Parramatta coach Brad Arthur has dumped strike winger Maika Sivo as part of a reshuffle designed to ignite his side’s stuttering season.
Arthur has gone with a new halves partnership for Saturday’s clash against North Queensland, with Daejarn Asi to come in at five-eighth alongside halfback Dylan Brown.
Rookie Blaize Talagi will revert back to the centres with Bailey Simonsson being moved to the wing for Sivo, whose surprise omission is a certain sign Arthur is becoming fed-up with his side’s modest and inconsistent results this season.
Parramatta have won two from five games this season and sit in 14th place. Parramatta are desperate to secure victory at CommBank Stadium this Saturday after last weekend’s embarrassing 41-8 loss to Canberra at GIO Stadium.
Sivo only logged 10 runs for 57 metres against the Raiders, although he did score both Parramatta’s tries.
He scored a try the previous week against Wests Tigers and ran for 94 metres.
Sivo has scored 90 tries in his 105 NRL games, having debuted back in 2019.
He hasn’t scored fewer than 13 tries in a season during his entire career.
Despite playing at home, Parramatta are $2.30 outsiders, according to TAB, with North Queensland $1.62 favourites.
—Dean Ritchie
Replies
You are right but I'd have no issue dropping him, far from the issue might kick him into gear or it might be another Mannah and Brown scenario of not coming back
Named in the reserves...
But the media won't have their scapegoat if they mention that he was injured! Angry Eels fans love a scapegoat, and the media loves loves an angry Eels fan.
Always a back cops the axe after a flogging.
JUST IN: The Telegraph are reporting Sivo is set to be dropped. Bailey Simonsson to the wing and Talagi back to the centres. Daejarn Asi will play in the No.6 and Brown will stay at halfback! Huge!
Apparently it's simmonson wing, talagi centre and asi at 6
In about 20 minutes, if Sanders is absent from team lists as we expect, we might be seeing the final nail in the coffin for his future at the Eels beyond 2024.
From R6 , I believe, clubs can sign development players in their final year of contract. The idea being to give their club more opportunity to retain junior talent they're developing (rather than the normal November window).
Despite Jim saying the Eels are still negotiating with Sanders, BA and the club probably already know where Sanders will be.
It'll be tough to convince him to stay. Even with Moses out he's behind a losing Cup team, behind a losing NRL team with its confidence shot to pieces, behind a struggling rookie Talagi who BA is giving more experience and opportunities to, trust, and behind a four-game NRL half with a 25% win ratio.
He's gone move on
Seriously you can drop Lussick and Offa to go with Sivo. Put Dylan back to 6 and bring in a genuine halfback in Sanders.
No recognised 7 = another flogging and a week closer to the bush coach's axing
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