NRL 2020: Dragons beat Parramatta Eels 14-12 in Paul McGregor’s last game | Match Report
Parramatta hooker Reed Mahoney isn’t saying the NRL Bunker robbed the Eels on Friday night – but he does think they got a crucial call 100 per cent wrong.
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Reed Mahoney insists he “100 per cent” scored a crucial try in Parramatta’s shock loss to the Dragons but admits the Eels have to reignite their attack.
The Parramatta hooker looked to have nabbed a superb matchwinner when he athletically planted down a Blake Ferguson kick, only for the NRL Bunker to rule he had placed the ball on the line.
“100 per cent,” Mahoney said when asked if he thought he had scored.
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Is it just me, or is there a line of green between the touch line and the ball? 🤔#NRL #NRLEelsDragons pic.twitter.com/RzFpvSHYpO
— Jack Blyth (@jblesfooty224) August 14, 2020
“I don’t understand where the evidence was that it wasn’t a try.
“But it is what it is and that probably didn’t define our game tonight and we’ve got to be better in other areas.”
After scrappy wins over the Tigers, Sharks and Bulldogs in the previous three weeks, high-flying Parramatta came crashing back to earth when they were brought undone 14-12 by a St George Illawarra outfit playing under Paul McGregor for the final time.
The Eels made 12 errors in slippery conditions at Bankwest Stadium, and also failed to capitalise on a host of attacking opportunities.
Parramatta were tackled 37 times in the opposition 20m line, compared to 10 times for the Dragons, but could only conjure two tries.
“It’s not an attitude thing, it’s attention to detail, as simple as dropping the ball,” Mahoney said of his side’s error rate.
“I’m guilty for one there and there were a few other ones … it’s not good enough, it’s not up to our standards.
“The last few weeks we’ve gotten away with it but (against the Dragons) it really hurt us.
“Our attack probably hasn’t been up to our standards. We’ve been winning games on defence the last few weeks but (against the Dragons) we needed something in attack and we lacked it a bit.
“Once again we had so many opportunities to score, we had two or three tries that we should have scored over the 80 minutes and we’ve got to take those opportunities.”
Mahoney knows the Eels have to turn things around quickly, with a daunting clash against Melbourne looming on Thursday night.
“Our attention to detail isn’t good enough and we’re coming up against a flying Melbourne Storm,” Mahoney said.
“We’ve got to be at our best next week to compete with them.”
HAIL MARY: DRAGONS’ SURPRISE PARTING GIFT FOR MCGREGOR
The chant went up as soon as the full-time siren sounded.
“We want Mary. We want Mary.”
St George Illawarra fans chanted from the Bankwest Stadium stands on Friday night as the Dragons sent Paul McGregor out as a winner, upsetting Parramatta 14-12 in a nail-bitter.
A gallant Dragons side produced one of their grittiest performances of the season in the wet in what was an 80-minute arm wrestle.
“People will ask why did they play so well when [in the past] they haven’t but if you look at our games, we have had bad moments, not bad games,” McGregor said. “Tonight we found a little bit more and turned the opposition away more often.”
PARRAMELTERS
Before Friday night’s defeat, the Eels had three very scrappy wins in a row to the Tigers, Bulldogs and the Sharks. Their performance had Channel 9 commentator Phil Gould questioning the side’s premiership credentials this season.
“I have a theory about Parramatta, if it’s not going their way, they can melt into a loss,” Gould said. “[If] you want to be a premiership contender these are the games you have to tough out and get the victory.”
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PAUL MCGREGOR
After 151 games across six seasons in charge as Dragons coach, the match officially lowered the curtain on McGregor’s time at the club. McGregor’s sacking ended a 25-year relationship with the club, which he also captained during his time as a player in the 1990s. But after only nine wins from 32 matches, the club and the coach finally agreed to part ways, making McGregor the fourth NRL coach to be sacked in season 2020.
“It was a nice way to finish my career with the club,” McGregor said. “The players were pretty emotional as well.
“There was a lot of talk that they were a tight group and they weren’t playing for me and that was too far from the truth. We had a little presentation in there [sheds] and Cameron McInnes gave me his jumper and it was probably one of the best presents I got in my life.”
