Round 9 Drink Of Choice – Scotch Duncans Whisky
There is going to be a fair bit of fallout from this one. So let’s just get that out of the way right now. It might get lost among all the noise among calls for suspension and the referee’s use of the sin-bin, or lack thereof, but the Parramatta Eels put away the Sydney Roosters 31-18 in Round 9 in front of a bumper crowd of 25,000. The Roosters were every bit as tough and valiant as I tipped them to be back on Team List Tuesday and Trent Robinson deserves a ton of credit for his ability to consistently field a competitive unit in 2021. Still, the Eels posted a rare double digit victory over the tri-colours before you even factor in two dubious overturned tries and a rare miscued finish from Blake Ferguson. The win snaps a four game losing streak against the franchise sporting the flightless avian as a mascot and sets us up for a loaded musings.
The officiating shemozzle
Let’s pop this nasty pimple immediately. The Eels were fortunate to have 13-men on the field throughout the entirety of the contest tonight. Marata Niukore (shoulder charge, contact with the head) and Dylan Brown (leading with the knees) will both likely spend two or more on the sidelines a piece following the happenings of a manic sequence of play in the dying moments of the first half. Dylan, in particular, I feel was lucky to avoid the sin-binning and given the damage done to Drew Hutchinson (broken ribs, collapsed lung) I expect the judiciary to come down on him with the full force of their punitive measures. Dylan needs to be better than that and I hope Hutchinson can make a swift recovery.
I do however have something of a bone to pick on the Marata Niukore incident. There is no doubt that on precedent it was a simple penalty to call. There is also certainly precedent to sin-bin the Eels’ centre, albeit the fact that the player he tackled didn’t leave the field played a significant role in Marata also staying put. Niukore certainly has a duty of care as the defender but I am starting to get a bit frustrated with attacking players falling or diving into contact though and James Tedesco is a prime culprit in that regard. His miraculous ability to pin-ball out of contact and break tackles with his lowered centre of gravity helped make him the premier fullback in the NRL but it sometimes leaves defenders with an impossibly small target to hit in incredibly high stakes situations where a handful of centimetres matter massively.
Whether the Eels fight whatever charge is incoming for Marata remains to be seen but I would be interested in them doing just that in order to try and establish an onus on ball-carriers in some capacity. Niukore’s loading is going to juice up any charge he gets though and thankfully Brad Arthur confirmed that Waqa Blake will be ready to go for Magic Round next week.
Now, for all the talk about the edict the NRL put out about increased use of the sin-bin for high contact with the head they also spoke about escalated responses to cynical or deliberate six-agains. Just as the Eels were lucky to not be a man down tonight so too were the Roosters. Matt Cecchin signalled consecutive six-agains for the blue & gold throughout the night but never resorted to escalating to a penalty or even the sin-bin. I am not trying to create a false equivalency here but it feels like the referees did not get the missive on either account and that is a serious issue.
Throw in a dubious overturning of the Reagan Campbell-Gillard opening try and the frankly bizarre thought process that saw Maika Sivo robbed of crucial try in the second half and you have a genuine clown fiesta no matter which way you honk the horn. The Roosters and their fans have every right to feel aggrieved but it was far from a cleanly-called game for both sides.
Cash flow problems
To say that the dummy-half is important to a NRL team is probably understating the significance of their role and responsibilities by a wee-bit. This was made readily apparent when Reed Mahoney got his head in the wrong position in the first-half and was promptly concussed. The Eels are without their front-line utility player with Will Smith sidelined and given that Haze Dunster was occupying that role on the bench this week, Brad Arthur had no recourse but to jerry rig a solution.
What we got was a Frankensteinian abomination that saw Clinton Gutherson, Bryce Cartwright and Dylan Brown juggle the role for the majority of the game. It clearly impacted the Eels ability to organise their attack as well as attack either edge with speed but they persevered and made do. Credit should also go to Mitchell Moses who guided the team around the park masterfully and is thriving more and more as responsibilities are heaped upon him.
Reed’s exit from the game did highlight a crucial problem with the composition of their team in its current iteration. The lack of an emergency dummy-half can and will hamstring the Eels against high calibre opposition (or healthy high calibre opposition). Will Smith is obviously that guy when fit but we need a clearer ‘Plan B’ when he is out. Joey Lussick and Nathaniel Roache are the obvious candidates but now a question mark lingers over their availability for Round 10 given that they took part in the dominant 39-0 victory over the North Sydney Bears today. With the NRL potentially entering a bubble once more following the potential Eastern Suburbs COVID breach, the Eels could have a genuine issue at dummy-half heading into Round 10.
Just on Reed for a moment but the little we did get to see of him was outstanding as per the rest of 2021 so far. He is docked a point for getting the ball knocked out of his grasp in an early half-break but he made up for that delux with his role in a truly gorgeous set-play that saw he, Junior Paulo and Bryce Cartwright leave a number of Roosters’ defender grasping at thin air. The Eels do have an extended turnaround until they take on the Warriors next week, which will boost Reed’s chance of a recovery but it is going to be a nervous wait.
