Here we go Parra fans!

With the 2020 Premiership about to recommence via this week’s Round 3 fixtures, it’s probably the ideal time to review the Eels performances across the first two rounds.

And what an interesting start to the season we witnessed in two remarkably different games.

I will analyse key indicators across both games, and we might be able to identify similarities and differences and therefore draw some conclusions about what to expect in Round 3.  

It seems like a long time ago, but the score lines were vastly different. Round 1 against the Bulldogs saw a gritty 8 points to 2 victory. Round 2 was the complete opposite with a 46 – 6 win over the Titans. 

The significant boost to the “for and against“ from the Titans result saw the Eels on top of the ladder before the NRL went into self isolation.

From a personal perspective, I took plenty from the Round 1 clash against the Dogs. It’s definitely great to put a team to the sword (like the Titans were), but you want to know that your team can grind out a win against the top teams.

I am not saying the Dogs are a top team. However, the Dogs always compete like a top team when they play Parra, and ask questions especially of our attitude and temperament.

In this game the Eels rallied well. With the exception of a ten minute period through the middle of the first half, I thought it was a top quality game – especially for an opening round clash.

The major aspect of the game I noticed was the lack of use of the backs. This was definitely a game played in the middle between each teams 20 metre line.

The heat maps exactly how the Eels and Bulldogs played out a middle third clash.

Both teams chose to grind away, with the Eels scoring an opportunistic try through Reed Mahoney.

Now we look at how the game was played against the Titans.

Eels Titans

Look at the massive difference in field yardage from both games!

Game one v Bulldogs saw the Eels total 1313 run metres whereas Game two v Titans had the Eels at 1829 run metres.

As a measure of how the games differed, let’s examine the running metres of the Eels backs. The Eels backs combined to run for 633 metres against the Bulldogs as compared to a massive 970 running metres against the Titans.

Both times Clint Gutherson topped the running metres with 176m and 196m respectively.

Tackle breaks were fairly good in both games, but as you’d expect it jumped up nicely against the Titans.

Against the Bulldogs, the Eels broke 21 tackles whilst against the Titans was a massive 48 tackle breaks.

Offloads were encouraging in both games.

Against the Bulldogs, there were 9 offloads and against the Titans was 16. Both games saw Ryan Matterson up there as our leading off loader with 2 and 3 respectively. This would be something our smaller men should be watching to open up good 2^nd phase opportunities.

Set Completions was also a bit of talking point in the sheds for both games.

Against the Bulldogs, the Eels had 40 sets, completing 28 of them (70%) whereas against the Titans the Eels had 45 sets and completed 39 for 87%. The most interesting take from these is that against the Titans, the Eels had a massive second half completion rate of 92%, which combined with a 73% possession rate saw them pile on 32 unanswered points.

Lastly we will look over the Eels defensive stats for the opening two opening games.

As it stands the Eels have only conceded one try, with an average of only 4 points per game scored against them. Though the opposition have not been amongst the top ranked sides, the Eels defence has been on point, especially in their scramble.

When you look back at the Bulldogs heat map, you can see they had decent possession in the Eels side of the field, from the Eels try line to the 40 metre line.

The Bulldogs mounted a lot of pressure on the Eels in the Eels red zone, but stout online defence  restricted the Dogs to a single penalty conversion score.

The Eels made 328 tackles to the Bulldogs 298. The Eels The tackle effectiveness was at 92.6%. Not bad for the first game of the year.

Putting this into numbers, the Eels missed 19 tackles and had 7 ineffective tackles. Reed Mahoney topped the tackle count with 43.

Significantly, the Bulldogs ran a lot of traffic at our halves. Mitchell Moses had 25 tackle engagements, making 20 of those, missing 4 with one ineffective. Impressively, Dylan Brown came up with a 100% defensive effort making 22 tackles from 22 tackle involvements. Our halves definitely held their own.

It may surprise, but there were aspects of the Eels defence that needed improving in the Titans game.

In total, the Eels made 212 tackles to the Titans 396, including a paltry 82 second half tackles.

These figures may seem impressive, and no doubt the lowest defensive load the Eels have been asked to shoulder for a long time.

But when you look at the effectiveness it’s a little concerning. Out of 240 tackle involvements, 20 were missed and 8 were ineffective, resulting in an overall effectiveness rate of 88%. This was a drop on the 92.6% effectiveness rate from Round One, perhaps a little disappointing considering the lop sided score line.

Given the low number of tackles, I am sure Brad Arthur wasn’t too happy with some of the defensive efforts that night.

Although it may be overly critical to negatively highlight an 88% tackle effectiveness, the Eels have emphasised their focus on defence over the pre-season. So there’s no doubt that Brad and his defensive team will have been looking at this during the lock down.

In summary, the Eels built a platform through the middle against the Dogs, with a superb tackle effectiveness restricting the Dogs ability to score. Against the Titans, the Eels again built from the middle, but as the Titans wilted under their defensive workload, the opportunities opened up for the Eels backs to flex their muscles.

There we have it. The first two rounds wrapped up and the next round awaiting.

Like all of you, I’ve been missing my footy. Being stood down from a job I love has also been hard as well.

If there is anything more you would like to see in the stats posts please let me know and I will see what I can dig up.

Colmac

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