sea Eagles counterpart, every game feels his presence.
His averages are impressive, but in comparison, they highlight just how dynamic Trbojevic is for Manly.
Possessions – 31.9
Running metres – 154.7 (season high 265)
Offloads – 0.6
Tackle Breaks – 1.6
Containing Tom Turbo will be a huge feature of the Eels match plan.
And The Winner Is?
Why are the Sea Eagles such a tough team to beat in 2019? After all, it’s a very similar roster to 2018.
It’s hard to ignore the Des Hasler factor, and he’s certainly got his team firing at the very top of the NRL in some key metrics.
They post the leading numbers for possession, line breaks and offloads. Essentially, they make their opposition work harder than them in defence.
The Eels don’t do too poorly in the same stats, coming in at 4th for offloads, 3rd for line breaks and 7th for possession.
But there is a stark difference between the two teams in defence, with the Sea Eagles second best in the NRL in missed tackles, and the Eels at second worst.
Based on statistics, and home ground advantage, Manly look to have a clear advantage. They are deserved favourites.
And the Eels have some firepower on the sidelines this week, with Jennings, Blake, and Ferguson out of action.
Ethan Parry is an interesting inclusion. Arthur hasn’t wasted any time in debuting the rookie contract player. He’s the prototype NRL outside back – tall, powerful, athletic. The sideline microphones will probably pick him up during the match – he’s very vocal and very competitive. Almost like a junior Fergo!
I really liked the way the Eels constructed their win over the Tigers. It was a very composed performance and Mitch Moses was extremely mature in his game management. The team have self-belief, and they are running into strong form.
This will be a close contest.
I’m tipping the Eels by 4.
Eels 28 Manly 24
Man of the Match – Clint Gutherson
Eels forever!
Sixties
I want to see Guth running the ball from dummy half in what I think of as his trademark digs.
Pressure on Taupau will almost certainly ensure he makes a mistake trying to offload or knocking-on and hopefully whoever is on the field with Mahoney at the time can make Taupau have that crucial second thought and make some costly errors.
Besides these points I see a very stingy J Trbo giving us a very hard time alongside Addin Fonua Blake who is always dangerous.
Perhaps we can count on T Trbo sustaining an injury to our benefit?
Either way Parra forever!
Let’s go get ‘em. 🙂
Addin Fonua Blake is arguably making a similar impact to Taupau. Part of the reason for the success of their pack.
J Trbo Vs N Brown will be an excellent one on one matchup.
I for one would like to see Brown all over Jurbo.
I think this is the game of the year for us to date!
Our only game before the finals against a true Top 6 team, Knights will be lucky to stay in the Top 8 in my opinion. We need to be able to show the grit and determination we saw against Canberra in multiples to have any real shot at going deep into the finals.
I would love to see this game go into golden point. We have to show that we can win by 1 with the heat turned right up.
The more I look at this game, the more my thinking swings from one side to the other as to who will win.
I have not seen much of Manly this year, yet looking at the benches, I have no idea about any of their bench players, until one gets to the last on their list Lloyd Perrett, they also have a couple of unknowns, in their backs, at least they are to me.
Their primary run on side shows a very good skilled team of players except for two I have no idea about. No doubt the coach and staff along with our players have watched some of the many games of late to get an idea on their skills
The turbo twins, will be dangerous but so too will Cherry-Evans.
I think Fonua-Blake will be a handful and I believe an ex eels player who might just want to show us what we missed, likewise with their winger Taufua
Then again we have Gutho and Lane as ex Manly players who would no doubt enjoy getting on top of them.
Parra by 6, kick for any penalty goals and the score might be better as far as margins are concerned.
About seven of the Sea Eagles team have come from Western Sydney. That includes two of the bench – Paseka and Waddell.
I’ll take a win by any score JonBoy. The other results are providing the opportunity to kick away from the chasing pack.
I find it strange the club announced Fergo was out and Parry was in as early as they did. We have basically given them 2 days to prepare a game plan to target the rookie winger and expose his inexperience. Why not keep it under wraps until an hour before kickoff🤷♂️
Rumours had started circulating, plus the bush paper got hold of the story. Couldn’t keep it a secret much longer.
1 hour before kickoff was the plan, but Bevan French posted a video of Fergo limping on Instagram which fast forwarded the announcement.
Good test for our middle defence with Taupua, Fonua, Jake Trbojevic bending the line and Turbo Tom backing up through the middle – if we hold out we are a good chance
There’s Top talent in form in their line up. Huge test.
Will be a great game……whoever wins will get a real opportunity to get to the top 4
Clearly their biggest weapon is Tommy Turbo. They also have DCE and a good forward pack. For the Eels the downside is Ferguson, Blake and Jennings not being available.
However if you go through their wins and losses they are in no better shape than the Eels. The ladder also shows this. Despite this though the Eels are despised outsiders on the TAB and completely unwanted by the experts.
I believe that we are in this game right up to our necks. Of course we need our defence to stand up and the game managers to play with patience and resilience.
I say we win by eight.
I am worried about this one. It is imperative our line speed in defence across the field is intense. On top of that have a go in attack. Should be a great offensive game.
You were right to worry about our defence. No effort in the wrestle.
Unfortunately our defence is doing the complete opposite of standing up in this first half.
Manly have hit a level where they are not getting belted by anyone. Even their unknown secondary troops play with application and resilience. Last week our 85% completion and 5 errors helped to blunt our 39 missed tackles. You get the feeling it’s one of those games that winning needs the basics to be respected. We seem to be getting into a better groove for that approach. I wish Ethan Parry a great debut, I like the opinion that he’s a born competitor.
Our first half defence….
😔
How do you get a defensive coaches job at Parra? seems like an easy gig with no accountability.Not even half time and five tries against.Would not matter if we win, our defence is disgraceful.