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
I have the answer Hoey, drop Pezet..... bring in anyone that can run faster than him....I suspect he could be the slowest player in our 19, even Junior would beat him over 10 metres. Then there is his attack, he is so slow getting into position and then passing, Australia Post would do more deliveries in 80 minutes than this lad.....yes he showed some vision against Broncs and got away with poor execution. I'm not sure what he did against the Dragons, but it was enough to stop Moses running on both sides of the field accept when Moses was trying to cover his missed tackles attempts.
Now I say all this for one reason.....I would love to be proved wrong!
PS now that is leading with my chin!...... please Mr Pezet prove to me I have totally misjudged you!
PS 2, I am having nightmares that Brisbane has offered Parra a deal to keep him, could we be that dumb.....I would have a 40 year old Reynolds in preference!
Pezet has to say yes to that deal if Brisbane say to us want to keep him. So let's say in the 0.1% chance that happens, I'm not sure Pezet agrees.
Poppa can I ask, how will your mental state be once Pezet moves permanently to Brisbane, ever so closer to you? Lol
I most certainly understand your question.
You of all people would realise my mental state varies greatly depending on which way the wind is blowing Lol.
Trying to analyse my position on Pezet is driven by what I saw of him for Melb last year....I was talking to Michael W at the time and he went back and watched a lot of vision of Pezet. We basically realised there was no running threat in him but his passing and head on defence looked ok. Keep in mind we were looking at him as a 7 filling in for Jerome Hughes and this makes a difference. Subsequently he has shown us he has no lateral defensive ability at all and whilst we realised he was slow, we didn't know how much. Even his hands are not quick. he showed up in a try against Broncs with good hands, that the only evidence we have seen.
My personal belief was that he was never a 5/8 but would be a good foil if Moses got injured (not convinced even for that at present). In saying that I would pick him in our 19 as a standby if Moses got a HIA or the like during a game.
So the other quandry is that Ryles has seen this kid over a long period and its his judgement that is on the line. My view before the start of the season was optimistic because Ryles is obviously a much better judge than me, I still believe he is but can only assume that Pezet is either no where as good as he/we had hoped when he got to a first grade team without the built in protection he had at Storm.
I have nothing against the kid and I hope he proves me wrong, I think Michael W still has some belief in him and he is also a better judge than me.
It's and easy fix put Pezet in the 7 and Moses in the six. Pezet plays more as a natural 7 instead of a eyes up type six. I said this before Lorenzo should have made his debut this year insTead of wasting him in reserve grade.
Well Parrafan, technically you can do that in game without changing the numbers. But why let Pezet be chief playmaker?
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.
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