Parramatta Eels 6
Manly Sea Eagles 28
Manly Sea Eagles 28
A reminder that I, Forty20, am handling Post Game Grades for the second week in a row because Mitch is unavailable at the moment. Regular grading will resume in Round 12! As a courtesy to readers I will inform you now that I am hecking mad and will be grading appropriately.
The Eels mashed together Clint Eastwood and Meatloaf tonight and instead of getting million dollar bats out of hell we got two thirds of the good, the bad and the ugly. I will let you all figure out which third was missing from Parramatta’s performance tonight.
The sad news that Bob Fulton had passed away broke in the lead up to this game and while I will gripe and whine about Parramatta below it is tragic to see another of rugby league’s legends leave us. Fulton, although a a filthy Sea Eagle, was an outstanding player and an inception Immortal and the game is poorer for his passing.
We’ve got a laundry list of issues here and while it might be petty to over-react to just the second loss of the season for Parramatta the manner in which we lost sits wrong with me. Manly thoroughly won the collisions today. It was apparent from very early on that the Eels were going to be playing off the back foot and they got pulled immediately into Manly’s disruptive game-plan.
The visiting team made it very apparent that they were going to test the fledgling combination of Jakob Arthur, Waqa Blake and Blake Ferguson and that entire edge was found desperately lacking. The Sea Eagles feasted on the Eels’ anaemic right edge defence and the complete lack of stability down that corridor now leads to a very important Team List Tuesday given that Marata Niukore will be available for selection.
Yet, even as maddening as the porous nature of the right edge was throughout the Round 11 contest – perhaps the most aggravating matter to come out of tonight was the refusal of the entire team to play towards anything that remotely resembled a game plan. Everyone played hero-ball tonight. Clinton Gutherson, Reed Mahoney and Mitchell Moses all had boneheaded go-for-the-glory-efforts in times where the Eels needed composure and measured responses. Maika Sivo was desperate to offload the ball in the first-half when he had an acre of open space ahead of him and then refused to pass to Moses in the second half for a near certain try.
It was to be frank, piss poor. A complete deconstruction of the identity they have built for themselves over recent seasons and something that they and I would definitely like to put behind them as soon as possible.
A week after playing the lone clean game of Magic Round against the Warriors the Eels had two players (Reagan Campbell-Gillard and Waqa Blake) sent to the sin-bin under the new directive to punish high contact. That in itself wasn’t the x-factor in Round 11, rather it was Parramatta’s inability to capitalise on Manly’s two sin-binnings that signalled that the Blue & Gold weren’t ever going to be in this one. While there was some overlap between the ‘RCG’ and Jake Trbojevic stints off the field, the passage of play the Eels put together while Karl Lawton was in the bin the first half was nothing short of putrid.
I guess it is the moderately valuable player this week but in a small group of players that earned passing grades I thought Tom Opacic was a point of difference down the left edge. In a way it is part of the charm that Tom has brought to the club. While he will rarely post superstar numbers he has been incredibly consistent and that shone through tonight as he banged out 131m from 14 carries with both a line break and a line break assist to his name to go with 6 tackle busts. On the other side of the ball while he did have 4 ineffective tackles he ultimately missed just the 1 to go with 15 completed tackles and the difference between the left and right was as stark as night and a solar apocalypse as the sun slowly collapses into itself before folding into a black hole and resulting in the heat death of the entire solar system. Sorry I mean night and day, the stark difference between night and day.
Clint Gutherson
1 – Fullback
He scored Parramatta’s only try of the night but it was an overwhelmingly substandard effort from the heart and soul of the team. From a grossly ill-advised cutout pass to Maika Sivo to a number of rushed and poorly thought out grubber kicks, Clinton Gutherson was simply not a factor nor a stabilising influence for the team. An extraordinarily rare, genuinely poor game from our captain and I would be stunned to see another in 2021.
Maika Sivo
2 – Left Wing
While he flashed at times in the contest, Maika Sivo’s inexplicable and polar opposite decisions in two crucial line breaks left me both baffled and furious. I was in an apoplectic state of bafflury. Yeah it isn’t a word. So what? Wanna fight about it? When he needed to tuck the ball under the arm and gun it for the line, he quickly flung it to Tom Opacic and when he had Mitchell Moses looming on his left for a near certain try, not only did he take the glory option but he lost the damn ball in the tackle. Dreadful stuff and only his heavy involvements throughout the game save him from a lower grade.
