Something is going terribly wrong for our Eels. Officiating decisions and suspensions are playing a significant role in the season and it cannot be ignored.
Coach Brad Arthur places a high value on team discipline. Over the course of his tenure he’s taken the Eels from one of the most penalised teams to one that regularly concedes few penalties. He’s always believed in controlling what can be controlled. I’ve witnessed him telling young pathways players that possessing discipline is essential in having a future at the club.
The emphasis on minimising penalties and set restarts is on display on a weekly basis as the Eels clear the ruck quickly and race back ten metres.
Statistics back up the eye test.
Parra has recorded a slower play the ball speed than their opponents in 17 of their 18 matches. They clear the ruck faster than any team and even concede quick play the balls after line breaks, such is their commitment to avoid penalties, set restarts or sin bins.
Yet there is still a problem.
As far as set restarts are concerned, given that aforementioned play the ball speed, you’d suspect that the numbers should overwhelmingly favour the Eels.
Stats do favour the Eels, but I’m not sure that the numbers justify surrendering the ruck as they do. This season, the Eels have won the set restarts for ruck infringements on nine occasions, losing three and drawing level in six games. So they’ve gained the advantage in 50% of their clashes. Please note, I’m focussing on when the advantage is won because the Eels are conceding a distinct disadvantage (play the ball speed) as their methodology.
When it comes to inside the ten, the Eels have won this count seven times, lost it six times and drawn the count in five matches. Put bluntly, in this metric the Eels only gain an advantage in less than 40% of their games. Could it be that conceding a quicker play the ball has resulted in the Eels being caught offside more than they’d want? It would probably require a deep dive into the video to answer that question, but the raw data suggests that any advantage is minimal.
Looking at combined counts for ruck infringements and inside the ten within the same game, the Eels have won the count ten times, lost it four times and drawn it in four games. Again, coming out on the right side of the ledger in ten of the 18 games is a positive, but not as much as I’d like to see given the Eels clean rucks. Furthermore, there are penalties awarded for these infringements within the forty metres. I don’t have a break down of those, but the data for overall penalties in games definitely warrants examination.
Gutho discussing rules
From a penalties conceded statistic, the Eels are the fourth best team, conceding an average of just 5.2 penalties per game.
Sounds good?
Not really, as that’s only half the story. Penalties received completes the picture and it’s not a pretty one.
The Eels currently sit 17th, receiving an average of 4.4 penalties per game. It’s not our imagination. Parramatta is ranked at the bottom of the NRL. So it seems that Parramatta’s opponents have been incredibly well-disciplined in 2023.
That aligns with an opinion that I’ve long held regarding the officiating of Eels matches. I take less issue with the penalties awarded against the Eels and have greater concerns about the consistency in applying the same standards to their opponents.
From an individual game perspective, the Eels have won the penalty count just three times – against Penrith, the Dogs and Souths. On six occasions, the penalty count has been equal.
Unfortunately, the Eels have lost the penalty count in nine matches, with all of those occurring since round 8. Has there been a decline in the team’s discipline from that point?
Perhaps there are individuals who need to consider their own actions, after all the Eels currently are “leading” the table for players missing due to suspension.
Here’s how that table looks (now updated after Tuesday night judiciary rulings):
|
Club |
Players Suspended |
Total Weeks Lost |
|
Eels |
6 |
22 |
|
Dolphins |
6 |
12 |
|
Cowboys |
4 |
11 |
|
Roosters |
5 |
9 |
|
Sharks |
3 |
9 |
|
Warriors |
4 |
8 |
|
Raiders |
3 |
7 |
|
Knights |
2 |
7 |
|
Broncos |
3 |
6 |
|
Titans |
3 |
6 |
|
Souths |
3 |
5 |
|
Storm |
3 |
5 |
|
Tigers |
3 |
5 |
|
Manly |
2 |
5 |
|
Dragons |
1 |
3 |
|
Panthers |
1 |
2 |
|
Bulldogs |
1 |
1 |
Individually, the Eels suspension list breaks down as Dylan Brown 7 weeks, Reagan Campbell-Gillard 4 weeks, Matterson 3 weeks, Sivo 4 weeks, Paulo 2 weeks and Simonsson 2 weeks. Whether it be for an NRL breach notice, or a carry over suspension from 2022, it amounts to an astounding 22 games in which these players are not available in 2023. (The above table includes breach notices across all clubs).
Not good from Reg
Even if the suspensions for both Brown and Matterson are removed from the table, the Eels still register 12 weeks of suspensions which would keep them at the very top of the leaderboard.
