Eels Blogs

Ok so upon marinating on it, i have reworked this list. Put it this way, both teams were average last night, Cronulla simply wanted it more, when Mahoney crossed over we went into preserve the lead mentality. For a team with top 4 expectations and experience it is a bit underwhelming, Cronulla did outscore us 4 tries to two and their tries were harder worked for than ours, both our tries coming from outside our own 30. So why do i say Cronulla were not much better than us? well 75% completion percentage compared to 87% from us as well 46% possession with 11 errors. Most of our stats improved upon the second half.

Most Impressive:

Waqa Blake: My player of the game. 140 metres, a team high 9 tackle breaks and 1 line-break. Was it a perfect game for Blake? no. The Katoa try was an awful read causing him to drift off his wing. However, a loss where nobody has talked about Blake is a positive since he did not do anything massively wrong, since he is a usual prime target. Blake's running with more confidence, he is not as erratic with his running and under the high ball he was sound. Hopefully it leads to a decent 2022 for Waqa.

Dylan Brown: One of the better attacking performances i have seen from Brown. Was one short ball to Lane that was a bit suspect, but other than that he looked dangerous. 185 metres and 6 tackle breaks, Brown looks edging closer and closer to making constant linebreaks, seems content in his role, looks comfortable not worrying about helping Moses out. Stays on his favoured left edge and forming a partnership with Lane and Blake. Brown is ready to reach his potential, question remains will he go further or will he always be within reach never quite getting there, so far better than last year in my opinion.

Nathan Brown: We looked a lot better with Brown back in the team in the middle. Our slow start was soon night and day in comparison to what we served up. Brown's distribution at Lock, compared to Kaufusi, made our attack flow freely. Was Brown amazing? no, of course not. But he is slowly getting better with fitness and with 116 metres and a linebreak assist he was a welcome addition back into our team.

Penisini and Gutho try savers: What excellent try saving tackles they both made, Gutho on Hamlin-Uele and Penisini on a running Talakai, desperation at its finest and beautiful to watch.

Honorable mentions: RCG, Mahoney, Papali'i

Most Disappointing:

Brad Arthur: He is not going to be sacked and nor should he be, just get that out there first up. The reason for having BA here is for a few reasons. Firstly the elephant in the room is the addition of Jakob on the bench. Do i hate JA? no i do not, i do not mind him actually and feel there is chance he could make a good career in the NRL, big could. But what i do not like is him on the bench. I do not see the positional value of it, whenever people use the N-word (not that one) in regards to Jakob i used to think yeah i understand but i do not think that would come into. Him named on the bench or forced should i say does not help with the notion that it is not nepotism. He plays 6 and 7.......and that is it. Cartwright plays centre, lock, 2nd row, five-eighth. Rein can play hooker and hold his own in the middle of defence at Lock. Stone can play at hooker meaning the addition of Greig or Rodwell or upgrading Ogden and adding them for size is better suited. If JA was going to be added as a lock to distribute the middle of the field then i would be ok with that as experience is something that cannot be taught or coached so i am not against giving him it, but they're not even doing that it is a stupid moving Brown to centre and disrupting our halves halfway through a game. It is not JA's fault, this is on BA. Added to that his bench is not working, having Brown as our biggest forward is not enough, Makatoa is a decent player in my eyes but he is not an impact player he is better suited to starting. Stone is smaller forward, he is a hard working player and good defender but we need bigger players on the bench. JA well says enough in terms of size. Next week v Melbourne we need a bigger bench, Makatoa, Kaufusi, Greig/Rodwell/Ogden and Stone would be a better bench. You have Makatoa and either of the 3 named are props, Kaufusi replaced Brown and Stone fills in at either hooker or in the back-row if needed. And defence is not great but will get to that later.

Oregon Kaufusi: Not sure what Cronulla saw that warranted 400K a season, Kaufusi proved he is nothing more than a squad player in the NRL, does not get many opportunities to start for Parramatta and today showed why. He was not awful, but he wasn't good either. 91 metres from 10 runs, 18 tackles and 5 missed is not good enough. His passing was pedestrian and robotic, stifling Brown and Moses when shifting the play side to side. Kaufusi offers youth and experience as a bench player though i feel we would get the same or more from Ogden, Greig and Rodwell. Even Stone makes more impact than Kaufusi in my eyes. He is a fine squad player to have but was not a good day for him.

Junior Paulo: Has had an average fortnight Big Junz. Only running for 98 metres off 13 runs, not sure if the captaincy has him distracted? or just a slow start. Not overly concerning as he is a NSW prop he will find form. Just feel unlike his counterpart RCG he has not really led our forwards by example at a time when it is massively needed.

Ray Stone: That cannonball tackle, what on earth was he thinking. You see him react straight away also knowing he was to be penalised. Not only did he give Cronulla a set on our own line to win the game he rushed out of the line on 5th on Moylan, Moylan was his man but holding his line a bit better would have helped Mahoney defending Wilton. Stone was fine on the field but for what we need off the bench we need bigger bodies, Stone is better suited as a 14 with three other big bodies.

Playmakers: Basically Gutho and Moses not stepping up when needed. Neither played a bad game, Moses was actually pretty good i felt. But at a time where foot on the throat and finishing Cronulla off was needed neither Gutho or Moses were there to do it. Moses's long kick in the set before the Wilton try was damaging for our field position, which was made worse from Stone's penalty. More on the attack, we had only 3 linebreaks to their 10 yet and 45 less metres had 15 more runs and 37 tackle breaks to their 49. For a team that has been considered top 4 quality it is not good enough, especially we have three middle players who have played origin and dally M second-rower of the year. 

Parramatta defence: Making less tackles than Cronulla, yet missing 12 more tackles with 49. For a team that had 54% possession to have, rounding out, 50 odd missing tackles is abysmal no matter what way you put it. Edges looked disorganised, why were our middle forwards on numerous occasions defending on the edge, seeing Makatoa and RCG on numerous occasions on the right side next to Penisini. Simonsson was no where near the catastrophe as he was last week but the edges still need work and Ennis could be right it could be based on the ruck, fix the middle to assist the edges. The Mulitalo try was pure embarrassment in tackling, the second half was a lot better but left a lot to be desired over the past two weeks. Both our edge defenders missed 7 tackles each, Papali'i was raved at for how good he was, he did alot of work 18 runs, but i just feel he needs to be in the middle. He is better suited to the middle and has more impact being in the middle.

The captain's challenge: We challenged the contested catch with Papali'i and rightfully so his eyes were on the ball the whole time. But why did we not do the same for the Simonsson one early in the first half? Felt that was exactly the same. Granted we probably would have lost both challenges but i felt both contested catches were fine as both players went for the ball. Bit of a silly point to some but to me felt they were bad calls, more likely the right call in terms of rules and player safety but still feel those players were in their right to contest that ball til the end.

Now onto a hard one, Melbourne in Melbourne after they were nearly ran down by a momentum driven Souths outfit. Bellamy would have blown the ears off each of the 17 men, they will be coming out hammer and tong. We need to whether the early storm (mind the pun) and get points as early as we can. A big bench would assist with that.