It’s Member Appreciation Day for Parramatta fans today, and while the most appreciative thing the Eels could do for me in season 2024 is put me out of my misery, I’d settle for a second best of an upset win in an ultimately meaningless game, I suppose. Seeing how appreciated I have felt watching Parramatta play this year, I half expect the free Bobblehead given out to early arrivers to be of Blaize Talagi.
It’s fitting that this final home contest of the year ultimately has no impact on the looming wooden spoon playoff next weekend, in the graveyard shift of rugby league at 6PM Friday night at the graveyard of good football: Campbelltown. The game has set itself up perfectly for this, we just need to avoid some kind of 50+ capitulation to the Dragons.
Despite being delivered another on field heartbreaker last weekend, things are looking up in Blue and Gold town. Jason Ryles is making shrewd moves, signings and re-signings are coming through and his new coaching staff look a promising bunch. The weather has even warmed up to give fans in the Thornett Stand one last blinding as they watch our only CommBank double header home game with the NRLW side.
Come one, come all, and feel appreciated. Every round is Member Appreciation Round at TCT, so let’s get stuck in to the preview.
Game Info
Date: Saturday August 31, 2024
Venue: CommBank Stadium, Parramatta
Kick-off: 3:00PM AEST
Referee: Wyatt Raymond
Bunker: Matt Noyen
Weather: Warm, dry
Broadcast: Fox League, Kayo
Sixties Speculates (Odds quoted are NSW TAB)
There is pure folly in punting on Eels games in 2024. If you’re backing against them, it’s obviously a lock in, but as a supporter tipping their matches, I’ve been looking for markets that have value, and where possible, ones where I don’t have to back their opponent.
I honestly believe that the Eels can beat the Dragons, a wildly inconsistent team, in a match that means plenty to them. It’s not that the Eels won’t be desperate for a win in front of their home fans for the last time in 2024. Rather, it’s a matter of the Dragons being under greater pressure to get the result.
There is value in the head to head win market for Parra at $2.30, but we all know how many wins our Eels have had this season.
Instead I’ll again look at the defensive frailties of both sides, and punt on plenty of points being scored on a fast afternoon track in warm conditions. I’m taking total match points of 61.5 or over at $3.20.
Happy, responsible punting.
Sixties
Teams
Parramatta Eels
1. Clint Gutherson 2. Maika Sivo 3. Will Penisini 4. Blaize Talagi 18. Jake Tago 6. Dylan Brown 7. Daejarn Asi 8. Reagan Campbell-Gillard 9. Brendan Hands 10. Shaun Lane 11. Kelma Tuilagi 12. Bryce Cartwright 13. Joe Ofahengaue. 14. Joey Lussick 15. Makahesi Makatoa 16. Luca Moretti 17. Dan Keir. 21. Morgan Harper 22. Ofahiki Ogden.
St George-Illawarra Dragons
1. Tyrell Sloan 2. Zac Lomax 3. Mat Feagai 4. Max Feagai 19. Mikaele Ravalawa 6. Jack Bird 7. Ben Hunt 8. Francis Molo 9. Jacob Liddle 10. Jack de Belin 11. Luciano Leilua 12. Jaydn Su’a 13. Tom Eisenhuth. 14. Toby Couchman 15. Ryan Couchman 17. Raymond Faitala-Mariner 18. Lyhkan King-Togia. 16. Blake Lawrie 21. Connor Muhleisen.
It was no changes to the side that tripped over themselves in Brisbane, until late mail reveal Sean Russell is out and replaced by Jake Tago. He might be matched up against Mikaele Ravalawa, also a late in for the Dragons, so that should be something to watch, like a steamroller slowly crushing a child’s bike left carelessly in the middle of the road.
Aside from the Ravalawa recall, Jack Bird lines up in the halves and the Shane Flanagan version of the Junior swap will likely occur with Jack de Belin moving to the bench, though the man that usually comes in for him in Blake Lawrie has been moved to the reserves in favour of Lyhkan King-Togia, a name that makes me wish Rabs was still commentating.
