Mortimer, Robson provide spark for electric Eels
Greg Prichard | June 8, 2009
THEY are the footballing odd couple, if you like. The 19-year-old five-eighth who has just been introduced to first grade and has his whole career ahead of him, and the 26-year-old halfback who has never been a regular first-grader and craves every chance he gets.
They might be coming from different directions, but their job is to mesh, and mesh they did for Parramatta against Newcastle yesterday.
The kid, Daniel Mortimer, and the journeyman, Jeff Robson, played together for the first time last week, and it was a bad night for all concerned at the Eels, with a home loss to struggling Cronulla. But a week really is a long time in football - just ask the pair after they combined to engineer a win over the Knights on the road.
Parramatta winger Eric Grothe said Mortimer was "a quiet sort of bloke" off the field, but that once on the field he underwent a transformation, "yelling and screaming" with the aim of directing the team around the park. It might not be Clark Kent becoming Superman, not at this stage, anyway, but it's what a coach wants from his No.7.
"He got a lot more good ball today, and he did some good things with it," Eels coach Daniel Anderson said. "Sometimes, you're not sure when they're ready for first grade, and I wasn't sure if he was ready, but players are always surprising you with their ability to adapt to much higher forms of the game, and he's been able to do that."
Mortimer said he had gone into yesterday's game with a lot more confidence than he had against the Sharks, and that it was reflected in his play. He was heavily involved in the lead-up to two of Parramatta's three tries.
"Daniel [Anderson] wanted me to get a lot more involved this week, and I think I did that," he said. "I haven't been up in first grade for that long, so I'm still getting used to the players, and we had Jarryd Hayne back today, so I pulled back a bit at times to make sure he could get to use the ball, because he's been in great form. Other times, I tried to make something happen myself. I think it all worked pretty well.
"I haven't played enough games to be telling other players how to go about things, off the field, but on the field it's my job to push the forwards around. I was a bit scared to start with, to tell guys like Nathan Hindmarsh and Nathan Cayless what to do, but they told me I've got to do it, so I am."
Anderson said he had been pushing Robson to rise to the occasion, adding: "He's been under the pump from me. I'm a hard marker on halves. But I thought today was his best game for us, so I'm quite happy with what he did."
Robson said that being able to play a few first-grade games in a row was the key to him finding a groove.
"It's my third straight today," he said. "And being in there with the boys all week at training, and then in the games, makes all the difference. I'm enjoying playing for Daniel [Anderson]. He's hard, but fair."