Tom Opacic
3 – Left Centre
The freshly crowned moderately valuable player of the game! Tom Opacic was actually very good tonight as detailed above and the steadiness and stability he brings to the left ridge stands in heavy, heavy, heavy contrast to the other side of the field.
Waqa Blake
4 – Right Centre
Marata Niukore stocks are positively booming right now. INVEST NOW DAMN IT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
Waqa Blake struggled badly tonight and regardless of any negative fantasy scores the simple fact is that he did not do his job. There is no doubt that Blake is fantastically talented and one of the best athletes at the club but given how stable the right edge was without him there is now a serious controversy brewing at right centre. Brad Arthur has a huge call to make on Tuesday but for mine I do think it is time for Blake to work on his decision making, execution and mechanics in the NSW Cup.
Blake Ferguson
5 – Right Wing
Pulled down significantly by virtue of being part of the vapid right edge, nonetheless it was a workmanlike effort from ‘Fergo’. He made plenty of gritty carries right into the teeth of Manly’s ruck defence and while plenty of tries were scored in and outside of him I don’t think he was the primary guilty party in any.
Jakob Arthur
6 – Five Eighth
It was clear that Manly were going after Jakob Arthur from a very early point in the game. While he did get through a mountain of defensive work (26 tackles, 4 missed, 2 ineffective) the visiting team did crash through his defensive channel to score via Brad Parker. It is impossible to overlook the struggles of that edge as an entirety as well so he gets docked for that too.
I will however credit him as the only member of the spine not to play any panic-footy or hero-ball tonight for whatever it is worth.
Mitch Moses
7 – Halfback
RCG
8 – Front Row
FOR THE LOVE OF VISHNU WHY IS NO ONE RUNNING OFF THIS MAN? Reagan Campbell-Gillard was arguably the most dangerous forward on the park today for the Eels. Manly struggled to contain him on several occasions but he simply couldn’t find a link man. He did spend 10-minutes in the sin-bin which obviously hurt the team but he was one of the few to try and stick it to our archrivals.
Reed Mahoney
9 – Hooker
It must have been some kind of eclipse because the odds of Reed Mahoney, Clinton Gutherson and Mitchell Moses all playing this poorly should be astronomically high. Mahoney was another culprit of the hero-ball plays that nearly drove me insane and it reached its zenith with a grubber kick on the goal line to no one. With Harry Grant not going to make it back for Origin 1 it seems likely that Reed will get his name called and I hope this game doesn’t count against his chances.
Junior Paulo
10 – Front Row
The running numbers are right up there as always (168m from 18 carries) but Junior Paulo missed an alarming 5 tackles and was behind only Waqa Blake (6) in that metric. We hold our representative prop to an incredibly high standard and while the productivity hasn’t dropped at all throughout 11 rounds, perhaps the impact has tapered off just a little recently.
I could be overthinking this as well mind you and either way I look forward to a bounceback effort in Round 12.
Isaiah Papali’i
11 – Second Row
Isaiah Papali’i bounced from left edge to ruck and then back to the left edge tonight as the coaches reshuffled the team looking for a spark against the Sea Eagles. Like Junior, ‘Ice’ got through his usual herculean load of work but was missing some of the ferocity that has catapulted him towards stardom in 2021. He laid on the opening try with a slick offload in heavy contact but the attacking opportunities were sparse after that and a stupidly good cover tackle from Tom Trbojevic snuffed out the other real chance he had in the first half.
Ryan Matterson
12 – Second Row
The best performing member of the right edge in defence but it was still a mixed bag from Ryan Matterson. Some strong ball running was offset but an awful offload attempt that costs the Eels a massive attacking possession at a crucial early juncture. I would have liked to have seen some more variety with how he was used against Manly. Both he and Nathan Brown were turned back inside into the defence with great regularity in Round 11 and while they both made inroads, it left Manly largely untested down their left edge.