Appreciation
Every round is Clint Gutherson appreciation round
On a warm, dry Saturday afternoon, fans that appreciate points are going to be well served in this battle. While the Dragons sit in the top eight, they are the worst defensive side of that group and worse than three of the four teams trying to hunt them down for that finals spot. Their right edge has been particularly frail, and every bearded 30-something with a punting podcast will have a dozen multi’s full of outside backs this week, all waiting to be ruined by Maika Sivo or Zac Lomax somehow not finding the stripe.
You are already well familiar with the Eels defensive issues. Blaize Talagi is comfortably the worst defensive player in the NRL, second in the NRL for tries conceded according to Fox Sports, and rapidly chasing down the top place holder, Scott Drinkwater. His rushing out of the line last week was only outdone on the embarrassing moments scale by basically throwing a try to the Broncos side later on. Penrith have some work to do there.
Jake Tago is actually letting in tries at a faster clip than Talagi, he just hasn’t played enough games to challenge him on the overall list. Shaun Lane will move to the middle for this one where he’ll be harder to exploit, but he’s among the NRL’s worst forwards for tries conceded too. Jason Ryles coming through and running these guys ragged in the pre-season can’t come soon enough.
What the Dragons do have is something to play for. While it would be fitting for a fortress of mediocrity like the modern St George-Illawarra side to throw away the box seat in the finals race by dropping a game to a side playing off for the wooden spoon next week, you would hope Shane Flanagan has instilled enough bottle in this side to get the job done against an outfit as feeble as the 2024 Eels. At the start of the month they upset the minor premier Melbourne Storm, then folded like stadium chairs against two fellow contenders in the Sharks and Bulldogs, beating on the hapless Titans in between. Being bad against good teams and good against bad teams doesn’t shape up as a good formline for a bad team like the Eels.
I find it hard to categorise the style of the Dragons other than using fluffy words like “plucky”. They’ve got one of the worst attacks in the comp and an average defence, but they’ve managed to get the job done enough times and pluck out an upset every now and then to get ahead of disappointments like Brisbane and flawed sides like the Dolphins, Knights and Raiders. Their edges run hard and create carnage, Su’a and noted Eel-killer Luciano Leilua will be licking their lips for this one, and Ben Hunt and Jacob Liddle direct the side around and control the game. Add in the occasional freak brilliance from Tyrell Sloan and Zac Lomax, and that covers every attacking option the Dragons have.
That will probably be enough for them. Heck, thirteen warm bodies and a gameplan to throw more than one pass wide of the ruck would beat the Eels defence these days. They’ll try hard, they always do, but on a warm day without anything to play for, fatigue is going to set in early on and it will be a matter of how, not when, they break.
This is one to endure, and while the upset chance is definitely on the cards (way too many Eels fans I know are feeling confident about this one), the real decider is next weekend on the Campbelltown cow paddock against the soon-to-be Balmain again Tigers.
Go you Eels!
Prediction: St George-Illawarra 36 d Parramatta 22
Man of the Match: Jaydn Su’a
Gol
My hopes for the eels have gone from making the semis at the start of the year to now hoping we can limit the opposition to less than 40.
Go Parra keep them under 40 for a “moral victory”.
Sean lane, blaize, and tago’s defensive stats you mention are worrying. It’s frustrating that at the eels (unlike other clubs), jnrs especially have almost no defence. I know we have new coaching staff coming in for next season’s prep, but it can’t come soon enough. I’m really hoping Jason and his assistants can help especially our younger players develop the sufficient skills to play first grade and defend better. Is 1 pre season enough to completely turn us around? Maybe not… but it’s a step forward. I personally imagine we will be better next year, but after year 2 or 3 is when we will see a true turn of fortunes is my prediction. Ryles & co will only be able to recruit limited men for 25’. I wasn’t a fan of the lack of respect BA was given / how it was handled. But if the clubs turning a corner now recruiting wise to finally focus on backs, then I’ll at least take that as a positive. Our defence and depth is so poor that even back up backs at most other clubs are better than many of our permanent starting backs. Hopefully this heart breaking season at least doesn’t go to waste… hopefully lots of good lessons come from this and helps our club move forward in a more Dynamic way, where they don’t let things get so bad again before they take serious actions to avoid bad situations (like possibly a wooden spoon). My prediction is we will win this game today possibly. Because there’s no pressure on them. And next week we will have our hands full against those soon to be Balmain tigers. With any luck the recent tigers noise effects them for the battle of the spoon avoidance play off.
