How do you know that the NRL season is getting closer?
How about a training session featuring full contact opposed footy with NRL referees in charge!
On arrival at Kellyville today, the sight of the NRL team in their playing kit, and a couple of refs (including Gerard Butler) warming up, signalled that this would be a great session to watch.
After warm ups, the squad split into their NRL and NSW Cup teams and ran through their attacking shapes unopposed. From there, the teams were again divided, this time into groups to go into their four on three drills. The unstructured and improvised play is always entertaining to watch and the players can be very vocal as they cheer each other’s play.
The NSW Cup team practise their attack
It wasn’t long before the opposed footy began, and it didn’t disappoint.
Play re-starts and field position were often determined by BA, and there were times when one team was given extended possession. However, there was enough continuous play for the referee to make calls and for the players to have an influence or to have their efforts noted by the coaches.
Please note, as stated in previous reports, there are players moving on and off the field during these contested games, and there is still competition for places. I call one team the NRL team because it contains those regarded as “lock in selections”.
Opposed Highlights
* There was Impressive line speed and contact in defence from the Cup team (fluoro green vests) to begin the contest. They were asked to hold out an early period in possession from the NRL team and did so effectively.
* Kye Rodwell’s try off a deceptive dummy half pass from Matt Arthur was a surprise first scoring play. It featured a terrific “sell” from Arthur that opened the space and a nice line run by Rodwell.
* Effective sliding defence to bundle a try bound Lumelume into touch.
* Bailey Simonsson crossed out wide after good lead up work by Kelma Tuilagi. Tuilagi remains my tip for a regular first grade spot in 2024.
* A massive effort play from Sean Russell was indicative of his mindset. In quick succession, he firstly surged upfield in a terrific yardage carry. Then, after playing the ball, he immediately joined on the end of a right side shift, hauled in a wide pass and gained another twenty metres.
* Russell later crossed in the corner after Gutho regathered a tap back and then delivered the ball to his winger.
* Shaun Lane made a great late offload to instigate an NRL incursion into the Cup end of the field. A couple of plays later, Will Penisini crossed after good hands on his inside.
NRL team in defence mode
* Numerous strong hit ups from Penisini in yardage set the tone for territorial advantage.
* Dylan Brown scored an individual close range try through classy stepping and power in contact
* Strong NRL defence on Ethyn Martin that prevented the rising outside back from scoring
* Haze Dunster scored two tries off the work of Josh Lynn and Ethan Sanders during a sustained period of coach imposed red zone possession
Other Observations
Conditioning work still featured during the session with the squad completing M runs. This also ensured that there was a fatigue element to the opposed footy.
There were no prizes for guessing that Gutho led the NRL group. I had pondered whether Dylan would be able to throw down the gauntlet, given how outstanding he’d been prior to Christmas. However, despite his prolonged time in rehab, the King was back to doing King things. Dylbags and Brendan Hands did their best to haul him in but to no avail.
NSW Cup players during on of their M runs
In the Cup group, Saxon Pryke, Ethan Sanders, Blaize Talagi, Haze Dunster and Matt Arthur were regularly pushing up around the lead.
The officiating was most interesting, with a range of indiscretions found – ruck infringements, a shoulder charge and even what looked to be a downtown ruling.
Perhaps the calls were indicative of the competitiveness and intensity of the “contest”.
Eels forever!
Sixties
Hey sixties, love the updates!
Out of all the young players from the jersey flegg team last year that are doing pre season, who is looking the most promising/doesn’t look out of place?
Mitchell, none of them look out of place. Should I put the pressure on one individual and put them ahead of his peers? Probably not. But I do like about 3 of them for an NRL debut later in the season.
Great update sixties!
Just purely on your observations, who is getting the backline spots on form/efforts?
Gutho
Sivo
Penisini
?
?
Brad, lock in Sean Russell on the wing. He is bigger and growing in confidence. I want to see more opposed before making another call on Harper vs Simonsson.
Great to see the ref there. Also pleasing to see if it’s made by pleased and backing up on the end of the follow-up movement eg. Russell.
Great to see the ref there. Also pleasing to see a play by a player and then backing up on the end of the follow-up movement eg. Russell.
