Huge wrap on Parramatta Eels' 17-year-old Bevan French

[Obscene Assassin]

Do you need a creative half when you have a creative No.6 ?

I would have thought you need a steady 7 to steer pigs around and shift when required. A 5th tackle kick and good defence and we have our man.

I think our problem for most of the year is IDG offering poor service at knee height or above head to the 1st receiver. I'd hate to be the 7 receiving his hand grenades.

I don't like the use of the word creative as it is so subjective and for mine doesn't mean anything. Not much is created on the field it is all done on the training paddock, you have a set structure and as Hiney says the half plays what is in front of them.

IDG's service has been a problem but even when we had Peats and Foran in our team our attack still struggled. I believe this stems from our fullback. We have the most potent left edge in the competition, it is seriously scary how good this side of the field could be but what held us back was our fullback. Gordon's passing is just horrid, there was so many times when a simple pass to Jennings would have given us a line break but Gordon decided to hold onto it. At other times when he needed to hold up the ball he would give an early pass allowing the defence to easily slide across and cover our centre and winger. Put Bev or Guth at fullback who are quite good at their pass selection and this isn't a problem anymore.

 

[Chipmunk]

I don't like the use of the word creative as it is so subjective and for mine doesn't mean anything. Not much is created on the field it is all done on the training paddock, you have a set structure and as Hiney says the half plays what is in front of them.

IDG's service has been a problem but even when we had Peats and Foran in our team our attack still struggled. I believe this stems from our fullback. We have the most potent left edge in the competition, it is seriously scary how good this side of the field could be but what held us back was our fullback. Gordon's passing is just horrid, there was so many times when a simple pass to Jennings would have given us a line break but Gordon decided to hold onto it. At other times when he needed to hold up the ball he would give an early pass allowing the defence to easily slide across and cover our centre and winger. Put Bev or Guth at fullback who are quite good at their pass selection and this isn't a problem anymore.

French wasn't too good with his pass selection on Friday night.

 

[Obscene Assassin]

Not really but if someone like Guth is at 6 with no kicking and our dummy half can't kick that puts a heap of pressure on Norman. And it showed once Foran pissed off that you cut down Normans time we struggle big time.

Agreed. We need a half with a good long and short kicking game. Our middle forwards aren't great at making metres so a half who can pin an opposition down with a long kicking game is fantastic. We also have a lot of speed and height in our backline another half with a fantastic short kicking game would get us a lot of repeat sets and in turn give us a lot of opportunity on cross field kicks.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I'd say about 80% of all NRL halves don't meet the minimum NRL standard

#statsspeltbackwardsisstats

Yep. There are 15 other clubs that want good halves with a good kicking game. We just need someone to partner Corey Norman. How good a half do merkins think we're going to get for next year?

 

[Poupou Escobar]

French wasn't too good with his pass selection on Friday night.

Nobody is much good at anything against a fast, committed defence. Plenty of playmakers haven't looked much good against us this year either.

 

[Forty20]

French wasn't too good with his pass selection on Friday night.

I mean you aren't wrong but I feel like weighing one bad showing in a half of footy where the entire team was out of sorts over two and a half years of outstanding production at fullback (and yes I know it was the Holden Cup) is a bad use of a terribly small sample size.

Other young fullbacks like Tbrojevic and Mitchell have clear strengths over Bevan but he is the best ball-playing fullback to come out of the Holden Cup in a while.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

He threw one pass for his winger on Friday night and it went over touch.

But I question how much it was his fault, was our winger Gordon position correctly for it? I thought Gordon may have over ran the pass not positioning himself correctly.

 

[emjaycee]

He threw one pass for his winger on Friday night and it went over touch.

But I question how much it was his fault, was our winger Gordon position correctly for it? I thought Gordon may have over ran the pass not positioning himself correctly.

I actually think Kaysa was at fault for Bevan passing into touch and he wasn't even on the field.
If you have a look at the replay, Pritchard is warming up on the sideline and is running a line directly outside Gordon where you would expect the next player to be (if the field was wider). Another Blue and Gold jersey in the peripheral vision when throwing a pass can easily explain why the pass went behind Gordon and into touch.

 

[Chipmunk]

I mean you aren't wrong but I feel like weighing one bad showing in a half of footy where the entire team was out of sorts over two and a half years of outstanding production at fullback (and yes I know it was the Holden Cup) is a bad use of a terribly small sample size.

Other young fullbacks like Tbrojevic and Mitchell have clear strengths over Bevan but he is the best ball-playing fullback to come out of the Holden Cup in a while.

I'm not saying he didn't have excuses, I'm just saying he's pass selection in that match wasn't very good. We're going to need more from him next season.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I don't think it's possible. His skills are clearly at their peak.

 

[Twizzle]

no way,he still has a bit to go

he needs to develop more physically to improve his defence

 

[Happy MEel]

no way,he still has a bit to go

he needs to develop more physically to improve his defence

I think there was a touch of sarcasm in Pou's post

 

[Twizzle]

Poo generally wants to blow him, I am not at that particular stage just yet

 

[parrathruandthru]

He threw one pass for his winger on Friday night and it went over touch.

But I question how much it was his fault, was our winger Gordon position correctly for it? I thought Gordon may have over ran the pass not positioning himself correctly.

Look at the pass Bev throws here in the Alice Springs trial to clear the way for Faraimo while playing fullback

http://www.parraeels.com.au/news/2016/02/17/match_highlights_eel.html

 

[hineyrulz]

I'm willing to bet that he has a better kicking game than you do.

Dont be so sure, my kicking in my u13's team was on point,

 

[ash411]

Dont be so sure, my kicking in my u13's team was on point,

Oh well that's a different story then...

 

[forward pass]

Watching those highlights - fmd - white playing white ! I cant tell one side from the other - which ones are we?

Nice to see we showed the Alice Springers how professional the NRL is!

 

[T-Boon]

Geez the Alice Springs crowd was small. A bit bigger than the Dragons get at Kogarah but not by much.

 

[Gary Gutful]

Poo generally wants to blow him, I am not at that particular stage just yet

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Wonder if French is a half option until we find someone ( he may even surprise there). I know he is light and will be targeted in defence but he is willing to put his body on the line which helps. And it's not like he is the smallest half ever. Probably average size for a half.

He has play making skills. Does anyone know if he has a kicking game?

I thinking French is probably a more natural half option then Gutherson.

BA hinted in his interview yesterday that French may get a run there sometime before the year is out.