Round 22 Discussion

[Big Pete]

Thursday
7:50pm - Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs vs Parramatta Eels

Friday
6:00pm - St. George Illawarra Dragons vs South Sydney Rabbitohs
7:50pm - North Queensland Cowboys vs Melbourne Storm

Saturday
3:00pm - Newcastle Knights vs Warriors
5:30pm - Gold Coast Titans vs Brisbane Broncos
7:30pm - Cronulla Sharks vs Canberra Raiders

Sunday
2:00pm - Manly Sea Eagles vs Sydney Roosters
4:00pm - Penrith Panthers vs Wests Tigers

 

[Big Pete]

Parramatta are on a 5 game winning streak which realistically could extend to 8 wins as they come up against the Bulldogs, Knights & Titans in successive weeks. The key for Parramatta is being able to maintain the form they showed against Brisbane. That was arguably their best performance of the season and it put them on everybody's radar. It's the type of display that can be a positive or a negative. On one hand it can give your club some belief, on the other it can also lift the opposition when they play you as they see you as a measuring stick.

Looking at the Bulldogs and the last time these two teams played, the Eels only won it in golden point after a controversial decision went their way. The Dogs have since fallen apart and have been insipid these past couple of weeks but the Eels cannot afford to be complacent.

They're not off to a good start either, losing Tepai Moeroa. He's been an up and down sort of player, but he was just starting to find the consistensy he needed to make a fist of the right fringe. Gower isn't an ideal replacement either, he's more of a ball-playing lock so the Dogs would be silly not to try and play to their left hand side this evening. In fact, I'd almost start with Faitala-Mariner just to give Moses/Gower something to worry about and bring Elliott in later in the contest.

Otherwise, the two players who really impressed me last week from Parramatta are Cameron King and Peni Terepo. Neither have played a lot of first grade this year, but they've added another dimension to the Eels and I'm interested to see if they can maintain that. While the Eels have had little luck in the position, Pritchard's injury may have been a blessing in disguise. King was one of the best players coming through in the early 2010s and it's only been injury that's cruelled him.

 

[JayPee]

Would not be surprised if the Dogs bring down the eels to their level and sneak a win. Eels are that kind of team also. Sometimes go through the motions against lower ranked sides and lift for the big games. Danger game

 

[Super Freak]

Matt Frawley has been dropped to the bench with Chase Stanley moving to halfback and Brenko Lee to centre.

Michael Lichaa is out of the side.

Kenny Edwards replaces Tepai Moeroa in the starting side with Frank Pritchard promoted to the bench.

 

[Horseheadsup]

Would not be surprised if the Dogs bring down the eels to their level and sneak a win. Eels are that kind of team also. Sometimes go through the motions against lower ranked sides and lift for the big games. Danger game

I'm the opposite here, think Eels will pile on the misery.

 

[Super Freak]

Looks like this is going to be a grinding low-scoring match.

 

[GCBRONCO]

Looking like that.

 

[Super Freak]

Eels look lost.

They aren't playing with the same intensity as last week.

 

[GCBRONCO]

Eels look lost.

They aren't playing with the same intensity as last week.

They were like that early on last week as well.

 

[Super Freak]

Holy shit.

What a try to Alvaro.

 

[tommy]

Wow. There must be all of 3000 people there in a 100k venue. What a great advertisement for the game. 2 Westerrn suburbs team playing in the Eastern suburbs on a Thursday night. Fucking amateurs running this shit.

 

[Aldo]

Base over Apex........geez Hadley is a dribbler

 

[Horseheadsup]

Base over Apex........geez Hadley is a dribbler

Yeah, so monotone..

 

[ZTop]

Morris...

 

[Super Freak]

Here we go.

Eels have found their groove and the Dogs just keep giving them chances, with a little help from the kicking game of Norman and Moses.

 

[Super Freak]

So where is the penalty for Klemmer's hands being all over the ball?

 

[Super Freak]

Nice work from Moses there.

Slices through and puts French over.

He has been threatening with his running game all game, and it finally paid off for him.

 

[Aldo]

Damn, Parra have some big, mobile, skillful forwards