WEEK TWO - Parramatta 25 Bulldogs 6 @ Telstra

[Timmah]

The Finals Lowdown


HEAD TO HEAD
Overall - Played 120; Bulldogs 65, Eels 50, drawn 5.
Last Ten Bulldogs 7 Eels 3
Finals - Played 11; Eels 6, Bulldogs 5.
Grand Finals - Played 2; Bulldogs 1, Eels 1.

FINALS RECORD
Eels - Played 59; Won 30, Lost 27, drawn 2.
Bulldogs - Played 79, Won 44, Lost 35.

FINAL APPEARANCES
Eels - Nathan Cayless 15, N Hindmash, D Wagon, PJ Marsh, C Robinson 13.
Bulldogs - Corey Hughes 19, Andrew Ryan 16, Luke Patten 16.

2007 MEETINGS
Round 21 - Eels 34 Bulldogs 22, Telstra Stadium.
Round 6 - Bulldogs 21 Eels 18, Parramatta Stadium.

LAST MET IN FINALS
Week Four 1998 - Bulldogs 32 Eels 20 in extra time at the SFS.

BIGGEST VICTORIES
Eels 56 Bulldogs 4 at Parramatta Stadium, R23 2005
Bulldogs 42 Eels 6 at Belmore SG, R5 1993

GRAND FINAL SHOWDOWNS
Bulldogs 6 Eels 4 at SCG, 1984
Eels 4 Bulldogs 2 at SCG, 1986

RECORD CROWD between EELS and BULLDOGS (excluding Finals)
42717 at Telstra Stadium, 13/3/2004 (Rd 1), Bulldogs 48-14


THE STAT-MEN

Workhorses (All 25 games)
Tim Smith, PJ Marsh (Eels)
Reni Maitua (Bulldogs)

Tries
K Inu (PAR) 12, J Hayne (PAR) 11
SB Williams (BUL) 14, D Millard (BUL) 13

Points
K Inu (PAR) 112, H El Masri (BUL) 208

Goals
K Inu (PAR) 32, H El Masri (BUL) 84

Line Breaks
J Hayne 19, K Inu 15 (PAR)
W Tonga 17, D Millard 16 (BUL)

Offloads
F Mateo 50, E Grothe 44 (PAR)
SB Williams 59, M O'Meley 26 (BUL)

Tackles
N Hindy 867, I Hindy 673 (PAR)
A Ryan 692, C Hughes 626 (BUL)

Missed Tackles
PJ Marsh 76, T & B Smith 54 (PAR)
R Maitua 89, B Sherwin 79 (BUL)

Penalty Merchants
F Mateo 18, N Hindmarsh 15 (PAR)
R Maitua 14, M O'Meley & B Roberts 13 (BUL)

Stats with courtesy to NRLstats.com

 

[Tekken Lord]

Damn who would of thought that Grothe would have 44 offloads and from a winger!

 

[gong_eagle]

Eels v Bulldogs preview

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

http://svc002.wic108cx.server-web.c...rtsArticle/tabid/336/NewsId/7034/Default.aspx Two of the great traditional Sydney rivals head to rugby league headquarters in a do-or-die clash that will set up a showdown with minor premiers the Melbourne Storm for a spot in the 2007 Grand Final.
Controversy has reared even before a ball has been kicked – despite the Eels winning their qualifying final away against the Warriors last week, and the Bulldogs losing theirs against the Cowboys in Townsville, it’s the Dogs who will assume “home ground” advantage here, courtesy of the NRL’s regional finals scheduling for Week 2.
That shouldn’t worry the Eels though – they accounted for the Dogs 34-22 at Telstra just six weeks ago in round 21.
That was before they drifted into a worrying three-game losing sequence, snapped by their monstering of 2006 premiers Brisbane 68-22 a fortnight ago before outlasting the Warriors in greasy conditions in Auckland last week.
The Bulldogs don’t have great memories of their last game at Telstra in round 24 – they were thumped 38-6 by the Storm.
Since then they’ve lost in consecutive weeks to the Cowboys, the latest without strike weapon Sonny Bill Williams.
The worry for the Bulldogs is they’ve displayed characters quite unlike their name; whenever they’ve needed to scrape out a victory and win “ugly” they’ve been unable to rise to the challenge.
Like all the sides remaining, there are no more second chances.
Ben Smith is out after having arthroscopic surgery on his knee during the week; Joel Reddy slots in at centre after promotion from Premier League, with Krisnan Inu remaining on the wing – although expect the duo to interchange during the game.

