Eels Blogs

NRL is back and it was a pretty good game to kick-off the campaign. Hard battle on a humid night, i was boiling in my seat but that could also be due to nerves and frustrations of the game. Overall, not doom and gloom at the moment, we have sort of the same squad but a lot of new pieces, even in the coaching room with Barrett and Antonelli coming in. Though different line-up, 6 club debutants, two new assistants, same issues still appeared. Opposition play the ball speed, panicking, lack of leadership and direction in crucial parts of the game. It is like we are a team that are afraid of losing or falling behind. As weird as it sounds, you cannot be afraid of losing, when you are afraid of losing you make stupid and erratic decisions that lead to costing yourself and your team more, trying to be too clever or to conservatitive to not to lose. We played last night like we were trying not to lose, instead of playing to win.

Let's go to the stats; 53% possession, not surprising considering it felt we dominated the first 20-25 mins on their line. The completions were level 80% to their 79%. One glaring stat which shows our need for another middle forward, we had 10 more runs and Melbourne still had 290 more metres than us, that is losing the middle and backline didn't make an impact either. It showed we are lacking punch past RCG, Paulo and Hopgood. Our post contact metres however were better which is strange. They had 5 line-breaks to our 3, 37 tackle breaks in our favour to their 30. But here is a glaring stat that was a big issue i felt. 277 kick return metres for Melbourne to our 126 metres. That is dreadful, it really hampered our attack as we were behind in field positioning, forcing our forwards to do more work. Now this was also assisted but their play the ball speed which was 2.98 secs, ours 3.86 secs. Just not good enough and an issue that appeared last year where we were slower in most of our games, we have always sat around 3.5-3.9 second mark while allowing the opposition around 3-3.5 mark. It just adds fatigue, even more with RCG and Paulo both coming off a long WC, both will be in line for Origin, both need to be looked after and if they get tired early they will fatigue quicker and harder later on and we will need to keep them on to win unless he have a bench BA can trust. Offloads appeared more in second half with 16 to their 13.

Defensively we were level, both teams have rounding out to 85% tackle effeciency. They missed more tackles with 37 to our 30. We had more errors with 12 to their 11. Both had 6 penalties, 1 ruck infringement and 1 inside 10 metres each, we only used 7 interchanges while they used all 10, we had two head assessments to their one but still not using all our interchanges, it is an issue BA hasn't utilised well and not sure if it is due to ability of the players or trust.

Most Impressive:

J'Maine Hopgood: We could have seen the club debut of a future Eels legend, maybe even a captain in the making. Hopgood was tough, brooding, tone setting and a freak. He is the terminator, i am certain about that. 172 metres, 5 offloads, 57 tackles and a tackle break. The scary thing is he has only played 10 NRL games. Wait after a full season. He is only signed til 2024, and fair enough he is unproven you do not want to be stuck with a player that doesn't work out for too long. But we need to extend him ASAP before he gets Queensland selection and his price is too rich. Extend til 2026 minimum. He will get better once he adjusts to the speed of NRL and works alongside Matterson in the middle once RCG and Paulo are off. He is special and could be what we need in the back end of the year.

Front-Row: Starting Front-Rowers that is. RCG and Paulo demonstrated they are the best, at least top 3, Prop pairing in the NRL. Both racking up to nearly 200 metres each, Paulo scored an incredible try and as soon as they came on for second stint, we automatically had energy in attack. When trying to move downfield for fieldgoal range, RCG and Paulo were the only ones making those metres needed. Paulo i felt had his best game in years for the club, it was a captains knock.

Josh Hodgson: A good debut, felt his passing was a little rusty at first, his passing wasn't as crisp or fast as Mahoney, but was still good enough. Moses took some adjusting with kicks. An absolute pearler of a ball and set up to Paulo for his try. He will grow with the spine, but seemed last night he was directed the ruck fine and also put in a nice kick on Melbourne's own line in the first half causing a repeat set, that is what i want to see from our Hooker. 

Waqa Blake: Defensively was not a liability. He was good last night, at Centre he was sound. He is in a contract year so could be a ploy to get a new deal but Waqa was better at Centre then he normally is. Was he amazing? No, but i felt he did his job and wanted to give credit.

Bryce Cartwright: Give him credit, he was great tonight. Surprised the hell out of me. He lasted the full 80, did well in defence with 28 tackles, 153 metres, 3 tackle breaks and 2 offloads. The old Carty appeared in final stretch with some forced offloads, but he kept it reletively routine tonight which is great. I think he, at the moment, has worked his way onto the bench once Lane returns, maybe even taking Doorey out of starting spot.

Most Disappointing:

Dylan Brown: I hope last year wasn't the by product of being off-contract. He looked lost, uninvolved and distracted. Brown still ran for 113 metres but he was lost without Lane. But with or without your edge back-rower if you are a player gaining up to 750k you should perform regardless. Hopefully it is learning Barrett's system, there were times where Moses and Brown connected on same side of the field, early on there was a drop ball that was simply from concentration. That will get better, but Brown at this stage needs to step up.

Bench Rotation: My lord we need reinforcements past our starting 13. Murchie was good, he showed what a workhorse he was, but that's it. Greig was fine, he looked a little lost at some parts and had to be directed where to line-up numerous times, plus he took a bit of time getting back into the defensive line. He could be good but yeah not sure if he is what we need. Momoisea was OK i guess, that high shot was just dumb and not needed, he showed versatility filling in a Centre. Makatoa was a waste and should've at least just had JA incase of injury to halves or hooker. He took Doorey off to accomodate Momoisea when Doorey was doing a decent job. It baffled me how he worked his bench, then again his bench was average at best to start with. Murchie is fine but the rest the jury is out. Asi and Matterson should be immediate ins while Cartwright could get another spot once Lane is back. But we need on our bench badly.

Refereeing: Klein was awful on both ends, i do not think he reffed a good game at all. He missed a lot on both sides, but the thing that annoyed me a lot was the blocking of our players as we chase the kick. They might be in the rules of the game as they didn't change the line but it is still blocking. It is easy to monitor. If Klein is our best referee then god help us, Gerard Sutton to me is the best referee in the NRL. We have an even record surprisingly with Klein i believe, Sutton we have a worse record then so i wouldn't say Klein awful for us as others we have worse time with others. But he had a shocker.

Wingers: Sivo and Lumelume weren't awful but weren't great either. Lumelume ran for 66 metres off 11 runs, he tried hard and didn't do a lot wrong, but 66 run metres just is not enough. Sivo running for 83 metres wasn't good enough either, though Sivo committed a few sins. Knocking it dead when the ball was catchable, then kicking it on first tackle in field goal range. Also, towards the end where we are stuck in our own 20 and forwards are tired he didn't take any runs.

Clint Gutherson: Quiet first half, second half was visable but barely. Gutho was too busy hanging around the ruck and trying to go to dummy half though Hodgson actually got infront and refused him doing that too often, Gutho was lost after that. He should be focused moving around with Brown and Moses on either side. He did that from time to time but looked lost for majority of the first half.

For changes next week, only change will be Lumelume out and either Russell, Simonsson or Dunster in. I think Russell will get the nod due to being ready for whole pre-season, plus he would've played last night had he not had a suspension to serve. Could also maybe see JA come onto the bench for Makatoa if BA prefers some cover.

Enjoy the weekend of footy.