Parramatta Eels 48
St George Illawarra Dragons 14
Who was ever worried about us winning this one?
Okay, I might have been so nervous I couldn’t even enjoy a pre-game Mr. Chicken, but by the time Jackson Ford was topppling over backwards as Clint Gutherson celebrated the Parramatta Eels‘ fifth try of the night I was well and truly relaxed. By the time Mitchell Moses scored what I’m happy to call the try of the century I was licking every bit of its deliciousness from my fingers.
The offloading, the tackle breaks, the completion rate, the sweeping plays, Dylan Brown and Mitchell Moses showing that both can have dominant games at the same time, it was all too good. Sure, the lead might have started with a few tries that would have been called back under our schoolyard touch footy “crap tries don’t count” rule, but the freedom that lead presented let the Parramatta boys play some almighty football.
This was also my first live football experience in 287 days (pro tip to journalists: days are not a rugby league measurement. The Tigers have not won in 7 games, not 230-odd days), which to me felt very good. That new pyro at CommBank Stadium is great. That live experience I hope explains any discrepancies in the grades, as my notes quickly devolved into a recording of me yelling “Dylbaaaaaaaags” into my phone. If I’ve missed anything important, it was deliberate and you just don’t understand my artistic choices.
There is no bad in a win like that one, but it would certainly be unpleasant if Waqa Blake misses any time as we are down to fumes in wing depth. Let’s pretend I’m writing for the Dragons equivalent of TCT, let’s call it GST, and give them some stick here instead.
The Dragons played like a team that had their five eighth and fullback subbed in at the last minute, and with all the commitment of a group who spent a whole off season building around youth only for the status quo to resume after a couple of tough losses. I’m beginning to see why Paul Vaughan threw that BBQ.
I’m just going to put this here:
For the numbers inclined:
Completion rate: Eels 86%, Dragons 75%
Eels 2580 metres gained, Dragons 1958
Eels 17 offloads, Dragons 9
Dragons 50 missed tackles, Eels 27
In a razor thin decision, I’m going with the Prince of Egypt himself, Mitchell Moses over his halves partner Dylan Brown. Moses seemed to take the early emergence and dominance of Brown as a personal slight and stamped his authority on the game in the second half, slicing with his running game and showing off his pinpoint kicking, except for a very unfortunate miss on the disrespectful field goal. I sat there tut-tutting that Moses wasn’t going to be running much with that giant strapping on his leg, proving that even the grades guy can make mistakes.
If you wanted to give the award to Dyl or even if you are frisky enough to crown Waqa Blake I reckon you can make a case, but for me this was a vintage Moses performance, sealed with his awesome defensive efforts shutting down plenty of Dragons backline moves and holding his own as a speedbump in the way of Moses Suli (let’s just ignore that first break).
Clint Gutherson
1 – Fullback
I don’t know if Maika Sivo steals souls on the training paddock like he does on game day, but if Clint Gutherson had never been on the end of a Sivo steamrolling he got a fine facsimile early on with Mikaele Ravalawa. Still, the Dragons didn’t score, so no harm, no foul.
It wasn’t a game that needed much from the King, he was where he needed to be in support and covered a few tricky 40/20 attempts well. Played hard, done good.
Waqa Blake
2 – Left Wing
I’m not sure if it was an intercept or a steal, but I do know that Waqa Blake looked pretty good steaming along for a length of the field try. I put the whip away with 20 to go and started cracking the champagne.
His finishing is still a little rough but Waqa is starting to look at home on the wing, though I couldn’t help but notice that Bailey Simonsson and Clint Gutherson were the two men back for kicks most of the game. I liked his chase to nearly stop Jack Bird on that try, too.
Will Penisini
3 – Right Centre
Look what happens when we get him in space! That dummy was a thing of beauty, and while I felt for Bailey Simonsson who looked certain to break his duck had Will ever looked outside for support, the speed to beat Moses Suli then the dummy to make the break stick was class few as young as Will Penisini can show. Please can I have some more?
