Sometimes you just accept the win for what it is and after a tough fortnight of bottled opportunities, the Eels did just enough to fend off the Canberra Raiders in Round 15. The 15-12 victory was largely reminiscent of the recent losses to the Knights and Bulldogs but perhaps the familiar setting of CommBank Stadium proved to be enough to swing the needle Parramatta’s way as they clung on desperately in the final minutes to lodge their 5th win of the season.
Sixties and Forty20 recap a tense Saturday night battle against the Raiders as both teams struggled to find their best form before the Eels ultimately did enough to take home the honours.
Based on the Sanders 10 in the bin, how Crichton wasn’t binned (or penalised)last week is a joke. You get the feeling maybe the Crichton/JAC one was played at a referees meeting during the week.
I know this performance wasn’t great and theirs plenty to get right! But a wins a win and I’m gonna have a bourbon and enjoy a rare victory! Go Parra
Ryles was right, they have played better (marginally) and lost.
No live notes, It’s just a bit of a punish at the moment. We’re not watching the Eels for enjoyment, where watching because it is part of who we are.
The good:
Big Sam ran a little harder.
Goal line defense (granted the Raiders attack was awful)
We spread the ball coming out of our own end (as we just don’t make enough yards through one out hit ups)
The effort.
Better game from Russell.
Iongi a better game under the high ball
The bad:
A real lack of shape and structure (I know it was a short week but we looked like we had never played together)
Last tackle options – triggered in large part when TDS didn’t get to dummy half as he should be.
After showing improvement last week, Joash back to his old tricks of not watching where he passes. Seriously, I’m not going to quit on this, if he can’t do it, he can’t play first grade.
Forwards are having very little impact.
We’ve played some ordinary opposition in recent weeks, so needed to get a win out of it. Glad they can enjoy the bye a little more.
Jacks bar got shut at 10:30pm
Sterlos bar just got shut at 11pm
Its a friggin joke
I only came here to spend my $10 for birthday month
Both bars been packed
Even the security bloke is embarrased kicking everyone out.
I said why would i bother ever coming back here after a game when they move on everyone at 10:30pm from the rooftop bar and 11pm at Sterlos bar.
Craig and John you blokes are kidding yourselves if you think this is acceptable after a hard fought win from a major sponsor of yours
If you think Craig or John have any influence over bar closing times you’re kidding yourself. And if you think TCT should pick their sponsors over closing times of their bars, you’re even more delusional.
Having said that, I agree it is a disgrace. The Leagues Club used to be a place to go after a game. Hopefully the new development will afford us with some place nice to go before and after a game where we’re not bombarded with other sports and sound turned up so loud you can’t comfortably converse with fellow fans.
Brian Kelly, Iongi and Williams all very good tonight (again). I thought Samrani was also very good.
Kelma is ruffling some feathers with his runs which is great. Defence was better, but still far too often is rolling around on the floor in the ruck.
Volkman had a good game too.
Everyone else probably a pass mark without being outstanding. Albeit shout out to Harrison Edwards who without being spectacular, hasn’t done a lot wrong, so pleasing that he’s coming in and fit seamlessly into the squad.
In a year that’s been a complete punishment to watch, happy to just see a gritty win.
Stoked with the win, Papalii desperately needs to sort out his handling errors, there’s no need for them
Looking forward to recruitment news.
Great to see the boys get a win after the effort that’s been put in for the last 3 weeks. And even with a bit more luck or bounce of the ball our way those results could have been different.
Most pleasing for me is the defensive effort put in for about 60 min then you could see the fatigue creep in and the associated mistakes start to happen more frequently. If we keep improving the to a full game great.
I have to say though that with two reserve graders steering us around there are alot of promising signs and if the effort keeps increasing from the players then the skill levels will also increase meaning the team as a whole will keep improving (fingers crossed).
It’s by no means a well oiled machine but there are promising signs and hopefully the juniors and regies that come in to the team keep improving their skills, mental strengths and perseverance.
Go the Eels.
How the hell did that referee find brian Kelly Off side on the short dropout that led directly to the Dan luare try. I’ve watched the replay two or three times and it is the most pedantic nitpick penalty I’ve ever seen.
In the first 15 minutes on our own line the six again were coming thick and fast for the Green team but in the second half when we were in front and Canberra were laying all over us not a six again to be seen. This can’t be incompetence alone.
In our next position coming off our own line the holding down was comical and even the commentator said in the running the referee has swallowed his whistle.
This is a different version of the game compared to the officiating in the Melbourne Parramatta one in round one.
I reckon Parramatta had six hits to the head that were not penalised and Canberra probably had three of their own. It seems you need to be knocked out again to get a penalty for a high shot.
The Touchie Jon Stone called all those 6 again on us on our own line early in the game, along with the forward pass call against us, which was not even close to forward, also missed the raiders forward passes which were on his side of the field, and to finish his game, made the Kelly offside call, go figure!
Some awful calls. I was losing my mind as it was unfolding
Yes, there was one Raiders forward pass that went totally unnoticed..the talking heads on KAYO were into some Cooper Cronk technical brain buster when the Canberra dummy half threw a medium length pass to the hit up runner who had gotten impatient and surged early because of a bit of available space and was a metre in front when he received the ball. There”s always a bit of fudging from dummy half but that one was just too obvious, except the lads were into Cooper..gave me a laugh.
