Eels Blogs

In Lewis Carroll’s (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898)) Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871), the sequel to his Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Carroll sends Alice into a mirror image of the real world. This mirror world is modelled on a chess board. Carroll wanted to show how Alice learns the rules of the world, which are often arbitrary and confusing, and he wanted to show Alice’s progression from innocent child to mature adult. Will the Eels in 2022 undergo a similar journey? From a team everyone expects to make the finals but bow out in week two of the finals, like an innocent child of a team, to a mature team capable of mastering the rules of big matches and winning it all? Of course, ever since 1986 Eels fans have been disappointed cynics, one failed campaign after another. What to do with that back-story, as we all head into 2022?

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice is challenged by the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon to tell of her adventures. Alice initially refuses, saying that “it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then” (Chap. 10). But the juvenile Alice relented, telling of her adventures with the White Rabbit. Maybe Eels fans just need to own our story too? Thirty-five years’ worth of baggage around our collective sporting hopes has generated a sense that a grand final victory is maybe impossible. But in Through the Looking Glass Carroll had Alice confront what she thought was impossible. When the White Queen tells Alice she is “one hundred and one, five months and a day,” Alice says “I can’t believe that! … There’s no use trying … one can’t believe impossible things.” The White Queen’s response is instructive: “I daresay you haven’t had much practice … Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast” (Chap. 5). This year, I’m going to believe in the impossible. Maybe even practice doing so. You? Welcome to Round 2.

Teams

Saturday 19 March, PointsBet Stadium, Sydney 5:3pm (AEDT). Referee: Peter Gough.

Eels: 1. Clinton Gutherson 2. Waqa Blake 3. Viliami Penisini 4. Tom Opacic 5. Bailey Simonsson 6. Dylan Brown 7. Mitchell Moses 8. Reagan Campbell-Gillard 9. Reed Mahoney 10. Junior Paulo 11. Shaun Lane 12. Isaiah Papali'i 13. Oregon Kaufusi. Interchange: 14. Makahesi Makatoa 15. Bryce Cartwright 16. Ray Stone 17. Nathan Brown. Reserves: 18. Jakob Arthur. 

Head coach: Brad Sniffles Arthur

Sharks: 1. William Kennedy 2. Sione Katoa 3. Jesse Ramien 4. Ronaldo Mulitalo 5. Matt Ikuvalu 6. Matt Moylan 7. Nicho Hynes 8. Toby Rudolf 9. Blayke Brailey 10. Braden Hamlin-Uele 11. Briton Nikora 12. Teig Wilton 13. Dale Finucane. Interchange: 14. Aiden Tolman 15. Siosifa Talakai 16. Royce Hunt 17. Andrew Fifita. Reserves: 18. Luke Metcalf.

Head coach: Craig Virgin Fitzgibbon.

Notes: The Sharks remain unchanged from Round 1. The Eels, not so much. Sean Russell is out with broken ribs and a punctured lung. Who recalls Round 9 of 2021, Eels vs Roosters? Dylan Brown accidentally knees Drew Hutchison (Chooks), breaking ribs and puncturing a lung. This was hailed an “astounding” case of on-field inaction when no penalty was awarded. Brown was subsequently suspended for 3 weeks. We have heard what about young Jayden Campbell and his knees? No suspension, indeed Laurie Daley called it ‘do gooder’ stuff to complain. Note I think Campbell kneeing Russell was accidental. But any idea the Eels don’t regularly get the short end of the media straw, being depicted as devils at the drop of a hat while similar happening to them is met with “meh, that happens”, is over already and it’s only Round 2. As the Red Queen said in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, “off with their heads!” (Chap. 8). In other news, Waqa Blake switches form centre to wing to cover Russell, Tom Opacic comes in at centre (scored 4 tries in reggies last week apparently), and Kaufusi starts at lock (replacing the injured Matterson). Makatoa and Stone retain their bench spots, with N Brown returning off the bench and Cartwright seemingly replacing Jacob Arthur at utility. Does that suggest the JA as utility experiment was a bust? 

Observations from Last Week

Eels (vs Titans), 32-28 (W), 57% possession, 77% completion rate, 4 line breaks, 31 tackle breaks, 10 offloads, 33 missed tackles, 7 ineffective tackles, 8 errors, 1 penalties conceded, 1 ruck infringements.

Sharks (vs Raiders), 19-24 (L), 46% possession, 67% completion rate, 4 line breaks, 29 tackle breaks, 12 offloads, 44 missed tackles, 35 ineffective tackles, 12 errors, 8 penalties conceded, 0 ruck infringements.

Eels/Titans highlights HERE.

Sharks/Raiders extended highlights HERE.

