Having seemingly ignored the warning signs from Easter Monday when the Parramatta Eels managed to hold off the Wests Tigers despite continually inviting them into the contest, the Blue and Gold's old Mr Hyde personality re-emerged in full force.
The last real sighting of Mr Hyde was in round one when the Eels found themselves down 16-0 at halftime, only to turn around and come home with a wet sail in the second half, before managing to out-Melbourne in round two, grind down the Sharks in round three and see off the Tigers in round four.
The Eels were dealt a blow before the game as Ryan Matterson was again ruled out due to ongoing concussion symptoms. A re-shuffle saw Isaiah Papali'i once again in the starting side and Ray Stone shift to the bench.
I'll get to the unbalanced bench later.
The Dragons came out flying and were up 6-0 early. A very questionable penalty try (separate argument for a different day) got them to 12-0 before they went to the sheds up 18-0.
In the second half Tariq Sims found himself in the sin bin after the Dragons conceded three set restarts in four tackles. They slowed the ruck down as much as possible and took full advantage of the new rules. I said this would happen when the rules were brought in, but I digress.
Parramatta immediately took advantage of the binning, using their extra numbers to isolate Adam Clune against Papali'i with the diminutive halfback's defence resembling that of a wet lettuce leaf close to the line.
At 18-6 the game felt on and with Bankwest Stadium heaving an Eels comeback looked in the offing.
However, rather than stick to what seemed to work regarding running direct lines, attacking the half and backrower with quick shifts as well as kicking into the corners and using physical defence, the Eels tried to play around their opponents to no effect.
On the stats sheet the Eels dominated field position, run metres, post contact metres, offloads and tackle breaks. They also dropped the ball 14 times.
But when a side has the metreage advantage you'd expect them to be playing through the middle a lot more. A hallmark of Parramatta at their best is short interchanges of passing by Junior and Nathan Brown around the ruck that isolates defenders and allows for quick play the balls. That was non-existent.
Instead Parramatta tried these long passes to try and simply run around their opponents which, without really getting the defence on the backfoot, was completely ineffective.
I don't like to blame a single player for a performance but that is on Mitchell Moses. He's the dominant half, he's our senior spine player and he sets the tone. He got the plaudits for leading the comeback against the Broncos, for grinding down Cronulla and sparking the side against the Tigers. He also has to wear the blame for that poor showing.
Dylan Brown is absent on some of that blame namely because it seemed when he got the ball he played a lot more direct, he mixed his pass selection and ran the ball well. He should have had a try-assist to his name and Corey Norman in defence had one hell of a time trying to contain him.
However, the Eels forced no repeat sets. In today's game, that is so important and something the Eels have been good at in recent years. For some reason though they tried to win the game in a handful of plays and this was no more exemplified than when Moses rifled a ridiculous pass well above the head of Maika Sivo when a shift through the hands would likely have seen the Fijian stroll through untouched.
Now to the bench. First off, it severely lacked size. While this iteration of the game requires a mobile pack, it can't be all mobility. Oregon Kaufusi was the sole prop, Ray Stone goes well as the third forward on the bench if he's asked to come on, lift the tempo and make his tackles. When he's followed Papa and Kaufusi onto the park, he's effective. But he's not the guy to turn to when you need to establish middle dominance.
That's not his fault though, he played fewer than 10 minutes.
No my, ire is directed at Bryce f*cking Cartwright. I had an open mind when we signed him and still kind of do. Minimum pay for a year means if he now sits in NSW Cup it's not a terrible cap hit and we move on. It's a better deal than the one we handed Kane Evans.
But sweet Lord above I do not want to see him back in first grade until he's tearing apart NSW Cup like a player of his talent should be. Why he's getting 53 minutes, which is only three minutes shy of Junior Paulo, is beyond me.
If he needs game time then stick him in NSW Cup where he's supposed to be.
While he did run for 113 metres, he also managed a knock-on, a couple of useless offloads and one horrendous kick.
And while Cartwright ran around like that, his former Titans teammate in Keegan Hipgrave quietly punched out 159 metres from lock for 80 minutes in reserve grade.
Hipgrave may not set the world alight, but surely his performance on the weekend puts him ahead of Cartwright for now.
Back to the actual use of the bench and if Stone and Will Smith are going to combine for less than 20 minutes, you might as well just name 15 men.
While I have congratulated BA in the past for his bench usage, it was terrible last night. I understand why Smith is on the bench, but even Oregon Kaufusi only got 24 minutes.
Where does the side go from here?
