What a week to be an Eels supporter.
The highs and lows of following our great club were never better exemplified than the events of the last seven or eight days.
On the field we’ve suffered through the last minute loss to the Sharks, then been overjoyed by the golden point victory over the Storm in Melbourne.
Our hearts broke for our NRLW team when they fell just short of finals footy, and the pain continued when learning of the extent of the injury to Ray Stone.
Outrage has now kicked in as Eels players continue to be the target of cheap shots that barely cause a ripple from the match review panel.
So much to cover, and I’m ready to take the first carry.
Bumpers up!
What A Joke
Just when I thought that the lack of action from the Match Review Committee (Panel) couldn’t get any worse, Nelson Asofa-Solomona has emerged with the “hold my beer” moment of the season.
And it’s only Round 3!
Had there not been incidents in other matches that had gone unpunished, it would be easy for a paranoid Parra fan to think that open season had been declared on Eels players.
That shot (Courtesy of Channel 9)
The use of knees in tackles was literally rubber stamped “nothing to see here” in the first two rounds, and now a swinging arm to the back of the head has just received a light slap on the wrist.
Hey mums and dads, we proudly present NRL 2022.
As someone who’s passionate about junior participation, I’m furious. The game at junior level is a fun and extremely safe sport. Junior clubs have an important role in the community, one that extends far beyond just playing the game.
Professional Rugby League is a brutal collision sport and should not be confused with the modified version played by kids.
However, and this is a big however, the NRL is the flagship product and unchecked cheap shots should never be the images holding the spotlight in the media.
Media platforms and supporters have every right to be concerned by these incidents. It falls entirely on the NRL to clearly demonstrate that such play is not welcome in our great game, and at this point they are failing badly.
The Footy Gods At Work
When it comes to the ebbs and flows of footy fortunes, rugby league rarely disappoints.
There could be no better example than the crazy ride that Ray Stone experienced over seven short days.
Stoney
Vilified after his cannonball tackle against the Sharks, Mr 3:16 emerged as the unexpected hero with a two try performance against the Storm. The footy smarts that he demonstrated in staying onside for Mitch Moses field goal attempt, followed by his solo pursuit of the kick, proved to be the difference between winning and losing for the Eels.
As if that wasn’t enough, the joy of the moment was quickly overshadowed by the realisation that a knee injury sustained as he stepped and planted the ball was likely to rule him out for the remainder of the season.
But if this is to be his final appearance in the Blue and Gold, what a memory he’s now left for us all!
What A Victory
In the lead up to Saturday night, I declared that the Eels could have no better opponent than the Storm in their pursuit for greater intensity.
A sweet, sweet win (image courtesy Eels media)
Make no mistake, Melbourne lifted a number of levels on their early 2022 season form. Everybody knew that they would.
As for Parra, there remains aspects to their game that require attention. The first up defence is falling off too many tackles, and the right side continues to suffer from poor reads.
However, the desire to fight for the win was evident in the scramble, whilst the form of Moses and Brown continues to be a shining light.
Ask any supporter of any club to mark down their likely results for the season. It would be a brave supporter (or a crazy optimist) who’d predict a win against the Storm in Melbourne.
The Eels have just achieved that, and the two premiership points taste very sweet.
NRLW Season Ends With A Tough Loss
Despite missing out on a finals berth, the Eels NRLW team has signalled a bright future for our club in this competition.
Already financially self-sufficient, Parra’s debut involvement could prove to be the blueprint for the next expansion clubs.
The girls should be proud
On field, with the exception of the final round, the matches have been tightly contested affairs. The players can feel proud with how they’ve represented the jersey and the way they engaged with supporters.
With regard to the clash with the Broncos, they are a classy side and clearly the Eels couldn’t match it with them. Even after the re-distribution of talent, Brisbane has retained elite players who will ensure that they remain a powerhouse in the premiership.
However, the Eels task was made that much tougher by the injury to star fullback Botille Vette-Welsh and by some tough officiating that restricted their possession rate to 29% in the first half. Parra were undoubtedly gassed by that workload, and at half time I declared to Forty that the girls were facing a 30 point loss.
If I’m brutally honest, I’ve been disappointed by the standard of officials in the season thus far. I’m not sure that they’ve got their communication correct because there have been many instances of lost possession, knock ons, and clear forward passes that have been missed.
Even though NRL matches have similar issues, they seem to be more pronounced in the NRLW. My first suspicion is that the “teams” of officials are new match day units. Perhaps the tipping from sideline officials needs to be fine tuned. Whatever the case, it would be wrong to sweep it under the carpet as we want all aspects of the competition to be successful.
Go The Girls
Parra’s Tarsha Gale team continues to go from strength to strength.
The side recorded their fourth consecutive win by hammering the Rabbitohs at Redfern Oval on Saturday, and now sit in second place on the ladder. They are playing terrific footy and local supporters should try to catch them in either Round 9 action in two weeks time at Cabramatta, or in the finals series.
In other junior reps news, victory in the last two rounds has put Parra’s Harold Matts team back into the top 6 but they will need to maintain that form over the final two matches to hold their spot. Unfortunately a loss to the Rabbitohs now has the S G Ball side planning for 2023.
Lower Grade Joy
More wins were celebrated by the Eels lower grades over the weekend.
The Flegg side joined the NRL fellas when they took on the Victorian Thunderbolts in Melbourne on Saturday. The 24-18 victory over their unbeaten opponents built on their success on the road against the Sharks on the previous weekend.
Cini during his Wests Tigers days
Sunday’s wet weather forced a last minute switch of venue for Parra’s NSW Cup match against Mounties. The clash suddenly became a home game at Kellyville, but the heavy rain still resulted in a water-logged surface.
