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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 2602571, member: 1899"] It isn't often I have the time nor interest to check out a Round of NRL footy but with a very light week, I thought it'd be a good opportunity to familiarise myself with the current offering of action and pay my two cents. Absolutely no order with these matches, just whatever strikes my mood at the time beginning with... [B]NRL Round 16, 2014[/B] [B]Match #6 Parramatta Eels vs Newcastle Knights[/B] One of the biggest tragedies of the modern game is that the best time slot of the weekend, 3pm Sunday, is given the worst broadcast timeslot. It's such a shame because Sunday Footy provides teams with a liscence to throw the footy around and there just seems to be a stronger atmosphere at these games than at a night time game so it makes for more compelling viewing. Unfortunately as it stands, you flick on Channel 9 and you're greeted with ads about Titan Sheds, Bunnings and that putrid Jeep ad. Anyways! Eels v Knights was a far more compelling match than 8th v 15th would have you believe. The Eels have been a real surprise packet so far in the competition and while they've had to deal with their poor culture and their inexperience, they've been pretty exciting to watch. Meanwhile, Newcastle is a team trying to play champagne Rugby League, but doing so with a lot of mediocre players. I think the problem is their side depends a lot on their stars like Boyd, Uate, Mullen, Kidley, Snowden, Smith & Scott to fire and half are either past it or have been below par by their standards. Never the less they finally got the monkey off their back last week so they go into this game with a bit of confidence which is basically all you need. What we got was a very even game. Both teams employed a safety first approach but the difference between this and let's say Broncos on Friday night is that the team was committed to their gameplans and played strongly. The forwards ran hard, they'd test edges, get to their kick and an arm wrestle would ensue until a penalty was blown or a turn-over was made. Simple but effective Rugby League and it was pretty amazing how both teams mirrored one another, right down to the method of scoring tries. So okay, at the end of the day, Newcastle won 3 tries to 2, but 2 of those tries were very similar plays. - Both fullbacks grabbed the ball, spotted a defensive lap and raced over 90m to score good but soft tries in the context of the game. - Both teams scored tries where the intention was to try the edges of the opponent's defence and their noted try scorers dotted down for fairly simple tries. The only difference was that Newcastle scored one try from one of their typical plays where Mullen dabs the ball adjacent to the posts, a dog pile ensues and somehow Leilua comes up with it and scores a fairly methodical try. It was simple, but effective and in the end, the difference between both sides. I believe what that says is that the halves pairing of Sandow and Norman didn't do their job. Two of Norman's kicks basically resulted in tries against Parramatta while Sandow's short kicking game was off and he seemed content to turn the ball over instead of trying to apply pressure by either earning a repeat set or testing the Knights through the air or even just on the edges. For instance, it baffled me that in the second half, they didn't try and spin it left more often when they have the leading try scorer going up against a noted poor defensive line-up of Gagai & Uate. Even with that gameplan, they still created chances down the right but it just seemed like the play kept dying with Ryan Morgan who quite honestly is a solid centre but just lacks the class to ever be considered good. It was his failed attempt at taking Norman's bomb which gave Boyd the opportunity to race 90m+, he dropped a fantastic pass from Hayne and then failed to get the ball away when he made a good break down the right. If I was a Parra fan, I'd be wondering if the result would have been any different if Will Hopoate was there. Now that is a player of class. Otherwise, it just seemed like a game where a few of the inexperienced forwards (Sims, Tapine, Paulo, Pauli & Terepo) got to make nice impressions while the fullbacks really kept both teams on their toes and really showed their class through out the afternoon. As much maligned as Boyd is for being a smug prick who tries to make the referee feel like an idiot anytime he's tackled, I actually think he's been pretty good for the Knights since Origin I and he got the points victory over Hayne this afternoon with a cracking pass to Leilua who eventually set up Uate in the corner for the opening try. From a big picture stand-point, I basically see this as a loss that will prevent the Eels from being a Top 4 side and really put them back in the pack. While for Newcastle, it was a really solid win and I get the sense they might go on some sort of run which will fall short but they'll give an honest account of themselves. [/QUOTE]

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