Manly won last week, as I predicted. Fortunately for us, Koroisau and Walker both looked like they were given a kicking crash course. We managed to actually get repeat sets this week with Koroisau once again putting on an impressive performance, again staking his claim that he belongs in the halves after DCE returns. Our forwards have continued to improve, dominating the much more favoured pack of the Warriors whilst Steve Matai and Jamie Lyon also stepped up in response to calls from fans for those two to be dropped. We continued to improve for another week in a row, which is pretty good.
As for Parramatta, Trent Barrett summed it up in that they may be the one of the form teams of the comp. They have been playing very well. It took them five years but they have finally learnt how to cheat successfully. But that is a topic that doesn’t belong in this preview really. Their forward pack is getting a roll on and their classy halves are certainly taking advantage of that. They are a very good team this year, and they completely destroyed the Raiders last week, so they have momentum.
Team Lists:
The Warringah Sea Eagles:
1. Brett Stewart
2. Jorge Taufua
3. Jamie Lyon
4. Steve Matai
5. Tom Trbojevic
6. Dylan Walker
7. Apisai Koroisau
8. Darcy Lussick
9. Matt Parcell
10. Nate Myles
11. Tom Symonds
12. Martin Taupau
13. Jake Trbojevic
14. Lewis Brown
15. Brenton Lawrence
16. Josh Starling
17. Siosaia Vave
The Parramatta Eels
1. Michael Gordon
2. Semi Radradra
3. Michael Jennings
4. Brad Takairangi
5. Clint Gutherson
6. Corey Norman
7. Kieran Foran
8. Junior Paulo
9. Nathan Peats
10. Daniel Alvaro
11. Manu Ma’u
12. Beau Scott
13. Tepai Moeroa
14. Isaac De Gois
15. Peni Terepo
16. Danny Wicks
17. Kenny Edwards
Manly have named the same team that lined-up against the Warriors, with their extended bench of Lurgess and Leary being dropped, telling me that any injury concerns we have are gone.
Parramatta have also named the same side as they did last week, and have no injuries to their first choice side.
Analysis:
The Eels have a very good squad, but there are weaknesses there. Michael Gordon is probably one of them. Now Gordon is not a bad player by any stretch, he kicks goals, organizes their defence and has decent kick returns but he is not remarkable in any stretch of the word. Meanwhile Brett Stewart is the most underrated fullbacks in the game, and he is due for another try or three at Brookie, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he adds to his 163 try tally this game.
As much as I hate to say it, Foran and Norman are one of the best halves combinations in the world. Norman has a surprisingly decent long kicking game and they are both great at organizing their attack. Foran looks like he is actually trying again, which just makes me bitter, but what can you do? Meanwhile we still have a centre as one of our halves, and a hooker turned half as our other. Api Koroisau and Dylan Walker both improved their last tackle options last week, with Api demonstrating an outstanding short kicking game and pretty decent bombing game. Our halves are decent, but they are completely outclassed here by the much more experienced Norman and Foran.
Here is an unpopular opinion, I think that Matt Moylan is the most overrated player in the game. However Nathan Peats comes in at a close second in my mind. He is just….. average. I have never seen a game he has played where I thought to myself ‘wow, this guy is awesome’, but apparently everyone else has. I have no idea why so many people want him to be in the origin frame already, because I haven’t seen a game that he has dominated. Then again I haven’t seen him in many games with him constantly being off the field. He struggles to play more than 10 games a season, what is so good about him? Seriously can someone tell me what it is that makes people cream their pants over him? Matt Parcell on the other hand is the complete package and is an amazing player. We have been aided a lot by the quick play the balls he manages to generate. Add that to his speed and ability to get our forwards rolling and he is so much better than Peats.