Big game Lane
Shaun Lane has had a mixed start to the 2021 season but he came good in a big way against the Roosters. Promoted to lock-forward to replace Nathan Brown who was a game-day scratch, Lane was dialed in for his 46-minutes, avoiding cheap errors and turnovers and instead proving to be a nightmare for the Roosters to bring down. The lanky lock cranked out 148 from 17 carries and while he was credited with 2 tackle breaks, he regularly carried multiple defenders through the ruck. He was a rock defensively as well with 24 tackles marred by 1 missed and 1 ineffective tackle.
The performance adds credence to the idea that Lane’s best days ahead might be in the ruck but his positional versatility still allows him to be deployed on the edge as needed. It was great to see Shaun hit his straps again and I hope he can maintain the momentum from here on out.
The Final Word
I have seen some gripes about a lack of fluency from the Eels’ attack tonight but I find it hard to complain when Parramatta unloaded 31-points and could have easily had a further three tries added to that total. The Roosters are a formidable outfit, even with all of their injuries, and assuming it doesn’t get much worse they are going to beat plenty of teams this year.
The new faces at the club continue to impress. Last week Bryce Cartwright set up two tries with hustle and hard running and a week later he is rewarded with two tries of his own for exhibiting exactly the same qualities. Isaiah Papali’i is a constant menace and is introducing an offload to his game while Tom Opacic not only vultured a nice little try for himself but he has an impeccable taste in music. Hearing ‘Fortunate Son’ blaring out at Bankwest Stadium is pretty much peak hype for me personally.
Mainstays in the forward pack did everything asked of them and the trio of Paulo, Campbell-Gillard and Kaufusi is honestly as good as anything another club can offer. Maika Sivo didn’t do much in the way of eye-popping numbers but he showcased truly spectacular athleticism to pick the pocket of Matt Ikuvalu on a long range bomb. Finally, it was terrific to see Dylan utilising his footwork once more. While he has consistently proven to be difficult to bring down, it feels like he has been guilty of plowing into the defence like a lock at times. The try he scored at the end of the game got me feeling all kinds of hot and bothered and I want to see more of that when he comes back from his stint on the sidelines.
Last point of order, Sixties and myself managed to get clearance to call the NSW Cup curtain raiser tonight as the Eels took on the Bears. Said coverage of that game is just above. It is a hefty ask to get everyone to listen through over two hours of dribble but feel free to do so if you are inclined. Otherwise a quick listen and a like would be greatly appreciated.
Great stuff sixties. My only concern is how we are so regularly caught out a man short out wide in defence. The seemingly ease with which other teams catch us with an overlap amazes me. On the flip side the amount of times we went wide and never generated an overlap is also a worry. I also don’t understand why we continue to number up correctly off of scrums. We always defend 3 a side regardless if the opposition has 4. How hard can it be to work out and we have given away a few tries because of it this year?
I’d have thought the Sam Walker long ball would have been discussed through the week ,it’s only a matter of time before one gets intercepted,or maybe he’s just too good.I thought apart from that one we did a good job of keeping him quiet, him and most of the team actually.
Good write up, thx mate. Lane was good and opacic continues to impress. Dylan brown probably gets suspended, but I think scoring that stepping / jinking try might really kick start a better running game from him. Dunster appears to have some good size about him now. Gr8 to see carty doin some of the grunt work but staying alert for opportunities to show his class. My biggest hope for the team is that Blake can come out and play so well that Marata goes back to the pack.
My best team is to take a risk and not play a extra dummy half of the bench and so go with 4 power fwds on the bench,
Rcg , reed , jnr
Matto, papalii,
Brown
Sivo. Moses
Dylan
Blake Opacic.
Gutho
Ferg
Marata
Lane
Oregon
Carty
Considering that we had our dummy half out for most of the game, and somehow East’s are still able to field a team full of rep players, I thought we controlled the game very well. It’s evident why East’s have so many injuries because of the way they play. They tried to hustle us through the middle, but Parra held firmly to their game plan. Credence to Parra for that, it would have been easy to lose the plot a couple of times there.
The 6 again calls were a result of the Roosters using the same tactics that were so successful for the Dragons. Continually slow down the play the ball, stop the flow and give time to regroup in defence. Let’s see what the judiciary comes up with, but the game is played at a furious pace and Browns slide wasn’t intentional but he’s going to get time, given the uproar from the Chooks fans in the media.
Going to mention a couple of things, Robinsons presser saw the embarrassing Paul Crawley basically dribble biased questioning and was a vocal blow job. Listening to a couple of radio stations on the way home, how one sided their commentary was amazing, All about theHeroic Roosters when they could only field 8 rep players , and the strident calls for over the top suspensions on Brown and Nikore outlined where the bias lay.
After the fiasco that was the Kaufusi charge on Matterson, watch the MRC later today, no doubt it will be savage. Tedesco’s constant on field whinging didn’t help .
