STATS THAT MATTA ROUND 23
Thursday, August 22nd, 2019
Bankwest Stadium
Crowd: 18,071
EELS 6
(Tries: W. Blake. Goals: M. Moses 1 from 1.)
Defeated by
BULLDOGS 12
(Tries: W. Hopoate, N. Meaney. Goals: N. Meaney 2 from 2.)
May I dare say that this was one of my games of the season. The Bulldogs have been bringing teams down to their level and has been working a treat for them over the last few weeks.
It was a good hard, physical game of footy which saw the Eels control most of the match except the scoreboard. I am not debating the Moses penalty try as it was the correct call. You just can’t lead with the feet when trying to stop a try. Again, thank the Storm for that.
In a very physical encounter, it was very encouraging to not see the Eels take a back step to it. There were some hard hits, some great reads and just a couple times we needed the ball to stick, but it just wasn’t the Eels night so let’s not get disheartened about this loss.
Unfortunately, we did see the old Nathan Brown come out in this match. Most of the earlier sets before being binned he was shooting up out of the line to put a big shot on. We all agreed with his Nona on this one.
So lets look at the stats for this game to wrap up Round 23 of the 2019 NRL Telstra Premiership.
Score Flow
| Parramatta Eels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H | Minute | Name | Event | Score |
| 1 | 7 | W.Blake | TRY | 4 – 0 |
| 1 | 9 | M.Moses | CONVERSION | 6 – 0 |
| 1 | 38 | W.Hopoate | TRY | 6 – 4 |
| 1 | 39 | N.Meaney | CONVERSION | 6 – 6 |
| 2 | 68 | N.Meaney | PENALTY TRY | 6 – 10 |
| 2 | 69 | N.Meaney | PENALTY TRY CONVERSION SUCCESSFUL | 6 – 12 |
Game Stats
 |
Team Stats
Full Time |
 |
|---|---|---|
| 49 | Possession (%) | 51 |
| 23/34 (68) | Complete/Total Sets (%) | 25/35 (71) |
| 40:02 | Time – Opposition Half | 40:50 |
| 14:20 | Time – Opposition 20 | 14:57 |
| 2266 | Metres Gained | 1969 |
| 7 | Scrum Win | 8 |
| 1 | Goal Line Dropout | 4 |
| 8 | Penalty Conceded | 7 |
| 0 | Forty Twenty | 0 |
 |
Team Stats
1st Half |
 |
|---|---|---|
| 47 | Possession (%) | 53 |
| 10/16 (63) | Complete/Total Sets (%) | 13/18 (72) |
| 22:57 | Time – Opposition Half | 17:08 |
| 5:48 | Time – Opposition 20 | 9:58 |
| 942 | Metres Gained | 909 |
| 4 | Scrum Win | 6 |
| 0 | Goal Line Dropout | 1 |
| 6 | Penalty Conceded | 3 |
| 0 | Forty Twenty | 0 |
 |
Team Stats
2nd Half |
 |
|---|---|---|
| 52 | Possession (%) | 48 |
| 13/18 (72) | Complete/Total Sets (%) | 12/17 (71) |
| 17:05 | Time – Opposition Half | 23:42 |
| 8:32 | Time – Opposition 20 | 4:59 |
| 1324 | Metres Gained | 1060 |
| 3 | Scrum Win | 2 |
| 1 | Goal Line Dropout | 3 |
| 2 | Penalty Conceded | 4 |
| 0 | Forty Twenty | 0 |
As you can see from this, the game was pretty much played between the two 20 metre lines. The Eels tried to pick up the pace in the second half but just couldn’t find the line.
Player Stats
Round 23 vs Canterbury Bulldogs – Player Statistics (Click to open)
Forward Rotation
| Games | Avg Mins | Last Game | This Game | |
| Kane Evans | 16 | 32 | 51 | 35 |
| Reed Mahoney | 22 | 72 | 60 | 66 |
| Junior Paulo | 20 | 52 | – | 57 |
| Shaun Lane | 18 | 79 | 80 | 80 |
| Manu Ma’u | 16 | 70 | 74 | 80 |
| Nathan Brown | 11 | 58 | 62 | 70 |
| David Gower | 15 | 37 | 24 | 21 |
| Daniel Alvaro | 15 | 35 | 41 | 23 |
| Marata Niukore | 21 | 57 | 44 | 28 |
| Tepai Moeroa | 19 | 32 | 35 | 13 |
Not sure what Brad Arthur’s go was with the bench players. Not a huge amount of minutes for the rotating forwards, maybe he thought the starting pack were ok and not being gassed. But lets look at our friendly heat maps to see if there is a correlation
Totals
 |
 |
|
| Runs | 185 | 172 |
| Run Metres | 1610 | 1417 |
| Tackles | 334 | 325 |
| Missed Tackles | 42 | 44 |
| Tackle Ineffective | 30 | 28 |
| Effective Tackle Rate | 82% | 82% |
| Errors | 11 | 10 |
Heat Maps
Hit Ups
Well as brought up earlier, the forward rotation had no bearing on our hit up heat map. This is the sort of heat map you would expect from a winning dominant forward pack. Not one that dominated and lost. Probably our best hit up heat map all year.
Set Starts
Not one set start in the Bulldogs 20. Speaks volumes that we could build and maintain pressure on them. We needed to get out of our end more times then not and this stifled our attack. Was a good game plan from the Bulldogs and worked very well even as the Eels are long range specialists this year.
Summary
So all in all I was not disappointed with this loss. It was a hard game and was well pleased with how we handled it. Just needed more sticky spray.
I am very confident with our final two matches.
The Broncos are on all sorts with suspensions and injuries and also the Eels do play very well at Suncorp against the Broncos (not the Suncorp v Storm though).
Then to finish off with Manly at Bankwest Stadium on Friday week which could ultimately be the match to decide the top four.
Both these matches are very winnable and will see us in good stead going into finals footy. Dare I say it, be the form side in the top 8.
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.
Interesting analysis as always. I like the positives your analysis highlights – the Eels were good enough to win in most stats bar the scoreboard. And agree I’m cautiously opimistic in the next 2 games.