Saturday 28th August 2021
Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, QLD
Half time: 10 – 10
Attendance: 10,246
For the second time this year, the Eels have lowered the Storm’s colours. In a season which had seen Melbourne win 19 consecutive games, dropping only two matches prior to last Saturday, it was a remarkable result.
What makes this win much sweeter is the fact that nearly every ‘expert’ automatically wrote off the Eels.
Fair enough too, because there was no shortage of Eels fans who felt the same way.
It was apparently a fait accompli that the Storm had already won their 20th straight match. Why play the game – just award the Storm a 50 to nil result and move on.
It felt that way watching the Fox League promos.
Such was the consensus of opinion that even “Friend of the Throw“, Vonnie Sampson, couldn’t find a way to give the Eels a chance of stopping the Storm from securing the victory. Surprisingly it was left to Paul Kent to suggest any chance of the upset.
It is so satisfying when your team can prove the experts wrong. And incidentally, we still love Vonnie’s work.
Incorrect match predictions aside, the Eels provided a remarkable reversal in form to topple this mighty Melbourne team.
The fact that the Storm were very close to full strength added even greater credit to the result. In contrast, the Eels were missing, Mahoney, RCG, Sivo and Matterson. There could be no excuse that Melbourne were under strength.
Melbourne’s form over the last few weeks had not been as stellar as earlier in the season, and finally a team put them to the sword.
How good for that team to be our Eels!
Team wise, the stats revealed an edge to Parra.
The Blue and Golds had 53% possession, and an 80% Completion rate (32 completed sets from 40 sets) showed that the Eels made use of that advantage.
Time wise, the Eels spent 39 minutes in the Storm half with 12 and a half minutes in the Storm 20 metre zone.
Yet another pleasing aspect I’m sure Brad Arthur and the team are deservedly proud of is the second half clean sheet. Defensive resolve is the key to tight finals matches, and what better way to warm up for the big matches ahead than by keeping the Storm scoreless in a tense final 40 minutes.
Attack:
The Eels gained 2448 metres for the match as opposed to Melbourne’s 2195 metres.
It was another points victory to the Eels for run metres, posting 1608 metres from 197 carries to Melbourne’s 1564 run metres from 175 carries.
Six Eels made 100 running metres or more with Isaiah Papali’i leading with 186 running metres. He was followed by Junior Paulo (168), Nathan Brown (166), and youngsters Haze Dunster (144) and Will Penisini (117).
Our workhorses, Isaiah Papali’i and Nathan Brown are deserving of a huge shout out for running 21 times each. Big effort lads.
In other key numbers, Parramatta had 4 line breaks, made 36 tackle breaks and were able to offload 8 times.
Hit Up Map
We’ve actually seen a similar looking map over the last few weeks as the Eels worked very hard to secure field position. Melbourne tried valiantly to keep Parramatta in their own end, but the Eels were relentless.
Set Starts
There were a lot of set starts deep in Eels territory, but ball movement with purpose became the key to this win. No doubt Melbourne’s next few opponents will be watching this game over and over to see how the Eels achieved such dominance over the Storm.
Defence:
The Eels tackle efficiency rate was 87%. They made 329 tackles with 33 missed and 17 ineffectives.
Joey Lussick topped the tackle count with 39, followed by Isaiah Papali’i (35) and Nathan Brown (32).
Although the Storm were able to get good second phase play with 12 offloads, the Eels slide and scrambling defence was on point. This was something that we haven’t seen in a long time. I’ll be looking for some fine tuning, with Haze Dunster improving his footwork and his slide decision making near the top of my list.
Discipline:
Parramatta conceded just 3 penalties and gave up three 10 metre and one ruck restart.
Both sides committed 10 errors.
Nathan Brown and Keegan Hipgrave were each put on report and as we know now, Junior is having a week off after the MRC charged him with a grade one shoulder charge.
Final Thoughts:
It was a brilliant 80-minute performance from the Eels. This is the exact effort you need to beat a team like the Storm.
From 1 to 17 the Eels players knew their role and executed it.
I must single out Keegan Hipgrave for his outstanding results for the Eels this season. Eight starts for eight wins makes “Keegs” our 2021 lucky charm.
However, with all of the accolades that the Eels will deserve, if they can’t back it up then it really comes to nothing. Yes, let’s live in this win for now, but Friday is another game against another cracking team in the Penrith Panthers.
With the Eels looking at resting players, it might be difficult to judge whether the team’s form has held up.
Paulo and Gutherson are already confirmed as sitting on the sidelines, and more stars are likely to be joining them for a rest.
Nonetheless, we will still look for the Eels to put in and get out of this match unscathed and ready for the finals.
Stats That Matta Player of the Week
You get the award, you get the award. EVERYONE GETS THE AWARD!
Congrats lads on a fine performance.
Yours in Blue and Gold
Colmac
Great win by the boys never lost faith. Everyone has flat spots during a year. It just coincided with injuries to our three main spine leaders.
disappointed in the paulo suspension and I’m sure on the first tackle of the kick return from that exact set munster shoulder charges Ferguson to the ground.
it seems like they don’t review games professionally they just review what gets a rise out of the commentary team.
In a beaten team I thought Brandon Smith was unbelievable.
Brandon Smith would be an asset to any team. What a 100 mph machine!! I also appreciated him giving credit to the Eels, saying that our team deserved the result. I found Bellamy’s post match interview fixated on Storm’s woes without due credit being given to the Eel’s relentless game execution, that caused the Storm to falter in the first place
I’m with you Ajax. I’d include Hectic Cheese in my team any day. Incidentally I made sure I prayed for his soul.
Luke, I can’t believe that the incident involving Paulo was worthy of a suspension. He was probably going to be rested, but it still angers me that it could even earn a second look from the MRC.
Watch the Paulo “shoulder charge” alongside the Nathan Cleary “non-shoulder charge” against the Dragons a few weeks back. Lack of consistency is farcical.
And the suspension Junior copped for the dangerous contact to the leg last year compared to Harry Grant’s judo manoeuvre on Maika’s leg which only drew a fine. Ridiculous!
That one sixties was pure nonsense, Junior’s first contact was at the hip at the side, the momentum and position of bodies then saw him swing around to the back of the player as they all fell together. It wasn’t even careless.All in a split second, what are you supposed to do.