Eels Blogs

TAKING IT TO NEXT LEVEL
Hardened Eels must lift to down fresh Panthers
THE result always stares you in the face.

If Penrith wins tonight, it was obvious, they were fresh, fit and energised after spending the week with their feet up watching the Eels bust their guts for fourth spot.

If Parramatta causes an upset, then it was clearly obvious that a team that is battle-hardened and on a roll always beats a team who has cruised into September with a halfback who enters the finals underdone.

Parramatta has been the season’s most confusing team. They beat the best one week and then the following Sunday they get belted by a cellar dweller.

The thing is with Parra, they can elevate themselves, but they need to be up to win.

Most top-eight teams can win below themselves, grind out an ugly performance.

For whatever reason, the Eels can’t, and that leads to wild inconsistency because you can’t be up every week.

But now you can, because you see the finish line.

Like Pavlov’s dogs, when September arrives and you feel that slight temperature change, you get a boost of energy for the championship rounds.

Penrith won the minor premiership with a last-month canter because they’ve been the most consistent side, but now consistency means nothing.

Take the 1995 season for example. Canterbury was having a wretched year but found some form at the back end to sneak into the top eight.

Then, out of the blue, the Bulldogs upset St George, Brisbane, Canberra and finally the competition’s best team all year, Manly, to win the comp. No one believed they were capable of causing four upsets in a row of that magnitude, but there you go.

Every team in this year’s final series is dangerous and can cause a boilover.

But back to tonight’s clash …

Before we talk playmakers, the battle of the middle forwards is going to be spectacular.

Reagan Campbell-Gillard is in the best form of his career, and it’s common knowledge that he has no relationship with his former Penrith teammates.

After his mysterious dropping during this year’s Origin series, it was suggested the snubbing was at the request of some of his old Panthers pals.

This may well be one of those fantastic rumours that rugby league churns out on a weekly basis, but let’s just say it’s true because it makes great theatre.

He and Junior Paulo versus James Fisher-Harris and Moses Leota will be a mighty first 30 minutes.

But the shootout of the playmakers is the headline act.

Let’s talk about the No.7s, the most crucial players.

Mitchell Moses has entered his peak years. That period when a playmaker finally has a complete understanding of his strengths and how to play to them.

Mitchell has adjusted his approach to the defence, he receives the ball slightly wider and it forces him to play straighter.

That adjustment has helped his outside men enormously and made his running game more dangerous.

This is the biggest match of his career. These next few weeks could be a career definer for Mitch.

Nathan Cleary has had an extended stint on the sideline. Importantly, it’s been suspension not injury, so he’s been able to train at full tilt, which keeps him physically fit and helps keep the rust at bay.

People tell me Nathan is jumping out of his skin, really fired up and motivated to make this finals series his.

I’m thinking it will be.

Parramatta must try to do what Queensland was able to, and that’s rush Nathan, cramp him for space, harass his kicks, place him in a phone box.

To do that Parramatta will need to test the referee’s patience, lie on the tackled player that half a second longer, slow Penrith’s play-the-ball.

How well they can do this will decide the result.

Nathan and Mitchell’s deputies will, of course, have an enormous bearing.

Yeo, Luai, Koroisau and Cleary is the best combination in rugby league. Isaah Yeo’s variation in go forward makes it very hard for teams to contain Penrith’s yardage.

In the Eels camp, Dylan Brown, Clint Gutherson and Reed Mahoney are on fire. Dylan’s left-foot step is a peach.

And what about the edge backrowers who will be complementing everything their playmakers do? For Penrith, Viliame Kikau (inset, left) and Liam Martin standing opposite the in-form Shaun Lane and the super smart Isaiah Papali’i.

So what wins – battle-hardened or fresh, fit and rested?

Nathan’s stint on the touchline will be a blessing for Penrith. Without him they’ve seen the areas which needed fixing and done so. His return will be the difference.

WHO’S THE BETTER HALVES OUT WEST?
Fatima Kdouh
NATHAN Cleary and Jarome Luai are the reigning premiership halves combination but have Parramatta’s Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown dethroned the Penrith pairing as the NRL’s best playmaking duo?

The Daily Telegraph posed the question to Luai and the five-eighth wasn’t willing to give up the mantle without a fight, starting in Friday night’s Battle of the West.

“Owww, we’ll let the footy do the talking there, we will see (on Friday),” Luai said.

“We’re pretty keen to come up against any good halves match-up but it’s a 13 on 13 thing out there on the field so we just want to make our team a better team on the night.”

Luai has been limited to one game in the last seven weeks, while Cleary has been sidelined after copping a five-match ban for a spear tackle on Brown.

In that time, Moses and Brown have enjoyed a rich vein of form, with both arguably having career-best seasons.

While Luai wasn’t willing to surrender the halves combination mantle, the five-eighth did concede his Eels counterpart Brown, 22, was now the best No.6 in the competition.

Brown’s 18 try assists in the regular season are more than all the try-scoring opportunities he had created in his first three years of NRL.

“He’s probably the best six in the competition at the moment,” Luai said.

“He’s one of their danger-men and we need to keep a close eye on him if we are to win this game. I’m sure we’ll do a good job on him.”

Last week, legendary halfback and Immortal Andrew Johns said Moses was playing with the most control he’d seen from the Eels No.7.

Cleary, who has had over a month to pick apart Moses’ game while watching from the sidelines, agrees with Johns.

“He’s been playing really well. The last two, three years he has been a standout halfback in our competition and I think he has gone to another level this year,” Cleary said.

“He’s got a great kicking game, great running game and good all around player.” — with Jen Dawson and 3 others.