Eels Blogs

Team Review: (9.5/10)

1. Clinton Gutherson (9.5/10)
   1. Did some sweep plays from the back. Looks dangerous a couple times but led to nothing.
   2. While he did not set up or score any tries, he saved three tries himself. Effort on effort. Great captain and great leader.
2. Maika Sivo (9.5/10)
   1. Scored to great aerial tries. Showed great desire to get the last try. Siiivvvooo!!!
   2. Not much work to do tonight defensively, but still did his job well.
3. Tom Opacic (8)
   1. Like last week. His attack was pretty solid. He runs very good lines and cuts back inside very well. However, never seen him link up with Sivo at all. Combination in progress.
   2. His defensive was very solid. Unfortunately slipped over which lead to the first Storm try
4. Marata Niukore (9)
   1. Good move for wet conditions. Hats of to BA. Dry weather he doesn’t have enough pace, but today he was great. Played like a backrower in attack. Can forgive him for some sloppy passes to Fergo.
   2. Great defensive game. You can expect him to be beaten once for speed but he was great playing there against a storm outfit. His tackle on Olam was brave and great.
5. Blake Ferguson (8)
   1. Obviously hard for wingers to score in pouring conditions unless its aerial. Minimal chances. But ran well from the back.
   2. His defense was alright. With Marata inside him its hard to watch his inside and than mark the fastest player in the NRL on his outside. Did very well to only allow one line break. Tried a miracle play early than backfired.
6. Dylan Brown (8.5)
   1. Nothing special in attack. Ran the ball as usual and dropped a simple one. I thought his kicking game today was great.
   2. Great defense as usual. Nice tackle on Papenhyzuen during the line break.
7. Mitchell Moses (9)
   1. Same like Brown. Ran the ball more and had a great kicking game
   2. Was pretty solid in defense. Could of maybe done better on Remis Smith first try.
8. Regan Campbell – Gillard (8.5)
   1. Good carries
   2. Good defense
9. Reed Mahoney (9.5)
   1. He must off learned so much this off season. He is creating so much from dummy half and uses Paulo so well on the try line. Kicking game was great.
   2. Great effort in defense. Made plenty of tackles and the tackle on Munster at the end. As well as desperation when Fox grubbed for himself.

10. Junior Paulo (9)
    1. Played big minutes and is honestly a top 3 forward in our game. I rate him as the best. His footwork, passing and offloading is superb. Developing a good combination in attack with Mahoney.
    2. Did his job.
11. Shaun Lane (8)
    1. Massive step up from last week. Did his job well.
    2. Defense was good.
12. Ryan Matterson (8)
    1. Good in attack tonight. Hopefully he is ok. He doesn’t have a good concussion history so I expect him to take time to recover.
    2. I though his defense was great today. I though he used his massive frame really well and really buckled a few Storm players. Most notably when Papenhyuzen lost the ball and ref didn’t award a knock on. (Klein the dump).
13. Nathan Brown (8.5)
    1. Good workhorse. Ran hard.
    2. Great defense and mongrel.
14. Oregon Kaufusi (7.5)
    1. Pretty impressive. Slowly getting more minutes. Dropped the ball once but is improving.
15. Isaiah Papali’I (8.5)
    1. Ran hard and covered Matto’s spot when he got concussed. What a signing.
    2. Good in defense.
16. Keegan Hipgrave (7)
    1. Did his job in a small time.
17. Will Smith (8)
    1. Not a lot of time but still made an impact. Last week he forced a drop out and this week he intercepted an offload. 

Coach: Brad Arthur

Ahhhh. We can all praise the bloke. Happy for him. Will release so much pressure. His call to move Niukore to the center was a master stroke. While this shouldn’t be permanent, in wet weather footy this was a great call and it tightened up our defense so much. He deserves all applauds this week.

Review:

To start with we will mention Storm the grubs and Klein the dump. I don’t know how you can’t see forward passes and knock on’s. How was Kafusi not sin binned, even sent off. So much intent and Matto was cleary KO and gone for the game. I remember in 2019 Jennings got sin binned when he hit Yeo only because Yeo had to be sent to the HIA. Kafusi tackle was worse and same result for the victim. I wish Kafusi got put in a ring with Jnr Paulo so he could get king hit. He is such an underated dirty grub. Also storms cheating tactis are obvious. Off returns from kicks, they run straight at Munster who is in the way of our eels defenders. Also when eels knock the ball on, they then throw them on the ground 5 sec after they drop the ball so our eels player can’t defend. Also when they offload, storm hold onto eels players so they can’t defend. Bellamy maybe the best coach ever and transforms average players to good players, but fuck he teaches them to grubby.

Now with that rant over, I realized eels played with a little more mongrel than usual. They weren’t intimidated my storms grubby tactics. They rather gave it back to the players in the ruck. So proud of the boys.

Our defense today was very good. Only couple of poor lapses for the lead up of Smith’s try and the play he scored on as well. Also a couple line breaks were poor. But overall great in defense. The first try could have been saved if Opacic didn’t slip over and Moses made better contact. The second try was unlucky. Brown made the right call of sticking his footout just in case but was unlucky with the rebound. 

Our kicking game today was superb. Moses, Brown and Mahoney were great. Joey must have really made a difference in the off-season because I have heard they spent a lot of time focusing on their kicks and what kicks to make. Brown and Moses must have a big boot because their kicks in the second half were travelling far. Mahoney injected himself at the perfect time and is really providng some spark. He uses Paulo well close the line and knows when to run from dummy half or from offloads. Sivo was great in the air tonight as well.

 P.S I heard that Blake was in a moon boot. Could be a possible calf tear. Depending on the severity, it could be 5 week on the sidelines. I think Marata did great today, but in dry condition it would be hard when teams can play with greater speed. So I think we will need to look at our options. But I would be happy for Marata to prove me wrong.

GOOO THE MIGHTY EELS !!!!