Their forward pack is… well not that much better than ours honestly. At least in terms of props. Junior Paulo is one of the form props of the game, whilst Alvaro is proving to be an honest toiler, Wicks is very underrated and Peni Terepo is fine. Meanwhile Myles is…. Myles. I believe people on this site judge Myles way too harshly but he is certainly not providing the impact people expected him too. But he is obviously doing something right is he is always at the top of our stats. Lussick I think is going to be very fired up this game, he always turned up against us and I think he will do the same to his former club. Meanwhile Lawrence will be trying to up his minutes by putting in another good performance and Starling will continue to be the honest toiler he is. But then we get to Vave, and how good is this bloke? Every time he steps onto the field he looks like he’s playing for dinner. He really does remind me of top form George Rose. It is round 7 and he already has a cult following even among non-Manly fans, top stuff. People fancy these Parra props but really ours are decent as well, especially now that they seem to be finally firing together. Our forwards can easily at least match it with these guys.
As for the second row things are tight between us. I do think Manu Ma’u is a very good player, he is a nice hole runner and can give attacking players a nice wack. Beau Scott, credit to the man because he is playing a lot better than I thought he would and is proving to be a rock solid defender. Meanwhile Tepai Moeroa does his job and as annoying as I find Kenny Edwards he is a decent player, but I will rant about him later. Meanwhile we have Tom Symonds who is desperate for a new contract and is in career best form at the moment and of course we have the best young forward in the game at lock with Jake Trbojevic. And then we get to Taupau and he seems to have finally found some consistency. He isn’t reaching the ceilings he was at the Tigers but he is also nowhere near the troughs he experienced there as well. So I would say on average his form has increased. On the bench we have Lewis Brown, and if I was typing this on a phone I would have put the poo emoticon (is that what you call them?) thingy next to his name. I really do think he is only in the side until Buhrer comes back, he hasn’t been great. I do think our second row edges out theirs, but it is a close contest.
As for the Parramatta backs, Jennings is overrated, Semi is the best winger I have ever seen play, Gutherson is almost comically bad and Taka is nothing special. Whilst you are telling me what people see in Peats can you also tell me what is so special about Jennings? He is fast… and that is about it. As for our team, Matai and Lyon are trying to keep their spots in the side whilst Taufua seems to be on an up spiral in the rollercoaster ride that is his form. Tom Trbojevic just constantly looks like he is a week or two away from ripping a side apart, and now that it appears he is being given the kick returns, I expect to see some fireworks from him this week. Our backs need to contain Semi, that is a must. If they can do that we will be okay.
So this isn’t related to a preview much but I need to say that Kenny Edwards with his whole ‘hugging/high-fiving opposition players when my team scores a try to rub it in’ shtick is not funny and just annoying. But you see all of these Parra fans go ‘oh look at da bantz from Kenny lol’. Like first of all, bantz is an ugly word used by dumbasses and secondly it is just grubby. Crap like this is why I miss punches, because it meant losers like this guy can’t be niggly and annoying with no repercussions. Imagine him doing this to Matai and Skivvy floored him. I know it is probably something small and not worth even mentioning but it just irritates me.
Now let’s talk about cap cheating. I am not going to speculate about if the Eels are and aren’t guilty, but I will say that I hope that if they are stripped points that the NRL waits until after our game to announce it. Stuff like this really fires a team up, because remember what Melbourne did in 2010 when they were told they were playing for nothing? They went on a rampage in vengeance. And I am afraid that this Parra team will do the same thing if they are told season 2016 is a write off. So that is a little concerning.
Let me just say, thank god Brad Arthur has Taka with Gutho and Jennings with Semi. See Taka is a centre that likes to set his winger up, which means a lot of ball goes to dick fingers Gutherson. Meanwhile Jennings is a ball hog that never passes to his winger, limiting the stuff that Semi can do really. Parra would be a much better side if those two swapped, but they haven’t which is really good for us.
Recently Parramatta have had one up over us, winning the past 3 games we have played. However I think that is more due to the fact that Brad Arthur knew how we played under Toovey so well because he was our assistant coach in 2013. It is no co-incidence we just magically played worse against Parra, they knew how to counter us. However now we have a very new squad, a new coach and a new playing style. Their advantage over us has crumbled away, meanwhile we have a very good idea about how their main attacking weapon plays. Expect us to really shut Foran down this week.