Nathan Brown
13 – Lock
As above, I grew a bit fatigued of him getting turned back on the inside set after set but to his credit he took to the task in the way only Nathan Brown could. He tore into Manly for 153m from 18 carries and tried desperately to spark the team on both sides of the ball alas to little impact. Part of me is amazed that after two rounds of the crackdown, Brown hasn’t come remotely close to getting sin-binned or sent-off and for that I sincerely credit the tearaway forward.
Oregon Kaufusi
14 – Interchange
Coming out of the game I thought Oregon Kaufusi was one of the few to really threaten Manly but the numbers shocked me somewhat. ‘Oggy’ contributed just 51m from 6 carries in a 20-minute stint and I really did not expect the running metres to be that low. What does support what my eyes saw are the 6 tackle busts which shows that he did inflict some damage on the Sea Eagles. Like Isaiah Papali’i above, Kaufusi was genuinely unlucky not to score but save for some Tom Trobjevic wizardry in defence,
Shaun Lane
15 – Interchange
Shaun Lane was serviceable from the bench today. The lanky utility forward fell just shy of 100 running metres and while he did miss 4 tackles he managed to bring down a Manly player on 24 occasions. I might be forgetting some moments that could or should bump his grade down but I am going to be honest with you all, it has been a slog tonight.
Joey Lussick
16 – Interchange
Bryce Cartwright
17 – Interchange
Feasibly could have been an F or D- for that disastrous early touch where he opted to go for a stupid grubber kick. I showed him some clemency for putting the razzle dazzle away afterwards and working hard with the ball in hand. Grinded his way up to a very solid 96m from 9 carries and was one of only two Eels, alongside Lussick, to not miss a single tackle (16 made) on the first tally. Imagine that of all things? 2021 never ceases to amaze.
This easily usurps our Round 5 loss as the most disappointing performance in an otherwise brilliant start to 2021. I could complain about the officiating and the crackdown but at this point I am really tired and it would be bordering on old man yells at clouds type stuff. There is very little, if anything the Eels can salvage from this loss. They were bludgeoned off the park and will need to reset heavily ahead of Round 12 where they meet an opponent who is also wounded and will looking to bounce back. The South Sydney Rabbitohs were positively hammered by the Penrith Panthers today and it now leads to a clash between two competition heavyweights that are licking their wounds.
As always, you can catch all the chatter and pregame talk for that fixture right here on TCT and thankfully for everyone – especially myself! – it is back to business as usual for grades next week as Mitch gets the red marking pen out.
That was very cathartic, Forty. Thank you.
And thank you again for filling the breach these last two weeks. You’re a legend.
Fair grades.
I feel despite the start and ladder position with this club a performance like that is always just around the corner.
Next week will be no easier against the Bunnies who’s left edge will be scary.
And they are a team who always trouble us.
Fourtunatly Waqa will cope a suspension
Unfortunately Reg will probably get one too.
One thing is clear this is Penriths comp everyone else is trying to come 2nd games like that show we are just not quite at that level yet
Waqa on coped 2 fines not suspended offside
Terrible news can we appeal this and get upgraded to a charge of grade 1 imposter
I think Waqa would be better as a bench player at another club
They were terrible and your grades rightly showed that, just couldn’t stick to the game plan we’ve had. Manlys defence was top class and near impenetrable. Some of the calls by officials were confusing and did lean towards manly but not the reason we lost. Moses gets hit high by DCE and they play the set out and then tell him he’s on report, no penalty. Campbell Gillard hits a player high we play on for 2 tackles ref stops play penalises him and sends him off, couldn’t get my head around that one. Hopefully waqa will be gone next week and refix that rh side
None of us can Dave, but as you said, not the reason for the loss.
I hope the eels trade Waqa to tigers for some one better. Ill even drive Waqa myself to amy team except Melbourne can’t be in the car wiyh him that long.
I don’t know how RCG copped that one – the head was cannoned into him by another tackler. Ropeable.
Agree..watched it a few times. If we had technology to show the intended height of contact, RCG dead set would have been at chest level, pushing into the ball. The guy’s head position got changed at the last moment.
Thanks for your thoughts Forty. Terrible effort, by us. Wondering if some of our regular stars are more worried bout their, Origin chances
Great read Forty, sadly your grading was spot on!
It was Archie.
It looked like they all said ” we are sorry about Bozo” then just capitulated. Even the coach used him as a main excuse.
