2023 review: Parramatta Eels

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Our 2023 NRL club season review series looks at last year's Grand Finalists Parramatta - who we can only say have underperformed this season.

"Nervous excitement" - that is the phrase that this reviewer would have used to characterise Eels fans' feelings heading into season 2023.

While the club was hot on the heels of making its first Grand Final appearance in thirteen years - a cause of excitement, in anyone's book - several key players signed deals to play elsewhere for 2023, and beyond, questions lingered over their replacements.

Parramatta began season 2023 hampered by the absences of Ryan Matterson (chosen suspension - he could've paid a fine), Shaun Lane (injury), and Sean Russell (injury), and lost their opening three matches of the season by 4 points or less. In those matches, Mitchell Moses kicked 3/5 conversions against the Sharks, and 3/6 against Manly, before pulling off a Golden Point win over the Panthers in Round 4.

Their next five games read loss-win-win-loss-win (their biggest victory margin coming against Newcastle, in an emphatic 43 to 12 win).

They lost their next two games, before beating South Sydney 36-16, which began a resurgence, of sorts - Parramatta won their next four consecutive games, with two byes scattered among them, before being crushed 46-10 by the Warriors.

They never recovered after that loss, winning only three of their final seven games, to finish the season in tenth.

And thus ended the Eels' 2023 campaign - not with a bang, but a whimper. Injuries, suspensions, and poor roster management took its toll on the club.

Turning points

It's disingenuous to state there would be a positive turning point, given the team's inconsistent performances throughout 2023, but a bright light was the continued development of J'maine Hopgood, and the emergence of Brendan Hands as a bench utility.

Dylan Brown's seven-game suspension incurred at the Eels' round 14 bye though, ensured a hitherto-inconsistent season would continue, as the Eels resorted to using Matterson and Daejarn Asi in the halves to partner Mitchell Moses. Shortly after, Asi and Matterson found themselves at times being the Eels' starting halves pairing, due to Moses' unavailability through injury.

Despite playing Origin this season, Junior Paulo had arguably his poorest season in Eels colours to date, and his decline added more burden on his front-row partners' shoulders.

What Worked

Simply put, this is a football team built to overpower opponents through the middle third with power running. When this tactic worked, and when the flow of possession favoured the Eels, they were effective at winning the yardage battle, and scoring points; certainly, attack has not been Parramatta's weakness for a number of seasons.

The tactics generally employed were to feed the ball to their powerful forward pack, and let them run amok.

Aside from the odd outlier (in Round 1, Parramatta out-ran Melbourne to the tune of 210 runs to 200, but made 17,01 metres to Melbourne's 1,949 metres), when Parramatta got their power running right, it took some stopping.

What Didn't Work

Teams figured out the Eels' gameplan, and loaded up the ruck in defence.

The Eels did not have a plan B, save from throwing offloads, hoping they would stick - when teams got in Parramatta's face, and compressed their defence, the Eels had no answer.

Parramatta's back three have their own strengths - Gutherson is skilful, and defensively excellent; Sivo is powerful; and Russell and Simonsson are quick - but their collective weakness is returning the ball from kicks.

Using Round 1 again as an example, Parramatta's average set distance was 37.81 metres (compared to Melbourne's 40.61 metres), and the Eels returned kicks for 126 metres (compared to Melbourne's 277 metres).

To put this into further perspective, Melbourne kicked the ball 20 times, and Parramatta totalled 126 metres from it - a return of 6.3 metres per return.

Parramatta kicked the ball 26 times, and Melbourne made 277 metres - an average of 10.65 metes per return.

Over the 48 sets Melbourne had, that equates to 511.38 metres (as compared to Parramatta's 45 sets, and 283.5 metres).

2023 week-by-week

Best Players

Clinton Gutherson is a player that can be relied upon, no matter the occasion. He was once again defensively excellent, commanding his defensive line, and creating in attack - he played 23 games, scored 19 tries, had 14 try assists, 71 tackle breaks, 15 linebreaks, and averaged 162 metres per game.

J'maine Hopgood continued his impressive rise to star player, throwing an astonishing 56 offloads in 2023, and making 965 tackles at an efficiency of 93.4%.

Rookies

Brad Arthur gave his Parramatta debuts to Daejarn Asi, Brendan Hands, and Luca Moretti in 2023.

All three players showed glimpses of potential, and stepped in for key positions throughout the season, and were able to hold their own.

Disappointing Players

Junior Paulo is the Eels co-captain, a NSW regular, and a Samoan stalwart - but his 2023 season was below average by his standards.

He finished with an average 147 metres per game, but his involvement was low; he averaged 12.8 hitups per game (Hopgood averaged 12.8 hitups per game), and 22 tackles per game, at 92.6% efficiency in the middle.

But rugby league is a team game, and you would be hard-pressed to find too many Eels in 2023 who shone bright.

2023 player list

31 players used, average age 26.53yrs

Season snapshot

Coach: Brad Arthur
Captains: Clinton Gutherson (23), Junior Paulo (5)

Biggest home crowd: 27,655 (vs. Canterbury in round 7)
Average home crowd: 18,901

Top pointscorer: Mitchell Moses (169)
Top tryscorer: Maika Sivo (20)

Club award winners

• Ken Thornett Medal (NRL Player of the Year): Clint Gutherson
• Nathan Hindmarsh Players' Player: Clint Gutherson
• Jack Gibson Coaches' Award: Will Penisini
• Eric Grothe Rookie of the Year: Wiremu Greig
• Ray Price Community Award: Junior Paulo
• Bob O'Reilly NSW Cup Player of the Year: Luca Moretti
• Geoff Gerard NSW Cup Coaches' Award: Ky Rodwell
• Steve Ella Jersey Flegg Player of the Year: Nick Lenaz
• Brett Kenny Jersey Flegg Coaches' Award: Brock Parker
• Michael Cronin Club Person of the Year: Steve Murphy & Monique Austin

Looking Ahead

The Parramatta club, and its fans, have been starved of meaningful success for almost 4 decades; it is not unreasonable to say that patience is beginning to wear thin with the Eels faithful.

Missing the Finals after making a Grand Final appearance the prior season should not be considered as acceptable.

The Eels saw two medical retirements in 2023 - Josh Hodgson, and Andrew Davey - and were quick to add centre Morgan Harper to their books.

The real challenge will be to see if Brad Arthur can instil a steely resolve into this team to play with power, tempo, and aggression for the full 80 minutes.

There have not been any significant roster changes to date, and so the hope is that the Eels can have some luck with injuries in 2024, show some discipline on, and off, the field to avoid unnecessary suspensions, and give the competition a genuine shake; certainly, the one club that has seemingly caused reigning Premiers Penrith some headaches in recent seasons is Parramatta, and so if Brad Arthur can unlock the sleeping giant potential within this club…who knows where it may lead?

Best 2024 Round 1 lineup

based on current signings at time of writing

1. Clinton Gutherson (C)
2. Maika Sivo
3. Will Penisini
4. Bailey Simonsson
5. Sean Rusell
6. Dylan Brown
7. Mitchell Moses
8. Reagan Campbell-Gillard
9. Brendan Hands
10. Junior Paulo (C)
11. Bryce Cartwright
12. Shaun Lane
13. J'Maine Hopgood

14. Daejarn Asi
15. Wiremu Greig
16. Luca Moretti
17. Ryan Matterson