Parramatta Eels 26
Canterbury Bulldogs 8
What a beautiful afternoon of football that was. 29,000 fans packed CommBank Stadium to watch another clinical Eels belting of the battling Bulldogs, kicking off season 2024 with a dominant victory. It was men against boys football out there, and while it might not be sporting to cheer on the dads as they steamroll their children, it sure is fun.
I love a game of afternoon footy, but I left the ground with a sore neck and a sunburnt left side of my face after all the first half action happened at the northern end. The membership pack should come with a tube of sunscreen on the lanyard next year.
The rest of the bad belongs to the Bulldogs, whose inept performance left many of my questions about the 2024 season unanswered. Has the Eels defence improved? Who knows, it was barely tested here. Is the middle dominant strategy still viable? Against an overmatched pack like this, it certainly is. Cameron Ciraldo has to put on a brave face in round one, but he sounded like he watched a different game to the one I did as he talked about winning the second half and being proud of his side. You got belted out there mate.
I’m not sure I’ve ever nailed a preview as closely as I got this one, with the Eels outgaining the Bulldogs by 500+ metres and noted “Big Marn” Kurt Mann being the only Canterbury forward to crack the 100 metre mark. If you add Max King, Poasa Faamausili and Sam Hughes together, you still don’t get the metre total that Junior Paulo managed off the bench. Total dominance.
I’m starting to feel bad about kicking him while he’s in the doghouse but Reed Mahoney continues to be a target of the merciless Eels forwards, to the tune of ten missed tackles this week. He’s been hard done by at the Bulldogs, built up as the future of the club then stripped of the captaincy when a newer, shinier star comes along, but if you believe a word Gus says you get exactly what you deserve for jumping on his sinking ship. Hope the gold banquet was worth it.
For the numbers inclined:
Possession: Eels 59%, Bulldogs 41%
Completions: Eels 41/46 (89%), Bulldogs 24/33 (72%)
Run metres: Eels 1,700, Bulldogs 1,190
Post contact metres: Eels 632, Bulldogs 385
Offloads: Eels 16, Bulldogs 3
Tackles made: Eels 265, Bulldogs 399
Ineffective tackles: Eels 4, Bulldogs 25
Errors: Eels 4, Bulldogs 13
Dance in the stands like you snuck in behind DJ K-Time, it’s a Carty Party for the first MVP of 2024! Bryce Cartwright was in the right place for two crucial tries, but it was his work between the 20s that had me dancing in the stands as his late offloads crushed the Bulldogs spirit while his stinging defence literally crushed their bones. You da MVP, Carty.
Clint Gutherson
1 – Fullback
The King once again put on a bomb defusal clinic, handling the Matt Burton air raid with ease which, if Vossy’s hysteria is to be believed, is the single greatest achievement in the history of Australian sport. Personally I still give that accolade to the Gutherino, but given a mature King seems to have left the dance moves back in the reckless days of his youth, I’ll settle for sure hands and rock solid defence.
Bailey Simonsson
2 – Left Wing
“Beautiful” Bailey Simonsson had a strong first up effort, busy with the ball and on the spot several times in the always pleasing “effort areas”. He nearly created a magic try with his high effort tap back, was on the spot to finish the match sealing score and was largely unchallenged in defence. Given that last part is my main worry for him on the wing, it was pleasing to get through one of his three flank appearances without trouble.
Will Penisini
3 – Right Centre
Sometimes your team only makes four errors and you make the worst of them and cop it all week long. Such is life for the man of unspeakable nicknames, who otherwise had a solid first up effort. This was a game played and won in the forwards, so chances were few and far between for most of the Eels backline, thus the Will Penisini breakout year will have to wait one week to truly kick off.
Morgan Harper
4 – Left Centre
A solid first effort in blue and gold for Harper, who tiptoed the dead ball line for an athletic first try and was on the spot to seal the deal with a late scoop and run. He was caught walking in the defensive line for the Bulldogs first try which is a bit of a concern, but otherwise it was a performance that made me wish I spent more time thinking up a cute nickname for him this off season. Morgan “Mayhem” Harper? I’ll keep working on it.
Sean Russell
5 – Right Wing
Sean “Muscle” Russell had the unfortunate distinction of his highlight moment this weekend coming against a man who was, it turns out, seriously injured. Still, it was a huge effort to Russell-Muscle Josh Addo-Carr over the sideline from what felt like midfield. Other than that Russell got through his work and didn’t make mistakes, but he didn’t get a heap of opportunity in this one. When Mitchell Moses isn’t playing on one leg I think his side will get a lot more chances.
Dylan Brown
6 – Five Eighth
With Moses told not to kick the ball, Dylan Brown was tasked with second half general play kicking duties. Luckily most of that was attacking kicks rather than clearing, such was the dominance of the Parramatta forwards. It was a textbook statistical game for Dylan otherwise, lot of tackles, lot of running, but there are a couple of gears left for the Eels attack and Dylbags mostly used this week to warm up the engine for tougher treks to come.
