The Cumberland Throw

Stats That Matta – Rounds 1 and 2, 2021: Eels Defeat Broncos And Storm

 

What a difference a week can make. Let alone the weather.

With two wins to open the Eels account for 2021, lets, as they say, compare the pair.

 

  Vs

 

The first 40 minutes of the Eels season was absolutely diabolical to put it mildly.

Dropped ball, errors, and just no respect for the opposition saw the Eels walk into the sheds against the Broncos 16 nil down.

Worse than that, there seemed no answers to our spluttering non existent attack.

Completing at a miserable 59% in that first half with not even a shot offered had not just Eels fans scratching their heads but the whole NRL.

Having only 40% of the ball only helped to widen the gap between the teams.

Then the next 40 minutes unfolded and the old adage of ‘ a game of two halves’ couldn’t have been a truer word spoken.

The Eels held onto the ball to achieve 57% possession of the second half with a completion rate at better rate of 77%.

The big turn around was the minutes the Eels played in the opposition half. From the first half with a tick over 16 minutes in Broncos territory with 7 and half minutes in the Broncos red zone, the Eels second half saw them camped in Broncos territory for 30 and a half minutes with 16 minutes in their red zone. All that pressure finally saw the Eels pile on 24 unanswered points to take the game out.

Players of note from this note would be Reed Mahoney, Junior Paulo and in his Eels debut Isaiah Papali’i.

Cash Mahoney

Reedy had a magical night at Suncorp. His figures are very impressive. His main stats saw him run 8 times for 105 metres, made 56 tackles with no misses and included 2 offloads, 2 line breaks, 2 line break assists, 1 try assist and a meat pie for his efforts. Absolute sensational figures.

Junior Paulo was in full beast mode and his positional play was second to none. The match sealing try saw him position himself brilliantly after the offload to crash his way over. Junior had 14 runs for 140 metres and with 5 offloads, again proving himself as one of the leading offload merchants in the NRL.

Eels new signing Isaiah Papali’I first hit out for the club turned him into the Eels new cult figure right away.

Isaiah had 18 runs for 193 metres with 30 tackles in the mix. Papali’I figures look even more better seeing he was only on for 56 minutes. His runs on the right edge were stinging and laid a great platform for the Eels in the second half. His tackling was also very stinging with some great reads in defence on the Broncos attack.

 

 Vs

Now we fast forward a week and wow what a difference in weather. Going from a fast dry track in Brisbane, to an absolute water logged Bankwest Stadium.

I will give kudos to the ground staff and drainage at Bankwest. The field looked brilliant after all the rain before and during the match, and there was only one time that I saw water pooling on the surface.

Much credit goes to both teams for a sensational game of rugby league in such poor conditions. Both sides completed over 80% in the game. Eels 88% and Storm 81%. The Eels had 47% possession in the match and managed 37 and a half minutes in the Storm half with 17.04 minutes in their 20.

What is impressive with the Eels win against the 2020 Premiers is the Storm had 7 extra sets of 6, held the ball for nearly 43 minutes of the game with 20 and a half minutes in the Eels 20 metre area. The Eels showed great resilience in curbing the Storm attack which saw the Storm arguing between themselves and upsetting their rhythm.

Junior

Stand out players for the Eels once again was Junior Paulo along with Maika Sivo, Nathan Brown and Marata Niukore.

Junior again played all over his opposition front rowers. Bagging another try with great positional play, 12 runs for 91 metres and 6 offloads.

Maika Sivo is looking like the Maika Sivo of 2019. He is getting more involved and this is showing in his confidence and his running. His match winning catch and try showed just this, not only following through on the Moses kick but knowing and having the state of mind against an old team mate to realise his height and superior jumping ability and to go for it. This shows the big Fijian flyer is putting 2020 form behind him. Sivo had 17 runs for 164 metres, 1 line break and 6 tackle breaks.

Now this was a very pleasant surprise. After Waqa Blake was a late scratching, Brad Arthur naming Marata Niukore at centre and this had a lot of heads being scratched.

But what a sensational play from the coach.

Marata had an outstanding game at centre, and dare I say, could be close to cementing a spot there. Niukore’s first hit out for season 2021 saw him with 13 runs for 116 metres. Add to his hard running with 6 tackle breaks. He played the full 80 and looked as fresh in the 80th minutes as he did in the first minute. With doing a bit less defensive work, Marata’s attack looked on point and his runs had a lot of venom in it.

