[tl;dr version: Joseph Paulo is playing a key part in Brad Arthur’s attacking structure which allows his teammates to focus on what they do well]
When it became clear that Luke Kelly wasn’t going to provide the attacking spark that the Eels needed, Brad Arthur was presented with a problem. Chris Sandow and Corey Norman both have the potential to be wonderful attacking players, but neither is particularly strong is rolling their pack forward or playing the ball at the line.
That left Arthur was two choices - try and thrust one of these players into a role they’re not wholly comfortable with, but hope that they develop that facet of their game, or find another solution.
What was clear on Friday night is that Joseph Paulo is currently that solution.
I got roundly pummelled in the off-season when I suggested that Paulo might be the best option as our number seven, playing a very central, dominant first-receiver role. My idea was to have Norman and Hayne running off either side of him, and to bring Sandow off the bench when we needed a bit more punch.
Arthur has set-up slightly differently, obviously playing Sandow and Norman as a halves pairing and instead Paulo is playing a central lock. It’s a tweak on the traditional set-up where your number seven plays your most central role and your five-eighth and a ball-playing lock tend to operate wider often on either side.
However, it’s still much the same role as I saw Paulo taking when I suggested that possible half-back move.
I think Arthur has got it just right, and I base that on a couple of rationale.
Firstly, while Paulo has his faults, he has a number of very useful abilities that make him ideal for the role he did on Friday, not least being his ability to take the ball right to the line before offloading a short pass or going behind to a support. Due to his size and footwork, you can’t readily rush up on him like you might a half-back who you're trying to shutdown. Defenders will constantly be in two minds, as to whether they brace for a heavy collision or whether they’re worrying about his support players. As such, Paulo can play very late and he has always had a delightful soft, short pass that can be a danger on the inside or out.
As such, Paulo represents an attacking threat in himself, but even more so his value comes because he will suck defenders into the middle of the park and prevent them from sliding early which for me, has been the biggest problem with Parramatta attack for a long-time now. Our lack of reliable, penetrating halves has allowed opposition defences to slide at will in recent seasons knowing there was little likelihood Parramatta would create chances playing direct.
The result of that will be that our outside backs are going to have far more room to strut their staff and Hayne can get the ball with a bit more space. If you combine that with the fact that we finally have second rowers who can worry the opposition defence on the fringes, then suddenly you’ve got opposition defences having to make make many more decisions and constantly scrambling to keep up with the ball.
Just as importantly, Paulo lets Sandow and Norman play their natural games. They’re still the dominant players for the side, but they can play wider and with more space and time and concentrate on their attack while leaving a decent slab of the playmaking to Paulo. On Friday night, Corey Norman had the most touches for the Eels with a hefty 61, Sandow was next with 44 and Paulo was third with 29, which, tellingly, was greater than Hayne’s tally.
That’s a huge amount of football to play through your playmakers. If there is one thing Parramatta is not doing it’s playing one-out football. Parramatta’s three playmakers touched the ball TWICE AS OFTEN as the Broncos halves pairing. That makes for expansive football, but also a hell of a lot of variety. The commentators on Friday night kept talking about Parramatta’s ad-lib structure, but I think we actually play with a structure deliberately architected around playing a very fluid game that keeps the attack constantly on the move and uses the full-width of the park. Given we probably don’t have the big boppers who are going to create cracks up the middle, that seems to be a gameplan well-suited to the Eels which boasts more skill than it does size.
The other player I think who benefits from Paulo’s role is Jarryd Hayne. Hayne has routinely been forced to step up as one of the side’s primary playmakers but that’s a role he has become almost totally removed from. Comparing Hayne’s stats with Ben Barba’s makes for interesting reading. Barba had 32 (12 more than Broncos five-eighth Josh Hoffman!) of which just 9 were runs. As such Barba’s involvement was primarily as a second play-maker with him having to take on that burden given the Broncos lack of playmaking ability in the halves. Jarryd Hayne had 26 receives but a massive 17 of them were runs - that was the highest number of runs for any player in the match and he subsequently notched up a plentiful 11 tackle breaks.
I know not all Parramatta fans readily see what Joseph Paulo brings to this side. Many still have Paulo’s crabbing cross-field runs from the past couple of seasons burned into their memory, but that’s not the role Paulo has been tasked with and it’s not the way he is playing at present. He is playing direct and late, and he’s clearly causing a handful for opposition defenders and his teammates are benefitting from his role enormously. He’s allowing our halves to play their natural games and more importantly has almost totally released the pressure on Jarryd Hayne to double up as a playmaker. Just quietly, Paulo also racked up 38 tackles - just two behind Peats, so he’s certainly not shying away from the tough stuff either.
What Arthur has masterfully created are attacking structures that lets Parramatta’s players play to their strengths. Paulo takes the ball to the line, our halves are given more time on the ball to try and use their attacking skills and Jarryd Hayne is used primarily as a running fullback. What’s more because of the variety that is inherent to the way we’re playing, it is not going to be easy for opposition coaches to defend against, even when they go about trying to formulate plans to stop it. Certainly, we’re going to have a few mistakes in us, with the amount of ball movement we’re attempting, but there’s no doubting we’re going to be one of the most entertaining clubs in the competition. Which to most Eel’s fans minds, is just as it should be.
