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The King is coming home in Round 5 but Sixties has some strong thoughts about the sort of welcome he should find at CommBank Stadium on Saturday. It is that kind of preview podcast this week as the boys fire up for a game that likely defines the remainder of the season for Jason Ryles and the Parramatta Eels.
The Tip Sheet first takes a look at the Jersey Flegg and NSW Cup as the Under 21s look to christen Kellyville Park with a win while reserve grade are hunting a bounce back victory at CommBank.
Can the Eels beat the Dragons? What happens if the do? What becomes of the season if they don’t? Sixties and Forty20 explore the branching paths from Saturday’s clash as Dylan Walker makes his club debut and Luca Moretti makes his return from injury to maybe swing the tide towards the Blue & Gold.
Great show boys, thanks.
I’m hoping our team shows aggression and intent for a desperately needed win.
My main concern is having a Badger in a bunker.
I think aggression and some good signs are there. Just not in attack. We need some confidence via early points I think to slow down the possible nerves and pressure increasing the drop balls etc. I feel like if we got a try or two early on we whole team will play differently. Any luck dragons slack off after a big win vs Storm last week..
I seriously believe we can do this Muz
Yeah 60’s as you mentioned on the podcast it kind of feels like you feel like we can beat them. Rather than digging trying to think of ways that we can. Dragons players can make stupid errors and play erratically. We need them to do some more of that.
Don’t go down that path Joseph. I’m trying to forget about it.
Good assessments.
Smith starting will be positive
It’s up to the back row to perform.
I think this is our best chance to date.
Discipline has to be better than last week, we don’t get leniency like Melbourne.
As always, if the backs don’t let in soft tries, we can build pressure and have a crack at scoring tries.
Thanks 57. It is a game to be won.
I’ll be @ the match
The last time I attended a match and the Eels lost probably was around 10 years back and I’ve been around a dozen or more games.
That’s an omen
I’ll be there too Chief but my record is less positive
Just listening in now fellas. Thank you for the Jun Reps too.
I think this is our game – just need the pack to play well and play with some gusto for 80 mins.
Good to see D Walker play and hope he can lead them – he should not have to but we need something here.
I am also envisaging a Iongi try in the first half and this will include him out pacing Gutho to score….it will happen.
Limit errors / play uptempo and keep the defence strong.
Well said Reserve grade should no longer be the football version of a stocking filler! It needs to be parr of the production line. It needs to be built up and dovetailed into the first grade side as succession planning. Remember a few years ago when we outsourced Reserve grade to Wenty and the glee when it came back into the fold. We had a captain coach?? Cup wasn’t a priority or so it seemed. That’s changing.
Gutho will be dialled in and has been in his best form for years (no bandages! No Hobbling!). Why? Lol
One error from Ryles is he didn’t realise the dearth of on field talk? Junior, Brown and Lane are our most experienced but also our quietest. They can talk on the training park but just not on game day. Players like Williams, Ryley Smith are the talkers. Ryley doesn’t come on for 30 minutes or later. Dylan Walker will also help. I can see Ryles has asked more of Junior and Joe must provide it.
We’ve had a repeated reticence to be involved and players keeping their jumper clean. I won’t say anymore..
This is a game we should be winning and we’ve let too many slip.
Pete gutho is playing well. It looks like they share his load better over there than we he did with Brad & Baz it looks like.
Walker talks and steers the team well around the ruck but also knows when to run the ball, and is a half as well. So he understands how to defend attack well. His first game in our systems so it might not be perfect first game.
Pete I think without Moses our team is severely missing a game playing lock who can play a link role where they can set up some plays and better steer the forwards around but also help create better space for the halves.
Hopgood is more your work horse big tackle number lock while Walker is a former centre of the year, and a former 5/8. You could see at warriors they looked immediately better when Walker came on in attack.
My bet is we start to score some more now another experienced ball player is in the side. My only concern is Walker won’t be able to work his game as freely yet as he will likely just be doing what Jason asks of him, and also limited time playing / no long term combinations.
