Mitchell Moses. Perhaps the most polarising halfback in the game at the moment. Now on big money, long touted to be a top shelf playmaker, some feel he's up to the task, others feel he has more to give.
Both could be true. At 29 he's coming into his playmaking prime and the fact he's been on an upward trajectory these past few seasons is indicative of that.
But some say he could be doing more to turn the tide for an Eels squad mired in mid-table, although only two points out of the eight and with a positive differential.
This blog was spurred by a fantastic statisitical deep dive over at the rugby league eye test who was analysing what has been going wrong for Parramatta this season.
Dubbing it the "Parramatta Possession Ponzi Scheme", the stats bear out the fact the Eels give up easy metres but fail to make ground. This continues a similar trend of previous seasons which was papered over by the fact the Eels were in the top three for metres gained in the NRL.
Now with the side struggling to make ground, the Eels are holding the bag.
You can read the full post via the link above, but this line in particular caught my interest
"This is where the long kicking game of Mitch Moses pays off. Even if they can’t get as far downfield as they’d like with the ball, they can make sure Moses puts them as close to the goal line as possible with an end of set kick."
I'm sure we all get sick of a long range kick that is fielded by our opponents inside their 10 metre line on the full, but it's hard to do much more when your go forward is non-existant.
Long story short, Parramatta starts their sets off, on average, a measly 36.7 metres from their own goal line, which is third worst in the NRL. That in itself isn't a huge problem given the Tigers are the best in the competition, starting off 42 metres from their own line and being winless.
But Parramatta average just 8.2 metres per run and give away 8.9 metres per run to their opposition.
With all that said, you'd be expecting the Eels to be defending their own line for most of the match. However, their opponents only manage to spend 14.3% of the game inside the attacking 20. Meaning most Eels matches are played around the middle of the field.
And that all essentially boils down to Mitchell Moses' kicking game.
Moses is averaging 499 kicking metres per game. That's better than Nathan Cleary, Adam Reynolds, Daly Cherry-Evans and Nicho Hynes.
The way Parramatta is playing at the moment, the thing really keeping them in games is Moses' ability to boot the ball down field and get some breathing space from their goal line.
As to how the Eels fix what's going wrong, well, it actually seems relatively simple.
They need to stop dropping the ball. Their error rate, early in games particularly, is putting their tiring middles under immense pressure and with Brad Arthur hoarding interchanges the Eels are easily exposed through the middle.
Holding the ball and completing high will give their power forwards more gas and allow for better middle cohesion. That's if Brad is intent on his middles playing long minutes. Although with RCG out injured and Greig only having about 20 minutes per stint in the legs he'll be forced into earlier changes.
Another solution is starting Brendan Hands and then allowing Josh Hodgson to come on scheming around the ruck against tiring opponents rather than him being the tiring one.
Brad Arthur had better be counting his lucky stars that he has Mitchell Moses in his side who is constantly kicking them out of trouble. Given his side's lacklustre defence, he could well be staring down the barrel of an even worst start to the season with out it.
Replies
Sobering reading
especially for the BAfans 🙄
Maybe this kick is the problem. Not the kick itself but the mental laziness of the team knowing it's the go to. Nobodies ever said " oh jeezus I hate that big boring lob kick that's just gained 40 metres " but a few of us have said we are sick of the fact it's the only thing in the bag of tricks. Even Moses mentally would struggle to get creative if you know you can revert to what you know and it gets a job done well.
If I can get the mrs off by giving her a couple of fingers , then why bother changing it up and using the tongue to get her to the destination. If the fingers wernt so successful I might try sing some Ed Sheeran and sink the teeth in.
There is two ways you can take this , a positive that Mitch is saving the day , or negative because he's has to so often.
Haha Wiz - you dirty bastard..
Nowadays I just take the undies off and the Mrs sees stars.....
You know Wiz, you make some good points but in the process you hi jacked your own post and potentially the blog.
The analogies you continue to use have places on here and can be clever, all you need now is the balance.
Totally agree Wiz...the kick option is far to repetitive with very little variation...
Lmfao wiz
your best analogy yet imo 🤣
How true good blog
We'd be dead last if it wasn't for Moses. IDC what anyone says.
It's that kind of logic that got us into this position.
Mate we need forwards, that's why we are in this position.
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