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Another week, another monster rivalry clash for the Parramatta Eels as they shape up against the table-topping Canterbury Bulldogs in Round 14. Forty20 and Chris Ricketts look at the tale of the tape for all 3 grades as the NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg take on the Roosters on Sunday.
The Eels were barely pipped by a rejuvenated Penrith outfit last week – how does that position them for the Dogs this week? Will Lachlan Galvin play for this week and what does that mean for the opposition? The boys tackle all the big questions before putting it all the line with their bold picks.
I’d be satisfied with a sub 10 point loss against the Dogs if the Dogs play well. The big crowd and quality of opposition is not in our favour.
I found it really disappointing this week that Ryles brought Penisini straight back into the line up. Samrani (especially playing against the Dogs) i thought deserved a crack, but Ryles has essentially told Will he is an automatic selection and he most certainly shouldn’t be.
Samrani? At centre? Against Xerri or chriton? It would be a blood bath – Sameani is too slow laterally for centre. He’s a backrower who should be a last resort centre option if injuries strike. We need to sign a good young centre prospect (eg votano from newy who plays fullback but could be an elite centre/wing)
Exactly Ron. Our right edge defence had real problems last week and it was a lot to do with Samranis lack of mobility. . But he is going to end up being an impressive forward. Penisini is worth persevering with.
“satisfied with a sub 10 point loss”, this game is very winnable. This is the Canterbury side that had 44 points put on them (in the wet) by the Dolphins a couple of weeks ago.The same Dolphins side who two weeks earlier just got over the line 20 to 16 against us and who put 50 on the Dragons the other night. With respect, comments like being satisfied with a 10 point loss is exactly the mindset that we need to get away from.
Exactly mate let’s do it
With regard to making the eight. The way I see it, this is a big stretch. However if you are an eternal optimist like me. This is the route to maybe get there.
We are currently on 10 points. If we win 2 of every three games we play until the end of the season, that will be a further 16 points. On top of that there are still two byes to come another 4 points. That would give us 30 points for the season. That is a lot of “if’s “.
However that is the way of football. Having outlined all of that there is absolutely no guarantee that 30 will get you in the eight. It did for the Knights last season but that doesn’t mean it will happen again.
I assume if any of my maths is incorrect somebody will let me know!
Listening to SEN 1170 yesterday with Joel and Fletch in the afternoon, Fletcher mentioned he was filming a segment for his TV show at Belmore and Galvin was training 3 in on the left. It is not unreasonable to assume that they will bring him on late and he will attack around our centres, including grubber kicking behind our D line. I would be telling DBrown to cover defend 4 in which ever side Galvin is on, to counter him putting blokes through gaps either side of our centres. Pounds to peanuts this will be Dogs strategy late in the game
Hopefully this intel gets to Jason Ryles
If there’s one thing Galvin is good at it’s those grubber kicks in behind centres
Hopefully Iongi is on the mark and is over there on time when Galvin tries to shoot those kicks in behind them
Let’s also hope Sexton is off due to the fact he’s leaving and has been shown no loyalty from Gus and the filthy bulldogs dogs
Left field I know but… With Mal named as head coach for the Bears. Surely that clears the way for MON to put his hand up for the HOF of the new franchise? MON would be fantastic in that role and he should come very highly recommended by our Chairman! Let’s get on board this appointment.
Great preview gents. And thoughts Sixties and his family.
The Galvin situation is strange. How would you feel as a Bulldogs players? You put in, have a good season and then get shafted becaue Gus finds someone new and shiny. It is a rather ruthlessly pragmatic approach that could well undermine team harmony. It also has to mess with the cap.
As for out blokes, even though I have tipped the Eels it is with heart rather than sense. That said, given the team is playing well and improving I’ll be more than hoping for the upset. Ryle knows they are close and if some passes stick and plays come off unlike the previous few games, who knows? May this be the start of a Parra surge.
Parra by 10
The bottom 2 or three slots in the eight come finals time could be all time lows.
The way to the finals is through a couple of upsets.
Today would be a good time to start.
We lost 16-8 coming off rock bottom in round 3.
Both sides are much better now.
Scoring points is our challenge.
Easy; get good ball to the Fox.
Three tries and we can win.
I like that mate sounds good to me
Thanks fellas. As others have noted, thoughts are with Sixties.
Chris, thanks for filling in admirably. Just like a new player replacing a club legend, it’s not to try and replicate the legends style but to play your own game and still have class – well done.
No public holiday here in Brisbane for this one, falling prey to petty political pantomimes by this states political class. But fortunately I will still be able to watch.
Should be interesting, and as you stated, give us a pretty clear idea of where we are at, especially following on from the Panthers. I’ve seen the Canterbury f book stating Galvin is playing. I feel we are either going to win this in a close one or get a right royal touch up. Fingers crossed for the first.