Tom Opacic
4 – Left Centre
If this doesn’t warm your heart then you probably spend too much time on the internet:
Tom Opacic had another “doing his job” kind of night, though depending where you get your stats from he led the team in tackle breaks. If only he didn’t briefly forget he was playing league and not gridiron when passing to Waqa Blake in the first half with the line open.
Bailey Simonsson
5 – Right Wing
Bailey Simonsson might not have a nose like Fergo, but he is looking a lot like the Blake Ferguson of 2020 in his inability to find the line. That hasn’t really been his fault: the left has been lethal and the dummies convincing, and tonight he had his A grading stolen by Will Penisini refusing to look right and Mitchell Moses wrapping around and stealing the try of the millennium for himself. I’m hoping a confidence booster like tonight helps him going forward.
Dylan Brown
6 – Five Eighth
This week Trevor Gillmeister, a man who once appeared drunk on the Footy Show in a live cross, called Nathan Cleary the “best halves defender in the competition by a country mile”. In a dangerous nod to grades continuity, Dylan Brown took that personal. Dyl had a vintage defensive performance to go alongside a scything running game that finally cut through a defence cleanly for a try, and a beautiful floating ball for Waqa Blake to score.
My favourite part of today’s game? Dylan and Mitchell Moses learning to co-exist, choose their times to come in and dominate. Moses will benefit from sharing the load, particularly in kicking, while Brown seemed to time his involvements better this weeekend and was rewarded for it.
Mitch Moses
7 – Halfback
Mitchell Moses was one “field goal when up by 34” away from an A+ here, but close is not good enough when it comes to disrespecting your opposition and the Prince will have to settle for great over perfect. It may be harsh on a man who out-paced a winger to chase down his own kick for a try, pierced the line and put in a pinpoint kick for another try and started then finished off the try of the eon, but I don’t make the disrespectful field goal rules, I just enforce them.
RCG
8 – Front Row
Reagan Campbell-Gillard was good, throwing a couple of uncharacteristic offloads and suffering an agonising trip-tackle as he found open space. After a few weeks where big Reg needed to take the team on his mo and carry them through the storms, today he could simply play a part and leave some gas in the tank for tougher treks down the line.
Reed Mahoney
9 – Hooker
Reed Mahoney might not have been good enough to make the grades artist formerly (and still) known as Mitch utter his full name, but he was good enough that I’m not going to take a cheap dig at his leaving for the Bulldogs and will instead celebrate a great performance.
Mahoney tackled himself to a standstill, put in a huge 40/20 and showed some great nous with his running game, warming into 2022 after a slow start. Even with the huge defensive effort, he was on the spot to clean up a Mitchell Moses kick and score a try. I yet hold out hope that the Bulldogs creative accounting is found out and Mahoney somehow remains in Blue & Gold beyond this season.
Junior Paulo
10 – Front Row
Big Junez did his job, ensuring that the Eels dominated the opening stages and the game was played at Parramatta’s preferred pace and not dragged into a slog that has favoured the Dragons in recent meetings. Like fellow bookend RCG, Junior Paulo was given an early mark for a job well done, resulting in an unimpressive stat line for an important man in a big win.
Ryan Matterson
15 – Second Row
It was a solid return game for Ryan Matterson, who made 28 tackles for one miss, ran for 140 metres and made so much of an impression on me that I have to use his stats in my first sentence. My general feeling was “Matto looks solid”, and his numbers back that up, so while we aren’t quite singing just yet I reckon we’ll be taking that deep breath and getting real high on the Adonis of the West very soon.
Isaiah Papali’i
12 – Second Row
“Swapping out your five eighth and fullback hours before the game” Papali’i (yes, I’m going to remind you his nicknames mean bad decisions every week, for the new readers) got a rare early mark, but despite getting to enjoy the closing stages of this one from the comfort of the bench Isaiah Papali’i still put up his usual impressive stats line to the tune of 144 metres, 3 offloads, 27 tackles and only one miss. That’s a fine effort there.
