Scott Bailey
AAP
April 21, 2022 2:55PM
TOPICS
Rugby League
Reed Mahoney has made the startling admission that Parramatta's defence is among the worst - if not the worst - in the NRL.
The loss to Wests Tigers on Monday marked just the Eels' second defeat of the year, with that and the loss to Cronulla in round two only coming in the dying seconds.
Parramatta still sit fourth on the ladder, and are considered among the genuine threats for this year's competition.
But internally, players and coaching staff are unhappy with their defence ahead of Sunday's clash with Newcastle.
"Our defence I think is the worst in the comp at the moment, or one of the worst," star hooker Mahoney said on Thursday.
"There are a few things we have looked up and know we need to be better at.
"Too many points have been leaked through the team and across the first six rounds that we're not happy with."
Statistics bear out Mahoney's grim assessment.
After being ranked in the top four in defence for the past two years, only St George Illawarra and Canterbury have conceded more tries than the Eels this year.
They have also missed the most tackles and linebreaks of any team in the competition according to Fox Sports Stats.
Parramatta's average of 20.83 points against them includes four games in the opening six rounds where they let in at least 20 points.
In comparison, the Eels only let in 20 points four times across the entire first four months of last year's competition.
"We've set ourselves standards of what kind of defensive team we want to be," prop Junior Paulo said.
"Obviously we have been scoring points but just haven't been able to stop points being leaked.
"It's probably just a switch of mentality and attitude to how we prepare. We know what we have to do to be a good defensive team.
"That's just up to us to flick the switch and have the right attitude."
Paulo will return from suspension against Newcastle for a mouth-watering battle in the middle against David Klemmer and the Saifiti brothers.
But he claims the Eels must be more willing to go after the game in defence to return to their usual standards.
"Our focus is to get back to being that team who are defensively quite strong and want to chase the collision in games," he said.
"That's where we feel like we're at our best footy, enjoying the defence side of things as much as we want to attack.
"We have to show the same energy in defence as we do in attack."
Replies
Our structures are fine according to the Super coach, so it's all the players fault.
His structures failed in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021... anyone notice a pattern?
2022 Premiership?
The bench is out off whack, when and if they get on they're not covering the middle. Teams are going thru softly.
Both Rien and Hayze played a total of 26 minutes, so our middles are working overtime - are they getting fatigued and making errors in defense? We are not getting any impact from the bench which is deliberate
That's 5 minutes more than Lewis and Wishart got when the Storm beat the Sharks.
Your prop and lock positions take up a total of 240 mins. If 3 starters and 2 bench middles can't play play an average of 48mins each then get rid of the lot of them.
Bellamy has always given his middles long minutes, it hardens them up.He freshens them at the right time of the year so if they need to play huge minutes in a final they'll always be ready
Compared with the Panthers its a different story, Panthers v Souths as an example the 4 players on the bench total combined minutes approx 118 minutes with Yeo the only player in the forward pack playing 80 minutes - on the other hand we have Papali & Lane playing 80 minutes
The majority of second rowers play 80 mins most of the time. Even at Penrith
Not sure whether it's refreshing or alarming when Reed says he thinks our defence is the worst in the comp! Probably both. And then JP with the 'chasing the collision'... oh FFS... please don't parrot that crap.
It's just a fact. Our points conceded is among the worst, not worth denying.
We fixed our defence massively last year and it stifled our attack to an extent. This year our attack is up there with the best...but now our defence is broken.
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