If we win, agree with Forty that Dyl Walker will be the likely man of the match. Really like what he has bought to the team since his arrival.
Cheers
Tks Forty and Chris. You might say the Tigers are not the greatest form comparison, but if you watched the Tigers v Penrith today it’s another game where our current performance level held up well. With good composure, a fair share of whistle and luck, we will likely offer the Dogs a serious challenge. And best wishes to Craig and family.
Bdon panthers played solid yesterday much like they did against us.
I’d say we looked like the more dangerous attacking team than the Tigers looked like
The difference is too many errors came from us on attacking plays,
Hopefully Hopgood and Peninsi can hold on to the ball today – if they can do that we can be in the fight
But if you see handling errors from them early we likely lose, that’s the pattern you’ll notice from other games this season
Hopefully we get after the dogs and play really well
Muz,
To the naked eye what you say is true. It would be interesting to see the statistical analysis of handling errors and early handling errors to match results.
Yeah I’m not sure Namrebo I haven’t seen stats on that yet or know how to find it
But I’ve rewatched each game we’ve played this season
The one game where for example Hopgood played good and had low errors, given low penalties, etc
There’s obviously many more players and factors that contribute
But Will Peninsi and Hopgoods errors etc absolutely destroyed our momentum in a more than few games and we lost them
I think it’s because errors in the attacking red zone on say tackle 5 or 4 are not so bad
It’s when they knock on in our own end, or on play 3 at the half way mark
If you listen to drinkwaters post game interview after his game a few days ago on Fox
He was saying with how the game is going this year if you make a mistake the momentum swings against you for about 5 minutes and totally gassed you out
The current rules and trend of the game and officiating this year is why it’s so even, and there’s only a few wins difference between bottom 3 and the top 8
If you look at the panthers they were making a lot of handling errors earlier this year in attack with their younger players and they were dead last
Your defensive systems won’t hold up if your players are all fatigued and gassed
There’s definitely evidence to support the claim the game has changed this year in regards to how it’s playing out
Look at the results and ladder – its been the hardest year ever to tip
But it’s also probably the closest ladder ever at this stage of the season …
The difference between last and the top 8 is only 2 wins, that’s absolutely ridiculous considering it’s round 14 lol
I meant to say the one game for example hoppy made only 1 error and gave away no penalty’s I think was VS manly
And we flogged them. Will also didn’t play that game, and his replacement made i think just 1 error
So our best win this year was (coincidentally) the game neither of them had coughed the ball up early on in sets like we had seen in almost every game this season
Both great players just down on form in terms of handling, they’ll get it all together soon
Greg Chappell, our gun batting star, got 5 ducks in a row in his prime. Hopgood and Penisini showed in their first season or two that they have high level ability then got caught up in a decline right across the team, our systems, our fitness, our attitude, even our luck (eg injuries))plummeted. Actually there are 5 players no better in error stats than Hopgood, but ive commented on that and don’t see the need to keep on naming them, Ryles will know all this and will be working to get both these players( and all players) to top form. It will happen.
Bdon I think you are correct in saying that mate
The tough times at parra especially last season truly destroyed the confidence and form of some of our players
They are still good players just not at their own personal best
When you are low on confidence you will make silly knock ons or forward passes early in tackle count
When confidence is high it all sticks and you just know how to win
I don’t think “error number” is the only metric to judge off mate
For example if it’s tackle 4-5 in the red zone and we bomb a try or something, it doesn’t necessarily add much more pressure to your defensive resolve
Where’s if you make a knock on in the 3rd tackle, in your own end, or throw a forward pass at the half way line on tackle 2-4?
You ultimately just gas out your side and fatigue everyone
Defending your try line taxes everyone and then your attack is non existent as the game progresses
If you look at bulldogs, storm, etc, they also make handling errors
But it’s high risk high reward situations often where they are trying to score and it’s in the red zone in a attempted try scoring situation where 1/5 of those plays generate then a 4 pointer
It’s just bad footy though if you cough the ball up regularly down in your own end, or around half way, and you place ungodly amounts of pressure on your team’s defence
I think Hopgood and will just need some confidence and those early tackles count mistakes will disappear
You see players play themselves into form all of the time with just a few wins under the belt
Look at panthers after origin
They’ve looked like a completely different side with their stars off playing in game 1 then returning
Cleary, yeo, Martin all look to be playing amazing and the whole teams put in A+ performances since origin
All it looks to have taken is those key players down on confidence to go get around quality players in NSW and win a game
A few wins in a row (hopefully at some point this year) and maybe some of those players errors and almost disappear maybe
Regardless the work rate of even our out of form players is still pretty good
So that’s a positive
Parra are a team on the “up,up,up” – in a couple of years we’ll hold the “cup,cup,cup!” “Hardies Hardies Hardies!!!”
