Eels Blogs

Beating Manly twice is better than Xmas, even better is more likely ruining their top 4 chances, poor ol' Daly "Giraffe/politician" Cherry-Evans and his insane salary that cripples the club along with their made of glass fullback who watches from the stands. Yet we are a squad that are average to some. Back to back wins, though it wasn't a wonderful performance, it was a really good one. It was a game where we could have very easily imploded once Manly took a 14-8 lead, but we held on, went into the grind and scored 4 tries in 10mins in the second half to cap off the most points we have scored ever against Manly.

53% possession showed it's worth, particularly in the first 15mins of the game where Sivo scored a brace. 86% completion percentage was high also, to Manly's 77%, this was where the game was won in my eyes as both teams were practically faultless in their completions in the first half and it showed in a 14-14 scoreline to see out the half. After that, errors came in and saw the break away in quality, which Parramatta should be showing. We had 16 more runs for roughly 300 more metres, line-breaks were tied 5 all while tackle breaks we dominated with 36 to their 18. Though one fascinating stat was Manly averaging 50 metres per set to our 48 metres, 11 offloads to 7, they had 36 missed tackles to our 18 and 12 errors to our 6. That came from Manly's red hot start, they looked on, so did DCE, which makes our performance a tad bit better that we weathered that storm. The ref put the whistle away a bit in this game, 4-3 penalty count in favour of Manly, with only 1 ruck infringement in favour of Manly.

Most Impressive:

Dylan Brown: My man of the match, he stood up in the absence of Moses. This was one of Brown's most complete performances. When i say complete, it is more so in the sense of his ability to drift into organising and playing eyes up. He knew when to assist JA while also calling for it in moments where he was needed. Brown was everywhere to be fair, his try was miraculous, even showing his schoolboy grin after scoring it. 39 tackles and 179 metres, for a five-eighth. Sign the kid up.

Shaun Lane: Bit of an unsung hero, his combination with Brown is really hitting full steam. The heavy feet and soft hands pass that Brown delivers allows Lane to create space throught the angle in which he runs through the gap. Lane's offload was near unstoppable, freeing up Brown and Gutho around the back. With Lane's height and length it causes defences to draw in an extra defender in order to bring him down, once his arm is free to offload there is automatically a gap for the 2nd phase to continue. Lane has really had a quietly good year, coming into a contract year in 2023 i hope he can stay past that for the same money or a tiny upgrade. Our back-row stocks behind our starters are limited. 189 metres, 6 tackle breaks, 2 line-break assists and a try assist.

Clint Gutherson: The king is back!!!! Well not really but one of his best performances in a while. It seemed with no Moses he freed himself up a bit, sort of led the team around by example. It was a captain's knock by Clint, much needed in a time so close to semi's and a top 4 spot on offer. 3 try assists, 2 line-breaks, 1 line-break assist, a try and 207 metres capped off a great display by the captain.

Reagan Campbell-Gillard: Good Ol' Reg. Led by example in his first stint, leading with 203 metres overall. It was a dominant performance by who should be a constant Origin forward if not for the Crimson Chin himself. RCG will continue to be an underrated Prop to me.

The bench: Strong game from two in particular, Kaufusi and Niukore. Both players averaged around 11 metres per run and had purpose with their running. Makatoa gave his all as he normally does and Cartwright was fine. But what i like even more was how BA used it. Finally giving Paulo and RCG half-time off, what i mean by that is BA used to bring Paulo or RCG back on 5 before half-time where i argued they should use HT to their advantage for a longer break. Left Paulo and RCG on til 30th min then brought Matto off around 35min mark, it worked well.

Jake Arthur: Now there were better performances than JA, however credit where credit is due he was sound, really sound. Far from being the worst player of all-time some think. He did his job, plain and simple. There were times where JA showed his inexperience and that is ok as he had moments of class too, he took some time to get into the game, allowing Brown and Gutho to take over and JA just managed the right side, as the game went he crept in and started getting involved. If there is one area where JA excels to me it is his vision. JA i think could be a coach in the future as he has wonderful vision, for the Waqa Blake try you see JA look at the defence, seeing Saab coming out and throws it to Waqa. Not even knowing if he was there but that is vision, last year v Souths when he saw Mitchell in the line and kicked it over the top and scored untouched. JA has great vision, though we have heard in the past, particularly in coaches, that players can have great vision but their body is not able to do what their eyes see, i saw that late in the second half where he was looking for a shallow kick to the corner and it just bounced in between Garrick and Saab. This game does not say if JA will be a star or awful, it is a step in the right direction though, well done young kid.

Reuben Garrick: Wow, his defence was awful out the back, Sivo's 2nd try, Gutho's and Brown's try, my lord he was great, well for us.

Honourable mentions: Sivo, Penisini, Blake

Most Disappointing: 

Right side defence: Foran and Saab terrorized our right edge in the mid to late first half. Andrew Johns made a point that BA should consider swapping Penisini and Opacic as Opacic is a great defender. By the second half the amount of possession and the catch-up footy Manly needed to play late helped with the right side but it could come down to Blake and Penisini getting used to each other. However, against Penrith, granted with 60mins of the game having 12 men, the right side wasn't too bad. The best team in the comp. It is a disappointment due to who we verse tomorrow night, South Sydney with Alex Johnston on their left wing, our right edge could be in trouble as Souths usually 9/10 times abuse that edge.

Thats it, not too much in disappointing or else id be nitpicking. As i had a busy weekend, I didn't get to this as early as normal, as i usually do predicted team list for the next round. Being honest, i would have said same 17, with only Simonsson maybe coming in for Opacic, that is it. Yet Ogden in for Makatoa is a surprise and excited to see how he goes as he could be a decent rotational forward on the bench, one we are lacking and will be lacking further into 2023 when Kaufusi and Niukore leaves.

This is a big one, Dan Ginnane mentioned if we win we are top 4 favourites, we lose and top 4 is gone. I mean i guess, but even if we lose this closely i think top 4 is still in contention, though more difficult. It also puts into perspective the way we approach Melbourne in round 25, if we lose 2 of our next 3 we wont rest players, win 2 of next 3 and we will, i think this team was better with a rest before semi's so it is crucial we position ourselves with at least a top 4 spot at Penrith knowing how we go against them, though do not want a repeat of 2017 where we gace 110% against Melbourne to nearly get there and just miss out, come out the week after v North Queensland and didn't show up, we want to be ready to go for week 2 off a decent week 1 performance, like Newcastle last year we weren't great but did enough to win, then took it to Penrith.

Top 4 or at least 5th for a home semi v either Roosters, Brisbane, Souths, Manly or Canberra. That would put us in position to play the loser of Penrith and who they verse.

Long live Parramatta.