After a crappy start to the season a lot of people are looking to King Gutho to lift the side with his return. The problem is he is coming back from major injury and is likely to start the season slowly as he did when he first started with us and many wanted him sacked. He even recently admitted he received death threats from passionate parra fans after his slow start in the blue and gold. There is still an open investigation into whether these threats included calling him a dope to isolate if the threats came from someone on the eels fan site 1EyedEel.
Although I like others am excited to see gutho return, I understand he will not return in top form and will not immediately return to being the game winner he was before his injury last year. That said he could be the difference today in today's game. He will lift the confidence of other players and hopefully take some pressure off playmakers. He also has a winners mentality like Moses who gets filthy when things dont work like they should.
I recently came across the below article on NRL.com which outlines some of gutho's stats and may provide some hope he can help the side out of its slump. Taking away his line breaks and metres per game which are likely to be down as he recovers full match fitness and confidence, his off the ball efforts may be what we have lacked.
Many here have commented on our lack of offloads and predictability in attack. Gutho led the way with support runs which may open up the opportunity for an offload but will also put defences in 2 minds as they have to cover the man with the ball as well as the support runner in gutho.
Watching Newcastle last night and Kalyn Ponga in particular I think Bevan French and our halves needs to watch how Newcastle and in particular how Ponga plays. They have similar speed off the mark and French is possibly even quicker. Ponga got plenty of early ball and space which allowed him to get players on their outside and make linebreaks or linebreak assists to gain good field position.
This was missing from our early rounds however it could also come down to Guthos return. I remember last year seeing french burn players on the outside plenty of times but this year he seems to run out of space and is easily covered. Gutho returning could reopen this opportunity as defences hold back to defend Gutho in his support run opening up space outside as players hesitate before sliding out.
That said if the players get up with Guthos return and go on to lose this could be even more damaging to our confidence. It will mean we have slumped to another loss and can notlook for a returning player to turn the fortunes. For that reason today is a must win situation for us toturn around our season. Hopefully BA decision to take team for couple days bonding in canberra and not going down on game day also helps bring team together and focus.
Hopefully the below story and stats give others the same hope I have for tonights game.
From NRL.com
Clint Gutherson racked up plenty of impressive numbers in his 2017 breakout season but even the most optimistic Parramatta fan knows it will take more than his return to make up for their 0-5 start to the season.
With the formerly-fancied Eels languishing at the foot of the Telstra Premiership ladder, it would be foolish to expect 'The King' to single-handedly turn his team's fortunes around overnight but it's hard not to think his energy, spark, creativity and competitiveness wouldn't have made a difference in last week's one-try-apiece loss to the Panthers.
With Gutherson now set to run out for his first game of the season, NRL.com Stats took a look at the impact the Mona Vale Raiders junior had last year at Parramatta.
Gutherson's 114 metres per game were fourth-best at the club despite playing much of the season in he halves (one of just six to make more than 100 metres per game, with departed winger Semi Radradra second on the list).
His 14 line breaks and 11 tries were both second at the club behind Radradra (24 line breaks, 22 tries), his six line break assists were equal second after Mitch Moses (14) and his five try assists were equal fourth best at the club.
Despite playing just 18 of 26 matches, Gutherson easily led the club in a rarely-discussed off-the-ball effort area; his 311 support runs at just over 17 per game were easily a club-best. The Eels won over 60% of the games he played, and nine of 12 once their early-season run of four straight losses was behind them.
The Eels have struggled badly to get their sets started on the front foot so far in 2018 and the loss of Radradra combined with Gutherson's absence is a huge factor here. The two were the only Eels to average more than 10 metres per carry (runs excluding kick returns) from the defensive 40 in 2017. Gutherson was the only Eel to average over 10 metres on kick returns in 2017 and with Bevan French and Will Smith both averaging under eight metres per kick return in 2018, the difference at the start of sets is huge.
Across the entire NRL last year, Gutherson's try involvement rate in the games he played at fullback (that is, tries scored plus tries assisted per game) was fourth best among all fullbacks at 1.11 per game, behind only Tom Trbojevic (1.36), Billy Slater (1.35) and Alex Johnston (1.33).
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Probably Nitram but that is the luck of playing in 1 team town as video and other evidence seems stay out of media. If he played in sydney there is no way the video would not have surfaced yet. Would whighton be playing if he played for parra. Most definetly not as video would have already been leaked, but parra cant be looking for excuses and reasons they just need play better.
It means victory!