This should be a terrific Jersey Flegg clash between the Eels and Panthers. Both teams are in strong contention for finals football and will be confident of a strong showing.
Focussing on our Eels, the club continues to debut the 2025 SG Ball graduates. Cameron Bamblett is the latest to take to the field in Flegg. There are late team changes that I will try to catch up on. The action kicks off at 12pm at St Mary’s, having been moved from Friday night at Windsor.
Team List
| 1 | Cameron Bamblett |
| 2 | Mohamed Alameddine |
| 3 | Tuvaka Palu |
| 4 | Antioch Faitala-Mariner |
| 5 | Brad Avery |
| 6 | Lorenzo Talataina |
| 7 | Josh Lynn |
| 8 | Damascus Neemia |
| 9 | Jack Hudson |
| 10 | Tyrese Lokeni |
| 11 | Domenico De Stradis |
| 12 | William Lewis |
| 13 | Raffaelle De Stradis |
| Interchange | |
| 14 | Lorenzo Talataina |
| 15 | Tom Summer |
| 16 | Jezaiah Funa-Iuta |
| 17 | Ieti Samuelu |
| 18 | Ryda Talagi |
The Eels receive the kick off but lose possession just into Penrith’s half. Riff scrum feed. The Eels survive a cross field kick and then again turn the ball over with a penalty in possession in their next set.
Eels now in a good attacking position with a scrum in Riff’s half. A penalty to Parra in front of the sticks. Strong work with the forwards asking questions. Left with a cut out pass to Alameddine who dives over in the corner.
Conversion unsuccessful by Lynn
Eels 4 lead Panthers nil after ten minutes.
Eels penalty from the kick off and they’re back on the attack. Terrific ball from Lynn to Lewis running an overs line and he streaks away for a try just to the right of the posts. Not a great conversion attempt from Lynn as the ball strikes the upright and misses.
Eels 8 lead Panthers nil after 13 minutes
I can barely keep up here as the Eels break the Panthers defence in the kick off set. Palu heads to the quarter with options inside and out but he finds Alameddine on the left wing and Moey dives in for his second try in five minutes.
Another missed conversion.
Eels 12 lead Panthers nil after 16 minutes.
Eels get to their kick after the kick off. Panthers in yardage. Think we had a six again that I missed and they string together some great attack. They hit their left edge in Parra’s red zone but the Eels hold the player up in goal. A grubber on the last but the Eels trap and scrap. Now a penalty.
Back to back penalties and the Eels drive play towards the posts. Hudson to Lynn who throws the cut out to Palu running a great line and he crashes through defenders to score 10 metres to the left of the posts.
Lynn converts
Eels 18 lead Panthers nil after 22 minutes
What a run from Alameddine! The left winger takes a dart from dummy half and goes about 60 metres downfield. He beats the fullback but is just reeled in by the cover. Right now and a chip kick over the disorganised defence. The ball bounces back over the heads of the chasing players and Lewis is there for the spoils and the try.
Conversion missed
Eels 22 lead Panthers nil after 26 minutes.
Bamblett makes an error from the kick off. Riff sacrum in the red zone. Now a penalty. Six again. Penalty. Great defence but then the Panthers run the ball on the last and bust the Eels defence on the left edge and plant the ball behind the posts.
Conversion successful
Eels 22 lead Panthers 6 after 31 minutes.
In past games the Eels have made errors to lose momentum then had poor discipline with penalties and six agains to concede runs of points. They need to avoid that here.
Panthers get to their kick and Parra play positive footy in response. Lewis runs a great line on the edge but the ball is left behind. It’s ruled a Riff knock down. Solid set asking questions but it ends with Hudson going on his own and being tackled a metre out.
Riff break down the right wing and kick ahead. Alameddine cleans up. In the red zone. Good defensive set from Panthers and Lynn has to kick from 30 out.
Chip kick from Panthers on the last and Bamblett does well to clean it up. Good charge from Samuelu but Hudson throws a blatant forward pass on the play the ball and Riff have a scrum 40 out.
Great jam from Avery but now a late count penalty follows. Six again. Kick into the in goal but Alameddine catches AFL style and is tackled mid air. Penalty but half time is quickly blown.
Half time Eels 22 lead Panthers 6
Second Half
A poor start to this half with an error at the play the ball. Attention to detail is needed. Six again and now again as the Eels fall asleep around the ruck and the Panthers 14 embarrasses the defence by running around 30 metres to score beside the posts. The conversion is missed!
Eels 22 lead Panthers 10 after 44 minutes.
The Eels need to sort their errors and discipline because this ref is all over them with six agains and penalties.
Apologies. The site crashed during the second half and all of my blogging was lost.
The Eels made far too many errors but still proved far too strong.
Penrith pulled back to 22 to 16 after 54 minutes. That also came on the back of errors and poor discipline in the lead up to an Eels line drop out. Actually, the first drop out attempt from Lynn was a shocker – in fact I’m not sure whether it was an air swing or a bad bounce off the ground, but he was allowed to take it again. Penrith scored about three tackles after the kick.
Faitala-Mariner scored a try in the 64th minute. It came after a good last tackle kick from Parra was dropped ten out in front of the posts. Parra fired shots at the line and went close before the Panthers overhead a shift to the right and Faitala-Mariner stepped past the slide to score with defenders hanging off him.
