Round 7 Drink Of Choice – Bundaberg Rum Blender Edition 2014
Parramatta’s reign of terror in the Top End is far from over folks. Hell, the Parramatta Eels have finally evolved from grinding out tough wins in the torrid tropical conditions to putting their opposition on the door of extinction. Darwin’s theorem on the survival of the fittest has never been more relevant in rugby league as the Eels surged past the Brisbane Broncos to claim a 46-6 victory in Round 7. The 40-point drubbing marks the sixth victory from 7 outings in Darwin for the blue & gold and also sees them poke their nose ahead of the South Sydney Rabbitohs to claimed second place on the ladder. There is so much to talk about tonight and so little time for me to wax lyrical and I mean that seriously – it is 11:30PM already and I have three grades of footy to cover tomorrow on Saturday! So let’s get right into another edition of musings!
Be sure to check out the instant reaction to the Round 7 shellacking of the Broncos!
The Bryce Is Right (shamelessly stolen from my friend Ham)
Bryce Cartwright was always going to be a polarising figure at the Eels. Anyone that reads my inane ramblings will recall that I completely understood if anyone had serious reservations about Cartwright but that I also advocated for giving him a chance to prove himself. As much as he deserved criticism for a poor club debut against the Dragons in Round 5, he now deserves significant praise for his role in putting the Broncos to the sword.
This is what I envisaged from Cartwright when Sixties reported on his excellence in the preseason. Naturally I knew that some bad moments would come like the odd impetuous offload but this is the payoff I wanted. A game built on powerful and nuanced running that facilitated the offloads naturally. He scored a try tonight through sheer want-to after plowing into the teeth of the defence and otherwise tormented the right-edge of the Broncos by exploding onto the ball. Yes there were flashy and brilliantly executed offloads but they were earned.
Equally pleasing was his diligence in defence with the notorious ‘weak link’ posting 19 tackles with 0 missed and just the 1 ineffective to defy that billing.
After relegating him to afterthought minutes against the Raiders last week, Brad Arthur trusted Bryce with 54 massive minutes this week and the backrower repaid the faith and some. This was the allround performance the Eels wanted from Cartwright when they took a punt on him in the offseason. One swallow does not make a summer but this is a genuine starting point for Cartwright at the Eels. Now he has to build on it.
Territorial defenders
I will readily concede that the Broncos made some solid inroads into Parramatta’s ruck defence tonight. Payne Haas for one proved to be difficult to contain in his opening stint. Yet the Eels absorbed all that opening pressure and beyond conceding an early try to the damaging Tevita Pangai Junior early on, they would go on to shut the visitors out for roughly 70-minutes. Most pleasing for me personally was the desperation displayed late in the contest as Pangai Junior was held up over the line on two further occasions as Eels poured in to prevent a second effort. Rhys Kennedy was also stopped short of the line and induced into an error to maintain a second-half clean sheet.
Parramatta defensive structures meshed well with what Brisbane threw at them and the energy shown from both edges from the inside in support earned positive grading across the board.
Maika finds a new gear
No one has ever doubted Maika Sivo’s explosive athleticism. The owner of the most violent fend in the competition and a prolific try scorer by any measure, Sivo lived up to both of those hallmarks in Round 7. He finished the night credited with 9 tackle breaks and a handsome hat-trick – both of which should earn him high praise. Even so, it was his willingness to push through the testing conditions that pleased me the most. It was clear that Maika was well outside of his comfort zone early on tonight but he refused to shirk his share of the load. The massive winger continued to cart the ball up, showed great hustle to take a fast 20m restart and bust the line and outside of an early brain-fart he showed great composure under the high ball.
Tom Opacic deserves a wrap himself here as he continues to do a bang up job at left centre. The one-time Bronco consistently prioritises feeding his Fijian running mate quality ball but has also kept himself plenty busy by notching up his third try of the season tonight. Likewise Clinton Gutherson’s silky touch on his right-to-left pass and the svelte play-making of Cartwright also proved handy in unleashing Parramatta’s cult hero tonight.
Circling back to Sivo now, this is exactly what we need from him after an underwhelming 2020. Consistent involvement, the proper utilisation of his unique explosive traits and an attention to detail in key moments. Each of these three things individually is clearly important but together they lift him from a flawed offensive weapon to devastating allround presence. The challenge for Maika to maintain this level of focus and play.
Eels should be alright after going all right
While the Eels played the Broncos off the park for the vast majority of the game there was one period of play that led to a lull in proceedings. It came as the home team made a concerted effort to force play to their right and after a handful of botched finishes they eventually switched back to their left where they swiftly broke through. It left the commentary team bemused and it would be interesting to know if it was a directive from ‘BA’ or an initiative taken by the players.
It wasn’t all bad though. Marata Niukore had some quality moments in Brisbane’s half and most importantly Dylan Brown looked decisive and dangerous taking on the line. Brisbane could barely pin the young five-eighth down throughout the night and his first step acceleration off the right foot bodes well moving forwards. The playing relationship between Dylan and Mitchell Moses seems to be in a harmonious zen as Moses takes on the bulk of the organising responsibilities and frees Brown up to tee off with the ball in hand.
