Rd1: Eels v Titans GAME DAY THREAD @ Comm Bank Stadium 13/3/22

[Gazzamatta]

Perham is high risk. Not what you need from a backup player.

Perham under the high ball is a site not to behold. 5/8 is his spot in my opinion. Either that or, hes peppered at training with a thousand high balls. Practice makes perfect.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I would have had Cartwright as our utility. He’s a better half and with Reed we don’t need a third long kicking game. I think he covers the halves, edge forward or centre if needed. In defence he can swap with Brown on the edge.

I don't think forwards suit those three edge positions in defence. If they did you'd see more back rowers in the halves, like we did 20 years ago. The block play has changed all that. Even edge forwards need some lateral movement these days rather than just coming out of the line to smash merkins on every play.

 

[King-Gutho94]

Jakob Arthur

Maybe even his younger brother Matt Arthur who BA has weasled into the junior reps teams.

Probably be our 1st choice dummy half next year if he turns 18.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

If I was picking a side and had to pick a 17th man that was only going to get game time if a back got injured, it’d be Perham.

If it’s a choice between the better player, it’s Jrthur.

If it’s a choice possibly between the better fit however, it’s Perham.

Yep. Perham is obviously more versatile but I actually think Arthur is the better player. Perham only has a better running game. You might bring him in if Gutherson was unavailable, but to cover a mid-game injury he is bringing risk when what is required is safely plugging a hole.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Split halves ffs. He has to do something on his side of the field

He did as much as Moses on his side of the field. at 26-12 the Titans fired up and stayed that way, even when we switched back on. This is why there were no more easy points in the second half.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Perham should be playing as our utility in the next few weeks.

I do like JA but he needs to just dominate second grade and play 80. At least his eyes are not painted on unlike alot of the people on this forum..

Perham would make a good impact sub, especially if he can play dummy half (and defend in the middle). He also has the lateral movement to defend at centre and half if required. It's just a matter of getting his one-on-one defence right and getting the errors out of his game. We've all seen how well he runs the ball.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Will Smith's team scored 28

He also got two try assists.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

You’ve explained??? Thank god where would we be without you???

If I can back up my shit opinions with logic you can give it a try too ffs

 

[Happy MEel]

I don't think forwards suit those three edge positions in defence. If they did you'd see more back rowers in the halves, like we did 20 years ago. The block play has changed all that. Even edge forwards need some lateral movement these days rather than just coming out of the line to smash merkins on every play.

It’s not an ideal scenario but we’re only talking about a gap fill if there’s an injury to an outside back. I think it’s certainly the lesser of two evils rather than significantly weakening the most important position on the field if you don’t have to. You also have the added advantage of being able to actually use the bench spot to give an edge forward a break rather than solely to cover injury. It really is no brainer territory.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Johnston failing to catch a simple pass isn’t the same as Blake misjudging what he was required to do to plant the ball over the line.

Sure but they're both errors that mean nothing in the big picture. They are anecdotes. Blake could ice the next ten put downs just like Johnston probably did.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Jrthur is passable as a kicker but Moses is possibly the premier field kicker in the comp. Does the addition of Moses running game on 5th tackle add enough to warrant losing that kicking ability? Maybe every now and then

We didn't lose his kicking though. We just gained the option of him running on the fifth. Moses kicked a lot more (4 for 173m) in the second half yesterday than he did in the first (3 for 97m) despite being 'stifled' by Arthur.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Well i spoke to about half a dozen parra fans today at work and not one of them could come up with a justifiable reason

Don't talk to them.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

It’s not an ideal scenario but we’re only talking about a gap fill if there’s an injury to an outside back. I think it’s certainly the lesser of two evils rather than significantly weakening the most important position on the field if you don’t have to. You also have the added advantage of being able to actually use the bench spot to give an edge forward a break rather than solely to cover injury. It really is no brainer territory.