Will B.A. stick with the same centre selection next week?

Another string to add to the bow of a great win against the Storm, was the Storm’s running metres – 300 more running metres than the Eels. That time the Storm had should have seen the Eels wilting. They didn’t!

The Storm were just out played and out enthused in every aspect on the night. It was a win that Eels fans knew they had in them and finally it emerged.

Now we look ahead to next Saturday night against the Sharks. The extra 48 hours will be a god send to our players after last nights hard performance.

Having put together 3 out of 4 great halves of football, who knows what 2021 holds for the Blue and Gold, but lets only look at the next game – “one game at a time”.

Yours in Blue and Gold

 

Colmac

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19 thoughts on “Stats That Matta – Rounds 1 and 2, 2021: Eels Defeat Broncos And Storm

  1. Colin Hussey

    It was probably one of, if not the best game of wet weather football I have seen in many a long year.

    The reality of it was that hardly any of the eels played poor games, and they tackled their hearts out, less ball against the premiers and they still win, less metres gained, and they still win.

    Early days no doubt, but if they can maintain a similar level of intensity for the rest of the season, then we can go a long way this year.

    Well done teams.

    1. sixties

      Colin, the possession and the territory in such conditions, the Storm has a decided advantage. But the Eels didn’t wilt one bit. That was significant for me.

  2. Trouser Eel

    Not very often you get a win with those stat differentials. Fortunately you can’t measure grit, determination and fitness.

  3. BDon

    From memory only, possession stats took a turn against us late in first half and Storm racked up run metres. I can recall mumbling ‘geez, we need some ball here’.

  4. HamSammich

    That melbourne game is one where everything said we shouldn’t have won. Less possession, less running metres, less favourable calls from the ref. But we overcame it all to beat a team who we’ve struggled against in the past. The past 3 halves we’ve played very high quality football while also completing and competing at a high level.

    As Joey Grima says “complete and get to your kick” which we’ve largely done so far.

  5. Dday

    Good analysis colmac as always. You rightly single out Paulo & Marata – of course others contributed. But those two were quite dominant. As to the question does BA stick with Marata in the centres – he & Fergo looked solid in defence against the NRLs strike left edge pair (Olam/JAC) – hard to ignore when that’s been a perennial problem for us. Love a rare win against our boggy team – hope that’s a sign of things to come…

      1. Dday

        So many permutations because Matto is likely to be out as well. BA has strong history of pick and stick – suggesting Marata stays in the centres, hipgrave in for Matto and stone onto the bench. But Penisini, Dunster & Rankin are options…

  6. Eggman

    Yes Marata was awesome,but moving him to the centres permanently? not sure.We are then losing imact off the bench,and what to do with Waqa?
    Anyway one of the great victories,you just know after you score against Melbourne that they will hit back,and they did.If you could stop this trend occuring against them then we could avoid so much stress and in most cases heartbreak. Hopefully the boys can bottle this toughness and resilience and play like that against every team,whether top 4 or bottom, just be relentless.Great feeling being the team that every team fears,and we have the fear factor right across the paddock.Love this team.

    1. sixties

      There are different ways that people choose to support the Eels. Regardless of the way, you could not help but be proud to support that team on Thursday night. There were certainly many people wearing their Eels gear at the local shops on Friday.

  7. John Eel

    When half time came I was really pumped that it had been a tight open contest and we were still in it up to our ears.

    When I grabbed for my phone and checked the stats I was surprised to see that the Storm had the majority of possession and run metres. Apart from late in the second half I thought that the Eels were on top

    When I found out before the game that Marata was playing centre I was surprised. When I saw how well he handled centre I thought good move coach

    One thing on him playing centre. Given the wet track he didn’t have to face a lot of lateral movement in defence. On a dry surface that will be a lot more challenging.

    I did not get any indication watching the BA presser that he will be leaving Marata at centre. However BA always holds his cards close to his chest.

    As Colmac pointed out, there is a lot to like about the start of the 2021 season. There is however a long way to go and let’s just enjoy it one game at a time

    1. sixties

      I don’t lose sight of the fact that Dylan Brown was defending inside Marata, which was good coverage for any potential issues from Marata being stepped on the inside in such slippery conditions.

      1. BDon

        Dylan Brown’s scramble defence is becoming a real eye catcher. He nabbed Papenhuyzen when a game turning break was in full play.

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