The preseason is in the books and in the immortal words of Rob Schneider “Oh no we suck again!”. All of the completely reasonable dreams of a flawless first season for Jason Ryles were horribly dashed on the weekend when the Eels stumbled against the Wests Tigers at Leichardt Oval. Thankfully, the majority of the fanbase responded reasonably – although there were some dubious but entertaining opinions shared across the press and punters alike.

Elsewhere, the SG Ball busted out the defibrillators again as they conjured a second straight ridiculous win while the weekend was rounded out by trial games for the NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg. This edition of the Weekend Wrap is the reading equivalent of a breakfast burrito to start your week. So chow down on the low down from all of the Blue & Gold action as we hurtle toward the start of the season.

NRL

Wests Tigers 30 defeat the Parramatta Eels 18

The Eels went down to the Tigers by 12-points on Friday night in a scrappy conclusion to their first preseason under Jason Ryles. The loss left Parramatta’s new coach with plenty of material to work with in the video review after a number of costly individual lapses in defence and plenty of dropped ball across the board. The Tigers, for their part, were pretty dialled in and also enjoyed a torrent of possession on the back of the closest thing to an all-you-can-eat buffet of set restarts you will ever see in the NRL.

Naturally, this is the point where you take a step back and remind yourself that it was only a trial and the important thing is that the Eels got through unscathed. While I do ascribe to this core tenant of the preseason I do believe that some players definitely hurt their stocks to varying degrees. Wiremu Greig, Matt Doorey, Kelma Tuilagi and Ryan Matterson all had poor moments in defence that could feasibly influence Round 1 selections.

The Iceman Cometh – Iongi starred against the Tigers (credit to @parraeels)

Cutting through the mire of errors and missed tackles was Isaiah Iongi as the 21-year-old fullback dazzled in the absence of Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown. A spectacular blend of speed and contact-balance saw him to post first points in the game before he chimed in beautifully later on to put Sean Russell over down the left edge. Jack Williams, Will Penisini, J’maine Hopgood and Luca Moretti also impressed in their first and final preseason showings

In a way it feels like the Parramatta Eels got their trials mixed up. If the Newcastle victory had come after the loss to Wests then there would be a swelling buzz around the team. After all, just look at the press surrounding teams that bounced back from first-up losses in the preseason. The Knights, Titans and Cowboys were all hammered last week and now have glowing appraisals after wins this week. Heck, the media coverage of the Tigers has been glowing in the wake of this trial.

At the very least though there should be no complacency for the Eels heading into a monster Round 1 showdown against the Melbourne Storm. The tape from this weekend has given the coaching staff some clear areas where they can tighten the team up ahead of their bid to break that famous streak.

NSW Cup

Wests Magpies 20 defeat the Parramatta Eels 18

There were a pair of close finishes at Lidcombe Oval as the Eels are Tigers (or Magpies in this case) traded wins in the NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg Trials. Parramatta fielded a small core of front-line Cup players with the extended depth given opportunities to make an impression. Beau Newlands did exactly that with a cracking try assist to Josh Lynn before bagging one for himself later.

The Magpies eventually prevailed by 2-points but the result is hardly an indicator of future performance in reserve grade for either team. We now have a bit of a wait to see the NSW Cup in action on account of their Round 1 bye but ironically these two teams will meet again in Round 2 at Ringrose Park with vastly higher stakes at play.

Jersey Flegg Cup

Parramatta Eels 34 defeats the Wests Tigers 32

It was chaos following this trial as myself, Sixties and good mate Hamish were feverishly triangulating which players we could identify throughout the contest. In the end we pieced together a reasonable portion of the team in a solid group effort. As for the game itself, the Eels stormed out of the gates to assume a commanding 22-4 lead before desperately fending off the Tigers to cling on to a 2-point victory.

New recruit Jack Hudson looked very sharp at dummy-half and was very ably supported by his two starting bookends who we tentatively have pencilled in as Javahn Stevenson-Hala and Teancum Brown. The win was soured by an injury to Araz Nanva who departed the game with what looked to be an ankle injury. The Eels now prepare to take on the Silk Tails in Round 1 in a Sydney-based away game.

SG Ball

Parramatta Eels 26 defeat the South Sydney Rabbitohs 16

The cardiac kids struck again in Round 4 as the Parramatta Eels stole their second straight stunning victory in the SG Ball. Facing the undefeated Rabbitohs, Parramatta lurched out of the blocks and put together easily their worst half of the season thus far. The Bunnies were the repeated beneficiaries of poor discipline and errors from the Eels and capitalised heavily in a 6-minute window that saw them score essentially back-to-back-to-back tries.

It looked like a full-scale rout was in play after South Sydney scored their 16^th point in the 14^th minute but a timely try to Lorima Rokasuka in the 24^th minute stymied the bleeding and enabled the Eels to get to half time without further damage to the score board.

Coach Mitchell Lewis must have delivered a humdinger of a half-time speech because his charges roared to life in the second stanza. Dominic Farrugia ignited the comeback in the 45^th minute on a beautifully mirrored execution of Rokasuka’s earlier try before Lorenzo Talataina and Nathan Howlett surged down the left edge and grubbered ahead for big Elijah-Shane Taupau to score.

Rokasuka further redeemed some tough first half errors when he finally put the Eels in front with his second try of the day before Beau Lucien put the win beyond doubt after burrowing over from an offload by his captain Jezaiah Funa-Iuta. Speaking of Funa-Iuta, the backrower was a colossus throughout the torrid contest. He persevered tirelessly through the withering flurry of possession enjoyed by Souths early on and emerged a man unleashed in the second half to spearhead the Eels to a huge win.

There were far too many errors for anyone’s liking but again Parramatta showed some steely resolve. While I lavished praise on Funa-Iuta, Lachlan Coinakis and Lorenzo Talataina both played key parts in picking apart the Rabbitohs. After 4 rounds the Eels sit undefeated (3 wins, 1 draw) on the season and are yet to play anything close to their best footy. That is very exciting in terms of the ceiling of this team but also a stark reminder that they need to iterate and improve moving forwards.

If you liked this article, you might consider supporting The Cumberland Throw.