Parra recorded a 18-12 victory, with Zac Cini putting in an outstanding performance (see TCT match updates). I was also impressed by Parra’s middles and I thought that Bryce Cartwright demonstrated his class with a brilliant first half that helped the Eels to an 18 point lead.
These were challenging conditions for players and spectators alike. The planned grandstand at Kellyville can’t come soon enough.
Congratulations
Parramatta Leagues Club have just announced the results of their latest triennial election for Board of Directors positions. Current directors Phil Sim and Mark Jenkins were both returned with strong majorities.
These elections are critical to the Eels as two members of the PLC Board are appointed to the Eels Football Board. The Leagues Club is also vital to local junior rugby league, with generous club grants taking away a significant part of the cost of player registrations.
Both the Leagues Club group and the Parramatta Eels recorded significant profits in 2021 despite the impacts of Covid. Parra Leagues was forced to close its doors for an extended period due to the Sydney lockdown, whilst the Eels were relocated to Queensland, resulting in the loss of important match day revenue.
In addition to congratulating Phil and Mark for the job they are doing and their success in the election, I’d like to thank all members who took the time to vote. We still need more members having their say in elections, but constitutional reform has ensured that the number of voters has increased and importantly we no longer experience the factional debacles of yesteryear.
See You At Jacks Bar And Grill
This coming Sunday, Forty and I will again be presenting our Instant Reaction podcast live in Jacks Bar and Grill.
Parra Leagues is the Home of the Eels, and they are presenting game day schedules which welcome supporters to the club both before and after the game.
We’ll hit the stage about 40 minutes after full time to break down the big talking points from the clash with the Dragons, with Eels legend Bob O’Reilly joining us to give his takes as well as sharing stories from his career.
Celebrate the win with a feed and a drink, in addition to a chat and photo with the legendary Bear.
Eels forever!
Sixties
Sixties, Annesley has admitted NAS should have been sin binned and review panel should have graded the tackle as a 2. So what ! Are there consequences for referee or bunker official ? Course not.
I saw that Phil. There was also plenty of blah, blah about Maka falling in the tackle. What! I’m sure that all of us have had issues with players being harshly judged for making contact with the head of a falling player. This instance was nothing like those. Nothing at all. NAS was involved in a running battle with Maka. The two tacklers had Maka under control and they were taking him to ground. NAS was the third man in and looking to put on a big shot. It had nothing to the height of Maka’s head. The way NAS had positioned his arm, he was going to collect him across the noggin regardless.
Watching the parra girls playing the Broncos they tried to match them in the fawards ,parra girls were no match for those big bronco girls would have been better moving the ball to the backs
To be honest, we couldn’t match their attack. They still have plenty of weapons and would be hard to bet against for the title.
Tks sixties. Remember last year when Justin Olam, 3 hours late and 8 miles from the ball, collected Mitch Moses with a totally unnecessary neck grab with outstretched arm and sent him cartwheeling like a Roman candle, and zilch, nothing done. From memory the MRC may have commented ‘lack of force’ or similar. Olam was running near full pace which injected the force, but because the arm didn’t swing it was OK. There you go kids, go out and try it. Sheer rubbish. Or when Munster push punched Moses right in the face twice on the ground, Moses grabbed him to protect himself and got penalised. There you go kids, just punch the tackler at your leisure.
Spot on. Thanks for the reminder about that.
Just watched BA on 100% footy. I have been concerned about how MM was articulating inappropriate choices as being ‘dumb’……I just thought his vocab was lacking. But hearing BA use ‘dumb’ as well…..I see it’s ingrained……. Can can someone send out an SOS to the team? …. Replace ‘dumb’ with ‘we need to make better decisions’ or ‘our decisions need to be worked on’. It might sound like Symantec’s…… But believe me….. It makes a huge difference.
Yeah ….. I thought we have been playing pretty dumb myself.
Yes, and I reckon it was a gentle way of describing it too.
Do footballers at this level need to worry about that type of semantics? Saying something is dumb is actually a pretty light statement, and I reckon you could add some expletives in front of it for how the group might even speak about it themselves. If there’s one thing that BA has always been praised for, and I’ve spoken to players over the years who’ve raised it themselves, it’s that he is a straight shooter. The message needs to be direct in this instance even though I’ve also heard “we need to make smarter decisions”. Perhaps it could be phrased as you’re suggesting for the media, but I don’t have an issue.
Imagine a parent saying to a child…. Your dumb, stupid, worthless….. Compared to not everyone can be an academic, you have other skills etc. Negative talk impacts adults as well. Words are more powerful than we may realise. As always…..I just wanted to share my thoughts
Horses for courses !0 Year.My old man called me f…… stupid when I drove my car into a pole a week after he had spent days prepping and spray painting it. No argument from me.
Lol…. There are always exceptions to the rule BDon
🤣 🤣 🤣
I think we’ve all been told some truths. But to be fair to my dad, he managed to hold his tongue at times when he could have gone both barrels at my stupidity.
10 year I always appreciate your thoughts mate. Never stop sharing.
My last say, as a former teacher who has had to chastise the behaviour of children, is that there’s a distinct difference between calling someone dumb and saying the action is dumb.
For example, if a child said something cruel I’d tell them that they’d said something cruel. If they behaved badly, I’d tell them that what they had done was wrong. So I do understand the importance of semantics. I honestly think that saying that something is a dumb play is addressing the action.
And you used an age related example – coaches speak differently to younger players in pathways than they do to professional NRL players. The NRL blokes get the praise when they deserve it and the truth when needed.
That said, I will acknowledge that in the modern game there is more man management and talking differently to different players – based on their individual personalities. I’m not sure whether this helps with their resilience. How many times do you see players or their agents agitating for a release because they get dropped or not selected in their preferred position. Times are different to yesteryear.