Furthermore, the Eels have had eight players sent to the sin bin, including two double bins, with just four players from opponents dispatched to the bin.
It’s difficult to debate the suspensions or even most sin bins. The offences were committed. However, four weeks for RCG was tough, especially when lined up against Jayden Campbell having no case to answer last season despite his knees putting Sean Russell in hospital with caved in ribs.
Nothing to see here
This returns us to the lack of consistency rearing its ugly head. More specifically, as it pertains to this post, the failure of officials and decision makers to apply the same rules or standards to Eels opponents. A major inconsistency surrounding RCG occurred this year when Payne Haas was firstly not sin binned for his classic hip drop on Reg that left him sidelined for an extended period. The injustice was made worse by the subsequent suspension of Haas for just one week.
In that instance, the bunker failed to identify the tackle as a hip drop despite taking multiple views, and had Haas been binned it would have reduced the Broncos to eleven players and most likely impacted the outcome of the game.
And though it can logically be argued that any resulting injury should not come into consideration, it seems to fly in the face of natural justice that both Sivo and RCG will miss significant game time when their actions will not cause players to miss a game, whereas both Russell and RCG were sidelined with painful, major injuries.
Ultimately, history has proven that the Eels struggle to receive penalties or key decisions. The stats speak for themselves and the eye test of missed calls is there on a weekly basis. Don’t expect the media to point that out. They’re more interested in highlighting the odd call that falls Parra’s way, and usually due to the bleating of a disgruntled coach or a narrative driven media identity. By the way, here’s the ruck image from the Fox coverage of when Parra took their field goal.
The marker has done well to be here hasn’t he?
In my opinion, when it comes to discipline that doesn’t relate to foul play, the team probably can’t control much more than they do. Whether it’s worthwhile to remain as disciplined around the ruck is debatable.
Unfortunately, we can’t expect the NRL to be a level playing field. It’s deeply flawed, from the salary cap issues to the draw that is so full of inequities that it could pass as attempted humour. Hoping that things truly balance out as far as penalties or calls are concerned is the stuff of fairytales. The stats show that. It’s not deliberate, it just is what it is.
Right now, what the Eels can and should do is to look in the mirror for anything they can control. Poor discipline has resulted in the team being without key players for a massive total of 22 weeks and the season is not yet done. It has and will create obstacles that the team cannot afford.
And when this season wraps up, it will either be a tale of how the Eels overcame significant hurdles or how their own mistakes derailed their campaign.
Eels forever!
Sixties
A classic example of the officiating letting down the Eels was in the titans game. Jayden Campbell should have been sin binned for a professional foul after Lane took an intercept. Butler recognised that a foul had been committed signalling a six again, if Campbell deliberately slowed the ptb down whilst the Eels were on the attack it should have been a sin bin. Another was the first tackle from the 2nd half where Tino had absolutely no intention of wrapping an arm in a tackle on Reg. When the NRL brought in the rule of no shoulder charges they were deemed to be sin bin worthy, what’s happened there? On Tino, I counted 3 times he lead with his forearm raised in a horizontal fashion at the game. Once on Moses, once on Hands, and once on Lane. Unfortunately only Moses was able to draw attention to the foul.
I think Eels fans are pretty smart when it comes to knowing when they’ve been shafted by the officiating, we aren’t like penrith or Canberra fans who boo every time their team has the ball for offside or every pass from the opposition being forward. When the refs were booed off at half time you knew the Eels had been officiated off the park. Unfortunately at full time I witnessed an incident where a fan threw a powerade bottle at the touchie, I hope this fan is identified and banned for life, whilst we may not be happy with the officiating there is no room in the game for that kind of behaviour.
Well noted Ham. But when it comes to the media the discussion point is Eels offside at the field goals and why weren’t Reg or Sivo sent off.
As for the bottle throwing, I hope someone comes forward and identifies the culprit.
Love the comments and analysis. Banned for life for a single, although very stupid indiscretion is abit of a stretch. People make errors in judgement, thats life.
Mind you, thats if the individual is at least brave enough to come forward and apologize for that stupidity.
Parra should really examine their ethos with regards to to discipline because it does NOT balance out. Only those who take advantage of the rules…get an advantage. Sad but true.
Very true – take advantage of the rules!
Agree with all your specifics 60’s, just one thing I will say is that I do not feel there is any “rigging” going on . well not these days anyway (we won’t go back to the 77 grand final).