It must be pointed out that although our right edge leaked like a sieve, Manly won the game in the forwards. They have a massive pack and they absolutely belted us. Due to the fact that Carty can play the utility, why did we have Lussick on the bench? We required the sheer bulk of someone like Grieg or even Hipgrave.
BA has, by his own admission dropped the ball more than once with his bench and this was another example. Carty and 3 big forwards is the way to go.
I don’t blame that on the bench or use thereof. Who would you select there instead? Greig is not yet experienced enough to change the momentum of a game. And I like Hipgrave but he’s not a big body. But I do agree that the problems started in not winning the middle. We played off the back foot from the first half. Just not good enough.
Sipley and the other forwards Manly used are probably of the experience / ability level of Greig.
The fact is they used these players due to their bulk to batter the forwards like and used the springboard effect from there. I would have played Greig instead of Lussick.
Just like the reggies, when the opposition runs harder and tackles harder, the so called favourites can get over run and lose, we saw that in both grades. The current refereeing crackdown may hurt when your style is physical, but no excuse for his game. Seemed impossible there would be a worse performance that St George, then this game happened.
Seems there is still a problem with the lack of attacking structure, our shifts seem way behind what are seen from others. When Manly move the ball quickly and smoothly to edges etc, and the Riff and Storm are benchmarks, then there is a lot of work to be done.
It was just awful and completely different to how we have approached most games this year Derek. No composure. No patience. Too many, as Forty calls it, hero plays.
Yes, way too many hero plays. That attempted flick from Matterson and that kick for Sivo from Gutho that resulted in a Manly try next set as just a couple of examples. I thought that the difference in the kicking games of DCE and Moses was vast yesterday. Something needs to be done about the two Blake’s and Marata must surely come back in the centres. That said I do think the team needs Waqa’s pace so maybe Fergo joins the bench Dunster style.
Do we have someone in reserves able to slot into centre and leave Niukore in the forwards? In the last few games thought both Papalii and Cartwright has lost their impact and Niukore would provide that when he comes on. Manly have something we don’t, and that’s speed, so we’re a slow team. That needs to be fixed for next year before we can truly kick the premiership door down. Some serious thinking required and perhaps a positional change required.
The only serious option in reserves would be Oldfield as Will Penisini is not yet experienced enough to defend better than Waqa. So it’s Marata.
How’s Oldfield going in the Reggies ? He would have to be an option- pretty handy player.
Scored on the weekend
Would t rule out rankin on experience alone and can tackle
Made the trip to attend and got that. Tks forty, the grades are both cathartic and therapeutic. Sitting on the southern 10 mtr line you could see that game slipping from around the 20 minute mark. I saw our right side become constantly outnumbered by 1 or 2 and I saw Manly’s 80 minute line speed focus off 8 or 9 mtrs with DCE leading the way(not a whinge, a fact). I thought they matched, probably shaded our forwards but their attack and defence out wider looked 3 notches above.Even their scramble was better, but that had a great irony when Moses scrambled brilliantly only to have the Rugby League ball do its thing and bounce weirdly for Parker to score. Note, no tries through the middle, but matching us definitely laid a platform.It was the St George formula with DCE, Jake and Tom providing far more class.
I just can’t get my head around what i watched last night , all the way home and still this morning i haven’t stopped shaking my head so much so i think i will have to have a HIA . Thanks boys
Can you guys no longer have your live podcasts at parra home games. If I recall you have had two and the eels have played like busteds each time (dragons and now eagles). Please. Just kidding btw.
No Sneaky Pete I think the reason they lost is because Sixties changed seats.
I’m superstitious enough to blame myself!
Ha! Actually our other live pod was before the Storm game.
I agree on the grades. I think tom opicac is great defense wise n ran great lines. Our fowards were simple soft. I’d really like brad Arthur to put Waqa in the Canterbury cup.
I new as soon as he ( Waqa) came back our right edge would open up like the great devide. Marata should be playing the rest of the yr in the centres.
Can Parramatta please sell Waqa. His great attacking player but no good at defense.
Maybe the boy’s were reading there own hype.
I will be harsh 0n jakob Arthur he should be helping Moses kick more n taking on the line. He has to understand his in the spine he can’t sit back n watch n learn on the run.