Well there has to be a marked improvement for next week when they travel to Canberra. The Raiders will be hurting after their clash against Penrith and Canberra is not a happy hunting ground for us.
Perhaps playing a more fancied opponent will see the side lift like against Melbourne.
Hopefully Ryan Matterson is back. With Papali'i dropping back to the bench the side has a much better balance to it.
An issue for the Eels will be the suspension of Dylan Brown who will cop a week for a supposed crusher tackle that was never picked up on field and the MRC managed to find.
I fear BA will go for Will Smith when Jordan Rankin has been playing out of his skin at NSW Cup. Rankin has been calm and composed leading around a very inexperienced Eels outfit in the lower grades. His short kicking game has been exceptional while he's a very useful backup goalkicker, landing 6/7 on the weekend.
Dr Jekyll will reappear next week and quickly arrest a form slide that could easily see the team tumble out of the eight in the next fortnight.
Replies
Lane has to be benched with Matto and Carty offering more in attack.
Bench
Papalili
Lane
Khafusi
Nikure.
Put oldfield in until Waqa comes back
Cartwright, just bloody no. He needs more game time in NSW Cup. At least with Lane he's trying to run into a gap, Cartwright crabs across field and on multiple occasions attempted terrible offloads, one of which led to a try.
And your bench doesn't have utility. I didn't mind Oldfield when he played Cup on the weekend. He was solid, good defensively. Seemed to be pretty dependable.
Good write up super, agree on Carty, he needs to go back and be killing it in nsw cup.
Shouldnt have changed a winning bench.
I like Rankin too, would like to see him get a run, should be next cab off the rack
Cartwright hasn't been good for 5 years. That's ages in professional sport. Back then I remember being a huge fan and thinking he should even pull on the 6 for the blues. Actually, I think he is, or perhaps was, a 6, but because he never had the opportunity to develop there, I think his nrl chance has past him. Look, I realise he's still reliatively young but I just don't think he is up to it.
In my opinion he lacks the toughness and strength of a well developed mid-to-late 20s 2021 nrl forward. It ain't gonna work.
Very much agree with your write up. I've also voiced my opinion on Cartwright and I'm just not a fan at all. I know it's a great redemption narrative and all that crap but honestly it just doesn't fit with the team Arthur has been trying to assemble and I am scratching my head as to what exactly is going on.
I know we struggled to score points at the end of last year and that probably played into Arthur's thinking but surely the opening rounds have shown how we create momentum and score points and it isn't with some backrower who thinks he's the second coming of cliff Lyons - it's with hard straight running.
I think Carty is still trying to fit in with the eels style of play. He need to realise that he must earn the right to offload which is how BA coaches our foward. He kicked early on tackle 3 which was a smart option. Our halves never thought about this option which is so obvious when the oposition winger are jamming in. He just never executed properly. I think Carty will proove to redeem himself soon. Just give him a couple games in the NRL.
I am with you EA
Rankin should without doubt replace Dylan but he will pick SMITH. Only way he will pick RANKIN if Gutho is out and SMITH goes to Fullback. The use of the bench and selection of the forwards is crazy. St George have a big pack. They bashed us and we could nothing about it except use our two best RCG and JUNIOR for longer than required to further cook them.
Yes agree. Arthur does weird s $#t with his bench. Why cook potentially your two best players aside from gutho, nathan brown. Mahoney is very important to us why cook him in the early rounds as well give will smith time out of dummy half. Us fans forget the first 5 rounds have been in hot conditions. Papali coming off the bench for pauli or rcg has to be the best prop rotation in the game atm. He has done well in the backrow and probably deserves to start but by papa starting we haven't got that big motor to come on and damage opposition defensive line. Nikoure needs to be the number 12 and probably long term too as matterson should retire from all the head knocks. Bring in oldfield/ rankin/ haze for centre position. (Will penisini i don't think is ready yet with what i have seen of him) Another mix bag performance from fergo I'd be thinking closely of waga playing wing when he returns see if he is better in wing postion concidering we have waga for another 2 seasons. Fergo needs to cut out his errors before eels think of resigning him. We have the team to challenge for the title. Couple of twicks are needed though. One loss doesn't define a season.
Great write up Super. Can't argue with anything there.
The thing with Cartwright is I'm not sure what his instructions are. If he just runs it hard and puts away the dumb stuff (sides ways running, stupid offloads) he goes ok. Actually he goes well. But I noticed in reserve grade he's still doing the sideways stuff. I thought BA said he was going to simplify his game?
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