The Cumberland Throw

The Tip Sheet – 2022 Ep 49: Eels Start Massive Homestand With Warriors

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Parramatta are finally back home where they setup for a massive three game stretch that starts with the New Zealand Warriors. Sixties and Forty20 have plenty to talk about across all three grades this weekend but first there is just a little bit to be said about State Of Origin III!

After venting their spleen about the issues plaguing the Blues, the boys turn their eyes to Round 18. The Jersey Flegg and NSW Cup are locking horns with the Cronulla Sharks and their Cup affiliate the Newtown Jets. With the Sharks seeded 4th in the Flegg and 2nd in the Cup, the Eels are up against some quality opposition.

As always the show reaches its zenith with the NRL preview where the focus is on a Parramatta outfit hunting for both consistency and a second consecutive win. With two more games in two weeks to come at CommBank Stadium this shapes up as a huge kickstarter for the Blue & Gold.

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6 thoughts on “The Tip Sheet – 2022 Ep 49: Eels Start Massive Homestand With Warriors

  1. John Eel

    Three players I think that should have been out there were Wighton. Josh Ado Carr and RCG.

    Players who should not have been there include the two centres, Talaki and Jake Turbo.

    Two stats that I would like to see is Jake T for post contact metres and Cleary for career try assists in SOO.

    Cleary is a player who works well with structure. Problem is SOO is eyes up football.

    1. Joe Vass

      Wighton needed, Our best player in game 1. Crighton not at that level yet. The fox should have been there from the start. Talaki has a couple of good games and he goes straight in. Jake is there for his defence but he is not a front rower that is going to make big metres. At the end of the day they bashed us up and we had no answers.

  2. Shaun

    Stacking a side with players from one club is a bad idea expect for Origin II 1983. Fittler tried to be too clever and failed. The arrogance that has served Penrith well in clubland failed miserable in Origin. Queensland make all players welcome while NSW was more interested in protecting fragile egos. That Fittler accommodated was an obvious dumb move.

    And for tomorrow night, first try scorer is RCG. Sivo to score a double.

  3. MickB

    So much to unpack from Origin. Exciting to watch, but also classic frustrating Blues footy. Sorry about the long rant in advance!

    Agree with John Eel on exclusions. I think the whole selection process has been awful. Players I don’t think should have ever been there, as none had any merit to be so:
    – S Crichton
    – Jurbo
    – Talakai
    – Martin
    – Luai (ok maybe some merit, but I think he’s massively overrated, talk about flat track bully)
    – Saifiti
    – Cam Murray game 1 (was not match fit, was not great, bring him in from game 2 onwards)
    – Cook
    – A Crichton (albeit I thought he was solid in both game 2 and 3, but didn’t show club form to be considered)

    I think you were kind to Talakai, he was awful. The mistake he made on our try line was school boy level footy and just dumb. Running side-ways across our line holding the ball in 1 hand like a peanut. The loose carry was predictable as he got belted.

    S Crichton is just not up to scratch. He’s there off the back of his media cheer squad and Panthers success only. Waqa is a better player, and there any number of better centres that should have been selected ahead of him. Plus that goal line pass was Paul Carige stuff.

    Jurbo was literally stopped on the spot on every run. He made dumb errors under fatigue, and while his defence might be solid, he’s slow and it’s not as if he forces errors or anything like that.

    I thought Junior was good and ran well, totally agree he was the only bloke making metres in the tough opening stanza. That said, he has a habit of making poor mistakes at inopportune times, usually late in the game under fatigue when it’s all on the line.

    I was fairly sure that ball Holmes “saved” from touch went out. Didn’t see a replay, but that could have been a big turning point.

    Didn’t Burton throw the first punch? If so, deserved the bin just for that. Tino should have been binned both for putting Burton in a headlock, but also clocking him in the melon making a tackle.

    My reflection is Queensland doesn’t have this selection drama nonsense because they usually don’t have many decisions to make about form, talent and “combinations” (or as you describe, cliques). It’s usually pretty obvious who they have to choose, and then there are a couple of pine-warmers that get the call up because of depth issues. They then win off the back of effort and desperation.

    NSW conversely have a lot more decisions to make, and it’s influenced by things other than just merit. If Fittler wasn’t such a bonehead and just picked on pure form and merit, but still lost, at least the outcome is defendable. I also completely agree that with a team that has limited time to prep together in camp, it’s a recipe for disaster to chop and change the team in the absence of a genuine need. Wighton, RCG and Matto all deserved to be there the whole series where fit and available.

    If I was a Knights fan I’d be filthy with Saifiti and Ponga. Neither put in like that at club level. I’m fairly sure pongas 1-1 tackle on Tedesco (I think) was the first time I’ve seen him make a successful tackle in that scenario. He’s usually a turnstile. Saifiti ran like a man on a mission, but you don’t end up on the Knights bench by playing like that.

    On the Eels – looking forward to it, hopefully we can go back to back. I reckon Gutho is due for a big one.

  4. BDon

    The teams that push the ruck rules and get in our face, give us bigtrouble. Slater put the same formula to work on NSW and knew the ref was going to officiate Origin style. Qld actually made more errors but NSW made real clangers under pressure and went from the penthouse at about the 35 minute mark to the basement half way through the second half, at which point NSW had defended desperately but hadn’t fired a shot. Qld had reset and competed
    like their lives depended on it.

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