Conclusion:
Who doesn’t love a good Brookie ambush? People are writing us off, especially after how easily Parramatta crushed the Raiders but I just have this feeling we will pull the rug from under them. I just think we are going to go out there and surprise many. Parra will come into this complacent, and we will come in fired up and ready to win in front of our home crowd. I predict we will win in a close game by 10 points. This might just be me being biased but I have a feeling the lol@Parra thread is going to get a lot of use come Thursday night.
As for Parramatta, Trent Barrett summed it up in that they may be the one of the form teams of the comp. They have been playing very well. It took them five years but they have finally learnt how to cheat successfully. But that is a topic that doesn’t belong in this preview really. Their forward pack is getting a roll on and their classy halves are certainly taking advantage of that. They are a very good team this year, and they completely destroyed the Raiders last week, so they have momentum.
Team Lists:
The Warringah Sea Eagles:
1. Brett Stewart
2. Jorge Taufua
3. Jamie Lyon
4. Steve Matai
5. Tom Trbojevic
6. Dylan Walker
7. Apisai Koroisau
8. Darcy Lussick
9. Matt Parcell
10. Nate Myles
11. Tom Symonds
12. Martin Taupau
13. Jake Trbojevic
14. Lewis Brown
15. Brenton Lawrence
16. Josh Starling
17. Siosaia Vave
The Parramatta Eels
1. Michael Gordon
2. Semi Radradra
3. Michael Jennings
4. Brad Takairangi
5. Clint Gutherson
6. Corey Norman
7. Kieran Foran
8. Junior Paulo
9. Nathan Peats
10. Daniel Alvaro
11. Manu Ma’u
12. Beau Scott
13. Tepai Moeroa
14. Isaac De Gois
15. Peni Terepo
16. Danny Wicks
17. Kenny Edwards
Manly have named the same team that lined-up against the Warriors, with their extended bench of Lurgess and Leary being dropped, telling me that any injury concerns we have are gone.
Parramatta have also named the same side as they did last week, and have no injuries to their first choice side.
Analysis:
The Eels have a very good squad, but there are weaknesses there. Michael Gordon is probably one of them. Now Gordon is not a bad player by any stretch, he kicks goals, organizes their defence and has decent kick returns but he is not remarkable in any stretch of the word. Meanwhile Brett Stewart is the most underrated fullbacks in the game, and he is due for another try or three at Brookie, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he adds to his 163 try tally this game.
As much as I hate to say it, Foran and Norman are one of the best halves combinations in the world. Norman has a surprisingly decent long kicking game and they are both great at organizing their attack. Foran looks like he is actually trying again, which just makes me bitter, but what can you do? Meanwhile we still have a centre as one of our halves, and a hooker turned half as our other. Api Koroisau and Dylan Walker both improved their last tackle options last week, with Api demonstrating an outstanding short kicking game and pretty decent bombing game. Our halves are decent, but they are completely outclassed here by the much more experienced Norman and Foran.
Here is an unpopular opinion, I think that Matt Moylan is the most overrated player in the game. However Nathan Peats comes in at a close second in my mind. He is just….. average. I have never seen a game he has played where I thought to myself ‘wow, this guy is awesome’, but apparently everyone else has. I have no idea why so many people want him to be in the origin frame already, because I haven’t seen a game that he has dominated. Then again I haven’t seen him in many games with him constantly being off the field. He struggles to play more than 10 games a season, what is so good about him? Seriously can someone tell me what it is that makes people cream their pants over him? Matt Parcell on the other hand is the complete package and is an amazing player. We have been aided a lot by the quick play the balls he manages to generate. Add that to his speed and ability to get our forwards rolling and he is so much better than Peats.
Their forward pack is… well not that much better than ours honestly. At least in terms of props. Junior Paulo is one of the form props of the game, whilst Alvaro is proving to be an honest toiler, Wicks is very underrated and Peni Terepo is fine. Meanwhile Myles is…. Myles. I believe people on this site judge Myles way too harshly but he is certainly not providing the impact people expected him too. But he is obviously doing something right is he is always at the top of our stats. Lussick I think is going to be very fired up this game, he always turned up against us and I think he will do the same to his former club. Meanwhile Lawrence will be trying to up his minutes by putting in another good performance and Starling will continue to be the honest toiler he is. But then we get to Vave, and how good is this bloke? Every time he steps onto the field he looks like he’s playing for dinner. He really does remind me of top form George Rose. It is round 7 and he already has a cult following even among non-Manly fans, top stuff. People fancy these Parra props but really ours are decent as well, especially now that they seem to be finally firing together. Our forwards can easily at least match it with these guys.