Moses is still plenty capable with the ball in hand himself mind you all. His late try assist for Gutherson was part Mohammed Ali (float like a butterfly, sting like a bee), part Karate Kid, all highlight reel material. A moment of singular focus and precision that speaks to a player that has complete confidence in himself and his game. You love to see it.
The Final Word
Thankfully this week’s musings has a companion episode of The Tip Sheet to help cover all the things I couldn’t in this blog. So many other players deserves praise. Isaiah Papali’i continued his scoring streak and was dominant once again while Oregon Kaufusi completely owned the game in his time off the bench. Wiremu Greig continues to build sweetly with a growing role in the team. Blake Ferguson is piling up quality involvements inside Parramatta’s half and continues to defend extremely well alongside Marata.
This was a really fun win as the team pushed through incredibly challenging conditions to pummell the competitiveness out of an upstart Brisbane line-up. The show rolls on back to Sydney now as the Eels have a date with the Bulldogs. Parramatta have definitely been guilty of playing down to Canterbury across their recent clashes but get the chance to right that wrong on Saturday out at Stadium Australia. Pending Ryan Matterson getting through the NSW Cup fixture tomorrow unscathed, we also will get a fascinating selection ‘drama’ on Team List Tuesday which adds to the spice through the week!
Absolutely spot on about our dominance. I missed much of the game due to being at work but I was in party mode regardless as I saw us pour the points on. 😀
Sivo was a monster out there with his physicality, DBrown’s defence was amazing and massive props to Moses on his also.
I’m afraid to hope but this is the kind of form that will win a premiership if maintained… dare I say it?!
Man, 35 years is a loooong time.
Go the Eels!
Great win in tough conditions. I am interested to see how the contract situation effect the team. Due to the improvement in so many players over the past year I can see maybe 1-2 big players being moved on. I can’t help it will be one or the other (matto and brown) and possibly fergo… maybe even another as when you think about it, I am sure the team is looking at upgrading Moses slightly and tying down papalii for longer. Interested to get peoples thoughts??
The emergence of Papali’i has given has a good bargaining chip in the Matto and Brown negotiations, that’s for sure. I read recently that Brown’s options for the price he’s after are looking thin, I hope he stays though.
If we keep Matto and Lane over the next couple of years my biggest fear is another club offering Niukore good money and a starting spot. He’s easily good enough to be a starting 2RF/Lock at probably half of the NRL clubs.
It’s inevitable that successful clubs will have lose players along the way. The promising thing is that we’re proving to be a club that can turn fringe players into genuine first graders. Hopefully that’s an attraction to more unrecognised talent like Papa or an incentive for other players to accept a smaller contract to play with us.
I believe we will keep the key NRL players. While I thought NB was off a bit against the Mules, I thik his mind was also considering the contract issue, similar with Matto and how he goes in the NSWcup, & if he cops another concussion I would suspect he will likely retire.
Lane is contracted for 2 more years, he may not be a world beater and has some errors in him his defense has lifted and is running more than last year, he’s not as bad as many make out.
I see no reason to drop Marata from the backs, that was his position in NZ before he came here, speed is his only downside but he has power in his runs, put a good young fast winger outside him and that could really make our backs strong.
Yes, this one is exercising my mind. We’ve got senior players, up and comers and good value buys all forming a great roster but testing cap management. Not to mention the Micheal Jennings situation…have we massaged the back line roster to its best potential?
I thought that passage of play where Parra kept pushing right was a deliberate attempt to play some fluency into the right side
My thoughts after Cartwright’s first game was that irrespective of his shortcomings pushing passes creating errors. His running and defensive stats were still good.
Whether it was nerves or desire to impress there was still a lot of hope that he could be an important part of the NRL team.
Last night that was the case as he turned on a great display of precision football.
The other highlight for me was the way BA managed his bench. When BA began substituting his big men the Broncos did not respond in kind.
The Eels at this point began to put the game away and went into the sheds with a 24-6 lead. A lead they never gave up.
The spine was outstanding again and while there is still a long way to go, the team looks like it is in good hands.
Well said ,those 2 errors from carty against stg was all that some people saw because they wanted to , his stats were pretty damm good otherwise and he played straight all game , anyway some people have bagged just about everyone BA has brought in including gutho , thats why BA is the coach not them !!!
Should read Opacic
I watched the game again last night. Sometimes in the replays you see things not so obvious in the heat of battle
I watched Opicic and his game was better than I realised. Bearing in mind that you can’t have a SOO player in every position on the field.
He does his job. His defence is very good and he is happy and capable at shuffling the ball to Sivo to score.
In fact during the Raiders game he actually congratulated Papali’i after he stole the ball out of his hands to score his second try.
It was reported yesterday in the DT that the Eels have pulled out of the race for Staggs given his recent indiscretions. This will allow the Eels to spend that six or seven hundred thousand on ensuring we keep some of the quality players that are off contract at the end of the season.
I was kind of waiting for Parra to succumb to the weather and lose a bit of focus during the game, but to my delight as the game wore on Parra got even better. That’s what is expected from the top teams, and it’s great to see Parra play like they know they can win each game by just playing to their strengths and game plan.