Unlikely here perhaps, but Andrew Ryan needs one more try to hit 50 in his career.
Watch out Eels: The Bulldogs’ forwards unit is simply too talented to finish 2007 with a whimper.
We’ve all been waiting for the likes of Sonny Bill Williams, Willie Mason, Mark O’Meley and Andrew Ryan to click into gear; incredibly, it hasn’t happened – at least not the way fans have envisaged.
That said, the quartet hasn’t played together since the Bulldogs’ 14-12 win over the Sharks in round 17.
They get Williams back for this clash after his one-week suspension and the signs from Mark O’Meley are he’s working back to peak form after not much game time since round 19 – last week he toiled tirelessly with 18 runs for 180 metres, 23 tackles and four tackle breaks.
Mason too was strong – he charged for 15 runs for 121 metres with 23 tackles.
Although beaten, they set the platform for a territorial dominance, 1,478 metres to the Cowboys’ 1,263.
If they can do that again here, and capitalise on Williams’ offloading skills, they could make a quantum leap in form.
Watch out Bulldogs: Through Jarryd Hayne, Inu, Timana Tahu and Eric Grothe the Eels have formidable size and pace to burn out wide.
They’ve scored 38 of their side’s 100 tries this year and are always quick to capitalise on the quick second-phase ball mobile Eels forwards like Feleti Mateo and Fuifui Moimoi provide.
Plus Tahu likes nothing better than darting out of dummy-half to keep things moving.
Parramatta also have a great height advantage on the flanks; expect high cross-field balls for the likes of Inu and Hayne who will be able to outjump Hazem El Masri and Utai.
It should be noted the Eels have scored 30 per cent of all their tries from the boot – with two last week.
Bulldog Matt Utai has played just two first grade games after a long layoff and has been found out in defence in both games against the Cowboys – this would not have escaped Eels’ coach Michael Hagan.
Watch for Eels’ half Tim Smith to try to catch Utai out late in the tackle count, shaping to kick long but instead passing wide for the speedy outside men.
With Utai still finding his feet in the top grade it could prove profitable.

Where it will be won: Presuming the punishing defences of both sides cancel themselves out, much depends on how both sets of halves shape up.
A cloud hangs over the effectiveness of Tim Smith.
Plagued by a shoulder problem, don’t expect him to run or die with the ball much in this one – last week he made just two runs for 10 metres.
He’ll do plenty of kicking though (13 last week) and just as the Dogs have targeted Thurston over the past fortnight, Smith can expect absolute pressure (and a pummelling) from the likes of Williams and Mason.
How Brett Finch handles shouldering some of the workload will be crucial.
For the Dogs, Brent Sherwin is warming to the task in attack – his cross-field kick to El Masri in the dying minutes was sublime – but he needs to improve his consistency in defence.
Last week he made seven one-on-one tackles – more than any player in the four finals – but missed a whopping eight tackles. Wrapping up the Eels early will be crucial but dropping off them will prove costly.
Elsewhere for the Dogs last week Corey Hughes made six one-on-ones and Nick Kouparitsas five.

The History: Played 120; Eels 50, Bulldogs 65, drawn 5. Worrying signs for the Eels – the Dogs have won six of the past eight, although the Eels won their last encounter at Telstra Stadium in round 21.
But that was their solitary win at Telstra in six attempts!
Conclusion: The Bulldogs have had two close, fast-and-furious hit-outs over the past fortnight.
The two defeats were only narrow, they’re in the groove and they may wish to continue to play the same game plan here.
Minus Sonny Bill Williams last week their eight offloads was way down on their season average of 12 a game.
They’ll gain a lot with him back as he has made 59, second in the comp.
There has to be a question mark about the Eels’ form.
No disrespect to Brisbane but they’re depleted ranks are hardly the yardstick for premiership evaluation, while last week Parramatta met a tentative Warriors team in wet conditions that didn’t suit either side.
The Dogs appear a little more “seasoned” and with the prospect of a firm Telstra surface it could very well be the Dogs’ day – certainly the punters think so, with the blue-and-whites posted $1.80 favourites in first markets.
Match officials: Referee – Shayne Hayne; Sideline Officials – Steve Chiddy & Russell Turner; Video refs – Bill Harrigan & Chris Ward.

Televised: Channel Nine – Live 7.30pm (NSW & Qld); Foxsports 3 – Delayed 9am Sunday.
* Statistics: NRL Stats.

 

[Timmah]

There has to be a question mark about the Eels’ form.
No disrespect to Brisbane but they’re depleted ranks are hardly the yardstick for premiership evaluation, while last week Parramatta met a tentative Warriors team in wet conditions that didn’t suit either side.

