Round 3: Sea Eagles v Eels preview
Another Thursday night football match, another pearler. The NRL has once again gifted us another enthralling match up for Thursday night football this week, with the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles hosting the Parramatta Eels at 4 Pines Park.
The home side are going to be ready and fresh for this fixture after sitting out of the second round of the competition with the bye. Their only game this season was their opening round 25-point victory over the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs and they looked red hot in that affair. Captain Daly Cherry-Evans grabbed a career first hat-trick as he kicked off his 2023 campaign with a bang.
Coach Anthony Seibold and Cherry-Evans will be keen to put the sword to the Eels, last year's runners-up, to send a message out to the rest of the competition that the Sea Eagles are here and ready to compete in 2023. At this stage of the season it's hard to tell if that's the case which gives this clash all the more excitement. Even more so considering Parramatta's 0-2 start to the season which they'll be determined to put right this Thursday.
To make things even more difficult for the Eels is the fact that this is the beginning of a three-week run of playing teams fresh off a bye. They face Penrith and Sydney in the following weeks and there's a genuine possibility that they find themselves winless after five rounds. The promising sign for the Eels is that they've played well early in their two opening fixtures and doing so against Manly will be extremely beneficial. If Manly get on a roll, they can be one of the harder teams to stop.
On the flip side of Parramatta's good starts to their first two games is what came after those periods. Coughing up a six-point lead to lose to the Storm in golden point and falling apart after taking a 10-point lead after five minutes against the Sharks. This is certainly something that Brad Arthur and his staff will be looking to address because if they can't fix this soon, they could be in for an arm-wrestle for the rest of the season.
A genuine question that needs to be asked about Parramatta is regarding their use of their bench this season. Their bench minutes have failed to crack 80 minutes in both contests with one player not coming on the field at all. They've played both games with 16 players essentially. I can't wrap my head around it. It's put undue pressure on Junior Paulo and Reagan Campbell-Gillard, who are playing big minutes, to perform for 60-70 minutes each week.
Despite all the mentioned negativity surrounding the Eels, their ability to conjure points last weekend was quite good. They managed to score 26 points with a low completion rate of 66 per cent on top of making 15 errors. If they can hold the ball better this week, there's no reason they can't remain a dangerous threat to Manly especially with the emergence of J'maine Hopgood who will make life easier for Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown, who both had good games against the Sharks.
It's unsure how the Sea Eagles defence would handle such dangerous attack, but we do know that they're also extremely potent in attack with the likes of Cherry-Evans, Tom Trbojevic and Haumole Olakau'atu. They caused havoc against the Bulldogs in the second half and famously did so during the 2021 season. The Sharks laid out the blueprint for scoring points against the Eels and there's no doubt that the Sea Eagles had a look at that this week as they put together their match plan to potentially send Parramatta to an 0-3 start. However, there is every possibility that the Eels come out fired up this Thursday night and break the Sea Eagles apart, reminding everyone of their excellent 2022 season. Either way, it should be an interesting clash.
To make things even more interesting, Josh Schuster has been named to make his first appearance for the season in the number six jersey, forcing Cooper Johns out of the side. That's the only change for this match as the Eels are running out the same 17 from round two.
Last meeting: Round 21 2022 - Sea Eagles 20 Eels 36
Who to watch: Can there be any other player from the northern beaches to watch than Tom Trbojevic? Injury free for the moment (fingers crossed), the fullback had a nice outing in round one to make his return to the NRL. The New South Welshmen scored a try, assisted a try, broke five tackles, made two line breaks and ran for 173 metres to show everyone that he still has it. A week of rest under his belt will no doubt be beneficial for the 26-year-old as he works his way back from injury. As always, Daly Cherry-Evans will be influential in the result of this game as he was in round one, scoring a hat-trick in his first match after a World Cup winning campaign with Australia.
For the opposition, it's worth keeping an eye on J'maine Hopgood, who will be playing his twelfth game of his NRL career on Thursday but has already made his presence felt in his two games for the Eels this season. The first outing demonstrated a workman-like effort against the Storm as he accumulated 57 tackles and ran for 172 metres in his club debut. He backed that up in round two with 47 tackles, 145 metres, two try assists and a line break as he quickly becomes the favourite for the signing of the season. His ball-playing at lock will be a feature this Thursday as he looks to dig into Manly's line, creating space for his halves on either side of the ruck. One of those halves, Mitchell Moses, will be fired up after the combination of losing in his 200th NRL match and starting the season with two losses. The 28-year-old was excellent last week, scoring two tries and running for 138 metres in their four-point loss. It's a big battle for Moses lining up against Cherry-Evans and I for one can't wait for it.
Favourite: The Sea Eagles are the favourite for this outing due to their performance in round one in combination with the Eels poor start to the season. Manly coming out fresh off a bye round will only help their chances.
My tip: Manly were great in their first game of the season. That was at 4 Pines Park which hosts this clash too, it makes it a difficult prospect for the Eels when you add in the fact that the Sea Eagles are fresh after a week off. Although, Parramatta are going to be determined to register their first win of the season. Manly by 4.