Let’s make it slmple, if our two million dollar halves step up and produce for 80 , where a chance to win. Last week Panthers did us because their main man stepped up and ours didn’t.
Totally agree with that. We did enough to win last week but there big game guys outplayed ours when It counted. We’ll throw our punches with the dogs but it’s which of the big game men step up for either side. Moses,Lomax and Paulo up against Crichton, kikau and burton. Our big 3 need big games and need to get us over the hill if there off I just can’t see us winning
I don’t care what you all say, I am sick of Hopgood. We were in this game right up until he came back on, then it went to shit. I’ve had it with him.
I’ve mentioned what happens to us when he makes his errors every game and many debated it
I even commented above in this thread before the game what usually happens when he makes errors
We literally collapsed from that point on as we have done in many games already this season
Good efforts from our players with try line defence though for long periods there
Still some positives in the defence from this team
It’s becoming ridiculous with him, you can set your watch by it. No doubt 60’s will spin some crap about his back, He is our biggest weakness without doubt. He is very clearly not in our best 17.
Crucial part of second half. Penisini knock on. We somehow defend it. Next set hopgood mistake they score through Harry Hayes.
Both are so off form but we have no backups.
Teams know how pissweak our back five is in yardage work and just focus on lomax. We have no way of getting out of our own end when ref puts whistle away against good teams. Penrith and dogs knew they just had to play field position against us as we can’t get down their end.
Hopgood and Penisini again. What a bloody surprise!! When are these dopes going to get dropped??!!!!??
Will was good today, his error was after the damage had been done.
I’m more disappointed with wills yardage work. It’s piss weak compared to others. Especially when carrying the ball is his strength. We need him to help get us going but was MIA
What about his abysmal reads in defence?
Him and kelma on same edge is never good news. I was disgusted seeing kelma let kikau pick out Moses on his runs with ease (especially in first half). No real inside pressure from kelma just getting burnt by Burton constantly or turning in as usual. Need a backrower to protect Moses not be protected by him
It’s interesting that teams have much better set completion and discipline against us. Our defence doesn’t seem to be able to generate many turnovers/pressure errors against better teams. We scrambled well but it seemed inevitable that weight of possession would tell at some stage
Ron I’ve heard several times post games the plan VS us has been just to complete
Why is that?
Well you can bet it’s because the coach tells them just complete sets, parramatta will self destruct eventually by their knock ons
Canberra also played a very basic just hold on to the ball style against us in Darwin too
Then as soon we made errors and collapsed they just monstered us
The game plan playing us is to just hold on to the ball and parramatta’s players will eventually knock on and give you perfect field position multiple times each half
Hopgood and Will would struggle to hold their spots at other clubs
We must not have anyone able to replace them though it seems
If their form remains the same Jason will be making big decisions after this season you would think
He got rid of gutho – don’t think he won’t make big calls on anyone else if he doesn’t see them in his long term plans
Our forward pack is pretty putrid. No doubt about that. I’d move kelma on and sign at least 2 backrowers (one defensive specialist like his king or capewell etc and a David Fifita type). we desperately need props and I don’t understand why we didn’t try hard to get pulu who Melborne just signed. Good young mobile prop. And then centres. We need a young, fast centre with soft hands to play inside lomax. Russell, pension and Simon’s son can fight it out for left centre
The bench was horrific today so I hope matto gets moved on end of year (so unreliable effort and health wise). Walker, tuivati, and two bench spots to fill (a forward and hooker cover as Ryley needs help asap).
Ron see how much action Jason took last off season?
You can imagine he may take a similar approach
Jason’s only realistically got 2-3 seasons to prove himself as an NRL coach
After that your job and reputation are on thin ice
I think Jason’s doing a good job with what he has got
Don’t think for a moment Jason will take the BA route and kick the dead horse on some players due to loyalty or the length of their contracts
Jasons been around the game a long time and he won’t settle on players it looks like in regards to who he keeps or shops off
The problem with getting good outside backs is every club wants them …
The two best outside backs we got come by luck and lack of desire from other clubs in their signing at that point in time
It’s very hard to sign high quality outside backs, and in many recent years we have not produced any that have the full kit of tools
Sean is defending good though so I am happy if we keep Sean obviously
A good team completing at 90% with opportunity after opportunity inside our half we are just not gunna go close. Our defence is well and truly good enough to let us win games but our game when we have the ball is still so far off. We Can’t beat the top teams completing an 70%. Agreed on Hopgood he needs a role change we look a completely different team with walker on the field. If walker can’t play 80 I’d rather have a look a papalii doing a bit of ball playing and running for 20 mins.
Watching the warriors on the weekend there game is so simplified they just defend well and complete high and they’ve rocketed back up the table with a fairly mediocre squad. We’re beating ourselves at the moment not necessarily getting beaten.