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Brad Arthur confirmed that his side are after Marty Taupau, but said that it was of his hands if the player would be able to join before the transfer deadline on Monday.
“He would be handy for us, but that’s not our call,” he said of the prop, who has put in a request for immediate release from his contract. “That is Manly’s call.”
Arthur was speaking after his side’s 34-10 victory over Penrith, in which Nathan Cleary was spectacularly sent off midway through the first half.
With the score 30-4 at half time, it looked like the Eels would run through the Panthers, but a combination of spirited resistance from Penrith and Parramatta taking their foot off the gas lead to the 12-men winning the second half.
It’s hard not to approach this game through the lens of the send off for Panthers superstar Cleary, in the 19th minute for a spear tackle on Parramatta five eighth Dylan Brown.
Brown, thankfully, was unharmed in the incident but Cleary will now face a significant stint on the sidelines: his charge earlier in the year that resulted in a fine will now count against him.
If the precedent set for spear tackles this season against Manly’s Karl Lawton and Wests Tigers’ Brent Naden holds, then a four or five-week ban is on the cards.
“I think he’s going to be missing for a bit,” said Ivan Cleary. “Based on other examples this year, it’s probably likely. He feels like he’s let everyone down.
“I didn’t say anything (to Nathan). Anyone who’s been in that position would feel the same. He certainly didn’t mean to do it. He’s done a fair bit for our team over the years and I know Nat pretty well, so it’ll just fuel his fire for later. What can you say, really?”
The truth, however, was that well before Cleary was marched, the Eels were well on top and could well have repeated the trick they pulled on the Panthers in their meeting earlier this year, where Parra took the two points 22-20.
The conditions that delivered that result were replicated tonight at CommBank Stadium, with Parra on top prior to the red card.
The Eels were big and strong in the middle, generating plenty of second phase play, with 18 offloads to 5.
They dominated with the boot, with Mitchell Moses registering 542 kicking metres, including a booming 40/20 – more like a 30/20 – before Cleary’s red card that shifted the momentum of the game. Brown also chipped in, with two superb try assists before the red card.
“Our first half was good, we played nice and professional,” said Brad Arthur. “Sometimes it get hard in that situation when they’re a man down and you’ve got plenty of footy, you can get a little bit loose with your mentality and we didn’t, which was good.
“Our completions were above 90%. We stuck to the plan. We went away from it a touch in the second half, but Penrith were very brave.
“Mitchell was good. He had a lot of involvement, a lot of touches and ran the footy. But I think it’s been built off the back of his defence. His defence in the last month has been very good.
“They’re a very good defence team so we had to make sure we ran the footy hard, chased the collision and got plenty of numbers around the ball because if we could get an offload to break them up and they’re the best defensive team.
“They were down to 12 and competed very hard. It got a bit lateral at times, but it was two points we needed and two points we’ll take.”
The Panthers had already been depleted in the halves coming into the game, with Jarome Luai missing in the 6 jumper.
His replacement, Sean O’Sullivan, was preferred over Kurt Falls, though one suspects that their partnership built in NSW Cup and honed during the Origin period will be returning until the end of the year with Luai missing until finals and Cleary slated for a long sit down.
To their credit, Penrith fought back hard in the second half, which they won 6-4, with a defensive effort that belied their man deficit.
“We won the second half so I felt they were very courageous,” said Ivan Cleary. “There were some lessons there. When Nat went off, we couldn’t handle it. They were on fire at the time and we couldn’t handle it, we couldn’t stem the flow and there’s lessons in that too.”
It started so well for the Panthers, with O’Sullivan profiting from an extend spell of pressure early on.
Parra hit straight back, however, with Brown setting up Isaiah Papali’I with an excellent kick before Moses manouevred the team into position with a 40/20 and Brown, again, created a try, this one for Maika Sivo.
After Cleary was dismissed, Parra kicked straight in Penrith territory and scored via Reed Mahoney, diving in off a smart Junior Paulo offload. He grabbed another moments later, slipping between the markers under the sticks.
Penrith were clearly rattled. Few will be able to remember the last time they conceded a try direct from dummy half, let alone between Isaah Yeo and Dylan Edwards. The Eels completed the half with a Clint Gutherson solo effort.
And yet. Parra can rarely string two solid halves together and, while the result never seemed in doubt from the second that Cleary left the field, it was inarguable that the Panthers were superior in second half.
They might have scored twice, with both Taylan May and Scott Sorensen having tries chalked off by the bunker. Eventually they got their try, with Moses Leota turning playmaker for Liam Martin.
The Eels did get one of their own to round out proceedings via Sivo, but Brad Arthur will still worry about the performance against 12 men after the break. He will, perhaps, be pleased that we all have something else to talk about.