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A markedly improved effort from the Eels saw the Blue & Gold prevail in hot and humid conditions at Ipswich. The 26-16 trial victory over the Gold Coast Titans has Parramatta much better positioned for Round 1 than a week ago and Sixties and Forty20 discuss their takeaways from the 10-point win.
The late omissions of Joe Ofahengaue, Ryan Matterson and Wiremu Greig caused a shakeup to the roster. How did the Brad Arthur and the Eels adjust and who starred as a result? The boys address their talking points from the preview podcast – was the linespeed and interplay between forwards on show?
There were some concerns to come from the game. From a subpar completion rate to a potential injury worry for Bailey Simonsson and a wait on the Match Review Committee for Maika Sivo. Sixties and Forty20 chat about how it all can shape the appoach to Round 1.
Some good calls here.
We did well while main players were there.
I have to say Sivo at times looks too laxed and his errors led to a couple of tries. Not being harsh but we need better here and more attention to detail.
Some good ball movement- but I would prefer Hopgood to play a varied role with ball and not always be a battering ram as he will get busted for me. He’s too good for this and would benefit from some edge play too. I know Matto was out and Offa etc. future capt for me
Some nice passages of play and some areas to improve which a good outcome. To nit pick, I thought ogden and kelma really struggled when asked to make two/three tackles in a row in defence and if they are to play in nrl they should be on the bench for smaller spurts. Further, Edge defence is still shaky esp with sivo and Bailey together. But I was very impressed with halves, penisini and esp russel as he was pushing through tackles that he wasn’t last year. I think we have to find a rotation which spells juniorand rcg properly + also manages to give hopgood a 10 min breather somewhere (not all at same time of course). Whether that means junior to bench for first 15 mins I’m not sure yet.
Hey Ron, just remember that this was a trial, so you might have seen interchange players starting this game and rotations used differently. I have no problem with giving interchange starters longer game time in trials. It will make them better for the shorter stints off the bench.
It was a mostly positive trial Milo. The only cloud now surrounds Sivo. With his three week suspension will BA elevate Haze or play Harper at centre and Simonsson on the wing. I’d suggest the latter.
Totally agree about the latter Sixties.
The only ‘problem’ we have now is, who’s on the bench. Hands seemed to sharpen the attack when he come on, Lussick played well, especially his defence in the middle. I’m thinking he will go with both, at least until the weather cools down. Then you have Wiremu, Offa, Kelma, Matterson and possibly Ogden fighting for 15, 16 and 17. At least we do have a good rotation.
It’s the call that I had trouble making when I put in my round 1 team list prediction. When BA said he wouldn’t have two dummy halves in the 17 I didn’t rule out Hands on the bench because of his utility value.
My frustration with Sivo has risen so much the last 12 months or more. When he makes an error he just stands or lays there stationary instead of being proactive and trying immediately to fix it up if he can. Let’s hope our wingers go well these first 3 rounds and he comes back in NSW Cup, it could be the wake up call needed.
I understand how you feel Graz.
Here’s what Sivo undoubtedly ticks. Near unstoppable in the red zone. Quite safe under the high ball.
Here are his issues – some defensive decisions. Metres and energy in yardage.
If someone is to take his place they must tick at least three of the boxes.
Scores 18 trys a season for his team mates , maybe they could do a bit more in defence for him ?? or replace him with someone who scores 4 trys a season and still makes defensive mistakes like all wingers in nrl.
How many of those 18 are tries that only Maika Sivo could score? Very few. And even when he does have walkover tries he’d rather salute to the crowd and play up for the cameras than run it around to make the conversion easier.
He’s 10-15kg heavier than everyone else in the backline yet he takes the least amount of runs and makes the least amount of metres per run, it’s sad that a player that big gets dominated so often in tackles.
Nit picking is your forte ron.
The jamming in and wide defensive issues has been happening with multiple players for years under Brad’s coaching- so please don’t blame Sivo, blame Brad Arthur
I was watching for this, that dude Pereira can run and the Titans had a few cracks, I wasn’t convinced, our compression and numbers looked shaky a few times, but the Titans were hit and miss in execution, in May they probably nail us better.
BDon, I’d hope we number up or slide better in May.
What’s happening in may?
By May they won’t be so clunky and we may not be so lucky if we don’t get that defence right.
