Lee Mossop was a much heralded signing when the Eels, desperate for some good news leading into an election and off the back of a poor run of results, announced they had landed the English international forward.
However, Mossop's shoulder injury has allowed others to step into the void his absence left, and the question is now, where does Mossop fit into this side.
The biggest issue from a squad-balance point of view is that Mossop is altogether too similar to Tim Mannah. Both are very relatively small front rowers, who work hard and punch above their weight. However, both are being paid as marquee front rowers - both will expect to start but the pair of them would make for an overly light prop pairing. Meanwhile, the likes of Lussick and Paulo bring more size and Terepo more power. And that's from a forward-looking perspective, assuming that Fuifui retires at seasons end. How you fit Mossop into this year's pack is an even more difficult proposition.
Mossop can play backrow, but he's not suited to that, either, the way the Eel's play. Given that we are currently carrying Paulo as an 80 minute lock and Mau is also getting through 80 minutes, there is simply not enough minutes for a worker in the backrow and young guns Kelepi Tanginoa and Pauli Pauli offer much more thrust on the fringes as a replacement for the skillful Edwards.
And when you consider how well David Gower is going and that the reliable Mitchell Allgood is struggling for opportunity, Parramatta is looking over-stocked up front.
It's a nice situation to have for Brad Arthur to have this year - he's certainly not going to go into any match yearning for more options in the forwards. However, of more importance is Parramatta's salary cap moving forward, which according to media reports is under pressure due to a number of back-ended contracts.
Of our front rowers, Lussick, Allgood, Terepo and Mossop are the players on contract for next year. That means the Eels need to make decisions on Mannah, Junior Paulo, David Gower and Fuifui Moimoi.
To my mind, the club should act quickly to wrap up Junior Paulo for the next couple of years. This massive unit is going places and is already producing NRL performances that have outshone his more illustrious fellow props. [EDIT: According to a number of comments, Junior Paulo is contracted until 2016, so we can add him to the list of players on-contract for next year if that's correct.]
One then has to ask if those five players are signed, whether Tim Mannah is a justifiable signing. Between Mossop, Mannah and Lussick, we'll have too much of our cap, for my liking, being spent on a prop-forward rotation that, let's face it, still won't be dominating opposition defences.
When compared to the effectiveness of a more modestly paid Gower, do all three of these players bring enough to the table that it could jeopardise retaining our emerging players. Does Fuifui have another year in him?
There have been whispers in the NRL gossip columns that Lee Mossop hasn't been happy to date, with problems with third party payments touted. If that is ongoing, is there an option to re-consider whether Mossop's big pay packet was really the best use of our cap. And if there is no flexibility with Mossop, does locking our selves into a likely three-year, expensive deal with Mannah make sense?
It's hard to say until we actually see Mossop in action, but for mine, the two props I want to see in every Eels starting 17 is Lussick and Paulo. I like Mannah as a clubman and believe you get a quality performance from him every single week. Mossop as the fourth prop in that rotation does give you a very strong engine room, but it could mean we have nearly $2 million of our cap tied up between our front rowers, without having a destroyer.
I think the club has a couple of big decisions to make here, that will impact our ability to recruit and retain for the next couple of years.
Replies
I'd let him go, we don'r need him and we probably payed overs for him.
I think if we knew what we know now about the potential of some of our young forwards we may have resisted buying Lee Mossop. Having said that now that he is here lets see what he can bring to the table. The thing about a good footy team is combinations, that is why sometimes it is only changing two or three players that can make a poor team a good team, perhaps Mossop will combine well with this team and add another dimension, lets wait and see.
We can let Allgood go too, keep: Mannah, Lussick, Jnr Paulo, and Terepo as your 4 props. Good rotation to have and all 4 provide something different. I don't think you can get rid of Mannah he constantly makes metres and in a team that isn't going to dominate you need at least 1 prop you can count on to make 110m per game. On top of this we don't have any out-standing props currently in the NYC and whilst Tepai Tepu-Smith has been playing alright he hasn't made a massive impact.
Ham, if we do have to trim the fat with our front rowers, do you consider Alvaro has a potential to step up as say a number five or six prop?
It's all about balance though Phil. Yes the sharks have fafita but their backline (apart from carney) is ordinary. Our backline is class and the quality is getting there in the forwards. I don't want to plan for what ifs in case they don't happen.
Are we not complaining about a lack of forward dominance? Is he not an international? Would this give a bit of psychological legitimacy to our pack for ourselves and opposition packs? He has to be used, BA will know how.
Are you saying that we are paying $500k average for 4 props. Surely not! For those props $300-400k max should be all we should be paying as definitely not worth more.
Thats what i was about to post.
No way are we paying each of these guys 500k and even if we are paying them 300k you would assume some of that was 3rd party so not going towards the cap.
It was reported that Lussick's deal was around the $500k mark, and I can guarantee you Mossop wouldn't have packed up and come to play NRL for any less. Mannah I assume would be angling for a similar amount. I'm then allowing $500k to cover the other three to four props. I think I've been very conservative on that basis.
Whether all of that is on-cap is another matter, but when people say "How can Parramatta be over the cap I think how we have managed our front-row stocks is one of the biggest reasons why.
If you look at the way Ricky was going with our squad, he put a lot of emphasis on playing through the middle and having big forwards in the side. At some stages we were starting matches with four front rowers. BA is playing a totally different game, that doesn't play with the middle - so in some respects we've got a roster that was built for Ricky Stuart's game plan when we've taken a totally different direction that shifts the focus of our game away from the front rowers to the fringe forwards.
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