It really baffles me as to who the media is trying to woo with their Rooster bias. Parra has massive support throughout the country, much higher than East’s, so surely they are upsetting a very big part of their consumers by doing that.
It is prolly some of the free breakyy or give aways from Uncle Nick is working 😊
BD totally agree with your sentiments. I am on holidays in Perth.
I watched the game on 9 and found the commentary appalling. It was so one sided and clearly there was only one team that they were championing
Despite the Eels retention committees heroics in the area of recruitment and retention they still can’t match the Roosters for rep quality.
What about Taukeiaho, wasn’t he placed on report twice? The second for a high as in head shot. I’ve not heard anything about him at all.
Tks Forty. Robinson must have watched the Dragons tape. Aggressive defence, slow the ruck, Usain Bolt line speed. Nate Butcher and the 9 (Marschke?) could have been 6 Agained off the park, and at times their ruck defensive line seemed to be set on the advantage line. This time we coped, only 8 errors (Roosters 16). We learned, well done.The Chooks out-rucked us by 10mtrs most sets, but we just accepted that and focussed on doing the basics well, Moses’ kicking game again good.
I swear Big Derek, I didn’t see your post. At least Checcin offered something. The Roosters backed off a bit on the slow release, although Butcher and Marschke continually loitered after the second last tackler withdrew, and the 10 mtrs got no attention at all.
From my perspective and it will come out showing an eels bias but for me I am thinking DB will get at least 3 weeks as he was charged with the same thing in a previous match not that long ago. The Marata shoulder charge to me is iffy as the chickens player was actually jammed in an upright position by two eels players, photo’s show that.
The Ref. I rate Chekan as the pick of the refs, he pinged the chickens on that many occassions that one can understand why Robbo was going beserk, but not one of the penalties was wrong, and were deserved.
The ruck as such and style of game from the chickens, was pretty much on par with the drag queens game, the repeat sets finally came our way and deservedly so. I intend looking at the game again sometime today for no other reason the look at several other issues I saw in the game from the chickens.
The NRL and Anerslee has called for a crack down on tackles above shoulder height, eg, neck and head the NRL’s wording though rather than saying tackles they say contact above the shoulders, at neck and head level. But how many penalties and warnings are needed to get those rulings applied by the NRL and refs?
Takehao is on report for his lift and turning an eels player in a tackle but he was pinged twice, will be watching the judiciary on those two, but he was also tackling high and putting hand, forearm to the head of tackled players.
Lets go to the biggest grub though who seemingly was invisible in many of his tackle & that wizard being Haregraves, the number of times his arms in both attack and defence against the eels was incredible, all bar one IIRC was not pinged. There were several tackles on papi that had a chickens player go underneath him and take him face into the turf, OK that’s not head high but what affect in a slight miscue if his face/head hit the ground first? OK his hair and beard may cushion some of it.
Finally. As I now watch games on Kayo for the first time in a season, and I try to ensure the eels games are watched, I have to say despite their winning and going well, I am getting more frustrated with RL especially the way the game is played today. Rather than the things I have mentioned above, for me the worst is the ruck plays which have the tackled player rather than stand to play the ball on the marked spot, they get up bent over play the ball and push forward into the markers using their shoulders, &/or outstretched arms to push the markers back. The amount of players surrounding the ruck is out of proportion also, this leads to more pushing of tackled players in both the defensive and attacking roles. I will stop there but my final thoughts are.
The NRL game is not RL. IMHO
Good read, agree completely with the Tedesco shout. What is a defender supposed to do in that situation? Surely a penalty and a fine would have sufficed. The Rooster bias is really getting to me as well. As is the double standards for parra. If we win a game big they say you can’t win premierships in May and if we don’t win ‘big’ then we are pretenders and have alarm bells about our attack… guess it will make it all the sweeter come finals if we can put some wins together
Good win, albeit we won in the last ten mins which is fine. East a are tough and played well.
We were good but not as polished in some area; but a good win.
Don’t start me about the officials and judiciary….its a who’s who of teams who dudded…and I’ve not had the commentary on for a while and watch games in quiet.
Next week go around again, and need to be as good as the Warriors will be up for it.
Also agree re Tedesco / Niukore incident. I thought the issue was 1. Tedesco ducking like he does in almost every tackle – the onus should go back on him to not put his head below defender shoulders, and 2. Niukore was stuck half behind Paulo I think, meaning he couldn’t get a clean grab at him – he would have tackled Paulos bum. Dylan incident was a combination of lazy and unlucky. It happens every week with defenders pulling out of tackles late over the line. Just an unfortunate impact position. He will get weeks, but the lack of intent should count for something.
There was a fairly dangerous tackle on Ice in the second half that was completely overlooked. He was rolled head first into the ground. If he’d been injured the chook would have been off the park. That was worse than Niukore I thought, and it was caused by the tackler, not the ball player.
great write ups as usual, keep em coming!