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It was a less than spectacular opening to the preseason for the Eels as the Canberra Raiders ran away with the trial victory 38-16. The Raiders finished too strong for the Blue & Gold and were relentless in capitalising on opportunities gifted to them by Parramatta.
Sixties and Forty20 take a look at a disjointed effort from the Eels where a number of players were still able to impress. Above all, Kelma Tuilagi stood tall and showed Brad Arthur why he is a lock for Round 1. Sean Russell, Brendan Hands and Wiremu Greig also put in strong showings while it was a mixed bag for young stars Blaize Talagi and Ethan Sanders.
We all know about the perils of reading too much into trial form – good or bad – but what does the loss today mean and what will the Eels be looking for when they suit up against the Titans next week?
Any further talk of Gutherson being moved from fullback is crazy talk. Our juniors looked like adolescents compared to the Raiders. I’d be looking at giving Sanders early to Canberra if it meant us gaining an outside back from the Raiders because if Penisini goes down we are screwed.
Russell, Kelma and Greig were excellent for us. Ogden also went well when he was on. Cini is easily the worst player I have seen in recent memory to pull on a Parra jersey. Him being given a top 30 spot is a crime.
Hard to disagree on cini but you can add dunster as well , sadly he looks cooked and won’t play first grade ,we desperately need a quality outside back avenger and those 2 taking up spots is well beyond a crime
There have been more way worse than Cini, but still pretty poor.
I may be a touch reactionary (having just got back home from watching it live) but to sum it up: tough watch with a few bright spots. I was shocked at just how many tackles matto and maka were missing in the first half yet alone second half (or in mattos case, sometimes letting people through without putting a hand on them). The middle was very very loose throughout game and poor hands copped it for that. Kelma had some good attacking moments but it was very evident he lacked fitness in defence. Took a few tackles to get back after each line break and generally wasn’t very urgent in defence. Wiremu and Russell were the bright spots so I was glad to see that. For me, this reiterated just how weak the back half of our top 30 really is. Many who occupy those spots were supposed to be senior players for sanders, blaize etc and just didn’t lead at all. Reminded me of the flaccid Penrith trial last year.
We made a few too many errors to mount any real pressure from around the 30 minute mark, including some disappointing switch offs which the Raiders pounced on. Put it down to rust, and to their credit the Raiders ran and tackled hard.
I feel these young players are just two young should still play in either jersey flegg or sg ball if they qualify. Don’t push them to fast into first grade.
My honest assessment.(haven’t listened to you boys just yet) saw you
Today but didn’t get a chance to say Gday at the SG Ball game.
-Raiders team was atleast 3/4 first grade spine compared to our 0/4
-hands did the tough stuff
– sanders played stuck to an edge, that’s never been his game. Odd decision by the coaching staff. He’s a 7 let him 7
– hope matty is ok (main point)
-Blaize needs time to learn fullback but showed he can do the tough yards. I still think he’s a centre/bench utility in the next 2 years
-Greig should start junior come off the bench and keep our momentum up. They couldn’t get him down.
-Russell is legit.
-2 young outside back Injuries have left us shirt at backs.
-call me crazy but Is Haze almost more suited to backrow?????? He’s that big and lost soeed understandably.
-Harper was better but Simmonson will get the first chance as he wasn’t bad.
-Ogden ahead of Tidwell and makhatoa
Sorry for the long comment, I’m sure I still missed things but I don’t want to keep going forever. Some negatives at the end but a lot of positives in the first 50 without our best 10
Didn’t see the whole game.
Raiders wanted it more! They ran hard and tackled hard. Simple game plan and they executed well. We like last year seemed off the pace. Play the ball, our wrestle and our defence is poor.
38 points!! Enough said. I don’t mind getting flogged now because it shows where we are as a club. Defence is optional.
It was a trial so I’m not fussed but our depth is not great. We knew this already.
I think young Lynn looks a potential back up reserves half.
I don’t think Haze will ever reach his potential he just looks slow maybe he’s a centre or a move to the forwards either way he will never be a 1st grade winger.
I hope we don’t have to use players like Makatoa or Ogden much or at all this year.
I don’t make predictions on the outcome of a season from a trial I’ve predicted we will miss the 8 this year maybe 9-12th I just don’t see it when comparing other squads I hope I’m wrong.
Ogden was different level to Maka.
Ogden is good quality depth.
Agree Haze has to change
Depths are not great but look at the suppose starters in matto and lane. No impact or leadership at all in that game.
That doesn’t concern me those two had to go through the motions to get some match fitness both had interrupted seasons last year
Well done 60’s on getting the training form line bang on with Kelma!
What a beast.
Forget Bailey and Harper they are just filling a gap neither are a good nrl centre.
Left field option, big Kelma, throw him in there, he will scare his opposite centre and his defence will need some help but would be no worse then Bailey who is an average defence reader and Morgan who is average with one on on defence.
We then could have a bench of, Matto, Junior, Joe and hands
That comment about kelma in the centres makes u look a bit bereft of ideas. I think dunster could do better in the centres than wing. But simmo and harper are both pretty good imo.
