Parramatta Eels Blog: The 1Eyed Eel

What a game! The Eels bounced back to their best form against a hapless Manly outfit to record a record win.

First of all, the reality check. Manly were terrible. They dropped so much ball that they never had a chance to really mount any pressure on the Eels. Their defence at times was woeful and they were ill-disciplined, giving away far too many penalties.

If Parramatta hadn’t of won, there would have been reason for concern.

But there have been games this year where Parramatta have played against teams who performed as badly as Manly did and the Eels still have not been able to put them to the sword as they did this week. Indeed, last week, Brian Smith was lamenting that his team, at that time, seemed incapable of dominating the opposition and putting them away.

This week, Parramatta played with the same level of enthusiasm as they had last week (indeed possibly even more) but this time they backed it up with some skillful game play.

We have no doubt that John Morris was the impetus for Parramatta’s much-improved showing. He scored a try himself and created two more dashing from dummy half and then offloading perfectly timed passes to supports to create tries. He also made numerous darts from dummy half that kept the opposition backpeddling and created space for the rest of the team to attack. It was the kind of dominant performance that Danny Buderus is famous for and 1Eyed Eel has no doubt that Morris is talented enough to be just as effective as Buderus over the next couple of years. If he can dominate like this week in, week out, the Eels will quickly establish themselves as premiership contenders.

If Morris can take that next step we hope, like Buderus, he gets to do it for eighty minutes. Smith would then have three forwards capable of playing eighty minutes giving him great flexibility in rotating his big props and larger second rowers.

With Dykes regaining his form, the Eels look a lethal attacking outfit again.

It was great to see Luke Burt bounce back to form. Burt is immensely talented but has never quite delivered on his great promise. For the first time this year, he really looked comfortable in the centres and his defence early in the game was particularly impressive. A couple of weeks ago 1Eyed Eel said we doubted the Burt, Langi centre pairing but it is certainly holding up well at the moment.

Wagon, McKinnon, Vella, Afamasaga and Stapleton continue to excel. McKinnon’s last line of defence is simply outstanding. Corey Pearson was awesome second game back from injury and with injuries mounting his return is a blessing.

And how about Brett Anderson? Second game in the top grade and he looked like he’d been doing it for years. Despite the ferocity of the Manly defence, he never shirked his responsibility and he looks to be a tremendous athlete who may make one of the wing jumpers his own.