So some stats that caught my eye:
Firstly most impressive is Ky Rodwell: 224 metres, 2 tackle breaks, 27 tackles in 54 minutes. Impressive is an understatement.
Elie El-Zakhem: 145 metres, 31 tackles, 5 tackle breaks, 1 try. Could be a bolter for a back-row spot by years end.
Luca Moretti: Only got 26 minutes, 91 metres and 11 tackles. Not bad in short stint.
Ofahiki Ogden: 145 metres, 24 tackles, 2 tackle breaks, 1 offload.
Zac Cini: 157 metres, 9 tackle breaks. Not much of him but seems like a handful at times.
Solomone Naiduki: 91 metres, 5 tackle breaks, 1 linebreak.
Hayze Perham: 4 try assists, 124 metres, 4 offloads.
Nathan Brown: 111 metres, 34 tackles, 4 missed. 54 mins played.
Brendan Hands: only 10 mins, 1 try assist and 1 linebreak assist.
Mitch Rein: 1 try, 43 tackles, 93 metres, 5 tackle breaks, 1 offload, 2 linebreaks.
Tom Opacic: 4 tries, 125 metres, 5 tackle breaks, 4 linebreaks, 12 tackles.
Nathan Brown seems to be disappointing choice out of it with 4 missed tackles. Granted first game of the year where the rest had 2 trials. Though Rodwell stats are insane.
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Eels 34-6 winners
flegg dragons 30-22 lost
Marata won't be there he's injured
Ok Cartwright comes in for Nuikore
I have a feeling Cartwright maybe dropping further down the pecking order he was pretty dissapointing in the trials.
Yeah it is weird considering we straight away re-signed him for an extra 2 seasons, yet couldn't get Papa to sign ealier hahaha, i know it's not that easy but you would of thought him signing for 2 more years equals importance to the squad other than depth (then again look at Greig, Rodwell and Ogden all cant be in the 17 every week).
I think the club love Elie El-Zakhem in NSW cup as a depth second-rower.
Ky Rodwell should be in the top 17 in my opinion. I'd rather him than either Makatoa / Papa / Kafausi
Kafausi looks to be a bit off at the moment. The timing of his runs in both the trial against the Panthers & the round one game were off which limited his impact. Good young player but not where I expected him to be to start the season.
Kaufusi to me always seems to be a player that seems good enough to be on an NRL squad but never will be a full-time starter, seems to be rattled easily. Look at last year, he had a wonderful start to 2021, and seemed we chose the right player out of Kaufusi and Utoikamanu. But then against Souths last year he got knocked out in first tackle and wasn't the same for the season. BA even leaving him out of the semi's, choosing Makatoa who had only 4 NRL games prior over Kaufusi. 2019 and 2020 Kaufusi was left out numerous times in semi's and wonder if that is on him not being up to it but by years end BA always goes off Kaufusi.
When he signed for Cronulla i was not overly disappointed, when i saw he was on 400k with them i thought Cronulla servearly overpaid. I like Kaufusi, i think he is a decent player to have in a 17, just do not want him on top dollar or to be full-time starter.
I've noticed that the 4 players leaving:
1) Mahoney - Has been really great so far but he certainly isn't his expressive self.
2) Kaufusi - Definitely agree with what you've said.
3) Niukore - Injured so can't say.
4) Papa - Great but still missing something as compared to last year.
5) Stone - Probably him and Mahoney the best from all those leaving
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