No one beats the Eels in Canberra nine times in a row and gets away with it.
The Blue and Gold travelled south to what has been a veritable graveyard since 2006, with the challenge of defeating a premiership heavyweight in front of them.
The last time Parramatta had tasted victory in the ACT, Tim Smith and John Morris were the halves pairings, Wade McKinnon was fullback, Jarryd Hayne was in the infancy of his NRL career and Jason Taylor was head coach.
The big match up for the night was the battle of the Papa's. In the Blue and Gold corner was buy of the year Isaiah Papali'i, while the Green Machine boasted mulleted wrecking ball Josh Papalii.
Ice won the match up by KO early on when he steamrolled Josh on the way to opening the scoring. It's a testament to Ice's strength and power that he took the contact, then ran over Josh before carrying three other Raiders defenders over the line.
The true stand out not just for the Eels but in the game though, was Mitchell Moses, who put on a clinic of halfback play.
He kicked long and high, nailing Canberra to their own goal line consistently and asking their backs to do all of the work which, with Charnze Nikoll-Klokstad due to injur and Nick Cotric moving to the Bulldogs, proved to be too much of an ask.
His eventual try assist to Shaun Lane saw him touch the ball three separate times in the movement, beginning with him supporting Clint Gutherson on the 40 metre line and ending with him, on the other side of the field, putting Lane over the line.
Moses stepped up without regular halves partner Dylan Brown to guide the Eels around the park and ensure they built pressure continuously. It was a marked improvement on the performance against the Dragons a week prior.
Credit also has to go to Reed Mahoney who sniped and darted from dummy half and also put in an early kick when required.
Cooper Cronk said in the coverage, and it's surely something Eels fans would love to see, this performance should be Moses' standard. This is the seven or eight out of 10 Peter Sterling talks about when he asks for a halfback to be consistent.
Moses may not have finished with three try assists and a massive highlights reel, but how many times did Cooper Cronk do that? It was a measured performance and the one the team required.
Commentators noted the Eels seemed to have put the offload away as a tactic. I would surmise it was more determined that it wasn't needed by the players. BA has never said he's asked the players to shelve their offloads. It seems counter-intuitive to the way they play.
Instead, it seemed as though given the metres they were making through the middle and the domination of the ruck, there was very little reason to try and force extra passes when the basics were doing the job.
The Eels were also very good in their edge defence. After the first try, they seemed to fix the issue on that edge, either bundling Rapana into touch or putting pressure on Canberra's inside men who threw errant passes.
Parramatta will need to back that performance up next week against a Brisbane side that pushed the Panthers hard on Thursday night.
Hopefully the scare given to the side in round one by the Broncos means they arrive in Darwin to make a statement.
While it's also fantastic to see the Eels head back to Darwin for the first time since 2019, it does mean we miss what I was hoping would become our annual Broncos cull at Bankwest Stadium.
Replies
I think the lack of first half offloads was more to do with Raiders tactics. They were wrapping up the ball consistently as well as having another player standing looking to intercept any errant offloads. There simply were no opportunities to offload safely during the first half.
The second half was a different story. As fatigue became a factor the Raiders were unable to get enough bodies around the ball in defence. Once the Eels' offloads started they become hard to contain.
It's team list Tuesday for our next game vs Broncos, Super.
There always a flip side to to trying to find the offload. There will be a wrestle which allows the defensive line to set. I think trying to force an offload until the last second hurt us vs the Dragons. If you can't get the offload within 2-3 secs of hitting the line then it's best to try fall on your knees for a quick play the ball. I saw that we did that plenty in Canberra. It seemed to me we played the ball faster which allowed darts from Reed and Gutho from dummy half where we made quick and plenty metres with the defensive line constantly retreating to avoid an offside and 6 again. The 2nd half especially before we ran away from them seemed as if we were playing down hill.
Yeah, but sometimes a late offload can be devastating for the same reason, because the defensive line has been reset, meaning few opposition players within 10 meters. But I agree maybe early on when teams are freash maybe we just need to put the offload away.