Mitchell Moses
7 – Halfback
Brad Arthur might have been talking the injury down, but no matter how minor the coach might think it is, I get concerned watching our best player limping around the park in round one. We’ll know soon enough, but for today Moses was solid in a conductor role, directing his big men here, there and everywhere as they tore apart the Bulldogs middle.
RCG
8 – Front Row
Reagan Campbell-Gillard targeted Reed Mahoney like he caught the former Bulldogs captain lighting a bag of dog poo on his front porch, picking him out in the line and trampling the undersized rake over and over. I’m here for it, and while there’ll be tougher battles for big Reg to come, he started the year in style.
Joey Lussick
9 – Hooker
Joey Lussick’s 40/20 had me checking to see if they marked up the CommBank Stadium field to Las Vegas dimensions, such was the distance it covered. What a boot. It capped a strong day for the hooker, who defended well and distributed cleanly. I’m not in the Brad Arthur inner sanctum, but I can bet that is exactly what was asked of him here.
Joe Ofahengaue
16 – Prop
Joe O’s most telling contribution in this one was what he did for Junior Paulo, taking the early exchanges so the big man could run wild against a tired Bulldogs middle. The two penalties isn’t great, but the healthy 2024 edition of Joe Ofahengaue is off to a good start.
Shaun Lane
11 – Second Row
The Tall Glass of Water was a bit lukewarm in his 2024 debut, still feeling his way back into the game after an interrupted 2023. He wasn’t bad at all, but on a day where Matto and Carty went ham running on the edges, Lane didn’t have that same sparkle. It’ll come, I have faith.
Bryce Cartwright
12 – Second Row
It’s early in the year for the A+ stamp, but the Carty Party certainly deserves it for a cracking start to 2024. He hit mercilessly in defence, was in the right spot at the right time for two crucial tries, made tough yards and his six offloads eclipsed the total of the entire Bulldogs team. No surprise that he doesn’t have a case to answer for his “shoulder charge” on Josh Addo-Carr; but it was nice surprise to see the judiciary not being results oriented for once.
J’maine Hopgood
13 – Interchange
J’maine man had a busy 2024 debut, making good yards and tackling anything that moves, while offloading and distributing well. Unfortunately he too made one of the only visible mistakes by a player in blue and gold in the game, and thus he will suffer excessive scrutiny. I’m not sure the minutes breakdown in the pack will continue like this, but 50 minutes felt like the sweet spot for impact from Hopgood.
Brendan Hands
14 – Interchange
Not much time and not much to do for Brendan Hands. We’re used to his time on the field coinciding with a change of fortune for the Eels based on last year, but this time around he joined the fray just as the Bulldogs mounted what you’d generously call a minor fightback. Lussick was going so strong it was hard to give him a rest, but I don’t think the Handyman is long for the bench when Wiremu is back from injury.
Ryan Matterson
15 – Interchange
The Adonis of O’Connell Street gave Bryce Cartwright a taste of what it is like to receive an offload from Bryce Cartwright, with an absolute miracle ball for Carty’s second try. It was a high confidence play that was earned through middle dominance, and while there will be tougher going for Matto in the future, he was super busy in his 32 minutes, showing both his attacking strength and some steel doing the hard work.
Junior Paulo
10 – Interchange
The biggest human to be named Junior since Arnold Schwarzenegger had a colossal impact on this contest, coming off the bench fired up and ready to bulldoze, batter and bash Bulldogs all afternoon long. Paulo led the Eels forwards in run metres and post-contact, got away offloads and most importantly, looked like the biggest dog in the yard after a year where he rarely stood tall above the field. Opposing sides are in for a long year if this is what a fit and firing Junior is going to do all season.
Kelma Tuilagi
17 – Interchange
Tuilagi got a long stint for a Brad Arthur bench forward, but he didn’t have the shine of some of his teammates. He put on some shots and ran hard, and certainly didn’t do much wrong, but for the impact forward against a tired and passive opposition it felt like he could have done more.
Some quick hits that the individual grades couldn’t quite cover:
- I’m not going to blame anybody on that second Bulldogs try, sometimes Viliame Kikau is just going to do that to you.
- Whoever decided to bring the pyro flamethrowers out for an afternoon game in March, give yourself an uppercut. It was so hot that I had to be peeled from my seat at halftime.
- Was it just me, or is the blue in the 2024 jersey even more blue than usual?
That was a fun win, but ultimately I don’t think it tells us much about the Eels in 2024. The defence was barely tested, the completion rates were exceptional and the middles thus dominated proceedings. It won’t always be that easy. I dare say that escalation starts next week with the three-time defending premiers.
The Eels are the only team in the competition that can call a match with the Panthers a legitimate 50/50 proposition, even away from home. Like most battles of the west, it should be a cracking contest, and a 2-0 start is well within reach. The attack will need to pick up, and the forwards will be taking a big jump from beating on the worst pack in the competition to matching it with the best. I can’t wait.