It was a big effort play for certain.
Ha wonderful to have the illustrious officials at training and we all hope the season is somewhat offical free!!
Thanks for the updates Sixties and good to see Rodwell going well
Milo, Rodwell is the fittest I’ve seen him in preseason.
Who is seeing more time as NRL DH out of Hands and Lussick? Would it be fair to say Hands may be the 3rd fittest in the NRL squad?
They shared the duties today.
What time is the session on Monday, hoping to watch them during my daily walk.
I don’t work for the club so I can’t guarantee times nor publicise. Coaches can change training arrangements as BA did on three Fridays. I’ll be heading down about 9:30.
Great update – I’m optimistic we will see the best of Sean Russell this year, he’s developing into a solid first grader. I like the call on Kelma, I don’t think the club signed him for depth.
Good to hear Ethyn Martin is involved, a year of Cup and I think he could become an NRL prospect sooner than later.
Unfortunately for Kelma he’s been in 2 awful situations in his time in first grade. 1st he was at the tigers, nobody has done well in the tigers pack for the past 10 years. 2nd he was next to Schuster. Manly loves playing their right, whoever is on the left goes a bit under utilised. With us he’ll be a small minutes forward playing either edge or middle. I think this will suit him, he’s going to be able to go full intensity for 15-20 minutes per game. I can see him being a Spencer Leniu type for us.
I agree about Sean and as for Kelma, like I said a couple of years ago about Papali’i – I can’t believe his club let him go.
Martin is raw in terms of rugby league but has plenty of ability and potential.
Ham, I agree about Kelma’s versatility to play middle or edge. Ice also provided that option for BA.
I think most people know Kelma has great attacking ability. I honestly will not care too much about his attack. I want to see how he defends. Papalii was exposed a numerous times defensively.
I’m hoping that’ll be the case. A strong bench is what we need and I think we’ve achieved that in Greig, Kelma, Ofa, Ogden and a few younger guys that’ll be in the mix later in the year. Just need one or two juniors in the backs to really step up to become a premiership threat.
We showed last year that a big strong pack is the formula to beat Panthers but Broncos, Souths and perhaps one or two other teams have improved and we need to be competitive with them. Exciting times ahead.
I agree about Sean and as for Kelma, like I said a couple of years ago about Papali’i – I can’t believe his club let him go.
Martin is raw in terms of rugby league but has plenty of ability and potential.
Great work again mate, I love these reports each week. Was blaze training at fullback or centre in cup
Jack, Blaize has been used in a few positions lately. I’m now unsure how he’ll be used. But that might work in his favour down the track if he can cover different roles.
Tks sixties. Have been reading the journo’s opinions on Eels 2024. About half of them don’t mention our roster disruption last year, but most mention lack of signings in the backs and lack of a name dummy half. Occasional mention of power rather than mobility in forwards and problems defending out wide. If you mixed them all together you might get a reasonable take. I actually reckon Lussick and Hands will make a fair fist of the No 9 role, if you look at the last few years we’ve had Mahoney and Hodgson interrupting stability in the key ruck role. Lussick and Hands haven’t really been given the primary responsibilty which develops by being consistently on the park working with the playing systems. They both look sound footballers to me.
BDon, the pack is premiership winning. They are the strength in this team. But we can’t afford suspensions to key players this year and that ball falls into the players court.
Any thoughts on Daejarn Asi? After his first few games he looked like being the next big thing at Parramatta but he seemed to struggle when he replaced Dylan Brown while he was suspended.
He will have a utility role covering for injuries in my opinion. He’s had a delayed pre-season due to injury so he’s up against it to win an NRL spot early in the year.
The bench is stacked Sixties. It is hard to see a permutation where there is a 2nd HOK there? Especially with Lussick more than capable of 80.
You would imagine Paulo, RCG, Lussick, Lane, Carty, Hopgood, and Matterson, From what you suggest Tuilagi, Ofahengaue are super likely also.
Who do you think gets position 17, and more importantly who misses out?
I’ve said that it rests on whether BA opts for four forwards or adds a utility for certain teams. If it’s a utility, then Hands gets the nod. If it’s four forwards, Woody is in the 17.