Nathan Brown
13 – Lock
I’ve decided everybody involved in the “try of the galaxy” gets at least an A grade, though Browny thoroughly deserves his honours as his clever distribution proved key to the Parramatta attacking game and his defensive efforts were, as usual, outstanding. That offload though, what a ball.
Just a word of advice for the Cyborg: how about you celebrate scoring a try?
Maka Makatoa
14 – Interchange
Mak Attak got a longer stint than usual and was fine, but this wasn’t really a game about the forwards, even if they did lay the platform in the first 40 that ensured this one didn’t get dragged into another slogging mess that plays into the Dragons hands. As such, I’m listing a lot of numbers for these guys to fill space, for Mak that means 115 metres, 16 tackles and an offload.
Bryce Cartwright
16 – Interchange
Look, I couldn’t tell you a single thing Bryce Cartwright did today except his contribution to the “try of all tries”, but one day they will make a statue of Carty throwing that ball behind his back and it will become more revered than the Provan-Summons.
Wiremu Greig
19 – Interchange
Big Greig got on the field at least, though he would probably have wished it was still a contest when he came on. He dug in and looked solid, but he’ll need to bring cupcakes to training for Brad Arthur a few more times if he wants to be considered for meaningful game time going forward.
Oregon Kaufusi
17 – Interchange
Oregon Kaufusi got plenty of game time tonight as Brad Arthur rested his main men, but I didn’t really notice him out there. His numbers are good: 30 tackles for one miss, 96 metres from 10 carries and most importantly: no botched tries or backbreaking handling errors. I didn’t hate it.
I don’t know about y’all, but I love flogging teams. We probably didn’t learn a lot about the Parramatta Eels’ premiership chances in 2022 out there tonight, but we saw some great tries, including the greatest try, nobody got seriously hurt and both of our halves played their best games of the year. Long may this continue.
Until next time, stay slippery Eels fans.
Gol
Images courtesy of NRL, stats courtesy of Champion Data via SMH
The Eels showed what they are capable of and I loved it!
If Moses and Brown play like that every week they can beat any team.
Great Read Gol, i enjoyed it mate. Thanks
I don’t mind Cyborg not carrying on after a try, its actually pleasing to see him score and move on. He makes a big difference when he is there.
I was on the road home from a family holiday managed gutted to not get to the game this week but managed to avoid hearing the score.
Got home at 11 and put Kayo on was very happy with what I saw made me sad I missed it love but what a game.
Moses and Brown were both outstanding
Waqa looks better each week on the wing so good I’m worried he gets moved back to centre when troops return.
Great stuff. Enjoyable win that one and glad to put some of the Dragons hoo-doo behind us.
That was the first time in a long time I can remember where the game was really lead and won by our backs. We are at our best when there is a more even distribution of effort across the team and it’s not just the forwards grinding out metres.
I think Nathan Brown is playing outstanding footy now, makes you wonder where we would have been last year with him 100% and Mahoney on the field.
Does Wiremu Grieg look like he’s dropped a lot of kg? His frame didn’t look anywhere near as big last night.
Kafusi still has too many pressure-creating errors in him. Needs to do better.
Any write up on the Cup game ? We couldn’t get to the game and they didn’t live stream it .
I’ve been a bit critical of the first couple of rounds, however I realised after today, we’re sitting in the top four, after playing 2 of the other 3 members in that group. Puts things into perspective a bit.
I think any post season success will hinge on staying in the top 4, which will mean not having a mid season slump.
How important was that win against the Storm? It gave them confidence and belief to do better under pressure. 12-8 at half time the Dragons were picking up speed and it was imperative that Parra score first. And they did but, like most Parra fans it wasn’t enough to be comfortable and so they gave us more. And more until it reached the stage we want 50 points.
Great win – great game – no complaints against the referee.
Just one thing that worries me – the first half Parra put themselves in a position to score a number of times but, just could not finish it. Why? Is it panic or pushing it at the not quite the right time or something else. I don’t think they have quite overcome panic.