The other thing is that it is hard to imagine how players like Reg did what he did (not in his nature) but I think he was nearly kneeling into him rather than kneeing him, no excuse but the intention was not there to hurt him. Almost an old man falling on his knees (i can relate to that). Sivo was dum at another level and an accident waiting to happen, some basic corordination drills will help him, you may note how his confidence has changed lately. He once was about 90% effective in the air, that seems to have dropped to under 50%.
Simmo’s was bad luck rather than management and Matto to this day probably doesn’t know why he didn’t pay the fine.
It seems that all these events have coincided and then we throw Dyllan’s exploits on here! Btw I think that whilst Dyllan was hard done by, the drinking aspect is something in the long term will be to his benefit….. the dancing thing is just rubbish in our PC world.
Poppa, I didn’t use the word rigging and I’m not suggesting that you think I did. I’m just being clear about that. However, I’ve written before on penalties and calls. The Eels work diligently on being disciplined. They work with referees during the preseason at training and then through the premiership. They get feedback about calls and do so through the appropriate channels. The feedback is generally very positive and I honestly don’t believe that outside of the foul play suspensions that there is much more that they can do to change things. I’m literally saying, it is what it is as far as the best that we can achieve in terms of calls. We have minimised calls against us. It is not in the teams control to get more calls going their way. Apparently nearly all opponents become very disciplined in matches against the Eels. That’s simply the facts.
I can make excuses for all of our suspended players but it comes back to moments when they perhaps switch off. And it’s been costly this year. Again the facts speak for themselves.
Yes your right, no intention to indicate you thought otherwise.
That said and after reading that again and about expectations and I agree without bias that we are a genuinely a non dirty team…..now go back and look at Heargraves and the big log from Storm and they seem to get away with blue murder every week…… I just don’t understand why the refs and the MRC keep tolerating their example.
I wish I could answer that Poppa
Don’t forget Victor the inflictor
If you listen to the media even this morning, the narrative is around the Eels we’re offside at the dropped goal, no mention of exactly the same when the Titans were offside. Rothfield and Read complaining vigorously the RCG should have been sent from the field, strangely when the Haas and Campbell incidents occurred they spent considerable time suggesting there was no intent and the likely no penalty should have occurred despite players being carried off and an ambulance called to take them to hospital. They Compare that the RCG and Sivo, neither player they offended against did anything other than play the ball, no HIA for the aggressive head shot.
Certainly the touchies had their eyes painted on too, the first try for the Titans resulted from a break where the pass to put the winger into space was at least 2 metres forward with the touch judge in line, likewise the forward pass at the start of second half was allowed despite everyone seeing it and the touchie in direct line.
Next man up is the cry, Go the Eels.
The touch judges are cowards with sticks nothing more , incidents happen right in front of them but is it all thier fault , there wired so are they calling it but being over ruled ?? Lets go back to the system that worked where the touchie put his flag up and waited for the ref to adjudicate, at least will know who owns the decision , touch judge ,referee, or bunker you tell me its a secret service , doesn’t really matter i suppose the only ones penalized for getting rules wrong are the players while annesly backs his boys 99% of time , even if they blunder the solution is move them to a game that dosent matter to much , professionalism at it best!!
Maybe the problem is with the touchies is if they raise the flag without refs consent or a stop in the game, the weight of the flag may cause a dislocated shoulder with the touchies, meaning they would need stand by refs, but then again that may be what they are doing anyway, standing by the sidelines, unless they run in trying to look professional as they stand just outside of a tussle fight with the players and somewhat scared that they may lose their flag or have it break.
RL, I have a gut feeling that the game as a whole regarding playing RL is all but finished and mainly a show piece to fill in a game.
I no longer follow teams, and it more often than not, plays are pretty much repetitive and boring as a result.
Colin, I reckon we all accept line ball forward passes, especially as the ball can float forward and be ok. But we witnessed a couple of rank awful balls that literally everyone in the stadium except for the officials were able to see. PS, I do still regard referees as being of a higher standard than those from the past.
We used to laugh (or moan) when the touch judge came running in with their flag raised to report an incident. But you’re right, at least we knew who called it. What annoyed me was the blatant missed calls by the touchie on the eastern wing. Forward passes, a knock on, right beside him. I get it that errors happen, they aren’t machines. Unfortunately this is a season where the Eels aren’t getting many calls per match to the extent that they are the worst in the NRL. You just can’t control how the ref views the opponent.
Anon, it has to fir the narrative and the narrative often aims at getting a reaction from Eels supporters. I guess they succeeded.