FIJIAN SHOWDOWN
The all-Fijian wing battle between Parramatta’s Maika Sivo and St George Illawarra’s Mikaele Ravalawa would no doubt have split the allegiance of Island nation’s rugby league lovers right down the middle.
But it was Ravalawa who drew first blood, opening the Dragons account with a try in the 24th minute after some impressive lead-up play from centre Zac Lomax.
“He’s outstanding this kid [Lomax] and he’s getting better by the week … I said last week this kid is Origin material and I’m confident he is,” Gould said.
Ravalawa added insult to injury with another four-pointer before the break, the acrobatic putdown put the Dragons ahead for the first time in the match.
NUGGET JORDAN
Not to be outdone by Ravalawa on the right edge, Jordan Pereira was more than a handful on the left edge for the Dragons. The Eels struggled to contain the ‘nuggety’ winger as he notched up 228 run metres, a huge 14 tackle busts and made two linebreaks.
“He’s a beauty … he had a serious back neck injury playing in NSW Cup playing the lower grades. But his performances in the top grade have been really good,” Gould said.
KING GUTHERSON
Eels fullback Clint Gutherson was a standout for the Eels. The Parramatta skipper, had his hands all over his side’s attack and was rewarded with a try in the 15th minute. It only took the form fullback 20 minutes to notch up 100 run metres on a wet track. He ended the night with 313 run metres.
MCGREGOR BOWS OUT WITH HEAD HELD HIGH
By Nick Walshaw
Well Mary, hard work may not be enough to get you the win every time.
But geez, you gave it a crack.
Not that many understand.
Or could ever know the toll.
But that’s rugby league, right?
A game where giving everything doesn’t always guarantee success.
Just ask Canterbury’s Josh Jackson.
Or James Graham, that enigmatic Englishman who gave more of himself than is even medically safe for six straight grand final defeats.
But you, Mary?
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Officially, they will say Paul McGregor finished up as St George Illawarra’s head coach on a wet Friday night in Parramatta.
With an upset win, wonderfully. But gone after a long run of negative headlines.
That, and the usual Dragons peanut gallery losing it online.
Truly, we’ve seen fonder farewells at the end of a noose.
But still Mary, we want to say thank you.
Not only for those 25 years you’ve given one of rugby league’s most revered clubs – as player, conditioner and eventually head coach – but, more importantly, the way you gave each role everything you had.
Which for any man, no matter the outcome, has to be enough.
Like when you were labouring down that Wollongong coal mine a few years ago.
Remember that?
Back when having been punted as Dragons trainer by new coach Wayne Bennett, you went and worked the night shift underground – “shovelling s …” as your great mate Shaun Timmins recalls it — while also coaching local footy.
Which was no easy thing.
Yet every night at smoko, when all your workmates grabbed whatever sleep they could, you stayed awake to create game plans for that bush team.
Which your fellow miners, of course, considered madness.
But you?
Well, you would sit there underground, a lamp at your back, scheming for an anonymous mob of fellas who would eventually win three first grade titles.
Which is the same work ethic you carried as a player. Then through those seven years as NRL coach. Which isn’t to say there weren’t mistakes.
There were.
Just as you also walk away with two finals appearances, several young careers born and knowing you helped transform more than one club footballer into that same NSW Origin jersey you worked so hard for.
As a Dapto teen, you played five first-grade seasons before Illawarra came calling.
Just as now, aged 52, and after two straight winters of turmoil, you remain in shape, best dressed and with mates saying the next time they see you unshaven will be the first.
Discipline, honesty, attention to detail — certainly there are worse things to be remembered for, right?
Your heartbeat too for a playing career defined by three Tests, 14 Origins and that electric razor kept in your car – allowing a quick shave of the head while driving to training.
Indeed, how does a man chase perfection without squeezing everything from even those minutes in the ride to WIN Stadium?
Which again, doesn’t guarantee success.
But still, you always persevered.
Right up until the end, and those countless hours spent rehearsing even Thursday’s farewell speech.
Which had to be tough, sure.
Same as those NRL bubble restrictions that have prevented visiting your old man Frank, who is not simply crook but hospitalised.
Yet now, you get to go see him.
For as long as you like, too.
More than ever Mary, making your minutes count.