Eels Blogs

Team Review: (6/10)

1. Clinton Gutherson (8/10)
   1. A bit clunky in attack but only round 1. Based on last year, his attack is something not to worry about.
   2. Good Captains Knock. Covered field position in the back very well and made a couple of good try savers.
2. Maika Sivo (6.5/10)
   1. His runs from out the back were quite impressive however he could do it more regularly.
   2. Defensively, work needs to be done. Whether this is Sivo’s poor defense or Brad Arthur’s defensive systems, there is a problem as he gets caught in field too regularly. As a result, cut out passes, double pumps, or kicks over the tops will cause problem, evidently shown and exploited by the Broncos tonight.
3. Tom Opacic (7)
   1. 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. Looks that he will be able to emulate Jennings defensive skills.
4. Waqa Blake (6)
   1. Provided some good runs from dummy half.
   2. Good try saver on Brodie Croft. Still has to work on his defense a lot. Him and Fergo look like they do not communicate with each other at all. Blake will come in and Fergo will slide, or vice versa.
5. Blake Ferguson (6.5)
   1. More involved from the back in the field. Had a great finish. Was too ambitious when he got taken over the touch line.
   2. His defense is still poor. His communication with Blake is horrible as written above. A lot of work to do. The first try he not only made the wrong defensive decision, but he took out Blake who was in cover defense, and Mead went straight throw that gap.
6. Dylan Brown (6.5)
   1. A horrible game in attack. Dropped the ball a lot an never provided much threat with the ball other than a couple runs.
   2. Great defense as usual. A couple try savers. However, as a five-eight he needs to get his attacking game better.
7. Mitchell Moses (7.5)
   1. Both the halves were quite clunky tonight. He is running onto the ball faster but is still not straightening the attack. I thought his kicking game, especially at the end of the game was good. Needs to be consistent now, in his game managing role.
   2. Was pretty solid in defense. Expect a couple of missed tackles from a half.
8. Regan Campbell – Gillard (7)
   1. Played less minutes than I thought he would. Perhaps due to Papali’I great performance in the middle. Some good carries but nothing spectacular
   2. Defended well.
9. Reed Mahoney (9)
   1. His first half was quite poor. Decided to run the ball rather than pass to Moses when there was a massive overlap. However, in the second half he changed the game. Ran more from dummy half and also from offloads. Couple of good kicks as well. Now he just needs to do this consistently and finally show he provides the spark needed from dummy half
   2. Great effort in defense. Made 53 tackles and did not miss one.
10. Junior Paulo (8.5)
    1. Has such good footwork. I don’t know how he got that line-break. Good powerful run to crash over for his try. He is well and truly a premier forward in our game. Probably only thing missing was his great offloading ability. Played big minutes as well.
    2. Missed a few tackles in defense but was still pretty good.
11. Shaun Lane (4)
    1. Once he was benched, he never came back on. Dropped the ball too many times. Got a bit better as the game went on, but he put Eels under so much pressure early on. He will be fighting to keep his spot in the team with Papali’I form and the eventual return of Cartwright and Niukore.
    2. Defense was alrigth.
12. Ryan Matterson (7)
    1. Alright in attack tonight. Not many damaging runs except the offload that led to Paulo’s try
    2. Pretty good in defense
13. Nathan Brown (7)
    1. Good workhorse. I must say that he passed the ball much less than he did last year. Also, he runs from the back fence, but often gets buckled as he wrong foots himself and barely makes much post contact meters.
    2. Brought line speed and went for big hits. Great effort but needs to try actually hit and stick.
14. Oregon Kaufusi (6.5)
    1. Pretty impressive. Slowly getting more minutes it looks like. Did nothing spectacular in attack or defense but did nothing wrong. Provided plenty of meters.
15. Isaiah Papali’I (9)
    1. Provided so many meters from the defense, and good post contact meters. Looks to be a great signing. Will be pushing Lane for his starting role on the edge. The only thing that will stop that is how good he did in the middle.
    2. Good in defense.
16. Keegan Hipgrave (5)
    1. Not a fan of him, but he did his job in his limited time.
17. Will Smith (5)
    1. Not enough time to make a great deal of impact. Though pushed hard to force the line drop out near the end of the game.

Overall Peformance Review:

A horrible first half performance. We were completing at 56% at half time. This is not the coach’s fault. I don’t know if it was nerves or rustiness, but it cannot become a routine. We cannot afford a slow start next week against the Storm, because look what happened to the Bunnies. Defensively our edges our still bad. Opacic was solid however, Sivo is too compressed and gets caught in field to much. This would easily be exploited by Munster who is one of the best players of eyes up footy. However, their combination together defending looked better than Blake and Fergo despite them playing together for over a year. Communication between Blake and Fergo needs to rapidly improve, and they need to work together. Either slide together or come in together. Not Fergo coming in a few seconds after Blake or one of them sliding while the other comes in.

Our attack got better in the second half. Our halves still a lot to work on in attack. Our tries were sparked by our hooker who had a MOM performance and is finally producing some good spark for dummy half. He just needs to do it consistently now. Brown never had a good night in attack as he dropped the ball a lot, and he also never straightened the attack. Moses hit the ball at good speed but still never straightened up or produced anything special. A work in progress but a win in round one is all important.