Tks sixties, evidenced based. The Campbell/Russell, Haas/RCG and Tino/Koroisau incidents are a bit like the disciplined team on the wrong side of the penalty count. The situations, for whatever reason, are being over-read, intellectualised, manipulated into a reverse psychology mode. When Tino pushed (wasn’t a strike) his elbow/forearm into Moses’ chin/throat the commentators (mostly old players) went straight into a chorus of ‘’come on, what’s wrong with that?” Their beef is with the administration getting tough on the rough stuff,so the administration, just to show how they understand the game is inherently brutal allow Campbell, Haas and Tino to hospitalise people with some technical justification of acts which have been earmarked for eradication, dangerous and avoidable. The Campbell and Tino calls were ludicrous, and Haas offended in the midst of a crackdown causing serious injury.
If the MRC is so sophisticated with its analysis, I didn’t hear any view on why would RCG openly knee a guy on the ground in the back. Anyone could see that the tackled player got stopped with a text book low tackle, progress halted quickly and fell quickly. You could see Reg 5 mtrs away accelerate (as only a prop can do) to assist in the tackle but the quickness of the tackle and his own momentum threw his timing totally off , he arrived but everything had happened and he just slumped knees first. Campbell knowingly slid in knees first into Russell to stop a try, ribs and lung caved in, not guilty, case closed. Sophisticatedly ludicrous..
Couldn’t have worded the cases any better BDon.
Tks sixties. Q. What was the difference between Dunster/Fuimaono and Haas /RCG? A. Fuimaono landed a bit higher Dunster’s legs and wasn’t an NRL celebrity.
Exactly
I keep banging on about refs being used as specialist touchies. They seem all at sea. Passes a bit (and more) forward are okayed and vice versa. PVL says “how good is it having 3 refs on the field”! I can tell him, it’s crazy! As far as the media goes, we all know who takes potshots at Parra at every opportunity, in the Tele, or on NRL360. Certainly leaves Wayne and Ricky alone, no matter what.
So Annesley did his usual nonsense and gave food to the journos stating that Eels were offside at the field goal . No mention that the Tits were also offside at Moses field goal that was successful, so due to Boyd missing the Eels needed to be penalised.
So he’s saying that if the execution of the field goal is good you get 1 point, if you miss you get a penalty and 2 points. That’s how screwed Annesley is with no thought of the actual outcomes, still it gave the NRL to criticise their favourite target and add to the usual nonsense and opinions to morons like Crawley, Rothfield and Hadley. Then they wonder why fans tune out to the garbage that is often written in the Tele.
Again, if you succeed it’s 1 point, if you fail you get 2 points from a penalty in front. Yet more flawed logic from the NRL hierarchy, it’s so one sided and dumb no wonder the officials are confused.
Derek, it’s incredibly frustrating because we know that the media would still have championed the Titans case even if we had failed. I do understand the Titans gripes. They had been penalised for being offside last week. I guarantee you that Annesley is not making public apologies for all of the refereeing errors – just some high profile ones. If he apologised for every error the presser would last for hours. Therefore, singling out just a couple of select mistakes is not ok. It isn’t transparency, it’s selective contrition.
I have actually stopped buying the terrorgraph , saving 600 a year and lot of aggravation , best way out dont buy it !!!!!
Good advice
I was thinking about this myself. What they should do is let the successful field goal stand but also issues a penalty for offside – like going to the free throw line in a basketball game. That way the Eels would have been up 27-24 and the Titans would have had to play for the try instead.
They would probably need a rule change. I think it’s only a foul like in an eight point try that would allow a three point field goal.
Will always leave them alone Graz.
I would be extremely disappointed if Parra don’t take these issues to the NRL and demand some answers. For too long the NRL and media have taken us fans for mugs, knowing that we will suck up anything they throw at us and keep coming back for more. Can you imagine if Melbourne were treated the same way? Fans would turn away from the game in droves – and the NRL know this!
We need to start playing the game by the murky rules that the NRL have created. Until we start doing that we will be the team that will continue to be the whipping boy – the team that the NRL can say they are punishing certain behaviour (but only if the player plays for Parramatta).
The Eels always go through the appropriate channels. They don’t play issues out in public. The CEO Jim Sarantinos has however advised in a letter to members that there are issues around the draw that they are taking to the NRL.
Yes I did see that. Interesting.
I recall a narrative of a few seasons ago that after half time the refs would even out the penalties. Perhaps this is the problem. We don’t give out many so the refs don’t have to give too many to us irrespective of what the opposition does.
We can all agree. Parra was the thorn in the arse of super league. They have long memories.
In round 1 Melbourne cheated there way to victory and the best ref in the game allowed it.
their