There was a time not too long ago when the Parramatta Eels were soft where it mattered most. They offered no starch, no presence, no aggressiveness through the middle third of the field.
That softness delivered a wooden spoon in 2018.
Then Junior Paulo return in 2019 and provided a truly dominant forward the Eels had been sorely missing. By 2020 Parramatta had poached Reagan Campbell-Gillard from the Penrith Panthers.
RCG was seen as a good piece of business. The Panthers were picking up a large amount of his freight and he added some size to the middle of the field.
However, there were concerns he would be Kane Evans 2018 mk2.0. RCG had been dropped to reserve grade during 2019 and was out of sorts. He was a long way from the Blues and Kangaroos jerseys he'd once filled.
But the change of scenery has given him a shot in the arm and he can now be considered one of the best props in the game.
For the past month the Eels have coughed and spluttered their way to three wins and a loss. They have struggled for fluency in attack and been unable to cash in on field position.
But where their star-studded backline has at times failed, the middle has stood up and won them games.
Against the Newcastle Knights and with his front row partner injured, RCG ran for 221 metres and formed a damaging combination with lock Nathan Brown who managed 266 metres.
In their loss against Manly you couldn't accuse the bookends of taking it easy. Paulo managed 178m from 17 runs in 61 minutes while Campbell-Gillard chalked up a mammoth 297 metres in an 80 minute performance. Had he grounded a grubber late in the game he'd likely have scored the try to kick off a winning comeback.
The following week against the Tigers RCG managed 247 metres and a try for the ages while Junior Paulo himself rampaged for 218 metres.
In their most recent performance against the Bulldogs RCG ran for 201 metres while this time it was Paulo's turn to star with 226 metres and a try assist.
With the game becoming faster and middle dominance of utmost importance, the Eels have two of the most damaging forwards in the game. Both can play in excess of 60 minutes, giving Brad Arthur plenty of flexibility with the use of his bench.
Parramatta have also been hit hard by injuries to their middle forwards with their starting props stepping up and cranking out the numbers needed to cover the shortfall.
While the Eels have struggled with their attack in recent weeks, they've been granted the field position and middle domination to make up for it more often than not.
Opposition teams have been unable to contain the starting pair and it seems the longer the game goes, the better they get.
There are plenty of things for this side to work on. They'll need to in order to overcome the Sharks this weekend.
But the middle is one place where they can have the confidence that those players will turn up every week.
Replies
I wonder if a lot of the sputtering has to do with two of our bench middles being injured the past month? They both came back yesterday but clearly need to get more game time in. Parra looks very good when Paulo and RCG are out there making inroads and giving our attack some room to move, but without that we look a little lost and our attack suffers.
We'll need to be switched on this coming weekend. I am confident that BA knows what needs to be done, and the players are well aware that even though they got the 2 points against Canterbury, they need a lot more from the team if they are to be successful this year.
It's a distinct possibility that all the chopping and changing we did while we had those injuries impacted some team harmony and everyone is trying to settle down again. Matto being in and out has obviously meant the defensive struggles of our right side have been amplified.
Provided we don't have too many more injuries I think our side should click back in gear pretty soon. We probably just need one really good win where we control the game for 80 minutes to give everyone the confidence they can do it.
It's telling the side wasn't happy yesterday and I'm expecting a statement performance this weekend.
2018 team we fielded in round 1.
1.French 2.Hoffman 3.Jennings 4.Hayne 5.Auva'a 6.Norman 7.Moses 8.Alvaro 9.King 10.Mannah 11.Mau 12.Moreroa 13.Brown 14.Scott 15.Taka 16.Matagi 17.Evans
IMO it really comes to show how little impact the likes of Mannah, Alvaro, and Moeroa had in games. I will even check Peni in that mix also.
The rule changes that season also killed us. We had a small, mobile pack and the constant penalties played straight into the bigger packs who could rest every time a penalty was blown.
I know RCG probably likes to play big minutes but I'd love to see Evans and Kaufusi curb those to keep both our starters fresh for the finals run.
I think the dominance of our middles may be leading to an imbalance in how we are playing and the lack of quality ball getting to our edges and backs. It seems like a weird thing to say but instead of our middle making metres in order to go wide we seem to be making metres up the middle to yet again go up the middle. We seem overly keen to keep the ball in the middle. For example when atacking the oppositions line we seem to be going for too many plays trying to crash over the line or variants thereof.
I would like to see our edges attacking more and us looking to move the ball wide in attack once we have earnt the right to in the middle instead of just looking to once again attack the middle. How many times in the last few weeks have you seen brown playing to Lane? Seems we have moved away from what worked becaause of the dominance of our middles.
MB, agree pretty much with what you are saying, as the amount of middle plays are where the primary plays/attacks are heading, and with just tight wins since this pattern of play has taken over, almost like MM last year where his high mid point kicks were the norm, other aspect in all of this is our right side backs have been somewhat off for a while now.
While our bench against the dogs was strong on paper, they were given a pasting by a so called weaker team, I picked the eels to win by 2 as I saw it as a danger game as they are always between these two teams. I believe Matto could have played but was left out as a precautionary measure, he will be back against the sharks and will add a fair bit to the side, and some more variation in the plays. That likely puts Taka out, with Davey remaining until Stone is back, who I believe has been missed.
I tend to think also that there is a degree of feigning plays from the team as we go in to the heavy rounds coming up, with 5 rounds left before the semi's. The eels play is strong enough overall in their efforts to stay in the top 4, while many have said we have a dream run to the end, looking at the draw, there are not many easy teams to face up to, if any of them are, as most would be wanting to knock us out.