I just hope we use Walker for more than a hooker off the bench. Hopgood needs a breather and we need to inject Walker in to help in our weakest area which is ball playing around the ruck, and we also desperately need some added creativity. I think it’s a disservice if we were to only use Walker as a second hooker this game.
Yeah Muz,
We lack attack. Volk was there to ease pressure off Brown. Then Hawkins was put there to ease pressure on Brown. He was to run and play his natural game they both did most of the kicking and organising.
We keep hoping Brown will feel like
having an 80min dig. If he can’t get up against Gutho it’s pretty embarrassing.
Iongi, Hawkins and Smith have had a handful of games in NRL and have shown more fight than our experienced guys. It’s chalk and cheese.
The ship is turning but it takes a while. We live in hope.
Yeah good points, it’s strange rookies and guys with under 10 nrl games have shown more fight than brown who’s now the.. what? Highest paid player in history in terms of contract size. It’s a bit strange. Hopefully he can find the spark or a bit of form, I still hold hope it’s possible.
When’s the last time we won a game without gutho?
Was it 2017?? From memory.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the day we broke that drought / curse was playing against Gutho himself 😂
They say fate loves irony. Maybe this (winning a game without gutho) takes the monkey off the back.
There’s probably not one long term parramatta eel player who’s won a game at parra without Clint gutherson. If I’m wrong here please correct me.. I am having trouble finding the exact date we last won a game without king gutho.
Letting Gutho leave in the situation he did is close to the dumbest decision I’ve seen at the club. Your long term captain, a 100 percent effort player every time he took the field. It’s like telling Pricey your free to move on. Then look at the effort some of the players picked this weekend have been giving us. It’s dead set laughable.
It’s like the DCE or Hunt or Reynolds situations. What do you do when an aging player is on big coin and wants 3 yr deal.
Gutho wanted 3yrs around $1Million with ratchet clauses. We already didn’t have a back up Fullback. The club wanted him this year but he didn’t agree with the clubs plans. Fair call. So it was mutual as far as I heard. But we couldn’t go into a bidding war with Dragons and Ayoub as the intermediary. At the end of the day Gutho got what he wanted and he didn’t care if it was Parra or not. He didn’t ever care about what damage his negotiations did to the clubbor the timing. It was always for maximum leverage.
I agree, we do miss his captaincy especially without Moses. But, I think if Moses plays we are in most of those games.
I think we can all agree Junior, Joe, Lane and Brown have shrunk into their roles and not risen to the challenges.
I think we obviously would be better this year with him.
The issue was he wanted long term big money and as the season goes on he eventually looks busted like his body is giving in.
Fans outraged about gutho looking good at dragons must understand that’s a side that’s well coached, Guthos load has been reduced, and they were a top 8 side a lot of last year from memory.
We came a whisker from wooden spoon with gutho & RCG with us. I would argue that with Moses IN our team, we might actually already be better than last year.
We had non existent defence. I think the last few games have shown we have improved there.
Throw healthy Moses into this side, I think we start to win some games.
Gutho here would be good. But he left for big long term money. We needed a rebuild, I would rather we took 1 step back to take 3 steps forward over the next few seasons.
Without bones there is no place to build muscle.
Why didn’t parra sign matty Nicolson from England . Raiders napped him up and he’s a gun already. We don’t even have one nrl worthy backrowers. Our recruitment is putrid. Walker is a good start but fortuitous. Lomax was done by brad. Surely our recruitment group can do something worthwhile for once other than pick up discards like kelma.
This arrived in my SM feed this morning.
Don’t give up hope. We would have been a fair shot at the Sharks and the Raiders on Thursday and on current form we can beat Penrith.
Everyone is doubting Parra BUT…
Next three games are Dragons, Raiders, Tigers
Then a bye
Then Moses comes back
They don’t leave Sydney until Round 20
The players can get used to Ryles’ system
Lomax can fire
Brown can find his form
Iongi can improve
The Eels CAN avoid the spoon