Curled up in the foetal position, the noise is getting louder from some of our punters. Drop Pezet. Move him on. He’s been labelled “a mistake” by some, along with the usual tomatoes thrown at R&R, the team, and the front office. But not Talyn Da Silva this week. We are not just loyal, but passionate.
Expectations were high across the rugby league community following our form late last year and winning the Pre-Season Challenge.
But we haven’t put together an 80-minute performance, hitherto. We’ve started poorly and fought off the back foot on the ropes. Hard yakka.
But two from three is not a bad winning return. And it was more than luck.
Image: Tallyn Sa Silva, scores two tries in a twenty minutes cameo; you can't coach speed.
Blowtorch
We’ve opened the season against the defending premiers, a perennial powerhouse who have never lost a round one in 24 years, the current premiership favourites, and the desperate Dragons trying to avoid 0–3.
It doesn’t get much harder.
Round one wasn’t just a loss against the Storm. It was C4-demolition.
408 tackles to 280 (+128) is a defensive load that blows up dam walls. The floodgates open.
Fatigue that doesn't just slow you down: it turns momentum into a landslide. A vicious cycle of errors and poor decisions.
Tackle Difference vs results (using nrl.com stats)
Sharks | +52 tackles | lost by 28 (38–10) to Dolphins (R3)
Knights | +60 tackles | lost by 26 (38–12) to Warriors (R2)
Raiders | +77 tackles | lost by 34 (40–6) to Warriors (R3)
Cowboys | +85 tackles | lost by 28 (44–16) to Tigers (R2)
Roosters | +97 tackles | lost by 24 (42–18) to Warriors (R1)
Titans | +102 tackles | lost by 14 (30–16) to Cowboys (R3)
Eels | +128 tackles | lost by 48 (52–4) to Storm (R1)
The damage was already done, but to keep them to one try in the last 15 minutes with 12 men was miraculous. An early sign.
Many put a line through the Eels then and there. The 52-4 loss was even worse than last year. Sportsbest immediately dropped us from equal eighth hopefuls at $21 to bottom four at $51. Darren Kemp suggested the Eels had been reading "their own headlines."
Fightbacks
The last two weeks have been the same movie. By the 27th minute in both games, we were getting bashed up.
Down 20–6 vs Broncos. 14–6 vs Dragons.
We made around 60 more tackles by then. A ten-set difference.
Image: Fatigue makes cowards of us all. Moses, Paulo, Williams, Fox, out. Haunched over. Hands on hips. Structure in disarray. Little talk. The much-maligned Pezet one of the few still moving, following the ball like a terrier.
Straight out of Tim Sheens’ playbook. Fatigue them early, win it late. The difference? They were already winning.
Even Mitchell Moses admitted on Triple MMM after the Broncos win he felt early it was heading for a repeat of the Round One debacle. So did I. He also admits Pezet is a seven, which is why we saw him switch left and right, and play first receiver often in that game.
But in both games, we didn’t follow the script that felt a fait accompli.
We stayed alive.
We clawed our way to halftime leads in both, then overcame second-half surges when we looked likely to lose it again.
Chart: Linespeed (Pre-Contact Metres). Eels (Blue) vs Dragons (red)
The Dragons’ big men bullied us. Dominated. They had faster line speed for most of the match. At least, until possession swung from 60-70% their way, to finish up at 50-50. Then, they dipped and imploded.
We lost Hopgood in the 27th, then Samrani in the 39th, and Guymer shifted to the centres. The rebuilt right edge looked vulnerable against the Dragons’ left edge, with Suli and Luciano running rampant.
But the Dragons repeated their own script, just as they had the week before against the Storm when the game was in their grasp. Errors. Panic. Poor game management when possession swung the Eels’ way.
Image: Williams and Ryley Smith made 50 tackles each against the Dragons.
Gus Gould, who tipped the Dragons and called the game, was impressed with the Eels’ character.
