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A huge Thursday night clash sees the Sydney Roosters host the Parramatta Eels, in a blockbuster Sydney matchup between two Premiership contenders. The Eels are fresh off a massive golden point win over the Panthers last week, whilst the Roosters had the bye.

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Team News

The Roosters lose star centre Joey Manu (suspension) for a week, replaced in the centres by the versatile Drew Hutchinson, promoted from the bench. Corey Allan takes Hutchinson’s place on the bench, however don’t be shocked if Allan actually starts in place of Hutchinson. Terrell May also misses out, with Naufahu Whyte taking his place on the bench.

As for the Eels, just the one forced change, with Junior Paulo (suspension) set to miss two matches. Wiremu Greig has been promoted to start, with Jack Murchie joining the bench.

Betting Markets

Sydney Roosters ($1.54) vs Parramatta Eels ($2.50)

Points total – 40.5 points

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Match Overview

The Eels showed plenty of guts last week, defeating the Panthers and exacting a small amount of revenge after losing in last year’s decider. This week, they will need another big dose of guts to go back-to-back, as they take on a well-rested Roosters outfit that appears to have turned the corner, after a solid victory over the Rabbitohs two weeks ago.

Whilst the Eels will likely keep this tight early, the Roosters should be good enough to push on with this in the second half and get another win on the board.

Love It – Jaxson Paulo - $9,000

Paulo is a little bit of picking someone based on last week’s performance, however at bottom dollar, it’s not an expensive purchase. There are certainly reasons to be concerned with Paulo. His only other performance this season where he wasn’t playing outside Joey Manu, Paulo struggled to get anything going, scoring 25 points. Despite this, I can see the Roosters raiding the left side of the Eels defence, where they will find Bryce Cartwright, Waqa Blake, and Maika Sivo. The Eels left side defence has struggled for some time, and a Paulo try or two is not without its chance.

Love It – Mitch Moses - $21,330

Moses makes the ‘Love It’ list for the second week in a row. Last week, we predicted Moses would pick up a good haul of points from his kicking game. Little did we know, Moses was about to kick the ball for the most metres in one game, ever. Moses went on to score 81.6 without ANY attacking statistics. Now, obviously we won’t be predicting another 1000m kicking performance, but the game plan here shouldn’t be too different than the one the Eels had last week. If he can get an attacking stat or two, another 70+ score should be on the cards for the Eels halfback again this week.

Love It – Ryan Matterson – $20,470

Matterson came back in without missing a beat last week, punching out 68.6 points in tackles and runs. One of the fittest men in the game, Matterson easily played the 83 minutes of game time, and he will continue playing the full 80. Matterson is a known ball player, and if he can just add a couple of offloads into his base statistics, Matterson could easily push up into the 70+ band. Yes, he’s expensive, but with a baseline in the 60+ range, it’s hard to ignore the big Eels’ backrower.

Hate It – Brandon Smith - $17,830

We mentioned Smith in this list two weeks ago, and we will go again this week. Smith seems to be getting priced on name and reputation, rather than his output this season for the Roosters. Smith is averaging just 47 minutes per game, 19 tackles per game, and 52 metres per game. Last week, he made a line-break and scored a try, and yet still only managed 31 points. The minutes aren’t there, the work isn’t there, and short of scoring two tries per game, Smith is in no way worth this sort of coin in the HH position. For a comparable price, I much prefer the likes of Sam Walker and Dylan Brown.

Hate It – James Tedesco - $20,920

Tedesco is another one who is being priced on reputation and not of this year’s productivity. It’s always scary putting someone like Tedesco in this list, however I can’t stump up $21k for a guy who hasn’t shown it this season. There’s not much in the way of star outside backs in this slate, with Tedesco priced a full $6,800 more than Will Penisini. I much prefer to spend big money on a premium half option, and/or a premium forward. Tedesco well and truly has the ability to take control of a game, and win you a contest, but I just haven’t seen enough this season to warrant this sort of cash.

Who Knows – Clinton Gutherson - $11,860

King Gutho has been in the news all week, regarding the Eels’ apparent talks with their fullback over the team’s desire to sign a “game breaking” fullback. Gutherson will definitely come into this game with a point to prove, and with the teams’ confidence up after a huge win last week, the King could be primed for a huge game this weekend. On the flip side, Gutherson is notoriously mid when it comes to DFS. With scores between 23 and 43 this season, he has a decent floor, but his ceiling isn’t what you are really after for DFS. Still, with the narrative building all week, the King might just have a blinder and tear us all to shreds, including the Eels’ hierarchy.

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