Source : ABC NEWS
Parramatta playmaker Jonah Pezet has destroyed the team he will play for next year — but in a sign of his appetite for excellence, he is far from satisfied.
The five-eighth’s four try assists, and a try were key in sinking Brisbane 40-32 at Lang Park on Thursday night.
Next year, the 23-year-old will join the Broncos to replace retiring Adam Reynolds, but that is next year.
Despite all of his great attacks, it was a try-saving tackle Pezet appeared most proud of.
Before the match, Broncos centre Kotoni Staggs said they would pressure Pezet by making sure second-rower Jordan Riki got in his face, like Melbourne’s Joe Chan did the week before in the Storm’s 52-4 demolition of the Eels.
The tactic failed. Instead, it was Pezet who made a try saver on Riki to jolt the ball free and stop the Broncos from taking a 16-0 lead.
It was a crucial play and one Pezet wants to do more often. He wasn’t happy about missing a tackle, his only one, on Brisbane prop Payne Haas, that led to a try.
“It probably switched my mentality a little bit when I got physical, and actually used my shoulders for once,” Pezet said.
“I need to keep doing that and take that into next week. That start I had tonight, I can’t do that next week and for the next 25 rounds either. I need to start well and be physical from the start. I missed the jump tonight.
‘I was pretty ordinary in the first 20 minutes to be honest. I let Payno go through untouched and I think I had an error early. I wasn’t great, but that’s footy — you just have to worry about the next moment and get on with it.”
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Pezet was brilliant at wiping away any disappointment quickly. He finished the opening half by setting up two tries and came up with a slick grubber in the second stanza that got the Eels the lead.
“When you make an error, you just have to get on with it and get on with my next job … the good players do,” he said.
“My job is to help this team score points and take pressure off Mitchell [Moses].
“I guess in the last 60 minutes of the game I did that, but I need to start doing that for 80 minutes.”
Pezet said it was “really special to get my first win for Parra” after the previous week’s display.
“Everyone was pretty ordinary last week and I’ll throw my hand up,” he said.
“No-one was up to standard, and we had to come out here and prove a point and play the blue-and-gold footy we want to play.”
AAP
