Match Preview: Start key to Knights clash

Do you know what's nice? I feel confident enough that Parramatta are going to produce a whole-hearted effort that I don't feel the need to dwell on the psychology of our performance this week. In fact, its Newcastle who are the psychological bucket cases at the moment. They don't seem to have taken news of Brian Smith's departure and have fallen in a heap in recent weeks. It's possible that they don't get out of the hole they've dug themselves into, but it's nothing something you would bet on. Brian Smith has a record of performing incredible week-to-week turnarounds and I'm sure Daniel Anderson and the Eel's players won't be taking Newcastle lightly. This is too important to Parramatta and they will know that if they win this week, they're well and truly in the mix for the top eight. Still, this game is eerily identical to this season's earlier clash between these two sides. In that game, the Knights were running hot and at home, the Eels were coming off a bad loss and were given no hope. The Eels won. However, Brian Smith complained that his side was down on intensity that week and as I said, I just don't see that happening with our boys this week. Did I mention, how nice it was go to into a game thinking that? So let's look at the Knights and their chances of a turnaround. A lot will come down to Jarrod Mullen. He can be freakish on his day, he tries a lot of things and some times he's on and sometimes he's not. When Mullen is on, the Knights invariably win. Mullen's strike power is related to his all-round game, he can run, kick for himself, kick for his supports and his long pass can be as good as any one else in the game. We'll almost certainly see that come into play with Mullen looking for MacDougall, who was probably the only player to come out of the Knight's last performance with his reputation intact. Parramatta's centres Joel Reddy and Kris Inu have done well in defence in recent games and will have to be on their toes again, both in terms of marketing up on their opposite numbers but also watching for the kick behind the line. However, I think the player who is going to be most tested will be Eric Grothe. He is well-known to come up off his line and Mullen may exploit that through either kicking or passing. The forward battle should be a good one. The Eels have out-performed better packs than Newcastle boast in recent weeks but the Knight's pack can be streaky as well. Players like Richard Fa'aoso can come out and brain you or they can come up with grease on their mits. As has been commented in the press this week, the battle of the fullbacks should be worth the price of admission alone. Newcastle structure a lot of play around trying to put Kurt Gidley into holes and the Eel's ruck defence will need to be on guard because Gidley can tear you a new one if you're lazy up the middle. And of course, we've all seen what Jarryd Hayne is capable of over the past couple of months and no doubt the Eels will be looking to him to produce those moments of magic again. However, we can't continue to rely on Hayne. Opposition defences are going to increasingly try and mark him out of the game and we need more points of attack, something that was missing last week. One can hope that Daniel Mortimer is back nice and fresh because he's really our only other attacking option at this point while Keating and Mateo are outside the 17. I have no doubt second-phase play will again be important to Parramatta but I wouldn't be surprised if we play a little more conservatively than we did against, say the Bulldogs. This is a match where we can probably try and grind Newcastle down and frustrate them, because if that happens they're more likely to start making mistakes and playing themselves out of the game. If, however, Newcastle do bring they're A-Game and put on early points, it will be a different story. To be honest, I don't have a lot of faith in this 17 being able to chase down a deficit. We've won our matches in recent weeks after racking up first half leads and then consolidating. If Newcastle's streaky but sometimes-brilliant playmakers get the Knights out to a couple of tries advantage, we may do it tough making it back. A sharp, high intensity beginning to this match is going to be critical.

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Replies

Parraloft August 7, 2009 at 3:54pm

I was under the impression Mortimer was away last week,but anyway...Optimistic about the weekend,though hope we dont play TOO open footy.It looked very good as we flung the ball all over the park last week ,but Newcastle will be a lot sharper than Cronulla were and we need to keep it tight on what will no doubt be a very close game.A nail biting game but Parra by 10..and Burt for first try
hayne_88 August 7, 2009 at 3:57pm

agreed. i am praying moimoi plays because i am having visions of him running riot over the newcastle pack!

wot i would also like to see is for grothe to not make a bad read in defence all game! cmon guru!

my tip: eels by 12
1Eyed Eel August 7, 2009 at 4:00pm

Brian Smith spoke to the media after this morning's training session to give his thoughts on this weekend's Knights v Eels clash.

http://bigpondvideo.com/NRL_Knights/198957
David August 7, 2009 at 6:43pm

I dunno... I think we're going to stuff up but not necessarily lose. Whenever we're favourites 2 games in a row, we don't perform too well.
RealEel August 7, 2009 at 8:25pm

It will be interesting to see if any side can get outside our centres. They have been getting up and in recently and cutting off ther oppositions attack. The danger is that if Mullen can get the ball outside Inu and Ready then we will be exposed. This hasn't happened yet and our defense has been strong. Lets hope we can keep it up.
Finchy August 7, 2009 at 9:24pm

Remeber what happend to the Eels when we knew Brian Smith was leaving at the end of the season. We were awful and he couldn't turn it arond (and resigned). May the same go for Newcastle.

Incidentally, we had a second-half resurgence after that and finished 8th (perhapsa a resurgance similar to this year).

I don't know what all this means .. hopefully victory for Parra.

I do know one thing. Unlike 1Eyed, I will sweat on our psychology until the day we win the grand final. I generally feel we've had a successful game if we actually bother to turn up to play!
Dan_Ref August 7, 2009 at 9:32pm

cowboys and panthers both lost tonight, this leaves the door wide open :)

c'mon parra biggest game of the year!!!!!