If it was a no brainer we'd be doing it. Anyway I don't think moving Dylan Brown to centre hurts us at all. It is an opportunity to unlock his running game. Like how the Storm bought Brett Finch so they could move Inglis out wider. Nobody argued that Finch is a better five-eighth than Inglis. It was that Inglis was wasted at five-eigth, much like Drown is.

 

[TheRam]

Not every team has a utility on the bench. The Sharks won a grand final with a winger on the bench ffs. The main thing is you need injury cover. If you don't have a good enough utility to sit on the bench (or if he can't play every backline position) you might have to shuffle merkins if there's an injury. It's just a fact of life. But there's no rule saying all your bench merkins need to get significant game time or even any game time at all. Hynes played zero minutes in the 2020 grand final because he wasn't required.

Dylan Brown isn't an essential cog in our spine. He is just a very good player that we want in our starting backline. He is perfect for centre, and also for fullback. He is also good enough to play in the halves. And his defence is so good that if we don't have a centre on the bench but need to replace one during a game (like if Blake has to go to the wing) then Drown can defend at centre. Which is exactly what happened yesterday.

Jeez you are an obstinate dumb arse. Of course you can make up the bench as anyway you choose to. Pick the best combo your top 17 allows and hope that you are covered for whatever eventuates.

The issue here is that AJ isn't ready for NRL yet if ever and everyone but the coach and a few like you and others on here can see it. Sometimes being with the majority is the correct stance to take mate. Being a savvy respected contrarian only works when you have shown through time that you are making the right calls. If I were to score your success rate it would be around 30% at best. Remember you are chasing the forums best in @hindy111 who is in excess of 85%. So forgive the rest of us when we have a laugh at your dribbling nonsense at times.

If D. Brown plays this season like he played in the first half at 5/8th he will be a massive cog in our strike and weapons ensemble and vital to our chances of winning the premiership.

As for N. Hynes playing zero mins in the 2020 GF. That to me is cruel coaching by Bellamy. It is not like Hynes would have let him down. He was way to good a player even back then. Surely he could have found a spot for him to have run on for 5 mins somewhere. I mean they had Brenko Lee in the centres ffs. I reckon Hynes would make a better centre then him any day. The Storm had the game won with 8 or 9 mins to go even with only 11 men on the field if I remember correctly. He could have stuck him out there somewhere a fresh body and all.

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

It's pandamonium!!

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Jeez you are an obstinate dumb arse.

NO YOU ARE FFS

 

[JokerEel]

Well i spoke to about half a dozen parra fans today at work and not one of them could come up with a justifiable reason why you move your starting 5/8 out into the centres to bring in an 19 year old backup half who has yet to do anything meaningful in 8 first grade games to play in your spine.

I said it last year this will be the deathknell for BA if he persists with his son.

Fans aren't going to cop it they see enough nepotism at junior sport let alone professional sport when it comes to their team. We are trying to win a premiership not hand out jerseys.

Unless JA gets himself up to Cleary's level as a rep player which is still years away an unlikely at this stage this will end in tears unless someone at the club has enough balls to step in and tell BA he is doing more damage than he realises.

So you went on Facebook...

If we had Cartwright on the bench the same thing would have happened yesterday.

You want JA to be at Cleary's level will that stop you crying over him?

I am not even a fan of his but it's getting sad.

 

[JokerEel]

This forum has turned into a worse version of the Facebook groups...

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

I actually think Jrthur would go better if he tried to do more (or at least something other than catch and pass) ... he just did nothing yesterday

Exactly right. I wonder if he's been told to keep it simple or if he really just have confidence he belongs out there. And I wonder if all the praise he was getting in the preseason was more about fitness and effort rather than running the team.

 

[84 Baby]

Sure but they're both errors that mean nothing in the big picture. They are anecdotes. Blake could ice the next ten put downs just like Johnston probably did.

Whereas Johnston probably would’ve iced all 11 put downs. The two errors are not the same. Blake’s error wasn’t dropping the ball, it was diving too early.