I was confident, backs to the wall we like adversity. Full marks to BA, he was able to get them up and got them ready to go. It could be a kick start to our season, we were tough and strong and on top for most of the game. It showed we are good enough in this competition, Roosters are a different type of team, favouring the use of their backs and kicking to their tall wingers on the line. We have beaten the Roosters a few times, last year we did at CommBank, though at the new Allianz it is different of course. I cannot remember the last time we beat the Roosters at SFS. Any way we can worry about that on Thursday, for now lets soak in the win, a good one at that.
In terms of stats, we dominated possession and completions. 53% possession and 95% completions, that is how we won, keep the ball out of Cleary's hands. It was a simple game plan to finish the sets, kick to Turuva who wont make much kick return metres and keep it away from Edwards and To'o. Penrith still made some metres at ease from time to time however the sets started a bit slower thanks to kicking to the corner of Turuva. It was not about getting a result of him dropping a ball, simply getting it to that to corner. There were not many breaks in the game, 2/1 to Penrith, but plenty of metres, both Penrith and us were quite even, we had 24 more metres on only 7 more runs. Though Penrith had way more tackle breaks with 32 to our 12, meaning we had 32 missed tackles. That came from the middle when Leniu came on and also Soni Luke. We held the middle late in the first half ok though we were hanging for a bit there until RCG and Paulo came back on. Play the ball speed was incredible from Penrith, 2.97 seconds. While we had a speed of 3.73 seconds. Penrith matched us on offloads, 12/10. One stat i will outline is passes, Penrith had 14 more passes then us and that is simple passing along the line, switching the point of attack, that is how Penrith get teams on the wrong foot and how we got manhandled early in the GF. They move across the line and create the one on ones for JFH and Leota to run through. Though you could see they were lacking on their edges with that approach. We were great under the high ball defusing 94% of Penrith's kicks. Penrith were slightly better with their defence stats having 94% tackle effeciency to our 88%. Though errors let them down having 7 to our 3. We conceaded 6 penalties to their 7, and had less ruck infridgements with 1 to their 2.
Most Impressive:
Will Penisini: My man of the match, he has had a wonderful start to 2023. He looks confident and more ready for full-time first grade. His defence is a lot better and is making better reads and decisions. 28 tackles on the night and shut out Tago and Turuva all night. Also backing up on the Doorey break to set up Hands for his try, wonderful work from Will.
Ryan Matterson: 58 tackles, 146 metres and 83 mins is enough to warrant a good for Matto. Nice game to come back with, moving into the middle when Hopgood went off for HIA, how it should be. I still think Matto should come off the bench, that is where he is most effective as an impact player. But for now, on that right edge is fine also.
The Bash Bros. (RCG & Paulo): Massive metres again, both racking up 200 metres each (255 & 244) respectfully. Putting in massive minutes, RCG making 2 runs in that set leading up to the field goal, including the last run where he straightened us up and got it close enough for Moses to slot it.
Matt Doorey: Struck a claim that he should be starting in my opinion, looked great in his limited minutes. Doorey ran with intent and caused a few issues on Salmon on that left edge for Penrith. Beautiful break and offload for Penisini for the Hands try. Doorey is not a superstar, not even an impact edge player like Papali'i, but he is a solid first grader and i feel he is solid piece for us in the mean time. Him starting over Matterson i feel is stronger as our middle dropped once RCG and Paulo went off, only slightly but would be better once Matto come off bench into the middle for impact.
Mitchell Moses: Mitchell 'Money Man' Moses, clutch when needed. Can he be clutch consistently? Who knows but kicked it when it mattered. Plus breaking the record for most metres in a game, well done Mitchy.
Honorable mentions: Bryce Cartwright, Clint Gutherson, Brendan Hands.
Most Disappointing:
Call that Penrith were robbed: Give me a break. Was Kenny sin binned mainly due to Paulo being sin binned? I agree with that, but that is consistency. Plus, Paulo's shot was bad, was worse than Kenny's. But they said "Oh, Waqa Blake was falling to the ground when he got hit by Kenny", so was Hosking when Paulo got him, he was swung around and going to the ground. Paulo did lift himself up, but Kenny lifted his foot too on Blake's hit. But whether Kenny was sin binned or not, i believe we would still win as having 12 only really effects you in defence, we would have gotten in field position to kick the field goal regardless of Kenny getting sent or not. So to say Penrith were robbed or Klein was favouring Parramatta is asinine.
