Eels Blogs

A long weekend, Parramatta win, Canterbury lose and a spot out of the 8. God save the King. King Gutho I that is. Not a complete performance but an overall good one. At this stage it seems were slowly getting into our groove, Barrett's attacking scheme seems to be clicking into gear while those who are filling in are gaining in confidence. We seem to have a clearer understanding of what our best 17 is once Lane, Matterson and Ofahengaue return. The odd start from us of trying to match Canterbury's intensity in throwing the ball around, it was a bit of "What you can do, i can do better". It did not work out. As soon we settled down, got RCG, Paulo and Hopgood go through the middle, it freed up Moses and we were off.

Winning this game with 65% completions is quite incredible, though the remainding stats are not as lopsided. Close to over 500 more metres running, 19 more tackle breaks, with 56 though we missed 37 tackles which is still not good enough. Canterbury beat us in offloads, 19/18, 15 errors to their 12 is still abysmal. Considering the amount of points we score with the errors we make it is quite incredible. Another outlier is penalties, 8-2 against us. Liam Kennedy had us last time against Canterbury in a match he was dreadful in, however yesterday i felt he was not too bad. Though that penalty count is ridiculous. The bunker was even worse. It does not mirror how dominant Parramatta were for the 80 mins at all, it is great that with stats like that we can win comfortably.

Most Impressive:

Mitchell Moses: Just an Origin standard performance. He was calm, collected, high in effort, controlling and precise. He did what he should do against a line-up like Canterbury, dominate. The factor of Brown not being there did not effect him at all.

Bryce Cartwright: Honestly he was so, so close to being my man of the match, he was amazing. A bit of resurrection from Carty, when bought in 2021 i saw it as an odd but good signing. Odd because he was not the type of Second-Rower BA wants. His back-rowers are strong, tough line runners, strong in defence and can play in the middle in a pinch. Cartwright was not that type of player, his defence was fine but not great, his attack was offload and big play centric instead of doing the tough yards. 2021 he had an alright start then quickly fell out of favour with stupid plays. 2022 he had injuries and poor form led to many, including myself yelling why did we sign him til 2023 but let Papali'i go. Then come 2023 i forgot about Cartwright being honest, thinking he could be a depth player for injuries or even on the bench. Being picked round 1 to start shocked me as i didn't think he would be good enough to start. My word i am glad to be proven wrong as he had been turned into a BA back-rower while keeping his talent and skill in his ball playing. Cheaper than Papali'i and honestly having a better year. hope he extends for next year.

Clint Gutherson: Getting a hat-trick on your bday is not for everyone, but it is for the king. He looked the goods, backing up as always and has been his most consistent this year. Well done skip.

Reagan Campbell-Gillard: Big Reg is back, him and his porno mo did not miss a beat. Putting up big minutes and big metres, Reg brought back what we were lacking in the middle of the pack. Greig did well in his place but RCG is the best Prop this club has had i would argue since Cayless. 3 tackle breaks and 153 metres on 14 runs.

Daejarn Asi: Nothing out of this world but a solid performance from DJ. He looked chill, maybe too chill at times but seemed unfazed, knew his job and got it done. His running, tackling and short kicking game were up to standard and showed his worth as a back-up in this squad. Even as a 14 he would add value being able to play Fullback, Centre, Five-Eighth, Halfback and even Hooker. To think though that if JA was still at Parramatta, he would of played on Monday, Asi would have came in at 6 to partner with JA this week, but JA would have been 6 on Monday. Yet i feel Asi is the better player, now do not want to make this a JA nepotism post, but just thinking that we got a better performance from a player who would not have been picked if JA was still here. Anyway, hope Asi can find a bench spot at no.15.

Bailey Simonsson: I stand by that Bailey is playing well because he moved to the left, he played there at Canberra and has played well on the left for us. Put two and two together. Anyway, Bailey ran for 200 metres, got through some of the dirty work, hard yards needed from our Centres. Is he a class Centre? No, but he is steady. He is a speedier Opacic so to speak. Penisini can be our strike Centre while Simonsson just does his job.

Maika Sivo: Run hard big fella, run hard.

Honorable mentions: Hands, Hopgood.

Most Disappointing:

Andrew Davey: Yeah Davey did not have a good first half. A few errors, alongside a poor miss on Oloapu and Burton for Canterbury's first try. Davey is in this team for his defence and hard nosed mentality, but it is not good when you have him fall off Oloapu and miss Burton. He ran ok after that before coming off for Doorey and not coming back on. When Davey signed i found it odd but understood since he was the player we wanted before signing Doorey. Yet i feel Doorey is in better form. I hope when Lane is back Cartwright is starting over Davey, with that i do not see a spot for Davey in the 17 once Lane is back and Origin is over. I see a bench of Matterson, Hands, Ofahengaue, Makatoa. Davey is signed for 2024 and that is fine as depth. See out his career as an NRL player is good enough for a QLD cup stallward, but at the moment i see better players in our squad.

Junior Paulo: I do not want to keep picking on our co-captain and NSW rep, but i felt he was not that good on Monday. In defence he had a couple of poor reads and dropped off a few tackles with ease. Bit of an underwhelming year for Junz, hope he can regain his form post Origin.

Burton Strip: Overall, i have seen worse refereeing performances. Though the call on Burton being stripped by Cartwright was farsical. He was still moving, had Cartwright fallen off him, Burton would have been allowed to get up and keep running. Then you have Sivo strip, that is allowed. Only thing i would see being the argument from the NRL would be Burton's ball carrying arm had hit the ground, constituting a tackle being complete, where is Sivo's ball carrying arm had not touched the ground. Either way, Burton would have been allowed to continue to run had Cartwright fallen off, his body was moving still.

Commentary: They were quick to mention how good Canterbury were going in the first 10-15 of the game, shut up afterwards which was nice.

First 10-15mins: Speaking of the first 10-15mins, it gave Canterbury an unneeded leg up early, trying to match them pass for pass was stupid, thankfully Moses calmed us down and got us on the right path afterwards, but do that against top teams and it is 12-0 after 10mins.

Ok, now onto Manly, JA redemption game. I am not too concerned with Manly. Their forwards are still in tact but have some big players missing; Tom & Jake Trbojevic and DCE are big exclusions. We lose Moses they lose DCE. Schuster is a massive cause for concern if there is one, though with RCG, Ofahengaue, Hopgood, Cartwright and maybe Lane against Paseka, Sipley, Keppie, Olakauat'u and Bullemore? I think we win out there. Plus we have Gutho still around the back and experience in Matto who can help Asi. Hands i do feel will need to pick-up the slack on some of the kicking during the night, pinning Saab and Tuipulotu in their corners as Kaeo Weekes is not strong coming out the back, win that field position game early as Asi's kicking is fine but not as good Moses' of course.

I would normally do team changes, but of course missed the beat due to the game being Monday and team lists Tuesday. I would have said Matterson and Ofahengaue in with Paulo and Doorey out with Asi at 7, Gutho at 6, Russell at 1 and Dunster on the wing. Matterson at 6 though makes sense. Particularly against Olakau'atu.

Enjoy your week, one more win and in the 8 finally. God bless Parramatta.