Round 20 – Saturday 26th September 2020 @ Bankwest Stadium
Final Score – Eels 28 defeat Tigers 24
The Eels spoilt the farewell party for Tigers legends Chris Lawrence and Benji Marshall with a solid, come from behind, victory. Outside of that, rather than overly analyse the match, I’m going to provide the key stats and end our home and away season with a simple yet game telling review by the numbers.
It was tight contest reflected firstly in a 50/50 possession rate. It was literally a tale of two halves though, with the Eels holding 58% of the ball in the first half, while the Tigers in the second half held it for 57%. In a great effort which deserves acknowledgement, the Eels held out the onslaught from the Tigers in the second half, coming from 8 points down to win the clash.
Time also was fairly even with the Eels having the ball for a touch over 43 minutes of the game including 24 minutes in the Tigers red zone.
The Eels completed at 81% with 30 completions from 37 sets.
Just by those numbers you can see how tight the game was.
Hit Ups
This is a very good looking heat map from our forwards. A lot of grunt work deep into the Tigers red zone built pressure and laid the platform for the Eels attack.
Set Starts
Again a pretty impressive heat map for our set starts. Multiple starting spots in the Tigers territory afforded the Eels some great attacking opportunities. The red zone in the mid field also shows how much pressure we were putting on the Tigers in their own territory. They had to kick many times deep in their own half due to Parramatta’s defence.
Forwards
Our forwards laid a good platform as shown in the Hit Up map.
Nathan Brown again led the forwards with 230 running metres off 26 carries. Add to that 48 tackles with a single miss. This shows why he is so revered at the club.
Shout outs to Junior Paulo with 164 run metres from 19 carries, Ryan Matterson 108 run metres from 13 runs and Kane Evans 126 run metres from 15 runs.
Great to see the Polar Bear back in the Blue and Gold as well.
Backs
Clint Gutherson was in everything. Although he only ran for 91 metres from 9 runs, he did produce 2 try assists, 1 line break assist and a try saver. But Gutho was a little kick happy which killed some nice attacking sequences.
Our wingers in Sivo (118 metres from 13 runs) and Blake Ferguson (110 metres from 13 runs) both played solid games. Both wingers came up with 4 tackle breaks each and a try a piece.
Waqa Blake still just floats in and out of games. 9 carries for 66 metres isn’t great. A lot of work really needs to be done with him. Waqa can be devastating with his runs, but he only produces once in a blue moon.
Brad Takairangi filled in well for Michael Jennings. His 8 runs for 80 metres was good value and his try on half time was very telling to kick us clear by 8 points at the break.
Halves
Both halves played solid games. Seeing Moses running the ball to the line more is becoming very encouraging. His kicking game still needs a bit of tweaking, but this will come good with his confidence. His stats include 9 runs for 83 metres, a line break and 2 tackle breaks.
Will Smith played a great foil for Moses. He didn’t over play his hand and scored the winning try which was well deserved. Only running 5 times for 33 metres, he did have 2 tackle breaks in that and a line break for his try.
Synopsis
So, as we now head to Brisbane to take on Melbourne, I just want to say how proud I am of our team for finishing 3rd.
We have been hammered both by ‘experts’ and our own fans for how we been playing of late.
But the number one rule in rugby league is that all you need to do is score more points than your opponents and that’s exactly what the Eels have been doing. Nothing else really matters except that score line at full time.
Here are some points to remember from season 2020:
- We finished higher than last years premiers and grand finalists.
- We didn’t concede 50 points in a match all season (or 40+ for that matter)
- We were the only team all year to beat the Panthers
- We beat 5 out of the 7 other top 8 teams
- We get to have a home semi either next week or the week after
That’s some pretty handy facts coming out from this season.
Yours in Blue and Gold
- Colmac
Great insights Colmac, I didn’t realise how little ball we had in the 2nd half – this reinforces the merit in turning the tide as they did. Will need to avoid giving the storm that much possession.
DDay, the worry was how long it took us to turn the possession tide. The positive was making use of the possession when we finally got it.
Some soft turnovers and 6-agains gave the Tigers a leg up – Eels have to do better this week
I’m actually liking how we’re using Waqa the last two weeks, using him more as a decoy. His athletic ability is unparalleled, similar to former Dragon Matt Cooper. He’s also our best aerial target.
I know I’m repeating myself but I really worry about our midfield defence. It can really be soft when the momentum turns against us.
I see Waqa as a winger Brett – due that athleticism and aerial advantages.
Yes centre usually passes the ball to the winger.,I think we’ve seen one pass all year.scores some good tries though does Waqa.Perhaps 3 tries in the last 4 for Fergo is a good sign at the right time of year as well and he has big game experience so hopefully can pump the boys up.Not long now guys.
I can see where you’re coming from, and he has some of the attributes a winger needs, like that ability to challenge for the high ball. And it would hide some of his deficiencies, like his poor reads in defence and his inability to set up his outside man. I’m not convinced on his ability to make those hard yards out of our own end though. We’ve seen what a difference that made when Fergie joined the team last year.
Waqa’s clearly a talented attacking player, but as Colmac has noted, he’s just not involved enough and really relies on someone else setting him up. I worry he’ll end up like Bevan French – a talented finisher, but falling short in some other key areas. To a large extent, it’s now up to him and how hard he’s prepared to work at adjusting and overcoming the shortfalls in his game. I hope he can, but his lack of progress in the past 18 months suggests he may not.