Parramatta Eels 28
Wests Tigers 22
The Parramatta Eels may have looked like a team that has forgotten how to win for large parts of Easter Monday, but instead of mourning the tries not scored and chances not taken, be glad the ones we took were enough to get the job done. Would I have preferred that the team kicked on and made this an easy watch instead of having to spend the last ten minutes wondering if I’d do the grades at all had we lost? Absolutely, but in a season where wins have been in short supply I’ll be taking this one gladly.
At 22-6 I was absolutely convinced that my ambitious preview score prediction was on target, then the Eels turned off the engine and cruised to the finish line like they’d accidentally under-fueled the car. Mistakes, defensive misreads, it was all a bit of a mess from a team that was scoring at will in good ball to that point.
There was a lot of time in this game where it felt like the Eels were one try away from the floodgates opening, and credit to the Tigers that they dug in and came back when I was convinced their heads would drop. To be fair, I was convinced they’d drop after we defended a few sets then scored on our first chance straight after, so I didn’t think much of their resolve and they impressed me.
Sometimes you play well and lose, sometimes you play ordinary and win. The Tigers won the numbers battle fairly convincingly, but couldn’t defend the Eels good ball attack and spent most of their own good ball moving laterally. Those run metres are especially alarming, a 500 metre discrepancy usually means you’ve been beaten by plenty. I’d suggest there aren’t many NRL games where a team has been outgained by that much and won.
For the numbers inclined:
Possession: Tigers 57% Eels 43%
Completions: Tigers 33/44 (75%) Eels 29/37 (78%)
Run metres: Tigers 1,912 Eels 1,398
Average set distance: Tigers 43.5m Eels 37.8m
Tackle breaks: Tigers 40 Eels 18
Offloads: Tigers 16 Eels 8
Tackles made: Tigers 290 Eels 356
Errors: Tigers 13 Eels 12
Mitchell Moses loves a game against the Tigers, his pool room might contain more highlights of him wearing an Eels jersey carving up the Tigers than it has of him wearing a Tigers jersey. Tonight it was a kicking masterclass, long and short, attacking and clearing, he had the ball on a string. Four try assists and a crucial conversion, plus giving the old shoosh to the Tigers fans who have said some putrid things about him over the years, you da MVP Mitch.
Clint Gutherson
1 – Fullback
Solid day from the King, who was good in defence and was, as usual, on the spot to finish off a beautiful kick set piece to open the scoring. He was also the only Eel not named Mitchell Moses to get a try assist, so good job keeping the halfback humble.
Maika Sivo
2 – Left Wing
Poor old Bula has been copping plenty for his lack of hard running and top end pace, and while neither of those aspects were really turned around today he did show us what he excels at: tries in tight spaces. He made a couple of great defensive plays too with solid reads and even better contact to shut down attacking raids. As a bludging winger myself I always like an attempted ankle tap on a man who has you beat to avoid the 60 metre chase, earning the Maika two door a five star energy rating.
Will Penisini
3 – Right Centre
Willy P was unstoppable early on; hard to tackle and the centre of all spreads, dangerous at every touch. Then as the game wore on he started rushing in when he shouldn’t and the right defensive edge fell apart. Then he dropped a bomb. If the attacking footy is coming at a cost of his defensive prowess, I’d prefer he go back to focusing on his work without the ball.
Sean Russell
4 – Left Centre
When he was stood up by Adam Doueihi early on for a near Tigers try I started to worry about how centre-ready Sean Russell was, but by the end of the game I was happy enough with his efforts. He had ups and downs in his ruck work but showed a willingness to do the hard yards, and with more time and combination work with the first grade side he can only improve.
Haze Dunster
19 – Right Wing
In perhaps the shortest post match press conference of his career, Brad Arthur made sure to note that Haze Dunster had a single training session with the first grade side before his first appearance since 2021. That might explain the reduced involvement and defensive misreads as his combination with Will Penisini was tested and found lacking on several occasions. He dropped a few balls you’d expect a winger to take but I’ll give him one more week before I start Wolverine-staring at a picture of Bailey Simonsson.
