ROUND 15, 2022 NRL TELSTRA PREMIERSHIP

SATURDAY JUNE 18, 2022

EELS 26 defeated ROOSTERS 16

COMMBANK STADIUM

Crowd: 21,757

What a turn around for the Eels from that Round 14 humiliation.

The team wanted to show that they are the real deal and brush off the Doggies performance as quickly as they could. That five day turn around meant that the Eels didn’t have to spend too long thinking about what was arguably their worst performance in years. The result was probably the best half of footy seen this season.

The dominance displayed by the Eels in the opening 40 minutes debunked any theories that the they are merely pretenders. An attitudinal change is required against lower ranked opponents, but with their mental approach placed firmly in the spotlight, the players can no longer gloss over it with lip service excuses.

Only time will tell whether the required new attitude kicked off against the tri-colours, but all they could do was start the ball rolling in the very next game.

Ball movement was at the forefront of this clash and the Eels produced the try of the year with a sensational team play for Maika Sivo to cross after 30 minutes. If you have this match recorded, you’ve probably watched in dozens of times already. It was a thing of beauty.

Outside of the ball movement, what I was most happy with across the 80 minutes was the work of our forwards. They just ran the ball hard and defended perfectly. There was none of the aimless ball playing or forced passing from the Dogs game. They bent the line with their running, laying the platform for the backs to shine. It’s what they do best when Parra are in form.

The Key Numbers

Parramatta enjoyed 56% of possession and completed at 90% (36 sets from 40).

The Eels had the ball for 45 minutes with a tick over 19 minutes of that in the Roosters 20 metre zone.

There was a distinct victory for Parra in metres gained, with the Eels clocking up 2468 metres against the Roosters 2066 metres. Parra’s run metres (1853) were outstanding, including a massive 706 post contact metres.

It was Junior Paulo who led the Eels in running metres with an impressive 229, closely followed by his front row partner Reagan Campbell-Gillard with 208. Junior’s was near unstoppable with 105 post contact metres and RCG wasn’t far behind with 94 metres of his own.

Other forwards who eclipsed the 100 metre run mark were Shaun Lane (160m), Ryan Matterson (130) and the player I believe had his best game in a long time, Oregon Kaufusi (120m).

The backline weren’t without their contributors. The 2019 version of Maika Sivo returned with his barnstorming runs (157metres) and tackle breaks. Waqa Blake (147m), Gutherson (140) and Bailey Simonsson (105) also did their job.

Parra’s second phase play was on fire, with 20 offloads and 36 tackle breaks resulting in six line breaks and five tries.

Runs Heat Map 

This heat map is typical of most victories. Ignore last week’s similar looking map against the Dogs. It was atypical for a bad loss. This is what you need to see in your run map, week in and week out.

Set Starts Map

The numerous kick offs skew this heat map (see Eels left wing). There were only three starts in the Roosters red zone, which illustrates the potency of the Eels long range attack.

Defence

Parramatta made 312 tackles, including 38 missed tackles and 14 ineffective. With an 85.6% effective rate, some tweaks to defence still need to be made. Those 16.5% of attempted tackles not being completed, means Brad Arthur will want further improvement going into the second half of the season.

Reed Mahoney topped the tackle count with 46 tackles, followed by Ryan Matterson (35), Papali’i (27), then Junior, RCG and Shaun Lane each adding 25.

Strange Stat of the Week

It was a brief appearance but it produced a stat too good to ignore – 50% of Ky Rodwell’s running metres were post contact metres.

Stats Player of the Week

I am actually giving this week’s award to a position – Parra’s Front Row.

Junior Paulo’s and Regan Campbell-Gillard’s stats were off the charts with both players producing very similar numbers. It was an awesome performance from the bookends.

Final Thoughts

We’ve just heaped the praise on Parra’s Round 15 performance and we now cross fingers, toes or any appendage at our disposal that this form is emulated for the last 10 games of the regular season.

Of the ten matches remaining, six matches are against current Top 8 sides. This includes two against the Rabbitohs and one each against the Storm and the Panthers.

Parra still have six home matches ahead of them.

Four of the home games are against the Top 8 sides, including those Panthers and Storm blockbusters.

Even though they sit outside the Top 8, the clash with arch rivals Manly at 4 Pines Park will not be easy, and nobody will dare take return matches against the Bulldogs (Commbank) and Tigers (Leichhardt) lightly.

I could mention that all matches are winnable, but for now let’s defer to the cliche of taking it “one week at a time.”

Yours in Blue and Gold

Colmac

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