A bruised and battered Parramatta side has beaten the odds and defeated the Melbourne Storm 26-20.
The win though looks to have come at a cost with Reece Robinson, Nathan Peats and Anthony Watmough all not returning to the field after going off and Kaysa Pritchard staying down after the full-time siren.
The Storm capitalised on an early Eels mistake through Tohu Harris with Ben Hampton then finding the line to give Melbourne an early 12-0 lead.
The Eels fought hard but lost fullback Reece Robinson after 20 minutes with a broken cheekbone when he collided with teammate Ryan Morgan.
Parramatta seemed to click into gear once Sandow moved to fullback with Semi Radradra crossing out wide following some Eels razzle-dazzle.
Semi had a double less than ten minutes later as the Eels went into the half-time break down 12-10.
Parramatta hit the front three minutes after half-time when Corey Norman chased through a Sandow bomb and stole the ball from Storm fullback, Cameron Munster.
The injury toll began to mount for the Eels though with Nathan Peats being forced from the field with a suspected recurrence of his knee injury from last season.
Melbourne took advantage of an Eels mistake when Blake Green crossed in the 49th minute.
The scores stood at 16-all with half an hour to play.
Hymel Hunt then put the Storm ahead when he collected a pass from Mahe Fonua who had cleaned up a loose Eels ball.
Tohu Harris' conversion gave Melbourne a six point lead to defend for 14 minutes.
The Eels though were determined not to be held out and when Ryan Morgan crossed the Eels trailed by just two points with ten minutes remaining.
Tepai Moeroa then barged his way over from short range to hand the Eels a 26-20 lead with three minutes to go.
Parramatta didn't make it easy on themselves in the final minutes.
Two dropped balls handed Melbourne two chances at leveling scores and had it not been for a fortunate video referee decision, the game may well have gone into extra time.
The Eels have their first bye of the season next week and will need it with an injury toll that continues to grow.
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and again
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This is why the Top Blogs "system" on 1eyed ell SUCKS re hashing OLD and irrelevant tripe to automatic front page status WTF !!!