Please explain, who actually makes the call and who in turn enacts it?
Line speed was notably different to pretty much any other game I’ve seen this year it was actually first grade standard. We started to notice this at the backend of last year and our season turned around. With Dylan walker mentioning in a post presser that they have started training with a lot more intensity which is translating into games. My question is why weren’t they doing this from day 1 our line speed and intensity has been awful at times.
It’s always Great to get a win and two players in particular have really turned there seasons around in jack Williams and Brian Kelly both have been very solid the past month. Wish we didn’t have the bye this team needs to build momentum.
Yeah, not the sort of thing that the coach would be all that pleased with his players admitting. That being said,
Just quietly, and I’m probably going against the typical TCT crowd in this, but absolutely love the jerseys last night, even the darker blue. Really hate the 86 style jersey, always have.
Agree with you on that one Brett. I mentioned it to the person sitting next to me. He agreed, he liked the jersey.
It was the deeper blue. I spoke about in previously that the cultural jersey makes the gold pop.
Brett,
Anything is better than the surrender monkey yellow we wear occasionally! Personally I liked the outfit this week however my favourite remains the mid-seventies DUX one, probably because that’s around the time I started watching.
More importantly, it was good to see the chaps register another win. Happy to see the effort rewarded. Execution still needs a lot of work but I went to bed a happy Chappy on Saturday.
Namrebo, the Dux gurnsey is my fav and the one I wear to the games. We must be similar vintage!!
Milo,
It’s mine for big games and things like the magic round membership event.
Old and grey is the vintage!
A name that I feel doesn’t get enough cred is Jordan Samrani. He sniffs out a try, as he did tonight, more often than anybody else in the team, I think.
He is often the one chasing through on a grubber.
Some of his defensive hits are real stingers
He’s a contender for the club’s best buy of the last few years. As a utility, he will be very handy.
Agree. Penisini would definitely have attempted to score that try as well, but wouldn’t have scored. Samrani seems to have a good head for footy.
Agreed. Has become one of the favourites in our household. Don’t think he has enough pace to stay in centres but reckon you are on the money about his utility value.
I was v impressed with the defence last night – the rest can be clunky as long as we won; how good was it to see Ricky in the press conference?
Liked the jerseys too. I thought all of the forwards did well and yes some made some errors but their was intent from the start and our defence in the first 10 mins was great.
If we can beat Souffs after the BYE that would be a great start to the back end.
Milo I like the way big Sam is working out. He is big and has a lot of strength. I think that he is going to be one of our future forward stars.
Yes John, Sam is good and needs continued time in the top grade; for me he and T Brown can be good with a mix of guys like Hopgood; Doorey and co and of course with one or two acquisitions. I am liking how the Dolphins go – their forwards are tough as and I personally wish we had some of that….just a few of those hard edge guys would be gold.
Jack Williams has been v good for me.
You guys have made a case for Riley Smith to come back into the footy team and that’s fair enough as he was arguably one of our best players last year and this year was obviously hampered by a sternum injury he copped early on and won’t be fully right until he gets a proper break over the offseason.
BUT I have really liked the work of Harrison Edwards defensively and I don’t think it’s any coincidence that since he’s been in the team our first defensive 20 mins has improved hugely. He’s a calm player who makes good decisions in attack and defence and obviously he’s got a massive size advantage on Smith when tackling the big middles. Unfortunately for me it is working too well. I doubt they will give up on their big money purchase in Da Silva easily and as you say he offers a point of difference with his speed so probably Smith becomes the first choice back up
That big money purchase of Da Silva is pretty subjective, what you have read is rubbish, closer to 300 than 650
I know we get upset because our teams a bottom 4 team this year it looks like unless a miracle happens
But at least we have a lot of really young players getting quality NRL game time and experience as a result of injuries and new coaches etc
We will see a hand full of these younger players ‘em up being leaders for this team, and some of them, will become really good NRL players in years to come
Iongi is a stand out, he likely has a long NRL career ahead of him, Big Sam, and T brown, maybe Da Silva too, Papalii will likely be a long term depth player too for us or some other NRL team at some point… a few really decent young players at parra
I really hope we get a few key signings so that our young blokes get a chance to play in a regular winning team it would greatly benefit their confidence
Yes John, Sam is good and needs continued time in the top grade; for me he and T Brown can be good with a mix of guys like Hopgood; Doorey and co and of course with one or two acquisitions. I am liking how the Dolphins go – their forwards are tough as and I personally wish we had some of that….just a few of those hard edge guys would be gold.
Jack Williams has been v good for me.
Hi Sixties and John,
Is there a list of all the players who have made first grade debuts in 2026 or 2025 – and how many are on contracts till the end of – at least – 2027 or end of 2028. I know we have lost Sean Russell and Apa Twiddle…hopefully we dont lose another 4 or 5 young players
The players I am thinking of are – and there may be more
Saxon Pryke
Toni Mataele
Teancum Brown
Isaih Iongi
Joash Paaplii
Jordan Samrani
Harrison Edwards
Kitioni Kautoga
Sam Tuivaiti
and there may be more that I have missed
Greg I don’t know the answer to your question however I would really like to know. I am certain someone will be able to supply the answer.
I have watched a bit of Sam and I am very impressed with what he is doing. The way he runs and stands in the tackle. Quick play the ball. I am hoping they get him on a long deal.