Eels Blogs

A disappointing loss seeing as we lost last week and would have been good to bounce back against the Knights but when you consider that we had: Ryan Matterson, ZDC, Tanginoa, Pritchard, and Lussick you can see why we struggled a fair bit. I think what really let us down today was that our halves weren't able to capatalise on the good work that our big boys were making. It definitely doesn't help the team when we're using our #3 and #4 halves and our #3 hooker and to an extent you could say we are using out #2 fullback seeing as John Fomai is out. It was good that the score only ended up being 20-16 to the Knights I can't help but feel that if we had more of our better attacking players in the team we could have won this game by 10 or more.

1) Corey Makelim- Honestly, and I know it seems lazy but I could just copy and paste what I put every week about this kid. It's a shame that he's small as that will keep him out of first grade but he would be a handy back-up for any team. This week he got a lot more involved towards the end of the game and tried to spur the team towards victory but just couldn't do it by himself. He tried to do a lot where the halves were lacking, he kicked a few times and was barking orders to the team but unfortunately for Corey nothing worked.

2) Fabian Goodall- Good involvement again from the big winger and was very unfortunate not to grab a few tries. He was put into space a few times and looked straight at the try line but just couldn't get there. Like Makelim later on in the match he looked to get himself involved more and gain metres for the team but there was no one to capatalise for the hulking winger. He threw a nice offload late in the game to Makelim and I'd like to see more of that in his game, it definitely catches the defence out.

3) Tyrell Fuimaono- Is starting to settle down more in the game and becoming more involved and having a better impact. What is noticeable for mine is that he is not a centre, his defence there is fine and he has the lateral movement to make tackles against the more agile centres but he just doesn't have the pace and footwork to beat his man 1v1.

4) Nathan Davis- There is not much more praise I can give this kid. His overall game is awesome for a kid his age. He can beat a defender 1v1 with his pace and agility, he can set-up his outside winger with a deft pass, and his defence is good. He needs to work on all these facets of his game more so he can become a first grade player, he needs to put on some weight and he could work on his goal-kicking. His average game is getting a lot better compared to when he started the year, the improvement in this kid and a lot of others over a short period is outstanding. His kick-offs are awesome, as Newcastle struggled all afternoon to even field his kicks. One went over the dead ball line for a drop out and one went over the sideline for us to pick up a scrum.

5) Halauafu Lavaka- Like his opposite winger Lavaka was trying to spur the team on with some early runs in the set. Unlike his opposite though he was able to score a try, he just knows how to get the ball down over the line and I'm pretty sure that's his 17th or 18th try for the year. It would be awesome to keep him in our system but it seems like the club views Goodall as the better long-term option.

18) Mark Daoud- Tried hard again today but he just doesn't have what it takes to be a half. His vision was off and his kicking creativity was very poor. The only time I thought you could say Daoud had a good game was when he kicked it across field to Lavaka for a good try. He has no problem with kicking the ball into a corner to help his team have a break but he struggles to do anything outside of that.

19) Dylan Izzard- Was not impressed at all with the young blonde haired half. Like Daoud his kicking game was poor and his passing and running game were just as bad. You can see why Izzard and Daoud are #3 and #4 choices for our halves.

8) Fred Junior Muala- Is starting to use his size a lot more and using it more effectively. Compared to a lot of the 20's players he is huge and even with his size he still possesses some speed. I'd like FJ to bring his step back into his game. I really think that defences would be caught out by it and would help him make a lot more metres.

9) Alec Bush- Had another solid game today, you could tell when he went off as we had no recognised hooker the delivery from dummy half was slow and there was no one attacking lazy markers there. Even though he's solid he's no Kaysa Pritchard or Joey Lussick.

10) Tepai Tepu-Smith- Personally I thought this was one of his better games in the NYC. He ran hard, made a lot of metres and drew in defenders. He was also throwing a few offloads later on in the match. I know it will come in time but I'd like to see TTS develop a pass where he runs to the line and drops it back to one of his halves. As I said this will come in time and him continually developing should see him bring this into his game.

11) Tepai Moeroa- He was the stand in-captain this week with both Matterson and ZDC and what a captain's game it was. Not only was it the Moeroa we've come to know he seemed to step it up a notch when the game was on the line and he knew what he had to do to help his team. If he was to be brought into first grade next week he would not look out of place at all. He has the size for first grade, he has the work ethic and most and more importantly he has the impact for first grade, I don't think we've seen anyone as close to first grade in the NYC since Frazer Masinamua. Moeroa is just built for first grade and still only at 18 has a long career ahead of him.

12) Eric Newbigging- Whilst I can't say the same about Moeroa's second-row partner Newbigging as I can Moeroa he still had a solid game and ran some nice lines. Newbigging always runs a good line off his half and doesn't cramp his half forcing him to pass instead he can hold off nicely and time it right so that the half has options. I think Eric needs to gain some weight though, he looks a bit skinny out there compared to some of our other forwards and I think gaining an extra 5-8kgs would really help his game.

13) Jeff Markus- The biggest problem with Markus' game this week was that I thought he tried to do too much rather than just playing what is needed from him. This is no diminishing point of his game as you can understand that he wanted to do as much organising and passing whilst the regular halves were away but it hindered his strong hit-up. This is what we need from Markus first and foremost run a hard angled line and then push off his right foot to try and break the line.

15) Jordan Muna- Like his front-row starters I thought Muna had a good game making a fair few metres and hit a very nice hole in the second-half of the game.

16) Brendan Raeli- Another Raeli performance. He came on and worked his butt off in the limited time he had, constantly making 2 hit-ups per set and doing a lot of work in defence. Unfortunately I can't write too much outside of that as that's how you sum up the game that Raeli plays week-in, week-out.

20) Jack Anderson- Not much impact provided by the small forward once again this week. Came on and did his job although he didn't do it at a high-impact that you come to expect from bench forwards.

23) Alex Twal- Yes, we saw the big SG Ball prop make his NYC debut. A few weeks ago someone asked me whether we'd see young Alex play in the NYC this year and I didn't think we would as we still have Paula Kaufusi, and Paul Tuigamala in the RM cup playing for Guildford but I thought Twal had a very strong game off the bench. I was surprised with how big he was first of all, he matches most of our taller forwards for height and although in time I'm sure he'll put on weight naturally he still looked to be around 107-110kg. In his first hit-up he ran the ball hard and was able to get on top of the opposition then later on in the match I saw something that we haven't seen for a long time...AN OFFLOAD. He didn't only do this once, he threw some quality offloads at least every second hit-up that hit the chest of our players this was after gaining some solid ground too. He also worked hard late in the game, and in 2 or 3 sets he made at least 2 hit-ups and got our team into a good kicking position.