Eels Blogs

Two from one and beating Manly is a good way to go into a long week later this week. Going from feeling we could get hammered, to having that feeling feel real with an extra feeling of mourning, dreading what was to come for the following 65mins, to calling them pathetic to coming out of CommBank Stadium saying that was one of the best wins i have seen them have as a team under BA. NQ prelim is probably number 1. The Penrith win at Penrith in 2022 is up there too. But this one being 14-0 down with a makeshift left edge, including a debutant who has hardly played Centre. As for the "Manly were robbed" claim, majority of the comments are on the Koula no try. To me, i could both sides. In defence of Parramatta, Moretti could have covered that space left by Tuilagi when he rushed for Brooks and Jake Trbojevic did stop in the line and as a lead runner you need to continue to grow through the defensive line to avoid obstruction, Jake stopped before the line. But on Manly side i doubt Moretti would have stopped it. Overall, the ref did give dodgy calls on both sides but also it was correct call. Inconsistent in laying around the ruck as blew penalties after around 2-3 seconds holding down while we get six again with Brown holding down. Talking as an NRL fan, what is the difference in both to warrant a penalty or a six again? I quesiton as a League fan due to the fact it could happen to us in the future, we benefited yesterday but it could happen in a crucial game and needs to be fixed. Overall, we were the better team and capitalized on our opportunities, Manly should not have conceaded 28 points.

Stats:

53% possession is what got us over the line, suffocating their ball and tiring them around the middle. The way Parramatta were going to be a fast paced Manly was through the middle but needed to dictate the game to push it into the middle. Adding momentum from sets on their line and the Penisini try. Also 82% completions is not that great but compared to 72% from Manly? It is a factor in the win. Something i have been critical about is running metres compared to runs themselves. Opposing teams have done better in overall average of metres per run. This time, it was still the same. We had 130 more metres but on only 40 more runs. Overall Manly ran for 8.8 metres per run while Parramatta ran for 7.6 metres. A lot does come from our offloads where we make minimal metres at times from our offloads. Manly led line-breaks 6 to 4, while we had just a tad more tackle breaks with 30 to 29. Offloads were a big difference 16 to 5. Our tackle effeciency was better with 88% to 82% as we had only 6 ineffective tackles with Manly having 25. 13 errors to 9 is obviously the refs fault according to NRL and Manly fans, with 9 to 5 penalty count in favour of us, i can see 2-3 for us being soft but will take it, who gives a s***.

Most Impressive: 

Mitchell Moses: I went back and forth on a few names for MOM, as nobody really stood out. Across the board, most of our players were good to great. Moses though i will give the nod to simply that the play through the middle and leadership was on his back. He led us back into the game himself. His kicking was elite, defensively he was great and led the forwards well getting them into place to rampage through a tired Manly middle. Excellent backing up on the Paulo offload.

Will Penisini: Kept Koula, their most in form and fastest player, quiet the whole day. Had Koula been on the left of our defence, i think it would have been a lot more difficult. He is forming a nice tandom with Russell, hitting hard in defence and reading it incredibly well also. He is starting to get consistency back into his game. His eye sight and catching ability on his try were nearly as good as his perm. He is ready for Origin, whether he will ever be considered is doubtful but he is heading towards more rep honours.

Dylan Brown: His attack is similar to 2021, he started that season making half breaks and barely getting through. Then one game around round 6 or 7 he just took off and went on a half year streak of killer performances on his running game. But his passing game as improved too, he seems to be taking risks and playing around a little on that left side trying things out. The looping pass for both Wingers were a nice addition. But his main reason for being here is his cover defence. Once the idea of Blaize taking Olakau'atu and forcing Brooks or Turbo to push the ball wide to the Paulo when Harper took Garrick, Brown came across beautifully in the second half when that side got into a rhythm. He saved us numerous times in the first half. His ball to Harper for the try was a pearler, so was his heavy feet and soft hands pass on the Talagi try dragging DCE in a little and taking Lawton out of the play.

Blaize Talagi: The first 20 mins had me thinking if we threw him in before he was ready. The kid was on an island and not catching up. He struggled no denying it. But then he got better and better and better. He took on the role to slow down Olakau'atu in the block play scenario's, he put his body on the line in numerous situations in both attack and defence. The barge over Turbo was a thing of beauty. The quick thinking kick for a repeat set was risky yet cocky. The kid has a mind of a goldfish and honestly looked like he belonged. Was it an amazing debut? Well depends how you put it. It was not an amazing performance on paper. But the fact he has not played Centre since the Flegg prelim in August last year, skipping playing it in NSW cup, then to debut in FG in the hardest spot on the field to defend against one of the fastest teams in the competition? That is amazing. Plenty of kids have had a great debut but faultered full-time, Talagi did not have an amazing debut overall as he had a did his job game but the circumstances show this kid is special. Hopefully we persevere with him at Centre in Cup form as we could need him.

