Eels Blogs

Well, going into what some thought was the game of the round turned out to be the dud of the round. It was competitive for the first 60 mins, as soon as Moses left the field it was cue Penrith demolition. We go into week 2 with history against us. It favours Canberra due to 8th place teams winning in week 1 three times before, each of those three won the following week with two of them going to the GF. For us, we have made week 2 in each of our 4 prior finals appearances with an 0-4 record. This is one of the most important games in BA's tenure, win and get to a prelim and set us up well as a playing group for 2023. Getting to a prelim will speed up growth of our players and lead us with some confidence in being able to win big games at the back end of the season, lose and well nothing will be different anytime soon.

As stats are concerned it was pretty even, Penrith held the ball more with 51% possession and did better with the ball with 83% completions to our 67%. We had more offloads with 12 to their 5, apparently there ground was still quite wet due to weather earlier in the day so the ball would have been slippery, would have limited our offload opportunity. Penrith had 37 more runs racking up 419 more metres from those runs. They had more tackle breaks (35:30), Line-breaks (3:2) and less missed tackles (30:35). 14 errors from us is high though not that high compared to Penrith's 10. Now one area i wanted to focus on was play the ball speed, i felt we were slow all night and only after the second half we looked better with our play the ball speed then it slowed down again. 3.79 seconds for us, 3.35 seconds for Penrith. That is how they got their role on early in the match, quick play the balls through the middle freeing up Yeo who frees up Luai and Cleary more. 

Most Impressive:

Ryan Matterson: My man of the match, Matterson ran well off the bench. Coming on earlier than usually due to Penisini coming off for HIA moving Niukore to the centres. Rolling through the middle with 148 metres on 20 runs, 3 offloads and 5 tackle breaks. Matterson should be moving towards being the Yeo type role soon, he has the ball playing skill for it but atm he is seen as that momentum type of creater through the tired middle around the 20-25min mark. It will be the same for the rest of the year and Matto will continue to play as he has for most of the year.

Reagan Campbell-Gillard: Big Reg set the tone early, 152 metres off 19 runs and a tackle break. Wouldn't say it was his greatest game but a good game notheless from porno mo himself RCG.

Junior Paulo: A nice game from the skip, though a poor captain's challenge early on he was sound. 166 metres from 20 runs, 31 tackles, 3 offloads and 2 tackle breaks. Paulo has played better the last month of footy than he has all year, so he is hitting his form at the right time leading by example, but is it enough v Canberra?

Honorable mentions: Mahoney, Kaufusi.

Most Disappointing: 

Waqa Blake: Call me captain obvious here, but i wonder if his kids at home say "Daddy, catch" he suffers from PTSD remembering Cleary bombing the hell out of him? Blake i mentioned a few weeks ago he could, COULD, be a world class winger with the foundations he has. After that performance those foundations are gone, sorry. Going back to centre might be better for Blake, under the high ball he was suspect, lost confidence and was a liability.

Jakob Arthur: Oh god here we go, but i am calling it like it is. It is hard to come into a major final with 20 to go, down by 5 and away from home playing the most important position on the field taking over from the most important player in the team. Jakob though was thrown to the wolves unfortunately. The kick out on the full, missed tackle that led to a break and generally slowing down the attack just showed JA is not ready, for first grade full-time nontheless a finals game off the bench. I know what some are saying, lucky he was there to slot straight in for Moses. But you cannot tell me Cartwright could not do the same role? Brown practically takes over from JA anyway, Cartwright can distribute and assist Brown and Gutho anyway. This is not JA's fault, but when put on the field you need to perform and he didn't so calling it like it is, but he was thrown to the wolves in a bad way.

BA's bench: Another beating of a dead horse, why name a middle forward like Makatoa who is 3rd in your rotation and played all games bar 2 this year, only gets 7 minutes. If you do not trust them do not name them. Name Ofahiki Ogden who has 47 NRL games of experience instead. JA on the bench, though was somewhat justified in that Moses got hurt so he did a straight swap, Cartwright can do the same, if not better, than what JA could as a 14.

Clint Gutherson: 67 metres and 7 runs is not enough from a fullback in a big game, particularly a captain also. This was a game for 'King Gutho' to take his seat on the mythical throne and nothong really to show for it. The game was going to be a grind, doesn't suit Gutherson but it is a game for him to break out and change the vibe of the game. It is moments in big games where Gutho needed to shine, Brown is another that didn't, but Gutho more so, not through a lack of trying causing a few errors trying to create something.

Captain's challenge: Remember Brandy's rule on captain's challenge: Do not let Wingers or Props call a challenge. What if a co-captain is a Prop Forward? Chaos ensues. It was a bad call and so early on.

Back 5: One thing for sure is Canberra can leak points, though they also score points well also. If we are to leak anything we need more strike power, Opacic is a wonderful defensive centre, might be time to shift Blake back to Centre and Simonsson on the Wing. Penisini has suffered from second year syndrome, he has handled himself to the point where he is awful, but how he finished 2021 compared to his 2022 confidence was a big factor in his performances this year. Opacic though a good defender is rather a conservative type of player. Sivo is still getting 100% from his ACL injury yet has shown glimpses of greatness he falls in the department of being average to be fair, does his work but doesn't make the post contact metres you'd expect from a winger his size. It might sound crazy but what was the one game where Simonsson was great this year? RD 12 v Canberra, his former club, Simonsson looking to redeem himself back in the top grade this is his chance, moving Blake back to centre will add a bit more speed and gets his hands on the ball earlier.

Taylan May serving his 1 game suspension: How can Peter V'Landys do that to the fans, giving him a one match ban for his high shot. It was bad enough we had 10 mins without him on the bench, a mate of mine who is a Penrith fan was upset and wanted to go home when May was sin binned, just can't believe the NRL would do that, it is awful. (Sarcasm of course).

That is it for another week now heading into what i will call the biggest game of BA's career so far. Fourth straight week 2 appearance and fifth overall, not winning a single one. If he loses this, despite having three top 4 finishes out of the five appearances, Buzz Rothfield mentioned the blow torch will be under him and so it should be. He has mentioned this is the best team he has had in the 9 years at the club, then he should get his best finish as a coach which would be week 3. For the club to grow we need week 3, we need that confidence to head into next year especially missing all these players for next season. Lose Friday and we as a squad head into 2023 with this sense of defeat, no improvement and doubt also. Week 3 is crucial for the development of our players and coach, know they are capable and take that into motivation to get to GF, instead of our focus being "getting to week 3" our focus should be "get to a GF" as we achieved the other goal.

Team changes, well Moses seems ready to go, if he is out JA will come in and Cartwright i believe will come onto the bench. Other than that if Moses plays it will be same 17. If it was me, Cartwright for JA and Simonsson for Opacic. But it will be the same 17, BA is a coach that gives his players the chance to redeem themselves.

8th place the last 3 times and only times have won week 2, but we have yet to lose back to back games this year. So there are stats in favour of both teams, that is where stats cannot be relied upon 100%. Experts, if you can call them that, have already began taking Canberra so we will see.

Enjoy and God Bless Parramatta and God Bless the King......Charles aswell haha.