Dylan Brown
6 – Five Eighth
The return of Shaun Lane didn’t unleash Dylan Brown as hoped, but he was controlled in attack and stout defensively. Teams are certainly rushing Brown more and containing his running threat, and the next evolution of his career will be responding to the new-found attention.
Mitchell Moses
7 – Halfback
Another Tigers game, another Mitchell Moses masterclass. Whether it was grubbers for tries, clearing kicks of clutch conversions, public enemy number two in Tiger Town (the Wests Tigers are public enemy number one) came through big time and was ultimately the difference between the two sides.
Some may call me hypocritical for loving Moses giving the shoosh to the Tigers fans after holding the same thing against Nelson Asofa-Solomona for over half a decade. To them I say piss off, if you can’t tell the difference between a guy giving it back to a fanbase that has wished horrible things on him and some oaf giving it to the away supporters bay in a game they won by 30, I can’t help you.
RCG
8 – Front Row
I realise on the typical grades scale a guy like Reg would never get anything worse than a B, because his baseline workrate is so strong and he rarely makes mistakes. So I’m changing things up. Today Reg was solid enough defensively but we needed venom with the ball and 9 runs for 80 metres is barely enough venom to irritate a Pomeranian. He’s playing tired.
Josh Hodgson
9 – Hooker
The reduced gametime isn’t reducing his missed and ineffective tackle rate, though the crucial misses due to fatigue weren’t there which is what I was most worried about. It just wasn’t a game for Josh Hodgson to shine, in good ball we didn’t need deception, just to get it out wide or get it to Mitch and kick. I’m still waiting for the breakout game from a guy dangerously close to being nicknamed “not Reed”.
Wiremu Greig
10 – Front Row
Big Wiremu only took four runs, and he looked gassed doing the pregame warmups. He wasn’t bad and held his own during a particularly defensive portion of the game for the Eels, but as a big impact, high energy guy playing short minutes he’s more a bit of impact, used his energy warming up. I’d be surprised if he keeps a bench spot next week when Junior is back.
Shaun Lane
11 – Second Row
Shaun Lane looked like a guy who hadn’t played footy or eaten solids for six weeks, though I am impressed he got through the full 80, even more impressed that he managed it without missing a tackle. Three errors attributed to him seems harsh and the 77 metres from 11 runs indicates how much it was hard slogging out there for the go-to man on the left, but it was a solid return for the Tall Glass of Water.
Bryce Cartwright
12 – Second Row
I don’t know what the guy in the 12 jersey this year did with the real Bryce Cartwright, but I’d be bringing in his family to ask questions about his childhood and confirm his identity. Rock solid defence, incredible 80 minute effort and consistency, and a contentedness to just do the hard yards in a slog? Nobody saw this coming.
Ryan Matterson
13 – Lock
By the numbers, Ryan Matterson had a sensational game. He led all Eels in metres and tackles with 164 from 16 runs and 42 tackles with 5 missed or ineffective. He led the team in tackle breaks too. Unfortunately he also led the Eels in backbreaking last tackle penalties or set restarts, one being an especially egregious hold that there was absolutely no need for. Still he got through 73 minutes and a whole lot of work, but the brain explosions have to stop.
J’maine Hopgood
14 – Interchange
Maybe the HopGod has been busy preparing for the big resurrection this weekend (that being of Parramatta’s season, of course), but he’s not made the same impact in recent weeks as he did to start the year. He was busy in his 53 minutes, the only forward aside from Matto to crack 100 metres and he made 41 tackles with 5 missed or ineffective, but it was all workrate, no creativity and not even any distribution. Matto might be stealing his thunder but we need to find a way for these two to live in harmony.