“Real Grit”
“Real grit from Parramatta to stay in it and win the way they did," he noted in this week’s Six Tackles.
"I think Jason Ryles will be really happy with the grit they showed.
“Particularly in the last twenty minutes where they were down on troops, down on numbers, and still found a way to win.
“That’s a good quality for them,” Gus concluded.
We rose off the canvas after the biggest Round 1 knockout loss in our history.
We rose again after being bashed early in both games and on the ropes in the second half. Fatigued. Off our feet.
In those two wins, we didn’t play great footy compared to the last two months of last year or the trials. But we took our chances, scrambled well, held our nerve, and managed the game better.
That’s resilience. Heart.
The legs were weary, but we didn't lose our heads. The Dragons and Broncos did.
But we’re also playing with fire.
There are "lessons" we need to learn, as Jason Ryles reminded us post-game.
The reasons and the fixes behind these poor starts flirting with fatigue-induced blowouts, the defensive vulnerabilities, and what the grit is compensating for remain questions time will answer.
The Biggest Test
This week we face the best.
Penrith aren’t just winning. They’re suffocating teams. Strangling them. Surgically. And none have won the week after.
26–0 against the Broncos, the reigning premiers.
26–6 against the Sharks, perennial contenders.
40–4 against the Roosters, one of the premiership favourites.
What will they do with us? Matty Johns described them as playing with a “chip on their shoulder.”
They don’t let you back in once they’re on top, and if we start the same way again, it’s doubtful there’ll be a comeback this time.
Replies
Pops,
What happened to the Frenchman?
We probably need to be realistic a bit when it comes to Pezet.
He is new to our systems after being in the Storm for years and we're building new combinations.
I agree with Michael Witt. He is probably 3–6 years away from showing his true capabilities as a seven. As long as he sticks at it. That’s just the way many halves evolve. 25 onwards. Mentally and physically.
But he's shown signs of footy IQ, arguably even more than Dylan Brown. And he definitely is a better communicator and talker, even if he hasn't quite find his way in our team yet.
When he made those three kicks that led to three tries against the Broncos, he had the vision to see Walsh wasn’t positioned to stop them and went for it. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but that’s not the point.
He’s also a bit of a terrier, following the ball around. I like my halves doing that. Dylan did that at his best in cover.
If you watch the Broncos game again, you’ll see all of that.
There was a moment late in the first half where he made three straight tackles in the ruck, sensing the fatigue of his teammates. When Iongi dropped the ball on the left edge deep in Broncos territory and Staggs made a break to set up the Walsh chip-kick try, guess who was closest to the ball? Pezet. He followed the play from one side of the field to the other.
He’s also building a combination with Moses and both back rowers. He shifted on the right edge for Tuilagi’s two tries against the Broncos. And as noted before, he was often at first receiver with Moses wider at second, probably to get the best out of the combination. Moses is dangerous out wider or on the short side.
Sure, Pezet and the left edge have been caught out laterally and will be targeted. It needs work. A lot. Halves are generally targets by default. Look at DCE at the Roosters. Moses at Pezet’s age was probably just as bad, or even worse — a turnstile front-on.
Sure, he’s not as fast as Moses or Brown, which would make his running game more of a threat, but to his credit, as Moses pointed out in that MMM interview, he plays square, digs into the line, creates space and attracts player onto the ball.
He’s quicker between the ears than on his feet.
He probably needs to build his confidence a bit too, to regain his Storm swagger and kicking game.
But. Surely at some stage this year, Ryles is going to need to start thinking about whoever he sees as the future at six, even in small doses in first grade — possibly when Moses is out?
My gut feel is that Ryles prefers more footy IQ at six than what Dylan provided. I’ve noticed, he's raised the average footy IQ across the board. Probably a reason he’s attracted to Pezet.
Looking at the highlights of the Reggies last week, I’m not sure what to think about Joash (played seven) or Lorenzo (played six). We looked a bit of a shambles in that game, for whatever reason. And Joash isn’t listed to play Reggies this week.
