While no Eels fan is leaving that match convinced Parramatta will turn around their fortunes up in Brisbane next week, just after half-time I was browsing pictures of dog poo to replace this grades post with, so to come out with a win and a season still on life support from that scenario is a good result.

The Eels love to put the cue in the rack after a good start, and this week they nailed that stick to the wall with a real flourish. Pathetic errors, feeble defence, a middle that was bowled over by an opposing prop with a body straight out of Group 7, this was embarrassing. This team doesn’t have the right to treat an opponent lightly, and it is a worrying sign of their mentality that two early tries is enough for them to think “yep, we’re the best again” and turn off.

If you ever want a guide to why completion rates are overrated, look at Parramatta today. 83% is one of our better marks in season 2023, but it was the timing and field position of those incomplete sets that reversed the Eels’ fortunes here. Lacking any better place to discuss it, I’d also like to register my displeasure that in what appeared to be crackdown round, Zac Lomax got to stay on the field for a textbook head slam. Refereeing consistency is clearly a huge challenge, we haven’t got it right over the 30-odd years I’ve been watching football and probably the 90-odd the game was played before that. Refs are human, they make mistakes. A lot of mistakes.

Yet while there is grey area and the challenge of speed and fatigue in determining strips in a ruck or excessive wrestling in a tackle, it should be fairly easy to set a line on high tackles, head slams, hip drops and all other foul play as to what is a sin bin or send off. Then you get a video referee who is reviewing these incidents, who should be able to measure this incident against that line and go “yep, that’s a bin”. It’s a systemic failure of process, an avoidable situation, and I feel for the referees who are getting absolutely no help on this and are then hung out to dry when the system fails them.

Anyway, for the numbers inclined:

Possession: Eels 50%, Dragons 50%
Completions: Eels 35/42 (83%), Dragons 27/37 (72%)
Run metres: Eels 1,637, Dragons 1,559
Line breaks: Dragons 7, Eels 5
Tackle breaks: Eels 39, Dragons 34
Offloads: Dragons 12, Eels 11
Errors: Eels 7, Dragons 12
Penalties conceded: Eels 2, Dragons 6

When in doubt, give it to the man who saved the game. Strip or loose carry I don’t care, Clint Gutherson knocked the ball free from a runaway Jacob Liddle and kept the Eels in this game. It was the icing on another strong performance from the King, who made up for his shocker last week with rock solid play across the park. You da MVP, Gutho.





 

 

 

There were a couple of moments in this one that had me lamenting the role of the video referee. The first was Bryce Cartwright getting away with a terrible offload on the Dragons’ first challenge. Crap play like that has been punished with a knock-on call for as long as we’ve played football, until now when you give teams the chance to request a forensic video examination of whether the ball actually travelled forward.

Same for when players drop a ball cold, either from a kick or a pass, the ref used to just blow the whistle because hey, you dropped it cold, you deserve to lose it. I like football like that. On Gutherson’s try-saver, if you get the ball knocked from your grasp with the line in sight, strip technically or not, you knocked it on. Liddle didn’t deserve to be bailed out for bombing a certain try.

---

Where was this Brad Arthur willingness to swap the wingers when we’ve seen countless disgraceful defensive performances on one side or the other over the years? Poor old Arthur Miller-Stephen was hard done by there; sure he was struggling to tackle Mikaele Ravalawa but that isn’t unique to a 19-year old making his first grade debut.

I thought he did decently, covered a couple of early shifts wide, was there to finish a movement (something unfortunately rare the two weeks prior) and solid under the high ball. He’s an off season away (and maybe longer) from regular first grade but as a taste, he deserves the spot for the last week Sivo misses.

---

Given the Eels love of the left attacking edge, I wouldn’t be against a positional swap in the off season to move Will Penisini to the side that actually gets the ball. He simply needs to get his hands on the footy in good space more often. His hard rucking runs and work in tight spaces is great, but he’s beating his opposite with ease when give the chance, those chances are just unfortunately rare.

---

That 33% tackle efficiency is a very ugly number for a non-winger, non-fullback, and that doesn’t even count the times Tyrell Sloan simply ran around Simonsson, not even letting him attempt a tackle. He did his job in the line, the man outside him scored twice after all, but for a guy who came to us as a reputation for being quick, Simonsson’s lateral movement rivalled an ocean liner out there this weekend.