Brendan Hands
15 – Interchange
Nothing wrong with Brendan Hands in his 30 minute stint, which mercifully started in the 30th minute this week and saved us from some tired Josh Hodgson middle defence. That my favourite part of his game was the time he came onto the field isn’t really that complimentary, but I’m still in the “stoked to have an actual utility on the bench” honeymoon phase right now.
Jack Murchie
16 – Interchange
Gee these ten minute bench middle games really leave a guy searching for grades content, and on the last night of Easter weekend I haven’t got it in me.
Makahesi Makatoa
17 – Interchange
Makahesi Makatoa inherited the title of “Oregon Kaufusi” this week and took the extended bench stint, and while I remember a few moments of “that wasn’t bad” from Maka it’s not enough to earn anything more than the placeholder “decent bench game” B- grade.
Our former resident grades man Mitch summed this one up well:
I really wanted a nice, relaxing “sit back and enjoy a thrashing” kind of afternoon, but what we want in life and what we get are usually two different things. The Eels players weren’t particularly enthused about the result for what was just their second win of the season, and you’d swear we lost the game watching fan reactions. It’s nice that everybody is holding the team to high standards, but after the opening month I’m going to indulge a little and enjoy a win, however scrappy.
Now a wounded Canterbury side come to town. The last time the Bulldogs paid a visit to Eels territory it kickstarted a campaign that ultimately ended in a Parramatta grand final appearance. We’d appreciate them playing us into form again this year. There’ll be plenty of passion and hopefully an awful lot of Junior Paulo picking out Reed Mahoney in the defensive line. I can’t wait.
Until then, stay slippery Eels fans.
Gol
Stats and images provided by NRL / Eels media
This team is a worry we genuinely looked like the 2nd worst team against the worst.
I’m so fed up of seeing our pack get dominated and loosing the field position battle thank heavens for Mitch’s boot.
Sivo deadset I’ve never had a player I’ve loved and hated at the same time how can his running game be both powerful and soft?
I’ll give Haze a break he did some nice things but definitely doesn’t look ready.
One thing today wad getting another good look at our reserve grade and its safe to say when looking at the stocks in reserve the cupboard is pretty empty especially in the backline
Your first sentence sums up the situation brilliantly!
This team still concedes a lot of metres per set in defence and has issues on the edges in defence. Really disappointed that we are so bad in these areas when Stevie wonder could have picked out those areas were weaknesses from last year that needed to be improved. Also, I feel like a broken record but the Bench is very ordinary and wingers still don’t do enough work. Happy to take a win but not sure how I feel about our prospects this year. Hopefully we can build on this win next game and start to play parra footy instead of sinking down to the level of others teams and comprising our style of play.
Excellent grades.
Can’t give Haze a break .. that was a downright terrible 40 minutes.
It’s the first time I’ve seen BA make excuses for the performance of a player in the presser.
All things being equal and if he was available to be selected, I would have Issac Lumelume in the top side in a heartbeat and give Haze a good couple of months to get himself on pace.
Agreed. Lumelume on wing and Russell in centres for now.
Lumelume is not in the top 30 and if you watched ayn NSW Cup games this year, you’d see he’s not done enough to get a call up or promoted to the Top 30. We def. have issues in the backs, no doub,t but Lumelume is not the answer
Yes I know he’s not available.. that is why I said “ if he was available to be selected”
Yes, I watched the NSW Cup game today “oh my eyes 😱” . Lumelume at least holds his own in defence and is good in the air.
Who else can we select ?
If it was up to me I would be scouting high and low for a decent centre and push Russell to the wing as a matter of urgency.
We need him now – not at the end of the season.
Waqa is gone, Dunster is not the answer.
Parra just seem to have v consistently invested in mediocre/wrong juniors in both forwards and outside backs. Limited replacements that stand out.
That’s so true. So we need to find a decent centre – winger from someone else. Plenty of decent centres around for a cashed up Eels team.
My fear is that the club has decided to sit on their hands and hope that we can get by with what we have – we can’t.