I don’t believe this is a meaningless game. Saints are riding on it to make the semis and Parra are desperate to gain equal footing with the west Tigers. Parra is currently last. If that is not motivation then I don’t know what is. Who wants to run last?
Parra over the past month has played good football in patches and it is only their stupid mistakes that let them down. Handing the ball to the opposition and a free run to the line is always a game breaker and not for the opposition.
Don’t write them off today – an upset is on the cards. I haven’t made a comment since the Penrith game when I tipped them to win. That they lost I still can’t believe.
The only way they lose today is the referee and they are worst than Parra’s form. They are bunch of men who have lost the plot and have become totally disfunctional. And Parra this year has suffered badly from the bunker and the referees. If they don’t improve I will give the game away. Let’s hope Blaize has a better day with defence.
Finally a day game!!
Utterly disgraceful once again
Jake Tago with the absolute worst performance in 10 minutes a winger in history.
As for the team.. they are an embarrassment.
Poorly coached and unfit.
It’s unbelievable. I don’t think I can remember an eels team being either so unfit or poorly coached where they empty the juice in the first 30-50. But thank god we won mate. We collapse every game late, we just just lucky dragons were so poor today.
Sorry … Just so bloody livid.
They were great for 70 minutes and then – stopped.
It just has to be fitness, just has to be.
No side conceeds 5 tries in 10 minutes like us.
The coaching staff need to hang their heads in shame from BA down to that fraud Trent Elkin.
Absolutely woeful and I can’t remember ever being embarrassed to support the team after a win !
If they universe has any sense in it , then the Tigers deserve to win on Friday night and we deserve what we deserve.
Has to be the most bizarre game I reckon nearly in the history of the game
I recall a game against the Tigers at the old Parramatta Stadium against the Tigers, they were up 31-0 with 12 to go, they ended up winning 31-30. Similar ending, only we were the ones who scored 5 tries in 10 minutes. A Benji FG just before half time ended up being the difference
I remember that mate
And yet, Trent Elkin is off to be the Roosters S&C Manager.
Is that right ??? Shocked but it probably means that there was a disconnect between the head coach and the S & C department. The HC would have to sign off on what the SC have in mind.
No one can argue that we are just not fit enough.
I’ve never seen a team completely capitulate so completely and so often.
We don’t take our foot off the gas.. we completely stop playing.
Brett it had to be something preparation & fitness related how they prepared in off season and body weight conditioning for some players. It’s not a coincidence we look like we are running on a 2% battery 🪫 towards the end of every game every single week. There’s more to this than just hunger. We haven’t prepared them for this current style of play with repeated 6 agains and minimal rest. That’s what it looks like anyway. Plus a ageing pack no doubt adds to it. It can’t be only solely mental or hunger based imo.
Not sure where you got that mail from Brett. He’s off to Souths along with Steve Antonelli. Murf has a gig with Manly.
I stand corrected, yes it is the Bunnies. My point being is that I doubt Trent Elkin has been our problem.
Brett, it was my point too in the podcast. We can’t deal with teams playing unstructured footy. Teams don’t throw caution to the wind till they need to, and when they do against us, it comes up trumps.
Agreed, but we seem to struggle with it more than most. It has to be mental.
Yeah I think everyone felt some embarrassment after that win which is very strange to even consider if you didn’t see the game.they did play well (or well enough) for most of the game.
It’s been the same thing all year though even at near full strength. Some People claim it’s just because of injuries, that obviously has a huge impact. But the team from a body weight composition & cardio conditioning stand point is severely off. If you take a look at the panthers or bulldogs they are just very fit teams who can turn up set after in defence right until the last minute.