In the second half it was football magic. I think we will see a lot more of this as the season progresses but, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
BA and his bench rotation is still a worry.
Julie, my report of the Cup game (only watched the second half) is that the Dragons are terrible and we can’t really measure anything against that effort. Looked good though for what it was worth.
Loving you doing the post game grades Gol. The second best interchange of the season, the best of course was the one in which Carty came into the game to allow THAT pass to happen!
Keep up the great work.
I’m gonna wrap the Prince of Egypt’s attitude in defense. He out his body on the line more than once yesterday. Still some things for the team to sort out but it still was an impressive win.
Great team effort.
Dyl was outstanding shades of Bert with his balanced upper body and legs going million miles an hour.
Mitch was awesome as well.
If we can repeat this week to week we would be unbeatable.
We had 27 missed tackles I think that is the best for a while but we need to fix it up. Im a bit greedy but it would be nice to have kept a clean sheet. But I’m confident that will come.
Go Eels!!
Thx Gol , I’m inclined to give Gutho an A minus. Yes a couple of mistakes but gee he was on the ball all day gobbling up metres like crazy. He appears to be older and slower but still gets thru small gaps.
Ditto Offside. Grandson’s basketball final and birthday. I’ve tried my best but he doesn’t follow NRL. Watched the highlights late last night, there was that much good stuff that I probably won’t watch the game today, it’s not raining and there’s a few jobs. Moses has become consistent and confident, DBrown is ripening…we have a great spine, the only thing we might not be able to fix is Mahoney being targeted near our line.
No one can deny it was a great win. Yes…. Carty did a great pass….. But what about dropping it cold and bring in no man’s land for the second try. Whilst he has that billion dollar play in him….. The are many more cents floating around.
Excellent win but without bringing down the room I thought we were still skinny on the flanks. Many many times, the Dragons had a 2 or in some instances 3 player overlap but just couldn’t get the ball out there! Other teams – Souths for example, will not let us get away with that. Many times Waqa came in and snuffed out the transition and he was successful THIS time but why is it still happening?? We are obviously playing a compressed defence and then trying to slide ad hoc if the ball gets out there.
Still a bit crazy in red zone regarding our offence and there is work to do with our one on one defence.
Great to see the win but I thought the score flattered us.
Thoroughly enjoyable display from Parra.
Not too much to complain about, but asking on a refereeing head-scratcher.
12-0 up, we are attacking their line, and a marker that was never square tackles us, and it is waved 6 again.
12-6 up, and we are called off-side within our 20 when Hunt is attacking the line. Not a 6 again – but a penalty and a converted 2.
Now, even taking away the fact that infringement on us was a potential professional foul where you could argue a case for the bin – why was it not blown a penalty to give us the option of a conversion at the time, as was the case with Hunt?
Chris K, I think they got the penalty there instead of the 6 again because we ended up with the ball. It sounded like he called Maka offside and Hunt touched him, then lost the ball. It’s one of the quirks of an ill-thought out rule, if you can’t wave the six again (because of a change in possession or because the interference caused an error) then it is a full penalty and a much bigger advantage.
I thought maybe they called us for accidental offside too (raked out then grabbed from an offside position) but the ref clearly called out Maka.
Agree that their one should have been called up for a professional foul, it was two offside players interfering in a try-scoring situation, but this was a rookie ref and we won by 30+ so I’ll give him a break.
I’ve just watched the game on catch up – wow.
Agree Gol, no words needed for that try.
The eels were quick out of the blocks and just starved the dragons for ball; relentless which is not a word associated with the eels too often. And the involvement & execution from Moses/DBrown was at a whole new level, a real statement. The Eels looked dangerous across the backline; Waqa was on a mission, what a sight in full flight, both centres had good games. Simonson is improving with every game.
We looked better for NBrown starting. There’s a developing passing game between the two bookends Juz and Reg which looks promising.
Happy days