For me, if there was a single take-out from the Eel's trial against the Raiders then it was the fact that Parramatta was more than willing to offload in the tackle.
Junior Paulo led the side in that regard, but he wasn't the only Eel looking to pass the ball. Lane also looked to get the ball away at every opportunity, and Alvaro also contributed.
It hasn't been a feature of Parramatta's game at all in recent seasons. Hamstrung with a smaller, but mobile pack, Brad Arthur's preference has seemed to be for his forwards to focus on ball control and quick play the balls. However, with Paulo and Lane adding much needed size, Arthur appears to have given his forwards a license to offload.
Of course, offloading the ball against a Raider's reserve grade team is a hell of a lot easier than doing it against similarly sized packs in the NRL.
However, if the Eels can offload without blowing out their error count, it will contribute a much needed additional attacking weapon for Parramatta who struggled to score points last year. Without a world-class centre pairing the Eels simply can't afford to work into attacking positions and try and set up for a man-on-man backline scenario. What they do have is a pair of young halves who like to run, and will be suited by less-structured attack. With Clint Gutherson at the back they also have a fullback who will be looking to support his forwards all day long.
Recent news that the Eels were looking to recruit George Burgess demonstrates that the Eels still intend to size up their pack. I don't expect that to be the last crack we have at further increasing the size of our pack, either.
Comments
Awesome, now we just need to teach Michael Jennings how to do it.
Jennings needs to learn how to pass before the line first.
Be Handy if he learnt how to catch aswell.
So you didn't take note of the fragile goal line defence? Or the same old side to side movement when attacking the try line? Those were the two things I took from the trial and I'm even more worried about this year than before.
Watching the attack in the opposition 20 was like reliving 2018 different people but exact same lame movement. Not only that all teams have there big shift from one side to the other even if you ignore ours hasn't changed in 4 years. If you compared the roosters and us doing the shift and timed the two we would take about 10 seconds longer to run through the motion longer than the roosters do with theirs. By the time the roosters winger would have caught it and scored in the corner untouched. Out team would have got the ball to the five eight he would of looked at his runners, got confused second guessed himself and flopped on the floor in embarrassment
LOL agreed Nick, it was same old same old. Such a great decision to reward the attacking coach another deal after one of the worst points scored for a team ever last year.
Phil, great point. I agree. Lane & Paulo have brought the offload back. Of the forwards, they are the two most "innately" talented at drawing in multple tacklers, offloading and creating space around them and second phase play. Nathan Brown has tried to develop this in his game as well, but isn't as effective nor as big-bodied. M'ua (in form) used to have a bit.
Coupled with the innate attacking spark of Moses and Dylan Brown, addition of another powerful big body in Fergo who draws players and makes more post metres than anyone in the NRL - there's a bit of attacking potential there. Siva later possibly.
Although, I do feel a lack of genuine tackle-busting speedster out wide, that uses minimal space and creates space - such as a Semi, The Fox, Mitchell, Munster, Roberts - could bite us in the rear as to maximising points.
But all that potential will not work effectively, unless we address our attitude in defence and toughness, and stop leaking like a sieve.
We must play with more desire. Defend with more courage. Treat our line, the ball, and the team as it is our life.
Otherwise, we'll always be behind the eighth ball, under pressure, low in belief, acting out of desperation, looking to make up lost ground. The result is an often mistake-riddled quasi-2018 team.
The subsequent errors ill-disclipline and the momentum of possession could result in heavier losses even.
And as confidence in our defensive courage becomes rock-solid, mentally, attitude-wise we will be in the position to start winning more matches than losing. Before that the opposite will occur. And then we're not much better than 2018 or even with a few heavier losses.
Here's hoping we toughen up.
The offload was about the only pleasing aspect of our attack against a reserve grade side, otherwise it was the same boring old shapes,block plays and that 5 year old sweep play out the back that i don't think has ever gotten us a try ever.
Go BA!! Go Murphy!!!
The old sweep out the back play that Manly used to great effect when the Roosters beat them in 2013 !
Lets not lose sight of the fact, it was the first game with a Brown-Moses combination.
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