Dunster needs to forge a little mojo whether real or artificial because he kind of mopes around at times with a hang-dog persona, maybe a second rower one day.
Yes I am quite possibly bereft of ideas but I also subscribe to picking your best 17 footballers and fitting them in.
Harper and Bailey are not in our best 17 footballers.
Bailey a winger turned centre who has massive issues reading defence and freezers and stays flat footed when an attacking raid comes his way and can’t set up his winger in attack.
Morgan is a solid player but has his own issues in defence and there is a reason manly let him leave. They consider Brad Parker a long way ahead of him.
Kelma reminds me of Marata and has already trained with us in the centres.
I find the idea of Kelma at CTR intruiging, especially if he has been training there. although Harper and Simmo both did OK today.Most of the Raiders points came late when most of the starting team were gone and a lot of the Raiders tries prior to that were what iI would describe as lucky
You both have no idea!
Glad u didn’t take it personal Tony and I guess kelma could do a job in the centres in the manner of that cronulla guy talagi . If we can get simmo corrected in the areas u pointed out then we may have something because he is 100 percent effort and when in space has real speed.
The old gibbo aphorism that u pick the best 17 I think is a little dated in the more specialised modern game. A bit like if all I have is a hammer then everything I see is a nail ! Cheers Tony
No need for ringing the panic alarm = trial etc.
But wish our largely inexperienced team showed the same energy, enthusiasm and want as their largely inexperienced team.
For mine, it was this very large difference in attitude that reflected the result, and is the bottled magic that can help send a club’s 1st grade team deep into September and sometimes beyond.
It is a long season, and it is hard to keep that consistency going throughout, but I would have liked to see some last night as I would be a happier supporter today.
Haven’t listened yet but canberra didn’t get over the top of us until we started bringing on players 18 down. Up until that point it was 16 all and then a poor kick led to a try from a set restart. Previous to this we were dominating with our forwards but didn’t have the experience in the spine to truly capitalise. The guys fighting out for spots had decent to good games: Russell, Tuilagi. And if not for a bad offload from each I thought Simonsson and Harper were solid in their hit-outs.
What trials do is that they tell the coaching staff which of the mid tier players have a future.The juniors are there generally to,bring them to a realisation what needs to be done to compete at a senior level. Last night did its job, apart from the unfortunate injury to Matt Arthur, the junior reps players all did reasonably well. Sanders was a step back from his usual aggressive self as was Talagi, but they will learn. The other juniors competed and showed their potential.
So what did it actually show, honestly that Cini and Lumelume are a step above Ron Massey level and are merely gap fillers at best. Dunster will never recover from that shattering hip drop injury as he has lost any real speed and gets run around far too easily. The club knows what is needed and it’s in the 1 to 5 area, and really need to step up their search for that backline player, but trials are there for a reason and last night we saw why.
You mention Lane as a day one starter but he showed no signs of this. No urgency or anything like he was 2 years ago. I would say leave Bryce to start and possibly Kelma instead of Lane. A clear example of a player who should not rest on his laurels.
Some players who have had a broken jaw take a long time to get their confiderce back. Some never get back to full steam again. Hopefully this won’t be the case with Lane.
I think the trial served its purpose and reinforced where the club needs to build the squad (outside backs as a priority), while also giving a number of players their first experience of open age footy. I thought the pathways players did ok and will benefit from more games in Cup/Flegg as the season progresses. I am no less optimistic on their potential.
Sean Russell and Kelma Tuilagi were both strong and should be locked in for Rd 1. Kelma ran with purpose.
Unfortunately a few other guys probably showed why they have not made BA’s team list in their time with us and why they won’t feature again this year. Between Cini, Taumopenu, Momoisea there is 3 top 30 spots that have been thrown away and could have been very useful this off-season to invest into other areas of the squad.
Add to that list maka, dunster, Toni mataele (maybe move him to 2nd tier deal), Rodwell and we can start to revamp the squad properly. Some of these players try hard but it’s time to promote juniors/ recruit other players that amore defensively dependable (and, for the backs, athletic). In saying that we may have to wait until end of this year for some of those contracts to expire
Dunster was signed to his deal before injury, Mataele is a local junior whose deal from a couple of years ago moved from a dev contract to top 30 in 2024, and yes Maka and Rodwell are in the final year of their deals after getting NRL time in previous seasons. There are countless players across the NRL who sit near the bottom end of the top 30 that are there as depth signings. It’s fairly obvious where the top 30 deals will go over the next few years. A trial like that isn’t going to inform coaches of too many things that they didn’t know already
I don’t doubt anything you’ve said 60s. Some of the problems (around the backline and quality depth) are fairly easy to diagnose and nothing from this trial changes that. Rather, it’s just another unfortunate reminder of the poor squad building (some of which was unforeseeable with dunster but other parts were very foreseeable since Jennings departure) and lack of agility in recruitment. We go into yet another season with skinny backline options + praying for a clean bill of health for esp gutho as he gets older whilst others have plenty of backline competition and continue to prioritise the modern outside back
I stopped taking notice of trial games as an indicator of how Parra will perform once the NRL season starts after 2018. As long as no injuries I’m happy.
Spot on