Amen whoever wrote the NRL.com preview.

Nice that they've won two games straight coming here, but seriously - not great hitouts, holding on against a Warriors team that lacked confidence and shouldn't have come within 10 of Parra, and smashing Brisbane in a training run.

The Dogs meanwhile played woeful for 60 minutes, then backed up with 100 minutes of solid football. We'll win this!

 

[B-Tron 3000]

The Finals Lowdown


HEAD TO HEAD

Finals - Played 11; Eels 6, Bulldogs 5.
Grand Finals - Played 2; Bulldogs 1, Eels 1.

FINALS RECORD
Eels - Played 59; Won 30, Lost 27, drawn 2.
Bulldogs - Played 79, Won 44, Lost 35.

So who are the September Specialists?

Eels better head to head, and overall Dogs have won 55% of Finals games to Eels 51% (taking into account draws the Eels have lost 46% of Finals to the Dogs 45%).

Doesn't look to me like either club is a standout.

 

[parra-matters]

It's going to best the best team on night, throw the stats out the window.

 

[0neye]

:crazy: WOOF WOOOF WOOOOF BARK BARK BARK YELP YELP YELP , YOU PARRA POOFS ARE GOING DOWN BY 50 :lol: ;-)

 

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

Timmah, if parra win... ill hunt you down at Telstra

 

[Garts]

I think the Dogs will get this one unfortunately!!!! Although I hope I am wrong. I get a little bit of confidence from Timmah saying "we'll win this" as he has been saying it for weeks about the Doggies.

 

[Tekken Lord]

So parra winning it's last two games is less impressive than the dogs losing to the cowboys twice, right timmah sure bulldogs deserve to be favourites :sarcasm:

 

[Timmah]

A training run against a team with one star player in Round 25 and a very ugly win against a team that never looked like going within 20 points of victory, getting home by 2?

Don't kid yourself Parra.

 

[Ice777]

I'd much rather win ugly than lose pretty Timmah. One will get you the points and the other will get you sweet FA. Parra by 8.

 

[Timmah]

Not the point. The Eels haven't been building IMO and that's where we'll have the advantage.


Dogs by 8.

 

[Garts]

So the Dogs have been building by losing their games!!! hmm ok.

 

[Timmah]

You're an idiot.

Losing by 32, improving late in the next game to lose by only 6, and then improving again to come within 2.

I don't understand you to expect what I mean but if you seriously think that each week hasn't been an improvement on the last over our last three weeks then you need your head read.

 

[Garts]

You're an idiot.

Losing by 32, improving late in the next game to lose by only 6, and then improving again to come within 2.

I don't understand you to expect what I mean but if you seriously think that each week hasn't been an improvement on the last over our last three weeks then you need your head read.

I am a idiot :lol: Coming from you :lol:

At the end of the day I have picked the Doggies but to virtually say their form is worse than yours is laughable. At the end of the day you need to win football games to get the prize, they have been winning, the Dogs have not. However I do understand where you are getting your confidence from, I would probably be doing the same if it was my team.

On another note you vitually dismissed the Brisbane win as Brisbane were useless then I see you bringing up your teams win over Canberra in another thread, it was Canberra FFS. I would take much more from flogging Brisbane than flogging Canberra a few weeks earlier.

 

[Timmah]

I didn't "bring up" the Canberra loss. Taking arguments out of context seems to be your strong suit at the moment. The person putting forward a case selected a certain number or recent games, which omitted a week prior a Bulldogs win (which happened to be that hammering of Canberra) and an Eels loss (to the Sharks IIRC). It wasn't about the flogging - it was about the use of formlines as an indicator of recent form, why stop at 5 games or 6?

:crazy:

I'm glad you understand the confidence - getting pumped etc, I'm sure you'll be in the same position next week around this time.

One thing I haven't said is that Parra's form is worse than ours. I've suggested that Parra aren't going as well as some may think, and that we're on the rise more than some may think also. Parra's form is still above ours well and truly but none of it means anything come 759)pm on Saturday.

 

[Garts]

That was what the post was regarding (Canberra), I could be bothered going back to find it to see why exactly it was brought up. Agree that form means nothing come Saturday, its why I picked the Doggies.

 

[Tekken Lord]

If i was to tip the dogs i would have to do it forgetting their form, thinking the eels will choke and believing the greatest myth of all "dogs of war" :lol:

I think the dogs can win it, either team can but their's no real reason to pick the dogs as favourites as it's pretty much 50/50 come kick off.

 

[effnic]

Dogs will lose the gf by 6 points and dodge will be happy they are getting a little better every week lol.