Draw

Round 13 against the table-topling Sharks is shaping up as a case of from the disastrously bad to even worse for the hapless Eels trapped in Dante's Inferno.

Have the Eels hit bottom-rock yet? Any lower and they'll be falling through the arse-end of the earth into a wormhole.

Moses and Gutherson can't come back soon enough.

Both the Sharks and the Eels managed to both concede exactly 42 points last week. But in polar opposite landscapes.

The Eels were smoked 42-26 by the 17th placed, rock-bottom Rabbitohs who like the Eels have been in long losing stretches - and a rut from hell.

Souths didn't need to play extermely well, with much eyes-up footy or trick plays to get to 22-0 after 26 minutes.

All Souths needed to do was hang on to the ball, run hard in the sets, kick chase well (much better than ours) pressure us and run straight through us.

That set up the match, though there was plenty of twists and turns with the Eels' threatening a comeback but Souths always were one step ahead and the Eels never once led at any point in the match. The game was lttle-boy park footy standard at times.

However, the Sharks were spanked even harder 42-0 at the hands of the reigning triple-peating premiers Panthers whom made a statement of their own. And showed the rugby league world that they're still the ones to beat when it's big boy time.

They will want to bounce back in the most emphatic way after their almightly Royal boot up the rear end out of their home ground in front of horrified, shocked fans.

That spells big trouble for the Eels. 

This is shaping up and potentially the worst loss for the hapless Eels in a season from hell, barring some miracle and divine intervention.

R12 Stats (FoxSport Lab)

• Souths had most stats go their way: more possession (54%-46%), better completion rates 33/38 (87%) to Eels 25/36 (69%), more opportunities in Eels' red zone (46-32 tackles in Opp. 20m), less missed tackles (31-35) but also made far less tackles (242-331), less errors (12-15), forced more dropouts (2-0), awarded more penalties (7-5)
• Eels had few stats go their way: They won set restarts (2-1); Eels' linespeed was actually far quicker (7.2 - 5.7 using nrl.com stats)
• Offloads were split (10-10), Territory was split (50%) Linebreaks was split (5-5)

Stat Attack; Heart Attack Material:

• The Eels have won 3 of the last 11 (27%) clashes against the Sharks.
• The Eels lost the last meet versus the Sharks at Commbank 30-26 last year (R2, 2023) and that with both Moses and Gutherson playing, and Hynes missing from the Sharks.
• The Eels are going throught their worst nine-game trot at Commbank since the 2019 opening, five years ago winning 5 from their last 9 (55.6%) av score 20.4 - 24.8.
• The Eels have lost 7 of the last 8 without Moses.
• The Eels have lost the last 13 straight without Gutherson.
• The Eels have never won a game without Moses and Gutherson, losing 4/4, conceding on average 41.2 points per game (average score 14.4-41.2pg).
• The Eels are on five-straight losses. The worst run since 2018.
• Trent Barrett has won 1 from his last 10 games as a head coach.
• Since, mid-2023 (after R17), the Eels have won 6 from the last 19 (31.6%) conceding 31.5 points per game on average.
• That is the Eels' worst defensive record in their NRL history. That's a worse defence than all our recent spoon years: 2012 (28.08pg), 2013, (30.83pg), 2018 (22.92 per game).