I think it’s time to pring papali’i from the bench we missed his impact of the bench lane n kaufusi don’t give us that impact that we need.
Moses needs to calm down n starti
Playing smart in teams 20 metres zone we were poor.
As tgey say on to next weekend. Eels to bounce back will be tough with out RCG coping a grade 2 =1-2 week’s.
Harsh dosent cover it Mitch hogged the game both sides of field and shut arthur out of the game ,the kid hardly got a touch , silly statement !! Also when did waqa become a great attacking player , he backs up his terrible defence with a disinct lack of points and try assists since joining us !
No name his always been a great attacking player just his defense is awful.
Agree with the grades Forty, miserable effort.
Our spine went missing, very disappointing. They’ve had a good number of games together – surely enough games to expect more leadership.
We didn’t win the middle against a lowly rated forward pack…feels a bit like 2018 where individuals tried but collectively we were consistently overpowered.
And Waqa – it was obvious he’d be targeted but it was just chaos, a shambles. You can’t imagine how BA could select Waqa again but we all know he will…the loyalty fault line runs deep
Bravo. Grades perfectly reflect the performance. If plan A does not work
…. We don’t seem to have another plan at all……a team at their peak must have B…C…D…options at least. Considering how poor the performance and decision making was across the park….I will put this one down to bad day at the office.
I know it was only our 2nd loss but it’s how bad we were that has stuck with me our forwards were out gunned our key men went missing.
We simply didn’t compete and it looked like the problems of late 2020 were back again.
As for the Blake issue I’m concerned that BA will stay loyal he has a history of backing out of form players
We are consistently inconsistent. There is still no culture of consistently winning, of putting the foot on the throat mentality. As you said Forty, we have players who are selfish and wants to be the hero. It appears some think glory for themselves instead of the team. Trying to score a try when another player is wide open. Selfish, hero plays. I think the team has still a long way to go in maturity and footy IQ since it appears we still are looking for a calming leader that can pacify the fears, apprehension and doubt of the pack.
Forty, thank you for making the compulsory PGG’s read an enjoyable and entertaining activity, I hadn’t considered that it even might be, prior to reading.
On the grades I would differ only slightly. Maika’s effort was an under 11-D grade performance, so he would have received an F from me. I also thought Nathan Brown was at least a B+ too. I also thought Waqa was dismal overall but not as bad as Sivo. he also made a couple of great highball leaps and he whacked his opposite a couple of times. So I give him a D.
Did anyone notice Morgan Harper slap the head of a eels player as they were getting up to ptb. Think it was on Reedy.
If all these sin bins are making our game soft sorry safe then that fool Peter vlandy’s is sadly miss taken. Why ppl are not seeing is that these blow out’s will only increase with these send offs. Stick to horse racing. You n south African guy abdo both have no idea about rugby league.
Agree with your point about Valandys and Abdo Rev. They are good at the Commercial and Business stuff but out of their depth when it comes to football operations
We were never in this contest, and that is very alarming. Top teams can pull themselves back into a game after a poor start, and Parra have done that a few times, but not this week. We let Manly dictate the game and got punished for it. Well done to Hasler for watching the Parra v St George game. We need to be better here. It’s now obvious what teams need to do to rattle us, and we should expect that every game from now on. We play better when we dictate the game through our forwards and our spine players playing off the back of that. What happened to that style of play this week?
A lot to work on, and no doubt some serious decisions to be made with the team list today.
Thanks Forty I just don’t know how you gather the composure to write this.
After the game we went home in silence. I did not even chat the taxi driver when he went the wrong way.
With regard to the right side defence and this is in no way intended to defend Waqa but I was worried about the double whammy of losing both Dylan and Marata at the same time and the impact that it would have on our defence.
This will need to be addressed along with the issues around Sivo. Further I agree with Glen that there is a distinct lack of speed out wide.
Glenn
That game was an absolute disaster. As I watched from the stand, I couldn’t believe how incredibly dumb some of our team were playing, it felt like they had forgotten how to play Rugby League.
I think that you gradings were spot on, and I agree with your comments about Tom, he was by far our best performer.
I am not a supporter who would normally criticise any of our players, but Waqa is doing my head in. Marata needs that centre spot. Please BA.