There’s still plenty of games left in season 2011 but tonight’s 25 to 12 loss to Canberra has made the finals equation so much more difficult for the Parramatta Eels.
The match was really lost in the first half, when Canberra dominated territory and field position, with 70 per cent of the opening 40 minutes played in the Eels own half.
That weight of possession came right from the early minutes of the match and in the eighth minute, Canberra looked like they had the first try when they split the Eel’s left hand defence. However Jarryd Hayne pulled off a miraculous strip as Joel Thompson attempted to get the ball down.
Around the 15 minute mark, Raider’s pivot Josh McCrone was pulled down just short but the pressure had been unwavering and a few minutes later we were cracked when Sam WIlliams stepped inside of a rushing Mitchell Algood, and then Hayne to score under the posts.
The Eels really needed some field position to turn the match around, but instead they made a couple more mistakes that kept them under the pump and McCrone again stepped inside rushing defence from Justin Horo and then fended off Nathan Hindmarsh before sprinting away from the defence for a try. Jarrod Croker made it two from two to push the advantage out to 12 and then extrended that with a penalty goal.
The Eels had a late chance in the final minute of the half, but Jordan Atkins was dragged down from behind just as he shaped to position his support. So the half closed with the Eels 14 down, but given how little they had seen the ball that wasn’t a particularly terrible result.
Indeed, Parramatta started the second half much more brightly and it only took six minutes for Eel’s rake Matt Keating to show and go and burrow his way to his line from dummy half. Burt converted the kick from in front to make it 14 to six.
Unfortunately the Raiders were quick to fire back, when they took advantage of a collision between Luke Burt and Casey McGuire to bust an under-manned defence with fullback Nathan Massey eventually going over out wide. Croker couldn’t convert leaving the Eels two converted tries behind.
The Raiders probably could have sealed it when Massey only needed to dive on a McCrone grubber that had evaded all Eels defenders. Parramatta punished Canberra for not taking advantage of that opportunity when a nice backline movement down the right-hand side saw quick hands from Hayne and Lasalo, which sent Ben Smith through a gap to the tryline. Burt converted and made it a six point ballgame.
However with the Eels hard on the attack Massey broke away and a few plays later McCrone’s attempt at field goal richocheted off Keating and wobbled over the goal to give Canberra a seven point advantage.
That blew out to 15 when a Jarryd Hayne kick was charged down and Sam Williams kicked the ball ahead twice before grounding the ball to close out the match.
It was a match Parramatta never really got into, and they didn't really deserve to be as close as they were. Canberra out enthused us, and the tries we conceded were soft, coming off individual efforts from the Raider's halves. It's going to take a 2009-style run for the Eels to make the eight from here and right now, they don't look capable of stringing together that many winning performances.
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I am very disappointed with that effort. We lost a lot of momentum as usual at the rotation when MOI MOI and MANNAH went off and SHACKLETON and ALLGOOD came on. No Thrust through the middle. They dont bend the defence back. Coupled that with our pedestrian wingers and uncreative halves - we gave our strike weapon HAYNE nothing at all to work with.
Some TIRED legs out there - age has caught a few of them and quickly. RENI must come into the side asap. I honestly think we are gone now. Hope I am wrong. The confidence has been sucked out of me.
Weak boys very weak.
We appear to have developed the habit of losing ...
It always seems like the opposition choose our games to pull their fingers out - the Raider forwards couldn't beat time with a stick before tonight and come out and control the game like they were doing it all year.
Guess the short turn around from MNF to SNF didn't help along with the very cold Canberra conditions - that's my positive spin on tonight.
We struggle at the back end of games to know how to win and do the little things right.
What value to the team is Lasalo, please someone tell me???
Webb -nothing.... Pointless interchange really. Shack- offers nothing really, another waste of a jersey.
Time to make some changes, start looking for next year.
POSITIVES, NEGATIVES, TACTICS & FUTURE:
Considering 70% of the first half was played in our half I thought our sliding defence was very good to only let in two tries. They should have scored 4 or 5 years with that much ball in our half. Hindy's defence again was sensational and his covering defence in the 70 minute mark was typical of the captain.
Our kicking was very average compared to last week and for some reason Jarryd goes missing on the 5th at times. Jarryd is our Soward when it comes to long defensive kicks on the 5th tackle. Someone please tell SK to tell Keating/Robson to give it to Jarryd 100% (not 50%) of time on the 5th when we are stuck in our own half (like what happen tonight in the first half). Robson was struggling with the boot.
Unfortunately even though I am a big fan of Horo he was caught out of position twice that led to tries playing at left centre when Morgan left the field. Although Horo may have played at centre in his junior football days he lacks that sideways agility and top end pace to play centre in the NRL. I'm starting to think our star unnamed player for next year is a big name centre as it would be highly negligent to not sign Reddy up considering Reddy is still in his mid 20's. Sorry I rephrase that it would be highly reckless for SK to not resign Reddy and to rely on Morgan, Loko, Tonga, (Vai Vai?) for next year. Please let it be Israel Folau!!!!
I thought the tactics of SK's bench was again questionable. Reni is a better player than Shacks, Allgood, Horo and Webb. Is Reni struggling with an injury that hasn't been reported on? Carl "Billy Rogers" WEBB only player 13.5 minutes off the bench. Webb player 17 minutes last week and 11 min the week before. Considering we lost Morgan early and Horo (our impact bench forward) had to play at left centre for most of the game and we were trapped in our own half for 70% of the first half I would have thought Webb should have come on to give Hindy or someone a rest in the first half.
Can anyone please explain SK's bench tactics? I understand that Hindy and Smith are 70 to 80 minute players but Lasalo is nothing special and shouldn't play anymore then 40 to 45 min. I really feel for Webb as he is a former State of Origin star and he struggles to average 15 min a game from SK. If SK only thinks Webb is good for 11 to 17 min of game time why wouldn't you pick Reni or one of the up and coming u20's. Please explain? I'm seriously starting to question SK's thought process with the bench!
Unfortunately tonight was realistically our last throw of the dice to make a late run for the 8. We need to think of the future (2012) and start to play around with the side (positionally) to see whether some of the up and coming u20's (& Wenty players) can handle the riggers of NRL. For example, pick Barba on the bench to give him a taste of NRL. Although he is physically probably too small and not ready, give him a taste as opposed to giving Webb 13.5 min. Give Barba 13.5 min instead to give us an insight to next year. Give Jarryd a couple of games at no.6 to see how he goes defending in the front line and whether we improve across the field.
Just my thoughts!
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