NRL 2022, round 5: Mitchell Moses sings Clint Gutherson’s praises as Eels’ great start continues
Parramatta may be flying high after a great start to the season but Mitchell Moses says it’s only a taste of what’s to come as the Eels look to break the longest premiership drought in the game.
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Mitchell Moses says the rest of the competition should be scared about how good the Eels spine can become this season as he credits fullback Clint Gutherson for inspiring his rich vein of form and a new perspective on life.
The Parramatta half was superb in all facets of play in the 26-20 win over the Titans and now leads the competition with 10 try assists for the season.
With hooker Reed Mahoney set to join the Bulldogs in 2023, this is the last year the red-hot spine of Moses, Gutherson, Dylan Brown and Mahoney will strut their stuff together. Moses wants to make the most of it.
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“I want to win a comp, and we have got the group here to do it,” Moses said, when asked what was inspiring his masterful form.
“The connection our spine has at the moment is good, just with the way we are all working together, but we still have improvement in us.
“That is a good thing, and that is a scary thing for the competition really. We have still got room to grow, things we need to fix and things we can be better at. That is the thing that is most inspiring to me.
“We are going all right at the moment. We probably should have finished off the (Titans) game a bit earlier than we did but we will learn from that as a spine.”
Moses has played in all eight finals appearances of the Eels since he joined the club from the Tigers in mid-2017. Just playing finals doesn’t cut it for the 27-year-old, who said Gutherson had played a crucial role in driving higher aspirations in all the players.
Gutherson and Moses enjoy a round of golf together on their favourite links, but it is the link they have as mates and footballers that can propel the Eels towards the ultimate goal of breaking a 36-year premiership drought.
“Gutho is the type of player and person who, just with his actions, you want to follow him. He has made me look at taking a different approach to life and footy,” Moses said.
“I’ve looked at how much time he puts into doing extras and making himself better. That is inspiring. I put more into my game in all areas in the pre-season. I got the work done.
“Gutho was made captain in his early 20s and I have seen him grow in the role ever since with how he talks to the boys now. Along with Brad Arthur, he has worked endlessly at changing the whole club.”
Moses set up two tries for Gutherson against the Titans and said their lethal one-two punch was based on “a really good connection on and off the field.”
“He is one of my closest mates. When he does something, I foil off him. When we play good the team comes off the back of us. The plan is to keep that going,” he said.
Moses’ halves partner Brown has a strong running game and defensive clout. This year Brown is also creating and has five try assists, more than his tally for the entire 2021 season.
“That’s just outstanding. When Dylan does that week-in and week-out it makes my job a whole lot easier,” Moses said.
“And Reed (Mahoney) is just a great player. He’s doing a really good job. He just needs to keep doing what he is doing and everything will be all right.”
Sin bin ‘disgrace’: Paulo’s ‘harsh’ penalty for great hit
David Fifita burst back to life but it wasn’t enough as Parramatta overcame the controversial sin-binning of Junior Paulo to escape with a 26-20 win against the Gold Coast Titans on Saturday night.
Paulo was binned in the second-half when he was ruled by the Bunker to have made forceful contact with Titans five-eighth AJ Brimson’s head in a huge shot.
The Eels had led 20-0 at Robina, but the Titans stormed back and scored through a barnstorming David Fifita while Paulo was controversially off the field.
“He hits him shoulder to shoulder. It’s a brutal shot but I don’t think it’s illegal,” Fox League’s Michael Ennis said in commentary of Paulo’s hit. Respected commentator Phil Gould labelled the decision a “disgrace” on Twitter and said it was a “great hit”.
Eels coach Brad Arthur said Paulo’s hit was “a good tackle”.
“My job is to teach these players how to tackle so what do I say to Junior? He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do.”
Brimson was dazed, but stayed on the field after starting the second stanza on fire with two grubbers for tries. Moses had a third try assist with a bomb for Dylan Brown, when on cue a female intruder raced onto the field before being dumped to the ground by a security guard with a more dangerous tackle than Paulo’s.
“I thought it was (harsh), I thought I hit him around the shoulder,” Paulo told Fox League of his tackle on Brimson. “It’s all part of the game. We’re trying to keep it a safe game as well.
“I’ll cop that and move on to next week.”
This is a disgrace. No other word to describe it.
— Phil Gould (@PhilGould15) April 9, 2022
It was certainly a controversial call by the Bunker and the Bunker was kept busy with a number of captain’s challenges as the Titans looked to exploit a loophole in the rule.