Sometimes we must scratch our heads about what some statistical categories mean. The Sharks’ “effective tackle” rate against the Raiders was 80.54%, but the Sharks missed 44 tackles (to the Raiders’ 29) and ‘made’ 35 ineffective tackles (to the Raiders’ 22), alongside their 327 tackles for the game. Add in 12 errors and 8 penalties to their 67% completion rate and 46% possession, and it’s a minor miracle the Sharks only lost 19-24 to the Raiders. Note the Sharks led 19-18 with 7 minutes remaining.

For the Eels, it was not far from the opposite; that is, a minor miracle they did not lose to the Titans, or at least some weird minor miracle they somehow managed not to run away with the game. The Eels led 10-0 after 10 minutes, 14-6 after 18 minutes, 18-12 after 28 minutes, and 26-12 after 33 minutes. Notably, the Titans had snuck in two tries during the Eels’ run of five tries, with the Eels consistently gifting field position to the Titans through errors or penalties in the Eels’ 40 zone. Then the Eels packed up and went home at the 34-minute mark, possibly coincidental with Jacob Arthur coming on at 6 after left-winger Russell was injured in the act of scoring, with Dylan Brown moving to left centre and Waqa Blake to the left wing. Possibly we chalk this up to a disrupted line-up? Regardless, up 26-12, the Eels conceded two tries in the final five minutes of the half, and another just after the resumption, to fall behind 26-28 with 35 minutes remaining.

The Eels will tell themselves they controlled the game from that point, spending most of their time in the Titans half, forcing the Titans into errors and penalties. The Eels converted three penalties in the final fourteen minutes to escape with an odd and somewhat hollow victory. But a win is a win so every other team can go f*** themselves and we all move on to Round 2.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Head-to-head games Eels vs Sharks have been split roughly evenly, historically. In recent games, especially Eel’s home games, the Eels have taken the honours. But when travelling to the Sharks’ home ground (now PointsBet Stadium), results have been less than kind to the Eels.

 The Eels have in fact not won at PointsBet Stadium for seven years.

 And the referee this weekend, Peter Gough, referred the last Eels game at PointsBet Stadium. We lost.

Some may recall from 2021 that HOE and I dragged data from various sources to cobble together attack and defence statistics for the Eels and their opponents, allowing speculations about where each team might try to attack the other and where each team might be vulnerable regarding the other. It is too early to bother with such stats. But stay tuned in subsequent weeks, when the stats might have enough games behind them to indicate trends and vulnerabilities.

The only stat we found of note for this week is that the two Sharks centres, Ronaldo Mulitano and Jesse Ramien, are try freaks at PointsBet Stadium. Mulitano has scored in every game he has played at the venue, and Ramien’s strike rate at the venue is his best strike rate of any venue. Most of us will recall a few defensive wobbles, in previous years, when Opacic and Blake defended next to each other on the left flank. Moreover, here in 2022 already, the Eels were continually stripped for numbers on their right flank of Penisini and Simonsson in the Titans game of Round 1. As was pointed out in blogs during the week, the right flank troubles seemed to begin with the middle forwards getting stuck and not pushing out, and possibly poor calling from Gutho at the back. Hopefully, all that “we trained smarter in the off-season” talk from BA and the players means such issues will be rectified quickly. Otherwise expect Mulitano and Ramien to feature on the scoreboard.

The Bottom Line

Before the Penrith trial, won handsomely by the Eels, BA in his presser had said the Eels knew their own identity. BA said they were there to show their identity, not find their identity. But Round 1 again showed a team with an unclear identity.

The Eels ran in five first half tries. The Titans could barely contain them. But without ball in hand, the Eels defence was somewhat flimsy. Despite the Eels dominating the first 35 minutes, scoring five tries at will, the Eels permitted the Titans to continuously peg back the lead. Three of the Titans first-half tries found the Eels outside backs repeatedly out-numbered on our right flank. The fourth first-half try came from a dummy half run, where the Eels had about one hundred and one chances to stop the Titans’ hooker scoring.

Note in his pressers, BA also stressed that the Eels had “trained smarter”, focusing on their goal-line attack (because they had “left many tries out there” in 2021) and their goal-line defence. Based on the Titans game, the Eels might only have fixed up the attack, with doubts surely remaining about the defence?

Overall, the Eels are like Alice, who had asked “Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle!” (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chap. 2). Can the Eels please sort out their identity, on both sides of the ball?

A final note. To all 1EyedEel members. As our crazy footy team pursues the big prize this year, just remember that winning it all is not impossible, but there will be ups and downs along the way. Try to be kind to each other!

As the Cheshire Cat said to Alice, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chap. 6), “we’re all mad here”.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”