Junior Paulo hit: It was reckless and lack of judgement in that time. Could it of been fatigue? Perhaps, but Paulo has been in the game enough to know better. He will now miss a few games when we badly need him, but what can you do, he nearly cost us the game and you can tell in the sheds after he was deflated despite the win. Not good from Junz.
Waqa Blake: He wasn't as bad as the previous fortnight, but 4 missed tackles with 7 made and an error is not good enough.
Josh Hodgson: Talking about missed tackles, 7 in 50 minutes. He has not adjusted in the middle since coming back, hopefully it is due to coming back from injury and not age. But we looked more secure with Hands, a debutant, being in the middle. I mean hey we have an option in our favour for Hodgson in 2024, so if Hodgson is just not working, we can cut bait and go with Hands for 2024.
We're on the board for 2023, now a tough one with the Roosters. No Junior either so that is hard.
As for team changes, well only Junior out and Murchie in will be the changes. I think Murchie will start at Prop and everything else will stay the same. Pretty easy with a winning outfit.
Eels can win this one, but will they be a bit more laid back due to having the pressure of winning off their back or will they have more of a point to prove? With this club who knows how we turn up. Half the fun of supporting them.
Enjoy your week.
Replies
Rather than JH in most disappointing it should be BAs decision to not sub JH off at the 30th for Hands. JH has good moments but can only do 30min stints.
Hodgson i think can be good for most of the game. What could be better is Hands coming in around 30 min mark, Hodgson coming back around 50min mark and Hands plays some Lock to give Hopgood a break. But i also know what BA prefers in using Hands to come on once Hodgson is done for the game to keep an interchange spare. No point using an extra interchange to bring Hodgson back on, so he will use him as long as he can before using Hands.
Wrong and you missed the whole point about the missed tackles, its about first contact and the damage he did do in that 30 minutes, exactly where we lost the GF after about 8 minutes., JH gave us a mongrel you dont understand LB. Rookie error on your part..... agree that JH should have been off after 30 minutes, every right to, but I dont believe BA knew what he had in the box when he let Hands' loose, I dont think anyone realised how good he was to that point and that in itself is disappointing because he was/has been with us long enough for the coaching staff to recognise it......he only started with a train and play contract this year.
Most impressive keeping Riff to 16 points and the high completion rate was off the charts.
We've said it before it's the defense that'll bring a comp back to Parra if we defend and complete/compete like this weekly we've got a real chance here.
I thought Dylan had a great game - he was more effective than Moses in the first half. Thought it was a big improvement over the previous games
Sivo was less potent than Waqa.
Execution aside, I'm never in doubt about Waqa's effort.
Most of the time Sivo runs without purpose.
I truly doubt that this guys has a tackle bust left in him.
Can't argue with the comments about Sivo. Only time he looks like he wants to make a tackle bust is 2 metres from the try line. Carting it from the back field he looks like he just wants to take the tackle.
Maybe I want too much that he should run it back like Semi did ...
I think Sivo's issue is mental. He doesn't have it in him to be aggressive and take on the line with puprose.. He seems like a gentle person, which is not what's needed when taking the ball up in your own half. I wonder why BA hasn't been able to unlock that mental part of his game.
that's because BA is a pussy himself... a passive agressive personality. I was shouting at Sivo to pull Chritons headgear off or something when Chriton pushed Sivo in the face during that scuffle after Sivo tried to strangle a Riff player in a tackle with his huge bicep!!! The Parra players need the Roy Masters 'pre game slap therapy' to unlock their aggression.
Our whole team are overloaded with estrogen . Biggest bunch of goodie two shoes pussies in the comp. We have never been an intimidating team as long as I've been alive . Mostly had cream puff front rowers. I'd love an enforcer , closest we've had in 20 years would be Fui. RCG and Paulo couldn't scare my nan.
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