We look like a heavy weight boxer equivalent of a NRL side that’s stuck in a 12 rounder but only sparred doing 3 rds for preparation.
I still think this is a positive thought as mad as it might seem. We have legitimate talent & potential in this side, we HAVE the points,
If we can increase our fitness significantly and really work on our defensive game all the sudden the Eels are a team who can win more than we lose again.
We can score points and hold leads against any team on most weeks consistently. This is extremely uncommon for a bottom of the NRL ladder team… this is why I strongly believe the team is still good..
But it’s been heavily mismanaged.. both fitness conditioning and body composition wise. Not to mention our teams clearly not been trained properly defensively.
Even with the NRLW team today you could see we had limited speed and athleticism out the back compared to the dragoons.
Our girls also look to have a bit of a power type team and playing style. You can see as they get exhausted the other side just flogs them with speed and athleticism making line breaks and scoring from more opportunities.
This power style and playing roster DNA is obviously not just in our first grade men’s side but in other grades more than I realised. I’m of the belief the clubs method of playing is out dated and it’s not as effective as having X factor & speed as a priority. Proof is we don’t win comps in the grades that really matter. Even if you look at our Boyd under 19’s origin players who made it. It was largely forwards. We rarely ever in any grades have high level back 5 players who are making rep teams.
This isn’t a coincidence. It’s the playing style and DNA we have currently at the eels. But when we dominated in the 80’s, or made the 09’ GF, that wasn’t our DNA. We had a balance amazingly skilled backs & halves, and strong forwards. Now we always have two level forwards, good halves, and almost NEVER have the best backs in the comp in any of our SNR teams, I understand some are good backs.. but our clubs not Winning comps at Snr level. They need to re-think their position… maybe this will change now with ba moving on? Who knows.
I’m not convinced it’s just down to fitness, none of our guys look out of shape. I think it’s more mental than physical. I honestly don’t believe our guys have the necessary drive. There’s more than enough talent, we’ve seen over the last 6-8 weeks, some of our footy is as good as any team in the league, but some of it, usually when we’re called on to defend is barely RM Cup level. We simply have not got to the point where we are comfortable with discomfort.
Yeah right on, Dragons can hold their head up hig……oh wait they leaked 44 points to a team coming 16th winning 5 games all year while they had a top 8 spot on the line?
Tigers deserve it do they? Considering they played 50mins against a 13 man Manly and they still nearly got done too. Scoring 3 tries in a period where Manly had 12 men for 20mins straight.
Not sure if some people are deep down hoping we get the spoon as some form of way to stick it to the club when in fact you should not wish that regardless. Or is it some people just want something to complain about?
We signed Tago for 2 years. Why?
Good question
Let’s He played a few decent games while playing for a contract. 😅 In typical parra style. To be fair, the kid like almost all our backs are horrible defensively. He might become a decent depth player for cheap of Jason & co can properly implement effective defensive systems into their game. It can’t be a coincidence all our backs are not good defenders. We will see next year anyway if these new coaches can help us defend. If they can’t then imo we will miss the 8, this is the worst 2nd half defensive parra side I can ever remember?! We have had shotty edge defence for years.. this is why I think it’s not these young players like Tago or Blaize fault. It’s evidently systemic. Remember Waqa & fergo had same issues. We leaked tries too easily.
What I do like about Tago is that he seems to be a quick learner. The way he finished that try was a far cry from his first couple of games. He’s worth keeping as a backup.
It needs to be remembered that he was playing RM Cup at the start of the season.
He is still behind where his younger brother is at presently. For what ever reason he is a late bloomer.
Notwithstanding he might get there with good coaching. I would imagine he is a low cost option. He is a capable backup at this point.
John, that’s good options for the young fellow, playing at various grades and positions is a learning experience for the players.
I oft wonder whether having a junior player with the team especially when they can be diverted to more training levels and be well guided by the main coach who is experienced with the various levels of players and their abilities in rising with the levels. Give them good training along with fitting the abilities with the heads of football along with the senior players who can & shood be good trainers that provide tests along with good help and directions, from the senior levels.