Eels Blogs

I said from the start of the year, prelim minimum is what is needed from BA and this squad. Well, we got to a prelim. For us it was from some fans "GF or bust" but to me it was let's get to a prelim first, and we got there so to me it is a successful season due to improving on last year. Now the big one, coming in as underdogs v North Queensland, we love being underdogs. It is unknown territory for both teams, which is good. BA and Payten both in their first prelim as head coaches, both teams with majority of the group not being in a prelim at all. If there is one area that is a concern or in favour of NQ is Holmes and Townsend. Both were apart of Cronulla's 2016 premiership, so they have been here and done that, Dearden is in massive form playing Origin and not missing a beat; Cotter, Nanai, Taulagi all getting Origin experience. The heat also, though not as bad as first thought with 22 degrees being forecasted for Friday night, is still a factor as it will be dry heat. Parramatta should not muck around and jet up to NQ early, train in the heat and get accustom to it as much as possilbe. NQ will grind their way to a level first half, they can be patient and use Cotter, McLean and Robson to sure up the middle to frustrate us, what we need to do is get points early and pull back to grind. The thing is NQ will grind us, but we do not mind getting into the grind, particularly against good teams. Melbourne and Penrith we happily grind against, it is against lower end teams where we get impatient and frustrated due to thinking we can just get an early lead and dominate.

The danger for us is trying to score points early, to no avail, then getting frustrated, going side to side then NQ go on with it in the second half. Sound familiar? It happened in Darwin, fatigue and heat got to us and NQ scored three tries in the last 6 mins. NQ showed last week v Cronulla they can hold on and are a very fit NRL unit, plus Payten prides himself on defence, their defence last week was actually better than Cronulla's but still was not up to that standard, Payten is a hard task master and would have them primed. We conceaded 4 points last night, though Canberra were rubbish call spade for spade. We were great as when a team is dreadful a great team can dominate and we did that. But no denying Canberra didn't trouble us at all really besides the first 5mins where they were making metres up the middle. Plus our record in NQ is dreadful, we havent played there since 2019, not winning there since 2017. We have only lost twice in Darwin since 2014, it was against NQ both times. Why? They live in that heat, they adapt to it alot better. 

This is where the bench comes in, Paulo coming off after 25 only to be brought back in with 5 to go cannot happen in Townsville. Use half-time to your advantage, in that moment bring on Makatoa to do a role for last 5 and first 10 of second half then bring Paulo back on for final 30. He needs to use Makatoa (His 16th man) more in Townsville, it'll be a grind and need Paulo and RCG rested as much as we can to hold the middle towards the back-end; Cotter, Robson and McLean have played in Townsville weather they get rested well during the game also, give Cotter space through a tired middle with Robson and momentum swings automatically. Let Matto, Makatoa and Kaufusi see out the half.

What is the danger for NQ? Being favourites with pressure, take us to the grind and we match it, capitalising on some mistakes. We come in pretty unscathed and full of confidence, NQ come in rested with no momentum and reletively hesitant after scraping past Cronulla. We have the better form heading into this.

I said last night, that game had close for 65mins then breakaway type energy to it, i was way off as Canberra didn't turn up and we capaitalised on it. This game but, will be that, both teams holding on and one penalty, mistake, call, risk or break will win the game for one of the other.

Shout out to BA for getting us up, but also standing strong in the media, it is how i like him to talk, on the front foot and knocking where the quotes come from and pretty much saying do the best you can. That is what i want to see more of from him.

Stats last night; 77% completion is quite low actually, but it happens with the type of football we played where errors are prominant, i wonder if with Tbaz that will improve or if he will structure us a bit more. 59% possession is where Sticky said we sufficated them and he is right, Canberra just kept bringing us back into the game with errors and we capatilised on it. We had 772 more metres on 77 more runs last night, Canberra made metres well to start then Penisini's try dampened their spirits. 8 line-breaks to their 5, 47 tackle breaks to their 25 and 19 offloads to their 9 showed how much the stats leaned in our favour. 25 missed tackles to their 47 is a massive improvement, considering we are coming up against another big pack in NQ next week. 10 errors though is an area we would need to fix up, it will be dry in Townsville but sweat will be a factor on the ball causing it to be a bit slippery, including fatigue also. At least sure up the errors for the first portion of the game. plus only 3 penalties conceaded, we were quite disciplined in our performance.

Most Impressive:

Mitchell Moses: My man of the match, he was excellent tonight. You saw how we perform as a team once he is off the field when JA came on, we seemed disorganised. Not knocking JA as i felt he did his job to be fair and it is hard coming in and adapting to the speed three quarters in, but our attack holted when he was off. To be fair if it doesn't when your 7 is off then you do not have a good 7. 120 metres, 3 tackle breaks, 1 line-break, 2 line-break assists, 1 try assist, an offload and a try. Wonderful work from the birthday boy. One thing is clear, when Mitch is running, we win most of the time. 60% of the time it works everytime.

Dylan Brown: 321 metres on 29 runs. WHAT. THE. F***. 6 tackle breaks, a try assist, a line-break and line-break assist. That is all, a nice come back game for Brown.

Reagan Campbell-Gillard: 192 metres from 18 runs, when you have a Prop averaging more than 10 metres per run they are doing their job well, that is exactly what RCG did. Set the tone early against Tapine and Papali'i. RCG has a no frills factor about him, no occassion is too big, no assignment too much. Get's out there and does his job. Massive test against McLean, Taumalolo and Cotter.

Clint Gutherson: 216 metres, 2 try-assists, 5 tackle breaks and was an energizer bunny out there. Full of energy, we need exactly the same against Cowboys.

Honorable mentions: Lane, Kaufusi, Matterson, Paulo.

Most Disappointing:

Tom Opacic injury: It is apart of the game but is a downer, could miss a prelim and even a GF due to a hamstring. If it is the last game in the blue & gold for Tom, Thank You for your service.

That's it, 40-4 not much to complain about, 1 GAME FROM A FRICKEN GF!!!!!

Call me covering myself from disappointment but even if we lose on Friday, i think getting to a prelim will do wonders for the club moving forward and do wonders for BA also. 13 of the last 16 prelims have favoured the teams having the week off, so there is wiggle room in there but QCBS is not a fortress for NQ as one may think. they have lost 3 games there this year, so it is possible. Though those losses came when it was a little cooler, though there was a hard slog 6-4 loss to Canterbury in round 1 when it was still warm, but that was before North Queensland clicked.

We have two very well coached teams coming in, a team of experienced finals players in us, with a bunch of kids in their 2nd finals game never the less a prelim. Townsend and Holmes GF glory experience will pay divotends. It is something that i feel we will benefit from more from Hodgson next year.

Question is can we win? Of course we can, outside the 4 you don't win a comp, we finished in the 4 so history is on ourside. We are travelling into Townsville on gameday. I would've gotten there way earlier, escape the noise and get some recognition to the climate but let's see how it goes.

Got through one hurdle, that is week 2, now in unknown territory, but so are NQ. Let's go you Eels.