Honourable mentions: RCG, Moretti, Harper

Most Disappointing:

Joe Ofahengaue: Was he awful? No, but expecting more from a player on big money with over 150 NRL games and Origin experience. He has had the role of setting the tone early, not from lack of trying he has failed to do that. Ofahengaue gets through work, but just does not offer the impact Moretti, Matterson or Greig do. Hell i would even say Ogden makes more impact. I defended him a bit and now i am losing patience. Hopefully he starts to click into gear.

Constant appealing to refs: Second time in two weeks we give up on a try to appeal for a penalty or reverse in decision. Last week with Turuva's 2nd try and then Koula's no try. Moses called the forward pass and just gave up the play, for christ sakes play to the damn whistle, most stuff gets picked up anyway. It does my head in and wish he would not do it.

Idiotic comment on FB: A claimed NRL fan, neither a fan of Manly or Parramatta, commented that the obstruction was ridiculous. Fair enough, to think. But his dumb comment was that he claimed Parramatta played worse than Souths. So i am not sure he even watched Souths on Friday but it was not a case of Roosters just steam rolled them and weren't good enough, Souths didn't really try. If you say not trying was better than Parra yesterday then you do not understand League at all. Added to that is the fact Manly lost so they mustve been as bad too. Just stupidity.

Ok now onto mad Monday where Wests are 1 win from last 5 at CommBank and 1 from last 10 against us. But Wests also have won the following game after their first win of the season the last two years, take that for what you want it to be. I wrote about 80% before the Moses news. After going through the 5 stages grief, i have reached the last stage of acceptance that Moses is out for up to 8 weeks. Now not sure if that is minimum or not but i would put my money on that he misses the next 5; Wests, Canberra, NQ, Redcliffe and Manly. Following the bye he will be back for Brisbane in Round 10. It is his left foot which is an added bonus, being his right would have made it much more difficult to come back early. Knowing the competitor Moses is he will try to get back at around 4 weeks perhaps for Manly but with the bye week after that, depending on how we are going, good to bring him back for Brisbane in Round 10 for that extra week. Though Wests is crucial as a win can set us up nicely til Moses is back. We would be 3-1. Canberra at Canberra would have been hit or miss with Moses there anyway but can do it. NQ at home is hard but defensively they are not great but in attack they are one of if not the best in the comp but at home could get us over. Dolphins in Darwin could be anything really but again not impossible. Manly at Brooky is the main one where i am like that is a game we are more likely to lose. This is where Wests win is so important, yes every game is important but you do not want a loss on Easter Monday to spiral into a 3-4 game stretch then Moses comes in to play sudden death for rest of the year to get us into the 8. If he misses Brisbane and Melbourne, as he is expected back after Melbourne if it is 8 weeks, then those two are pretty certain losses without him. Let's say we bring him back after the bye, winning 2 out of 5 is pretty good and has us at 4-4 when he is back, 3 from 5 even better. 2 or 3 wins is very realistic. Wests and Dolphins are to two i can see getting. This is all on Brown. He has said how he owes us, well now is his time to save our season, earn the paycheck. We did the hard yards of saving our season when he missed those games mid year, he can do same with Moses being out. He can do it, we have seen it, Penrith last year in Round 26. Get him in form and you beat Wests and Dolphins and jag another win. He is on big money, Five-Eighths on big money aren't reliant on their Halfback. It is time for Brown to carry us. Gutherson being there too helps as well with his leadership. Not as doom and gloom, not like Warriors game where both Moses and Gutho were out along with Brown. Defence should not be an issue to the point where we are blown out. But i do wonder will BA keep Brown one the left or move him to the right like last year to accommodate Asi and his left foot? Is the left more stable with Lane, Sivo and either Harper or Simonsson? But there is no excuse for us to defend worse without Moses. Attack? Maybe. 

Team changes, Asi for Moses is a simple swap. I would not name Sanders, i know outlets like TCT have mentioned Sanders could be used during the year if Moses goes down, i think that is if both Brown and Moses goes down. Asi should be named, if not Asi it should be Talagi. Asi is not a great defender, but he is not the worst either. We have won games with Asi before. Brown and Asi are 1 win and 1 loss together, but no Lane, RCG came back from suspension, Gutho had the knee issue, Lussick only got back from ESL. We are a better team than those two games, Asi is good enough to get us wins at 6 and assist Brown. He has the ability to make breaks and put in some nice kicks also. Also heard Hands being thrown around, i understand for defence but attacking wise he is one dimensional. I understand many are concerned about the defence but i am more concerned on how we score points. Brown has shown he can create with half of our tries this year coming from him but Asi also can feed that left well and he will have Lane and Sivo there too. As for other spots i think the same side is named bar the Centre spot. Which i think will go to Harper, purely on defence. I will say, if Lomax is an option now is the time to do it. 

In Brown we trust but also Barrett and BA to set the team up to find ways around to get by without Moses. Penrith did it without Cleary in 2023 and have to again, Melbourne without Munster has done the job. Gutho to needs to stand up in attack, been a bit luckluster of late and now is due to take control and be damaging like we remember.

Enjoy your long weekend, god bless and god help Parramatta.