Jesse Arthurs from Broncos is a pretty decent centre/winger that would be an improvement. And if we’re looking for an x-factor fullback Selwyn Cobbo is a chance, he wants to play fb and won’t while ever they have Walsh.
Yes I saw that, I was replying to Ron, not you.
Ok -apologies !
Dunster clearly isn’t ready for first grade yet. Would love to see him do well but he was out of his depth today and almost cost us the game. If the Tigers of all teams could make him look so ordinary then heaven help us against the Broncos in two weeks time. Thought his grade was generous, if his name was Waqa it would have been an F. Speaking of which, and I don’t expect this to be a popular opinion, I reckon Waqa is our best solution on the wing currently. He flat out isn’t a centre (as he showed again in Cup today), but his best efforts for us came last year on the wing (Penrith semi aside), he is the big body who can make more yardage in early tackles from the back which we currently lack, and on the wing he doesn’t have to pass (which he is seemingly incapable of) and defensive decisions aren’t as complex as at centre. Not a perfect solution by any means but with our lack of outside backs it’s worth trying given it worked for most of last year, and simplifying Waqa’s role may help him gain confidence again.
Can’t agree. Dunster is one (admittedly poor) game back from major injuries, with a limited week of training. It’s reasonable to expect him to improve on that performance, and the coordination with Penisini to improve. He’s also part of future plans, which Blake is not.
Reinstating Blake after another ordinary performance a level down isn’t justified. Seriously, his errors are as basic as playing the ball with too much force, so the dummy half is having to reach backwards for it. Move him to the wing in Cup and allow him to prove himself.
Except Waqa can’t catch a bomb, and his yardage carries are piss weak. On today I’d reckon we’ll see Russell on the wing in two weeks and Bailey coming back into centre (or the other way around), but Dunster is a lot better than his game yesterday and deserves another chance. Waqa has well and truly used all of his chances.
Agree that’s not a bad option in two weeks time. Assuming Haze gets another chance this week he’s lucky he won’t be marking the Fox. Would love to see 2021 Haze but he was so far off in every aspect of play yesterday it almost cost us the game. I understand the Waqa hate, but he was fine on the wing for most of last year, his yardage was decent and there wasn’t an issue with catching bombs all season until the semi. He hasn’t played wing at all this year, I’d be giving it a shot, even in Cup if not in NRL. Might force them to pick Loizou in Cup then. Given our drastic shortage of centres at the moment, why we have a young centre on a top 30 contract who can’t even get selected for Cup is beyond me.
Pls don’t suggest testing Waqa out on the wing against Matt Burton. Ouch.
How we have short memories….. Think back a bit less than a decade and how awful the King 👑 was playing on the wing. Haze has that je ne sais quoi. He will come good. Don’t write him off
I think the problem stems from the fact that his game in Cup last week was pretty ordinary- something like no tackles, 3 missed… so it was very clear that he was miles off the pace.
Therefore it was a pretty silly move to put him into first grade whilst he was clearly underdone.
The problem is now that his confidence instead of improving may have gone backwards.
I understand that Waqa needed to go but a move to simplify Waqas involvement on the wing instead of the centre may have been a wiser move.
I’m a Dunster fan but I’m not a fan of the shadow of the player I saw yesterday.
Some fair grades there.
100% on Matterson. You can live with an error in attack the way he plays, but too many dumb plays in defence.
Agree on Hodgson. Once again, every tackle where he isn’t third man in, he gets bumped back and loses the contest.
Hands should play more minutes. The short dropout that Naden knocks back, Hands shows urgency to be there and wins possession. Hodgson wouldn’t have been spotted except on Eagle cam if he had been out there for that play.
Tks Gol. Grades all over the place, all good as that reflects the game.For about one second I thought Sivo had that bloke covered, but then his action went apeshit, and the shrewd energy conserving wingers dive( brought a chuckle).
