The Dyldam Parramatta Eels head to Brookvale Oval this afternoon to take on the in-form Manly Warringah Sea Eagles for their Round 24 clash, and Assistant Coach Steve Murphy says the Blue and Gold will need to win the battle in the middle and control field position to come away with the two points.
Previewing the game thanks to Unibet, Murphy says the Eels’ will need to be at their best to tackle a talented Manly side.
“Training has been exemplary, the boys have worked really hard and they continue to work hard on a daily basis,” Murphy said.
“We are playing well for long periods of the game, but unfortunately it’s not lasting for long periods.”
“We need to do that this week with another talented opposition in Manly at Brookvale.”
Manly have named an unchanged side for the clash and boast plenty of strike across the park, and Murphy says the Blue and Gold will need to be prepared for plenty of dangers.
“They have an outstanding backline and their forwards are doing a really good job too. They have been undermanned for most of the year, but Trbojevic up front has been leading them really well and they have an experienced hooker in Matt Ballin.” Murphy said.
“Feleti Mateo has some really nice touches, so they are a quality football team in good form so we will have to play well.”
With the Eels forward pack showing a committed performance last week against the premiership favourites the Sydney Roosters, Murphy says the Blue and Gold hard men will need to be ready to back up their performance.
“You saw a committed forward pack from the Eels last week against the Roosters and we will need to do that again, because the game begins and ends there and we need to do a good job on their forward pack to hopefully create some space for us out wide.”
Apart from their dangers out wide and a talented and tough forward pack, Murphy says the Blue and Gold will need to limit the opportunities that the halves pairing of Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry-Evans have in the game.
“It will help shutting down their halves if we are completing and controlling field position,” Murphy said.
“If we do that, they won’t get that many opportunities at us. We have given away far too many penalties coming out of our own end and that is providing field position to our opponent.”
“It’s Parramatta v Manly and there is a long rivalry there. We would be underselling it to suggest we wouldn’t like to knock them out of the finals race.”
Kick off from Brookvale Oval is at 4pm.
