Eels Blogs

What a fortnight can do. Going from scoring 42 points in one half, most in club history. To having 46 put on us the following week. In hindsight that can come from Gutho not being at the back fixing gaps and holes. Sean Russell playing only his second game at Fullback in 18 months, he would be rusty, especially with the inexperience of course his observations would process slower than a NSW quality Fullback. Asi and Matto had no issues getting past Manly, but that is with Gutho guiding them around the park. 46 points i was annoyed, but just didn't want 50 put on us. Thankfully that was not the case, instead i found it better that we only conceded 16 points in the 2nd half, seemed we were able to hold on. We gave up in attack late in the game more so trying to survive.

Stats: 56% possession for Warriors, say no more. We had early ball but could not capitalise on it, causing Warriors to eat into our middle, draining energy and as soon as Walker came on through the middle the speed got us. 69% completions for us to their 73% is not too bad in retrospect to what the Warriors had, though seeing the points conceded makes it actually worse. 544 more metres on 42 more runs so averaged more than 10 metres per run on those comparisons. 12 line-breaks to our 3, creativity and Moses blind side play could have came in handy. Though the Warriors missed 37 missed tackles, one less than us. 8 offloads to our 6, 16 errors to our 12, we conceded 5 penalties to their 4. Overall other than possession and run metres, the stats are reletively even. Were we as bad as the scoreline suggests? Or just lacked that killer edge?

Most Impressive:

J'Maine Hopgood: Showed why he is in the Queensland system, he is a wonderful player. He was the only one with go forward, no support in his runs and offloads. As soon as he came back on for second stint we were a lot better, shows his quality. 44 tackles.

Bailey Simonsson: Just improving each week. Was not perfect but he made a few try saving tackles, plus snagged a try on a nice scrum play that got predictable in the end but at least they showed some creativity somewhere. 

Junior Paulo: Sharpen your pitchforks, i though Paulo was good. He made some good runs and bent the line when we needed momentum. Majority of his runs we were on backfoot so he did the best he could with what he had to work with. Though his positioning on the Warriors first try was poor.

Luca Moretti: I would consider him over Makatoa on the bench, he just ran like it was his final NRL game. He is nothing special but purely added what we needed, someone who did not give a f*** and just ran. 39 metres on 3 runs.

Honorable mention: 21,000 fans who showed up.

Most Disappointing:

Will Penisini: 21 years old, 50 NRL games he will be fine, but Saturday was one of his worst NRL games. The attempted tackle on Montoya on his 2nd try was pure pathetic. He was apparently ill all week and did not train all week. If that is the case then fair enough but maybe should not have played and put Waqa into Centre. Either way poor game but he will be fine.

Andrew Davey: Father time is catching up on the soon to be 32 year old. 39 NRL games is a wonderful achievement for a 28 year old former carpenter with only one season of NRL pre-season prior to the debut. It is a wonderful story for a nice guy, but seems his role is of a depth player from 2024. 4 runs in 55 minutes is not acceptable. Added defensively he was outmatched purely by speed. Moved into the middle and still was not great. He is a toiler and happy to have him in 2024 for depth but now Lane is back i think his spot should be on the bench as a 15-20 min option til Lane can play full 80 again, once DB is back i think he should then make way for Asi on the bench.

Joe Ofahengaue (1st half): I preface this by saying his 2nd half was so much better, i felt that he created some momentum for us before going off to get check for an injury. Ofahengaue will come good under BA, though his 1st half was embarrassing. Watching as Egan ran through the middle, not even attempting to reach out to him? It was bad, made me question how he even played SOO. But he seemed to have gotten a kick up the arse from BA and improved in the second half. He should keep his spot over Maka purely on potential.

Sean Russell: This is purely on missed opportunity. Russell showed he is nowhere near ready to be an NRL Fullback, but being on the wing he wont have many opportunities to improve. On the wing, Russell has been great and deserves his spot. But at Fullback, the game was too fast for him. He missed times where Hopgood and Cartwright broke free and he was not there, simply due to positioning. He was trying his best to guide the team but i feel he did not know how to. He tried hard, he will go back to the wing but he lost an opportunity to keep his wing spot safe for 2024 by being a great fullback option but not the case at the moment.

Isaac Lumelume: Took some nice runs, but defence was abysmal. Now would Waqa have been better? Actually, yeah. I think Waqa would have been a better option overall colour me crazy.

Bryce Cartwright: He had a little bit of a poor attitude, he was behind the pace towards the end of the game. Having players like Paulo, Lane and Hopgood running hard, Cartwright was out the back. Just found that a bit poor from a player who is seen as one of our best all year. Would Moses allow that next to him?

Ofahiki Ogden: Missed 4 tackles making only 14. Losing the ruck overall was assisted by those stats.

So i was pissed after the game and morning after, now i have looked over that other top teams have had a bad day with a good squad. Cronulla had 50 put on them, Melbourne 45, Canberra 50, NQ 60. We had an excuse somewhat, Warriors fans claimed they did too, give me a break that Niukore and Curran are difference makers?

For next week, we are closer to our best 17 minus Brown and Greig. Gutho to 1, Russell back to wing for Lumelume, Moses back to 7, Asi to 6, Matto back to the bench. Ogden out for RCG, Lane to start for Davey who goes back to the bench. Gutherson, Sivo, Penisini, Simonsson, Russell, Asi, Moses, RCG, Hands, Paulo, Lane, Cartwright, Hopgood Bench being Davey, Ofahengaue, Matterson, Makatoa. That is what i think it will be, what it should be is same but Moretti for Makatoa. That is a team that beats the Warriors.

For GC, coming off a loss is hard but versing a team coming off a loss and bad performance is worse. We should put 50 on them if we are serious. We have back to back short turnarounds while travelling up north then back down south after GC, so we need a win for this for 8 at least. Top 4 is now harder, still possible versing teams above us but we will see if this Warriors loss is simply due to a bad night followed by lack of confidence due to our big players not being there or if it is a sign of an off period for the club.

In BA we trust, he was not pleased and i expect not a response but a beating next week. Hope too Gutho is able to get a few mins at 1 for NSW and prove he is the best NSW Fullback right now, making his inclusion worthwhile.

Enjoy your week, god bless Parramatta.