Jersey, NSW Cup, Harold Matthews, and SG Ball are sitting around 3rd to 8t, so it's not the big disaster we may assume after a hiding, but I don’t know how far Fletcher or Risati are (both playing SG Ball this week vs the Roosters). You’d assume they’re lower in the pecking order, wouldn’t you?
Like you, I’ll defer it all to Ryles for the reasons you noted.
Funny as Mat Rogers, Dan Ginnane and Sean Omerod said we were lucky to win it, St. George gave us that win.
To that I say yes and no. We were lucky but we also earned our tries. The last try particularly we capitalised on a mistake which the good teams do.
So yeah Dragons halves cost them by being oblivious to the obvious overlaps when they had an extra man on our line but we had extra man and capitalised too when given the chance.
So yeah lucky, but we also completed better. We showed grit and also patience.
Curates Egg stuff LB.
It was St George's game to win as the match progressed, undoubtably!.....that said our defence in the last 17 minutes was deserving. The mistake's we did make were defensive early in the game and we had a few line ball decisions go our way, which is unusual in itself. Dissapointed that their forwards dominated us in the beginning.....they obviously got tired. If you analyse the possesion their tiredness came with those flows, which explain how their forwards got tired after having to defend.
We capitalised with our chances, they did not. That was the difference. Was it the case of best team lost? i would argue not necassarily as both teams gave their opponents chances, we took our chances compared to them.
Wins are always good. No complaints about winning.
But there are too many very glaring problems to ignore.
- Our middles are losing the collision: To borrow a Brad Arthurism, the game still requires teams to win the collision in the middle. 3 games to start the season, and three games our opponents ran wild through the middle third. That's alarm bell, red flashing lights, sirens type stuff.
- Pezet's defence: A massive downgrade from DB in this area and teams are well aware of it. We're 2 from 3 wins with the worst defence in the NRL. That's not sustainable.
Spirit and grit are essential and I believe this side has those attributes. But it can only get you so far if you lack the firepower required. No one is coming to save us.
"worst defence in the NRL. That's not sustainable."
That summation says it all!
Yep, you're right Mutts and Pops. Defence needs fixing.
It’s also probably no accident the worst defences at R3 — us, Roosters, Dragons, Titans— played the Panthers or Storm (except for the Titans).
Arthurisms? Mmm. Last year our middle defence was better than most Arthur years (7th).
Under Arthur our middle defence (other than 2020-21) was ordinary to awful. From 2019 to post 2021-2024 the middle defence was 3rd-worst to 6th-worst for conceding tries. The Edges even worse. Perennially vulnerable.
I'm not sure where our problems actually are.....lets say a winger was the reason our defence was so bad......does that mean a centre has to cover a winger, if we have a weak centre, does that mean we have to weaken an edge, if we have a weak half do we have to have a strong 5/8 and vice versa. Are our middles being pushed too wide to make up for other defensive deficiences? Whose deficiencies is our lock making up for...middles? hey wait if we have a lock covering for a 5/8 does that mean our middles get sunk?
Cancer travels all over the body, the resultant start may have nothing to identify its finish!
Rule changes and injury for the most part hurt defenses and one thing stats don't tell you is with injuries come combination changes.When your changing out defensive combinations on the regular it does nothing for things like trust in certain situations.
Our fowards got old quick with the rule changes especially as most of them were north south types and lacked lateral agility this also extended out on the edge.
Defense starts from the inside out if you can secure the middle most times you can solidify that on the edge it makes decision making a lot easier if you know the inside is secure.
It's why I banged on all off season about first contact especially with the rules and the 6 agains trying to speed the ruck up.The defensive collision and getting numbers on the ball carrier is crucial.Too beat that you have to go to the line in numbers and short pass as then players can't cheat on the initial ball carrier.
I would argue our starting middles are. We regain a lot once Walker, Tuivait and Doorey come on, then slowly go back to before once they are off.
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