Eels Blogs

It’s Semi-Final football time for most competitions and both Eels and Warriors fans are resting their hopes that their 20’s team can make it to the Grand Final for the NYC as both first grade teams failed to make the Top 8 despite having results go their way. It’ll certainly be a hard fought game with two big teams coming off big wins in their last games. It should be an entertaining game with both clubs playing an expansive style that should see a lot of points scored. Luckily for the Eels though this game will be played in Sydney and that will see a massive advantage going to the Eels as the Warriors naturally struggle to play well outside of New Zealand. What will give the Warriors confidence though is that in the past 4 weeks they’ve travelled to Sydney and in those 4 rounds they’ve come away with 3 wins and a draw.

2014 Encounters:

Round 1: Eels 50 def. Warriors 24

Round 18: Warriors 19 def by. Eels 22

Last 5 games:

Eels: WWLLW

Warriors: WWDWL

Parramatta Eels team line-up

1. Nathan Davis

2. Leva Li

3. Fabian Goodall

4. John Folau

5. Halauafu Lavaka

6. Ryan Matterson (c)

7. Zach Dockar-Clay

8. Kelepi Tanginoa

9. Joey Lussick

10. Tui Kamikamica

11. Josh Aloiai

12. Tyrell Fuimaono

13. Jeff Markus

Interchange:

14. Jordan Muna

15. Tepai Tepu-Smith

16. Alex Twal

17. Fred Junior Mauala

Warriors Line-up

1 BRAD ABBEY

2 NGATAUA HUKATAI

3 NATHANIEL ROACHE

4 SOLOMONE KATA

5 METIA LISATI

6 TUIMOALA LOLOHEA

7 MASON LINO (c)

8 SAM LISONE (c)

9 KURT ROBINSON

10 KOUMA SAMSON

11 MARATA NIUKORE

12 ADAM TUIMAVAVE-GERRARD

13 JAZZ TEVAGA

Interchange:

14 JAMES BELL

15 TOAFOFOA SIPLEY

16 KEN MAUMALO

17 IULIO AFOA

20 OFAHIKI OGDEN

Watch out Warriors: It is not often you can say this against the Junior Warriors but they’ll have to be careful of the Eels size all across the park. Where it counts the young Eels have size as well as speed which combine into making an all-powerful team. Against the Broncos in the first week of the finals and earlier on in the year coach Justin Holbrook moved boom second-rower Kelepi Tanginoa into the middle of the field and it paid off in a major way. Brisbane struggled to put down the beast when he was playing in the middle and then his power proved to be too much when the Eels changed their structure so Kelepi was hitting the edges and he made some very important breaks late in the game. Earlier in the year Tanginoa single-handedly destroyed the young Tigers in his 2^nd game at prop where he made over 220metres in a man of the match performance.

Watch out Eels: The experience of the Junior Warriors in finals games could carry them through this game. For many of the Warriors players this is their 2^nd or 3^rd time in the NYC finals series and that’ll be a calming influence on them knowing that they’ve been in this position before. In comparison this is the first time that the young Eels players have played in the finals series despite having many big game players who have been selected in many junior representative teams. In the corresponding game last year the Warriors beat the Bulldogs 54-38 in a dominant display by former NYC props Albert Vete and James Taylor. Not only do the Warriors have finals experience they also have some good experience in the right positions. For their co-captains Sam Lisone and Mason Lino this is their 3^rd finals campaign and this will be Sam’s 49^th NYC game.

Reason to watch: As previously mentioned both teams love to attack. In the regular season the Eels finished with 812 points for (2^nd) and the Warriors finished with 733 (4^th). Parramatta has the season’s top try-scorer in Halauafu Lavaka who finished the regular season with 26 tries next to his name. The Warriors highest try-scorer is their fullback Brad Abbey who has scored 14 tries this season. The goal-kickers for the teams will also make a difference to their team’s scores. Kicking for the Eels is centre-come-fullback Nathan Davis who has been kicking at around 70% all year and finished 2014 as the NYC’s second highest point scorer. The Warriors on the other hand have Mason Lino, who against the Knights overtook Jake Mullaney as #2 all-time point-scorer, he also has the chance to make it to 500 points as he is currently sitting on 480 points in his 3 years in the NYC. If you’re into attacking football that will see both teams stretched side to side then this will be the game to watch.

Key Match-Ups

Ryan Matterson and Zach Dockar-Clay vs Tuimoala Lolohea and Mason Lino. I couldn’t put it down to halfback vs halfback or five-eighth vs five-eighth because all four halves will need to produce for their teams to win. These four halves work so well together, all have awesome running games, and they all have strong overall attacking games. Lino and Dockar-Clay both debuted for their respective clubs in 2012 and ever since have been their team’s dominant halves. Both will be the key for their team’s field position as both are the main kickers in their team. Both are Junior Kiwi representatives and bring a lot of experience for their teams. Matterson and Lolohea on the other hand seem to take the line on more than their other halves but both have a different approach to how they take on the line. Matterson uses his size and offloading ability to get on the outside of his defender and it has worked a treat many times this year with him scoring 17 tries over the course of the season including 4 tries against Manly in Round 3 whilst Lolohea prefers to use his speed and agility to bust through the line. All four halves will need to step up for their respective teams to have a strong game.

Kelepi Tanginoa vs Sam Lisone. These two boys are their team’s main metre-eaters and are certainly a presence on the field. As previously mentioned Kelepi had an extremely strong display in the first week of the finals against the Broncos whilst Sam has been a big feature of the Warriors all year. Both are able to make big metres for their teams. Earlier on in the year Kelepi made over 220 metres when playing prop whilst last week against the Knights Lisone made 210 metres with the ball in hand.

GO THE EELS