The worrying aspect of Parramatta's Round One side is that on paper it's weaker than the side that won the wooden spoon in 2012.
The only new face in the side is Darcy Lussick, who at this stage of his career can only be considered a like-for-like replacement with Justin Poore, who he replaces. Meanwhile, there is that one name missing from the side - Nathan Hindmarsh.
We're yet to see how the Eels will cope with the loss of Hindmarsh. Even in his latter years, Hindmarsh did so much work around the middle of the ruck, cleaning up half breaks and being the extra man in.
We've not replaced Hindmarsh, with a similar defensive workhorse. Ben Smith is a strong defender, but has typically defender wider on the park, as will Reni Maitua. It's actually likely that Joseph Paulo will be asked to do a lot of the more mobile defending in the middle, along with defensive mainstay Matt Keating.
Pre-season reports have noted that Ricky Stuart has asked for a tougher, more aggressive defensive attitude and as such, our prop forwards need to step up and take more defensive responsibility in the middle than they have in the past.
The Eels go into this match with their very young and raw backline, which at least gained valuable experience last year and demonstrated some promise. However, the reality is that its the least experienced backline in the competition, with some well-known defensive issues. Lining up against the likes of Dane Neilsen and human wrecking balls Manu Vatuvei and Konrad Hurrell will be challenging, but on the flipside neither of those players are speedsters which could present the Eels with opportunities if they can create space in attack.
Luke Kelly has secured the pivot position, in combination with Chris Sandow and its a combination which at least on paper should work well. Kelly is likely to take on much of the organisational responsibilities with Sandow providing the spark. Despite this, I can't see much changing from years prior with again much of the final delivery falling upon Jarryd Hayne.
If there is a glaring weakeness in this line-up there isn't a rock in the side that the Eels can rely on to provide consistently strong performances. All of the side's playmakers - Hayne, Kelly, Sandow and Roberts are players who can produce stand-out performances but equally are prone to taking wrong options and having underwhelming games. The Eels will be hoping that Kelly grows into that role, but right now it's a lot to expect from a rookie half with the limited exposure to NRL he has had to date. What they desperately need is Jarryd Hayne to bring his A game every week.
An area of concern for the Eels in recent seasons have been their firepower on the fringes. With Maitua, Smith and Ryan they have solid options, but no barnstorming forwards who are likely to create opportunities with limited space. As such, we're really going to need strong go-forward to get the Warriors defence on their heels so as the halves have space to work any backline movements.
Given where we finished last year, some might have expected Ricky Stuart to find alternative options for his top 17 this year, but if you look at out NSW Cup side, we aren't stacked with depth particularly in the backs. Ken Edwards was probably the only player to put his hand up during the trials and subsequently it is a very familiar looking Eels side. Given he has the same cattle as last year, it will be interesting to see what other ways Ricky Stuart can find to improve the performances and win-rate of his roster.
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This is basically the same side that couldnt beat time with a stick last year -- the big difference is the wicked witch is gone and replaced by a real coach ... i hope !!!
The one thing im worried bout is the centres, dats where the defensive issue is.
Morgan is a decent one on one defender. The misses that people remember came about last year when he had Sandow defending inside him. Opposition teams invariably attacked down that side and Morgan was left marking 2 and 3 opponents because he was caught between helping Sandow and sticking with his own man.
Loko is the worry. He hasn't played first grade for the best part of 2 years. Hell, he hasn't even played NSW Cup in that time either. His defence was exposed early in those 1st grade games. He's coming back from 2 knee re-co's. He will be targeted mercilessly in the opening rounds methinks by opposing teams to see if a) his defensive reads have improved, and b) if his lateral movement has been affected by those re-co's.
at least ricky will try different approaches unlike our last coach who basically ruined any hope with his friggin stupid kiwi stubborness!!!!!!
Yes attitude is the difference. Sure we probably don't have a stronger side on paper then last season, but we still have 5 players that took us to the 2009 Grand Final. We all remember how that season was looking with 12 games to go until the players attitude and belief changed. Ricky will bring that back and i'm sure we will compete for a top 8 spot.
Mate, that's a pretty big "Apart" from, given the Tiger's trial was our only big pre-season test.
We have some defensive issues that every coach in the NRL knows about and will look to exploit. You run big men at Chris Sandow which forces the defenders around him to overcompensate, making us susceptible to either an inside ball if the man inside comes across or it opens up space outwide. You get a lot of decoys happening out wide and our centres don't yet have the experience to always make the right decisions as to which man to take. And potentially, we could now add on top of that a potentially vulnerable ruck defence.
You can't just fix these issues overnight on the training park. You can't suddenly give a 21 year old kid, the years of defensive experience they need to make the big defensive decisions. You can't make Sandow grow. So what this side has to somehow do, is overcompensate for its weaknesses by over achieving in other areas. In the same way that Des Hasler accepted he had some limitations with his halves at the Bulldogs, he compensated for that by changing the team's style of play, to play to its strengths which was his forwards and to involve Barba as much as possible.
I'm hoping Ricky's thinking along the lines of a high-tempo game. We've got to somehow get opposition defences on their heels to bring Sandow into the game, which will open up opportunities for others. To my mind, we need to be consistently scoring 24 points a game because I think with our defensive issues we'll struggle to keep sides to less than 18 a game. Right now, I don't see where this side has that many points in them, which is why I'm particularly circumspect at this stage of the season.
I seem to remember Blair being more of a liability in defense in the centes last year than Morgan - lots of poor reads and arm grabs. So I would have thought that some of the keys to Saturday will be how Loko defends, how well we hide Sandow in the defensive line and whether the combination of Mannah, Lussick and Fui can give us any drive through the middle.
The problem with that is we're kind of lacking in this department as well. Matt Keating is not an up-tempo hooker - he's better suited playing inside a quality half who doesn't want his hooker to overplay his hand. An up-tempo game has to start a dummy half. You want big wingers to get your sets off to a strong start and then you want a nine who is going to dart at every other opportunity. And we're not that mobile in the forwards compared to other teams - outside of Fui we don't have those dynamic, super athletic forwards who punch holes in opposition defences.
If you look at our young blokes, we've got some of those blokes coming through. Kaysa Pritchard is a very up tempo hooker and some of our young forwards have got that dynamic nature about them.
I think this year, what Stuart has to do is unlock our skill. We have some very skillful players, with tremendous individual skills - Hayne, Sandow, Paulo, Maitua, Roberts. If we're to succeed this year, Stuart has to find a way that those guys get the opportunity to make use of that skill.
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