We were crap. But we won anyway. I didn’t like it, but I’ll sure as hell take it.
I think some of the soft defence in the latter stages could be reasonably excused as fatigue, but there was a fair whack of our own errors, poor positioning and new combinations also contributing. My expectations for next Sunday are a whole lot higher.
I’m not wasting much of my energy on analysing that terrible excuse for a game. The only reason to watch it back would be trying to understand some of the seemingly inexplicable refereeing calls. But I just don’t think I’m that much of a masochist.
Dunster and Russell are our future. They will be much better next week with Junior back. RCG was really disappointing yesterday with innocuous runs. Reserve showed that there aren’t many alternatives for selection in first grade. Ogden was probably the best and even he was not great. They resembled our first grade with little cohesion and stupid mistakes. It was even harder than the top grade to watch. The Tigers had their best game of the year but the fact we were totally outplayed is very disconcerting.
Not sure if BA, or Trent Barrett, has told the forwards to stop offloading, but that has to stop! Our attack has been pedestrian as a result and our defence, well putrid comes to mind. Where was the game we played against Penrith gone to? Come on BA, find that game and instill that into the players, PLEASE.
Agree Dunster had a shocker, and overall give him the benefit of the doubt in light of his return conditions. But some of those 1 on 1 tackle misses really seemed like poor effort and technique. He was just grabbing with arms and was easily bumped.
On the flipside, geez Carty is going good. Super impressed, hopefully he can keep this attitude throughout the season and retain a starting spot. Other players are better suited to impact roles off the bench ….. and as much as Matto is a starting quality player, I think RCG and Paulo need him to come off the bench and give them a spell without sucking the oxygen out of the game.
The concerning thing to me is our inability to be consistent each week. I don’t mean “scrape into the top 8” consistent, I mean as a genuine premiership threat. Every week we always seem to have at least 1 or 2 players who have such shockers we may as well play with 11 or 12 men on the field. At the star of the season I was saying the halves needed to narrow the gap between best and worst performance, apply that across the squad!
Absolutely- who would have thought at the start of the season that Carty would have nailed down a run on 80 minute spot.
He has been tremendous.
Is it contract renewal year for Carty?
Glad we won , I was at the game and didn’t see or feel, any urgency or power in our defence or attack. It felt like we were in 2nd gear. Workman like performance but no dynamic thrust , maybe we are still adjusting to the new players ?
I know we beat them but, parra is not a Monday team. It’s like are we really playing today or is it a training run. Dunster is simply lacking confidence. It’s too early for him to return to first grade. I like the thought of Bailey in the centers. Sean Russell has potential for sure but he needs to work on his pace. He looked pedestrian. I like Cartwright – Gol has been too hard on him. And he never really got big minutes last year.
Parra went from looking fantastic to mediocre. But, we all expected the Tigers to turn up and they did. You cannot cop that barrage of criticism and not show some pride. And they did! The mystery question for me is why do all the other teams seem to have a personal grudge against the Eels. We have come up against teams so many times in the doldrums and yet they always lift. We play them into form.
Parra has to learn how to hate the opposition. For example, if a Parra player gets hurt from foul play – there rarely is a strong response. On the other hand if the opposition player gets hurt they swarm in and want a fight. What does that tell you? The Eels are too soft. I don’t really like fights but that doesn’t mean you turn the other cheek.
What Parra needs is a hard man. Someone like TPJ. He is hard, runs hard, tackles hard and can pass a ball. He is in reserve grade with the Dogs. That’s a player we should chase. What is happening with Patrick Herbert? It’s still early days but Parra has to get out of treading water and really start swimming.
I tend to agree. I would love a player that resents being tackled, becomes a villain for opposing fans, the niggle. As much as I hate the Storm, they do EVERYTHING it takes to win. Including thuggery. I wouldn’t mind that in the Eels every now and then. Seems to work for Souths, The Storm, Panthers. May be they are onto something. I don’t know