The Eels were near perfect in the first half but lost their way in the second stanza with errors, before Moses and a superb Clint Gutherson took control.
Moses, in the form of his life in the number seven jersey, was unstoppable as the Eels completed 20 of 24 sets in the opening 40 minutes to lead 14-0 at the break, a performance founded on just nine missed tackles and desperation on their own tryline.
The Eels flipped the script from the footloose and fancy-free methodology they employed in round in their 32-28 win over the Gold Coast. This win was based on power and momentum through the middle of the park, the kind of footy they will need to play against the big guns in September.
The only sour point was a suspected medial ligament injury to star winger Waqa Blake.
Desperation by Gutherson to deflect a Toby Sexton grubber from the grasp of AJ Brimson was rewarded at the other end when he rumbled on the end of another perfect Moses pass to score. The dynamic duo struck again when Jarrod Wallace spilt a pinpoint Moses bomb for Gutherson to swoop.
“The boys were sombre in the sheds after the game but I said to them ‘you’ve got to enjoy winning’,” Arthur said. “They’re setting high standards and expectations.
“We were down to 12 men, don’t think we touched the footy much in the second half and anything that could go wrong did. I am really proud of them.
“We faced adversity and pulled through it. I don’t know in the past if we would have. We dug deep. I know they scored 20 points but I thought we looked very good defensively.”
MOSES MAGIC
Moses is the form player of the competition through five rounds. Everything he touches turns to gold. If he parted the seas you wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.
The Titans defence parted for him for one of his typical pin-the ears-back incisions and he took his try assist tally to 10, the best in the competition.
It his trusty and long-term relationship with the rest of the spine members — Reed Mahoney, Dylan Brown and Gutherson — that gives the Eels so much direction.
“We need Moses to do that every single week,” Gutherson said. “He is our best player He is our playmaker. When our middles are going forward Mitch can play the game he wants to.”
The Moses/Gutherson combination is really hitting its straps and the Eels fullback and co-captain had a blinder. Just another night out for Gutherson, but blue-chip all the same.
POWER PACK
The Eels middle forwards Paulo, Reagan Campbell-Gillard and Nathan Brown took it upon to personally dominate the middle of the field and all three were enormous from the get-go. Paulo and Campbell-Gillard had run for 140m and 138m respectively by the break, and more importantly, had barely missed a tackle. The Eels defence had been underwhelming in the opening four rounds and they entered the match leaking the most tackles (38.5 per game) and line breaks (8.3 per game). Paulo and company had bashed the Titans into submission in attack by half-time and replicated that mentality in defence in a near perfect opening 40 minutes.
FLYING FIFITA
Fifita scored the try of the season as the Titans mounted a late comeback but ultimately slumped to their seventh straight loss to the Eels.
It took 388 minutes for Fifita to fire up – and he did it in style.
After having little impact in the opening month of the 2022 season, Fifita exploded in remarkable fashion with a scintillating 40m solo effort to give the Titans a chance of victory.
With his halfback Toby Sexton unable to get him involved, Fifita took matters into his own hands and ran from dummy-half, brushing off five defenders to crash over in the corner for his first try of the season.
After posting a club record 17 tries last year, Fifita had not scored in the first four games of the year. At the same point last year he had crossed six times and was the most damaging player in the NRL.
A club’s highest-paid player should influence more games than they don’t and until this moment, Fifita had made little impact in 2022.
It is a major problem for the Titans to have so much money invested in a player that isn’t winning games for them but he showed a glimpse of what he is capable of, albeit too late.
The loss leaves the Titans outside the top eight with a 2-3 record and a tough month of games against the Sea Eagles, Cowboys, Panthers and Roosters to come.
After five rounds, the Gold Coast’s two wins have come against the Warriors and lowly Wests Tigers, who are yet to win a game.
“We’ve got a young halfback, they’re only going to get better,” Titans coach Justin Holbrook said. “David did some great things in a really tough game.
“We’re going to get a lot better as the season goes on and we get our combinations going.
“We’ve got to start winning those tight games and key moments to get better.”
ALL HAIL KING GUTHO
When these teams met in round 1, Titans winger Phil Sami showboated over the top of Parramatta fullback Clint Gutherson after scoring a try.
It was a bit of theatre, but Gutherson didn’t take it well and got his revenge last night.
The Eels co-captain had a sensational first half, scoring two tries and saving one to give Parramatta a 14-0 lead at the break.
Gutherson was involved all night while Parramatta props Reagan Campbell-Gillard (186m) and Paulo (176m) murdered the Titans in the middle to continue the Eels’ strong start to the season.
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