Until next time, stay slippery Eels fans.
Gol
Stats and images provided by NRL / Eels media
Great to start the year with a win, and a solid first round performance for the Post Game Grade. And the quick hits section – a good addition to the article!!
Happy with the win but I’m not getting carried away as there are still some areas of concern IMO
1. We had several scrums inside the Bulldogs 20m zone but couldn’t capitalise. We need some attacking moves and variation in these circumstances
2. We were very flat in attack. We need to stand a little deeper so the dummy half can bring the forwards on to the ball with a bit of momentum.
3. Our left side defence out wide was found wanting
In the first try scored by the Bulldogs. Morgan was standing still and Simmonson was back pedalling. Need to slide across and outside backs need to stay on their man
Loved the way you snuck in the “Hope the gold banquet was worth it.”
It was a win in rd 1 I’ll take that but it wasn’t a great performance yes Mitch was hampered but our attack inside the 20 was very predictable and didn’t offer much threat.
Hopefully it’s a building block for good things I think Junior off the bench is what suites him and us best Hopefully Wiremu comes back and builds off last years finish.
Fingers crossed Mitch comes good otherwise we are backing a Dyl and Asi combo
That combo beat the Panthers last year.
It did.
Again Asi is a stop gap that you hope you don’t need to call on to often
Great read Gol,
Agree with your grades.
I thought Lussick really showed maturity in his role.
Russell is carries strongly out of our end. Sivo needs to copy that vigour.
Carty is a beast.
Junior is best off bench. Joe’s best game for us.
Not getting carried away. But 2 points is 2 points.
This was awesome! summed up the emotion surrounding the game perfectly. Hope we push hard through the tests of Penrith and Manly the next two weeks.
Still very concerned about our goal line defence.
Defending errors has been a problem for a while.
As it is for 16 others !
First try is a concern. 2nd try was kikau throwing a freaky offload, I thought we defended it quite well. Sometimes you can’t plan for offloads like that. It’s a shame we had 2 concentration errors from Will and Hoppy.
Probably can’t really read too much into that game – it was pretty much a training run. I don’t think our defence was ever really tested. Still a good hit out and we comfortably came away with the 2 points, as you would expect.
I also wonder if we had one eye on the Penrith game? That game will be very different, and our defence will likely be tested all game, and I hope it’s up to the task.
Training run??? Your kidding , dogs dug deep till hooter , kept us honest all game .
I agree , I thought the dogs gave us a fight as well. Let’s see how we go when the Panthers pack get stuck into our mob.
Thanks for a great season opening review. Whilst they looked solid it is difficult to measure how they are going when they were playing a bunch of pound bound puppies crying to be taken home and get a few “attaboys”.
Taking on a last round loosing Panfers at home is a tough assignment and will provide a more accurate apprasial of what our season may look like in 2024 but for now I’m happy to sit back and savour the taste of a well cooked sausage dog outfit.
I’m agreeing with Portaloo here, the dogs turned up and we brutalised them!
Most people are putting this down as a training run but I would suggest we put down a good dog’s side who were fundamentally worked over.
We scored 4 tries and we are critical of our attack in the Red Zone, sorry but teams are allowed to defend well in there and we did well scoring 4 times.
Both their tries came directly from dropped balls where concentration was the enemy on both occasions.
I accept Brett Allen’s comment, we still need to understand if our wide defence is any better but we should note how our Reserve grade defended (absolutely disgusting) and take note that those same blokes did the same pre season as the FG team and should have been heavily focused on defence as a result……kick up the arse for the coaching staff and Nathan Cayless.
Still concerned with our defence. Dogs had no ball in our red zone and when there spun it wide twice and scored both times. Not promising.
Regarding reserve grade game we made 3 errors late in that match and Dogs scored each time. Very poor defence from the boys there.
Bryce Cartwright was outstanding. His best game in Blue and Gold
It was a good solid win. I also agree that the Kikau try is not a concern. Maybe some credit to the Eels for keeping him out of the game until it was way too late to matter.
A bit rusty in attack which was not helped by Mitch’s injury but that will come. Otherwise some good performances by the lesser regarded players that if repeated will serve the team well. Two points banked. Now bring on the Panthers!
History would show that putting these metrics together would probably win 99% of the time. So we did what we had to do, start the season winning. Last year was a real frustration. The Dogs didn’t lay down but possession told. Great review Gol. I just wish the Dogs’ first try wasn’t so simple, there was nothing in it, run, catch and pass.
I still love Reed but I did have a laugh every time RCG and Junior ran directly at him. I can only imagine some of the ‘ banter’ said on the gield. Reed was no match and unlike when he played at Parra and had RCG and Junior as body guards, there was no one next to him to help. I think it is dog eat dog at Canterbury.
I have a feeling Reed might be told that he looks very tired part way through the year by a certain general manager. Certain players suit coaches and Reed suited BA’s style and complimented Moses. He was given some poor advice (playing wise) by his manager.