To Bdon. Why is it that only the titans can improve with match fitness? Wouldn’t we also improve on our first hit out of the year? We had 3 first choice middles out of the game yesterday and yet we still rolled their pack, with better forwards do they even come close to our line?
Ham, I’m as keen as anyone to see more organisation and consistency in repelling those wide shifts, I don’t watch replays so rely on what I recall but I thought the Titans butchered a few opportunities with the ball moving wide. Based on the past few years they’ve usually managed to execute better, put a few tries on us out wide in high scoring games, we just manage to out score them mostly. When we make low errors/high completions our forwards always dominate and our defence is not tested as much, we just need to defend better when our ball control isn’t so pretty. Let’s hope your theory on stronger showing in the forwards is on the money.
Also watch for players falling out of systems. All teams play a very similar defence system. Most will get done out wide for tries – look at which players finish near the top of try scoring lists. Line speed and systems are coached. There is no shortage of that. Problems occur when players miss their tackles, or make a poor decision or drop out of the system. Trial one the line speed wasn’t good enough and though it was mostly nsw cup players, they had the message hammered into them about it. This week, Sivo got the jam completely wrong. The decision to move alone out of the sliding line and jam has to be timed to perfection. He did not.
Much improved performance. But still plenty of food for thought. We certainly cannot rest on that performance.
Sivo possibly out for 3 weeks?? Seems an excessive suspension.
Simmonson hopefully will be OK. Just shows we are running the gauntlet again on skinny depth. Especially if Sivo suspensended…
Hopgood looks the goods again.
Junior off the bench is much better. He brings the impact.
Kelma v Lane both were a bit patchy. But lane as incumbent will get the start.
Can’t wait for the Bulldogs clash.
Kelma is definitely an impact player off the bench for now, but he is a top notch acquisition. Carty has become most consistent and is a definite starter.
Yes Kelma is a good acquisition.
I’ve taken no notice of trial form since 2018. But that was a good hit out with the team playing within themselves (maybe too within themselves in the case of Sivo) and showed enough to suggest that they will have a better season than last year.
I see that the Sivo question is likely to be answered by suspension so it will be interesting to see who comes into the side (Dunster ran strong) or if Bailey (hamstring pending) moves to the wing to bring Harper into the side.
Shaun, if Bailey is fit I think he moves to the wing with Harper at centre.
Yep. I do think Harper can do the job. He doesn’t need to set the comp on fire but if the Dylan/Lane combo starts firing he’ll have opportunities.
The eels recruiting needs to look at the outside back depth and it should have been looked at a lot earlier than now.
AMS going down was unpredictable and he could have been good depth.
However he did his acl at the very start of preseason and we go in to the season with Morgan and Haze as our back up outside back depth.
Sivo is now a liability in defence with his reading and disconnection with his centre and his technique can’t be trusted anymore. It’s great to rush in but he has no feeling about how to hit the torso not the head of an attacking player.
I don’t believe Haze is nrl wing standard right now and Bailey has a dodgy hammy.
I’m sure the recruitment department made enquires about outside backs but it is worrying where we are at now.
We have been down this path in very recent seasons where we had to have Dylan in the centres. The definition of madness is making the same mistake again and again.
Matt Rodgers canned Eels unmercifully last week on “Eels in the news”. Last night on SEN he predicted them to do good things in the 2024 premiership. He even chose Carty as his 2024 player to watch given the way his defence has improved.
I would prefer that he did not talk about the Eels. When he said it, his co-commentators had a crack at him over backing down on what he said last week.
Agreed here John, it is all fish n chip paper for me; albiet a decent feed up on the coast.
Our forwards should be fine this year; issue will be halves depth and outside backs.
Sivo makes too many errors for me…..
I don’t think that we will get a lot out of Asi. Sanders needs to get some NRL experience in a hurry or it will be all Hands on deck.
Back to Rat, Carty’s defensive stats as in effective tackles has mostly been Ok. What Carty did against the Titans was chase the
Chase the collision!
I have watched Carty closely over past 12 months. His defence has gone from not NRL standard to elite level defence. The work he does in tidying up the attacking players particularly down short sides is first rate. He is now confident enough to start throwing in what eh has been reknown for – attacking plays with offloads and subtle changes.
Parra will go through the middle of the dogs not around them. I can see holes opening up in the middle and GUTHO, MOSES and BROWN being super effective running off offloads or second phase balls.
Quietly confident that we can get the job done against the Dogs.