As for the second row things are tight between us. I do think Manu Ma’u is a very good player, he is a nice hole runner and can give attacking players a nice wack. Beau Scott, credit to the man because he is playing a lot better than I thought he would and is proving to be a rock solid defender. Meanwhile Tepai Moeroa does his job and as annoying as I find Kenny Edwards he is a decent player, but I will rant about him later. Meanwhile we have Tom Symonds who is desperate for a new contract and is in career best form at the moment and of course we have the best young forward in the game at lock with Jake Trbojevic. And then we get to Taupau and he seems to have finally found some consistency. He isn’t reaching the ceilings he was at the Tigers but he is also nowhere near the troughs he experienced there as well. So I would say on average his form has increased. On the bench we have Lewis Brown, and if I was typing this on a phone I would have put the poo emoticon (is that what you call them?) thingy next to his name. I really do think he is only in the side until Buhrer comes back, he hasn’t been great. I do think our second row edges out theirs, but it is a close contest.
As for the Parramatta backs, Jennings is overrated, Semi is the best winger I have ever seen play, Gutherson is almost comically bad and Taka is nothing special. Whilst you are telling me what people see in Peats can you also tell me what is so special about Jennings? He is fast… and that is about it. As for our team, Matai and Lyon are trying to keep their spots in the side whilst Taufua seems to be on an up spiral in the rollercoaster ride that is his form. Tom Trbojevic just constantly looks like he is a week or two away from ripping a side apart, and now that it appears he is being given the kick returns, I expect to see some fireworks from him this week. Our backs need to contain Semi, that is a must. If they can do that we will be okay.
So this isn’t related to a preview much but I need to say that Kenny Edwards with his whole ‘hugging/high-fiving opposition players when my team scores a try to rub it in’ shtick is not funny and just annoying. But you see all of these Parra fans go ‘oh look at da bantz from Kenny lol’. Like first of all, bantz is an ugly word used by dumbasses and secondly it is just grubby. Crap like this is why I miss punches, because it meant losers like this guy can’t be niggly and annoying with no repercussions. Imagine him doing this to Matai and Skivvy floored him. I know it is probably something small and not worth even mentioning but it just irritates me.
Now let’s talk about cap cheating. I am not going to speculate about if the Eels are and aren’t guilty, but I will say that I hope that if they are stripped points that the NRL waits until after our game to announce it. Stuff like this really fires a team up, because remember what Melbourne did in 2010 when they were told they were playing for nothing? They went on a rampage in vengeance. And I am afraid that this Parra team will do the same thing if they are told season 2016 is a write off. So that is a little concerning.
Let me just say, thank god Brad Arthur has Taka with Gutho and Jennings with Semi. See Taka is a centre that likes to set his winger up, which means a lot of ball goes to dick fingers Gutherson. Meanwhile Jennings is a ball hog that never passes to his winger, limiting the stuff that Semi can do really. Parra would be a much better side if those two swapped, but they haven’t which is really good for us.
Recently Parramatta have had one up over us, winning the past 3 games we have played. However I think that is more due to the fact that Brad Arthur knew how we played under Toovey so well because he was our assistant coach in 2013. It is no co-incidence we just magically played worse against Parra, they knew how to counter us. However now we have a very new squad, a new coach and a new playing style. Their advantage over us has crumbled away, meanwhile we have a very good idea about how their main attacking weapon plays. Expect us to really shut Foran down this week.
Conclusion:
Who doesn’t love a good Brookie ambush? People are writing us off, especially after how easily Parramatta crushed the Raiders but I just have this feeling we will pull the rug from under them. I just think we are going to go out there and surprise many. Parra will come into this complacent, and we will come in fired up and ready to win in front of our home crowd. I predict we will win in a close game by 10 points. This might just be me being biased but I have a feeling the lol@Parra thread is going to get a lot of use come Thursday night.