The Eels next try was Moey Alameddine’s’ third. Bamblett chimed into a left side shift inside the Riff red zone and opened a passage to the corner for Moey who finished it with a wonderful dive into the corner.
Parra’s final try came in the 75th minute with great attacking play down the left that saw Palu finish with his second try of the day. He also improved the position so that the Eels could kick just their second conversion of the match.
Overall it was 8 tries to 3. The score flattered Penrith even with the Eels making too many errors and getting hammered in penalties and set re-starts.
Sixties
This ref is a shocker already. Called a non-existent obstruction and then misses penrith falling over trying to play the ball
Halves combining really well so far
Talataina is carving them up. Is it possible he’s already too good for this grade.
Cameron Bamblett is playing three age groups up. Can someone who has seen him play regularly please describe what his strengths are and how he stacks up against our other fullback talents?
Someone was saying when we signed him after they nabbed Blaize that we might end up with the better player long term, which seemed like a massive wrap
Adam, he’s got terrific attacking instincts. He’s lightly framed but will no doubt add size as he matures.
My apologies everyone. TCT crashed in the second half, and I lost most of my blogging. I’ve tried to provide some of the details around the tries.
Not the greatest 2nd half but to put 8 tries on the (at the time) 2nd best defensive team in the competition is something to be very proud of for this team. We were very much the smaller team in this contest and that both helped and hindered the team at times. In that first half when they held the ball they carved up through the middle with their agility and ball movement. Both Lynn and Talataina had a field day against a constantly retreating defence and seemed like both had the ball on a string. 2nd half with the dropped ball and penalties we struggled to contain them. I thought we looked best when we had 1 big bopper on the field when Neemia started and eventually when Talagi made his debut off the bench. Neemia would have to be pretty close to a cup debut, every week he is skittling defenders on every run.
Parra now lead the Flegg competition with the 4th best attack and 2nd best defence. Once the storm play tomorrow the lowest they can finish at the end of this round is 2nd. This is the best the team has been travelling since the restart of the Flegg competition in 2018 and even with a rotating halves pairing, promotions for experienced backs and the introduction of the SG Ball graduates the team just keeps chugging along. A credit to Rankin, his coaching staff and the recruiters
Great summation, thanks!
Thanks Ham
Going well…
Cameron Bamblett is still at school. He is only a slight player but is very skilful. Can play 5/8 to Fullback and reads the game very well. One of those kids that doesnt get flustered. If he makes a mistake, he flushes it straight away and will be the one setting up a try assist next play. He is not as quick as Iongi but has great game awareness and plays what is in front of him well. Nice short kicking game and plays a bit Dylan EDWARDS like supporting through the middle. Watch some highlights from SG ball and you will get the picture.
We have a core group coming through from Sg Ball , Jersey flegg that has me so excited for the future.
Let’s just hope our R&R team and management are up to the task of getting this junior retention right. We won’t keep them all but if they come close to getting it correct our clubs future is healthy again. Our juniors need to be No1 priority not blokes who think they might want to be here.
Indeed – it’s why roosters have rebuilt so quickly. And it’s the only way we will be competitive soon. Takes so much pressure off recruitment of internal talent Id is good. Flip side is need to be rusty less and move players on even if they are adequate. Adequate isn’t enough in certain positions.
Meant ruthless not “rusty”
Put it this way, if Gus was running our club, there’s no way Matterson, Cartwright and Lane would still be on the books. He always seems to find a club willing to take their offcuts, outcasts and dreggs.
Indeed, I don’t like the bloke but I do like how he doesn’t mess around – he is always looking for ways to maximise value/improve and cut fat.
Moses said the other day on podcast that players coaches and club all weee patting themselves on the back for getting to gf and were happy with it. Shows the gap between those who want to win like Penrith, storm, roosters etc and us.
He also said how wrong the prep was for gf (players stayed at home all week instead of going into camp at a hotel in city – big games mean you don’t take things as normal. He said it bled into the soft way parra started the 2022 gf.
As much as I liked brad for most of his tenure I’m glad the club pulled the trigger and got ryles – breath of fresh air with more modern approach
Alemedine has any chance of making nrl type of player would you compare him to
Thanks for the reports under difficult circumstances boys. everything across the club seems to be taking on board ryles and and his structure. With only seeing limited parra nrl games are the lower teams trying the same style
Club juniors are the best it’s looked in a while. There’s probably 8-10 legitimate nrl prospects in the next 2-3 years throughout the ball/flegg/cup. Never ever certainty’s to succeed but it’s definately a positive especially with new teams coming into the comp and Recruiting is about to get a lot harder. Externally I think we need one big signing and maybe a solid experienced head then I think there’s a lot of talent within the club. I’d love to see us have a real crack at Payne hass. I don’t think many clubs could match us on money but I know we would be absolutely pushing it up hill to get him. If you got him that is a game changer
Love the thinking mate
With Hass’ family position the only way to get him is to include a family package and still doubt he’ll come. Might have to settle for second best whoever that is but if Roosters want to shed one of their current middles I’d take him.
Don’t know why, but as a club we seem to be copping restarts and penalties across all grades including junior reps.
Watching nearly all games on BarTv as well, haven’t noticed any major discrepancies as a reason for this. Is it something the refs discuss prior to games as it appears that could be an issue given how many times it occurs.
Another good win and underlines the depth we currently have coming through. Identification of the best amongst them and retention is obviously now the key to progress.