And I feel it’s a game plan we would struggle to execute, and certainly wouldn’t execute as well, without Joseph Paulo.
Replies
Agreed that Paulo's role is critical to the new structure BA has put in place. But I would make a distinction between role and player because of our execution.
Agreed that the commentators failed to pick up on the game plan. Which is to create four alternate channels for our forwards to work through - behind the playtheball, middle & middle fringe & fringe. With Paulo directing traffic.
I think Paulo did an ok job against Brisbane and a vast improvement on recent times but imagine if that role was played by someone like a Manu Mau - who would place more pressure and doubt on defensive lines. Manu is a ball player, perhaps not as graceful as Sefa but his show and go would be twice as effective as Sefas, by the pure fact he could break the line and has the speed over 40 to outrun most.
Some may argue that this may deplete from the effectiveness of our fringe, I'd agree if we didn't have someone like tanginoa or Loko at hand to step up once game fit.
I think Manus defense around the ruck would be a big deterrent for the boppers and hookers coming through the middle and Sefa can be a turnstile at times as showed against Brisbane, he also lacks aggression in defense and Manu Mau's confidence is only just starting to grow. Keen on thoughts?
The soft, short pass is an incredibly difficult skills to get right. You have to approach the line as if you're going to run through it and then basically use all of your core muscles to suddenly change your body position and perfectly hit a bloke in the breadbasket who is running at full-pace, or alternatively contort even further to throw behind that player. If your really good at, you don't just do it as a pre-ordained thing you actually make that decision at the last possible moment based on how the defence has reacted.
I think it was Feces who mentioned earlier that most times teams actually just play behind and that's because playing short is a VERY high risk play because of all the above I've just described. And if you basically approach it knowing you're just going to play a decoy, it becomes very transparent.
Particularly on Ma'u - he has such a powerful player because he launches himself into the defence with absolutely no thought for his body. It would be absolutely impossible for him to play that kind of short-ball when your attacking the defence at that speed and intensity.
Kenny Edwards is another matter, because he does have that skill but again he's more powerful than big. Paulo is a big boy in his own right with decent footwork so he can approach the line without going in kamikaze style and still pose a threat, which again allows him to play so late.
Thought Paulo was very effective in defence & put some hard hits on.
Norman & Paulo, the spark to ignite the Hayne Flame?
Could Cory Norman and Joseph Paulo be the spark that ignites Haynes flame circa 09? if you remember back to THAT run of Haynes in 09 most of his brilliance and the teams success was in the last 20mins or so of most games, it wasn't all out ad-lib attack from kick off to final siren. To have similar success i think we should follow the same formular that worked so well in 09 as the past few seasons have shown we can not play the structured style with success.
So where do Norman and Paulo come in you ask, in Norman we have a genuine playmaker and a half with a decent kicking game so this should take the pressure off Hayne to be a playmaker and instead be a support player like in 09 and as for Paulo, he can be the Mateo type player that was a crucial part of our success in 09 with his probing runs and offloads, this will allow Hayne to play in space against broken defensive lines instead of the structured straight defensive lines he has been up against in recent years with our 1 out hit ups and lack of creativity unable to break up defensive lines but of course for this to work Paulo is going to have to play straight just like Mateo does.
I can see a lot more mobility in next seasons pack and the ability to offload is also there so lets use it.
Ok it's teams list time (sorry mack), now lets assume everyone is fit, available and in form 1 Hayne, 2 Morgan, 3 Tonga, 4 Hopoate, 5 Hunt, 6 Norman, 7 Sandow, 8 Mannah, 9 Peats, 10 Mossop, 11 Loko, 12 Tanginoa, 13 Lussick, 14 Kelly, 15 Paulo, 16 Moi moi, 17 Terepo.
Now i don't have any confidence in Sandow or Tonga so i have a back up list with 2 Sio, 3 Morgan, 7 Kelly, 14 Foran.
I know this team looks short on a front rower but Lussick can push up to front row and Terepo im sure can also cover front row as well.
Pretty much what i suggested could happen in this blog back in september 2013.
no need to change the wingers
I believe he could. The defensive aspect wouldn't be that difficult, he's a big boy at 100kgs and with a good technique should be able to stop most players.
It's alright, we have a bunch of talented kids coming through and if Norman keeps progressing the way he is we won't need a left half. We also have Josh Aloiai who has been playing lock for the NYC and has been one of our best along with Matterson, Davis, Goodall, and Moeroa. Aloiai also has the advantage that he's only 18 still, turning 19 this year whereas Matterson is 20 this year and whilst it will be a loss from that persepctive if we look at the entire club it won't impact us as much.
Gosh, Sef Paulo is now key to our attack! Sorry guys but if Joe Paulo is the key to our attack IMO we r back in Neverland with fairy dust being sprinkled on our back line.
You`re right Mick. Have everyone on here been smoking the Ghanja lately. The guy plays two good games this year and now suddenly he is being anointed as the next Andrew Johns. That's 2/5, give me a break. People on here have some bloody short memories. He is running a lot more direct and he is making less errors etc. but he is a long long long way away from being our most effective/important player in attack. The side is playing well as a group and everyone is playing their roles, even Paulo. IMO hold off on that praise for a while longer. I may come around but im not convinced yet.
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