Too many people are worrying about our hookers unnecessarily imo. A hooker has to be decent without being outstanding if the rest of the spine are top class. And we are that. Look at Broncos and Penrith last year, none had an outstanding hooker and it didn’t hurt them.
Ah, but if you can get an edge there, that’s a massive bonus. But like you Glenn, I’m happy with our options there Glenn.
You look at the overall make up of this team and there are great elements. Our pack and bench are world class, hooker is getting a bit of heat unfairly as I feel Lussick can be serviceable.
Halves and Fullback is set, the issue still is the backs. We just need a top Winger I feel. Russell is good but the club have been on the look out for another Winger it seems so they must see Russell as stop gap. Centre I’m not too concerned over as Talagi is the future and feel he can come in at any point and hold his own.
LB I think your point is well made. As fans we can demand a lot however we are not responsible for ensuring that the salary cap meets the auditor’s rules.
Every team in the NRL is going to have quality players in their 17 sprinkled through those quality players will be some elite players.
When Korasau (spelling) left the Panthers I thought they may struggle a bit. To be fair that was not the best of their GF wins. Broncos did clock off early. But the point is no team can have SOO players in every position.
Roosters and Storm go close. Panthers juniors are like a mountain spring, the talent just keeps coming.
I think if the Eels play to their capability, that means MM and DB playing more than 7 games together, it would not be an upset for the Eels to be top four.
John, I keep coming back to one aspect of last year – suspensions. It impacted key players like Dylan and Reg. There were over 20 matches of suspensions across the team. It was ridiculous.
I’m going to tip a big season from Russell. He’s looking the goods in what is actually a critical season for him. I think that Maika needs to lift his efforts in yardage.
Think if we falter this year, rather than lay the blame at the coach, perhaps we need to look at the GM Football and recruitment committee,, they have failed for what 3/4 years to upgrade our backs. Still waiting to replace the speed and game breaking ability of Fergo and Jennings, yes problems with them but should have been replaced like for like
We seem to talk to players but not able to close , is that we dont have anyone with appeal doing the negotiation. Seems a bit that way, couple that with the way the NRLW team is treated, there are issues to question MON again, just don’t seem able to hit a home run when one is needed,
I think we are one quality back short of a premiership threat. And experienced backline depth is a bit thin. But there is at least one spot available and some coin, so we wait to see. But the pack is one of the best in the NRL, and there is strike in the backs. We just can’t afford injury or suspension again this year.
When you say quality back, which is more of a need? Wing or Centre. Added to that is what type? Do we need pace like JAC or Sloan? or do we need a workhorse like Cotric? Or do we need just a solid Winger who is better than what we have like Daniel Tupou from Roosters.
As for Centre, I feel Talagi is the future so no point investing heavily in a player. But could look at Tass or Schoupp if they want a Centre.
We have gone for so many different backs and I just feel BA and co. are adamant we just need class, not so much a specific skill set, just class in our backline. Issue is where are you going to get that unless they see something they like in say Ethyn Martin or Sean Russell has a Cartwright like year and just surprises everyone. I want Russell to do well, local junior but from who we have reportedly chased it seems we want a better Winger.
LB, I started answering your question and my response was becoming so lengthy that I decided that it was probably best answered in a “spotlight” post. Forced to give a one word answer – winger.
Ok awesome I apologize for making you go into a long response.
Winger seems the answer, Talagi at Centre for future.
I look forward to that one if you are able to produce it. I suspect I might have a slightly different opinion than you on this one Sixties. But I’ll wait to see what you have to say. I’ve often found myself disagreeing with you at the beginning of a post / podcast and then coming around to your thinking by the end.
Then again, maybe I just have splinters in my backside from sitting on the fence. Many of my mates say so.
No need to apologise LB, I was actually saying that it has provided a topic worth discussing in a dedicated post.
I look forward to reading it in the future, hope it is out soon.
Hi 60s I’m assuming most have read the Sunday telegraph this morning brad Arthur was saying both hands and lussick are training well but he wants to use only one for 80 minutes and no bench spot for the other interesting