---

Sean Russell remains very solid, which is all we need right now but looking into the mythical future where our club actually signs some first grade quality backs, he’ll need to lift his game to keep a spot. Solid isn’t bad, Luke Burt made a career out of solid, but Burty also kicked goals. 

---

It was good to have him back, even if his edge was torched for four tries he still had an impact on the game defensively. It could have been six tries without Dylan. He had a few good involvements and generally the side looked a lot better in attack for his presence, though his answers to the rushing defence that opposing sides are now implementing against us were no better than Mitch’s this week.

---

Poor old Mitch is being rushed, hurried and belted every time he gets the ball in good attacking position. It’s funny, the Eels should be able to avoid this given how many forwards can throw a pass and the strong line running short of Bryce Cartwright, yet the predictability of the sweep to Moses is such that opposing defenders can time it and bury the poor halfback. Maybe the Eels have an answer and were saving its reveal for one of the big upcoming games, or maybe they’re a one-trick pony. Here’s hoping we are surprised next week.

---

While Joe Ofahengaue is not credited with an offload this week, it wasn’t for lack of trying from his part. He got the arms free and really looked to move the ball, but nobody expected it and thus nobody was there in support. The starting role really seemed to get the best out of Ofahengaue and I was impressed with his early stint, then he got 5 more minutes later on. Still, this was the first time I left the ground happy with his signing.

---

I thought I saw him barrelled over and pushed back in defence plenty of times this week, but the numbers suggest he was solid without the ball overall. Invisible tackles are just fine, doing a lot of work at a level that an observer barely notices is part of a hookers job in rugby league. He needs to be told his job inside the 20 is simply to pass the ball, those wombat burrows aren’t helping anybody, but his opportunism in general play is a nice change of pace from stand and deliver.

---

Huge minutes for Junior were rewarded with a try, but I’m happiest about 33 tackles without a miss for the big man. It never felt like he was dominating out there, but he added a sizeable contribution to this win.

---

If I could figure out the HTML formatting I’d give Carty both an A+ and an F, because at times he deserved both in this game. His first try was sensational and he was an absolute handful in the early and then late stages, including scoring the matchwinner, but in the middle he pushed passes that weren’t on and put the team under pressure they eventually cracked from. You take the good with the bad.

---

A hard slog for Ryan Matterson, who took a lot of tough runs and didn’t find himself with many opportunities to get the offload away. Then he put on an absolute peach of a pass for Junior Paulo to score. Seriously, that pass sent my heart fluttering. If I had that pass on a VHS the picture would be unrecognisable after a week of pausing and rewinding. I just went and watched it three times, and now I need a cold shower.

---

J’maine Hopgood didn’t get as long out there as I expected, but he did some good work with the ball, looked dangerous and defended to the point of exhaustion. This Matterson back row, Hopgood lock combination is one I could get used to for the rest of the year.

---

Didn’t get to make as much impact as his previous appearances, but still a guy I’m happy to have around, and not just because I’m too intimidated by him to say otherwise.

---

On the one hand, Maka didn’t miss a tackle all day. On the other, he nearly had as many penalties/ruck infringements (3) as he had runs (4). If this was him taking his opportunity with both hands, I’d hate to see what his phoning it in looks like.

---

I’m very surprised he managed to come back from that head slam, but it may have impacted him in some way as he only ran the ball five times all day. It’s not like he was exhausted from all the defence he was doing either, only making 12 tackles. Moretti got a third of the minutes and posted a near identical stats line to Davey, but it wasn’t like this was a bad performance, just a quiet one.

---

While Wiremu Greig only got eight minutes on the park in his return from injury, what an eight minutes they were. He ran the ball 7 times, poked his head through some half gaps off Mitchell Moses, and generally looked a step above the other bench middles we’ve played over the last month or two. He’s picked up where he left off, just with a little less fitness.

---

Our season lives on for one more week, and if there is one positive in the struggles we had here it is that nobody will be going into this next round with a false sense of security. It is backs to the wall, nobody believes in us territory at the Gabba on Friday, time to pull out all the tricks, to dig into the reserves and pull off the miracle. 

You still need to do some ambitious ladder predictor maths to deny the Eels a place in the top eight with two wins from three. That means knocking over two of Brisbane, Sydney and Penrith, but it also means that hope lives on for at least another week even with a loss in Brisbane. While that hope is there we may as well embrace it. There’ll be plenty of time to be sad sacks about 2023 when it is over.

Until next time, stay slippery Eels fans.

Gol

Stats and images provided by NRL / Eels media