The Sydney Roosters showed why they're favoured to become the first team since the Eels of the 80s to three-peat when they overcame the Blue and Gold on Saturday night in the best game of the season so far.
But in losing, the Eels displayed qualities that many experts and fans alike are backing them to challenge the Roosters later in the season.
Parramatta went into the match off the back of two hard-fought victories over the Manly Sea Eagles and Penrith Panthers. Neither side are easy beats. The Sea Eagles beat the Canberra Raiders on the weekend missing seven regulars by the end of the match, while the Panthers beat perennial contenders the Melbourne Storm.
The Roosters meanwhile flew into the contest having demolished the Broncos and Bulldogs comfortably.
In the first 25 minutes, the Roosters seemed to attack at will. Set after set they peppered the Eels line but the Blue and Gold turned them away until the 20th minute when an errant Roosters pass managed to crack the Parramatta line.
The old Eels would've folded earlier, probably given up a few extra tries for good measure and become roadkill.
But this seems to be a different side. Their defence was resolute and difficult to breach. So much so that the usually attack happy Roosters opted for two penalty goals instead of repeat sets.
What could have been a bloodbath saw the Roosters enter half time up 8-0.
Emerging from the break, Parramatta looked the more energetic. They scored almost immediately after the resumption through Michael Jennings.
15 minutes later a rampaging Maika Sivo sent James Tedesco to the shadow realm and Mitchell Moses' conversion gave the Eels a 10-8 lead.
It was the first time since round two that the Roosters had been behind on the scoreboard.
The Roosters showed their quality though and hit back immediately before the sin binning of Jennings ended any hope the Eels had of a fight back.
The reigning Premiers won 24-10.
But it is telling the respect the Eels earned in that match. Of the Roosters' 24 points, eight came from penalty goals.
Parramatta have plenty to work on. Their defensive right side is becoming a problem due to Waqa Blake's seeming inability to tackle.
Their ball control was sloppy at times and invited pressure, although they did manage to defend many of their mistakes, which is an attribute that has been missing for years.
Against most other sides, the Eels win that game. But the Roosters were too professional, too clinical, too experienced to get rattled by watching their best player escorted from the field after being trampled.
Sivo hit Tedesco so hard, Teddy was probably telling the doc to tell Tim Sheens he was right to go.
In that loss the Eels learnt what it takes to be champions. The Eels were good. The Roosters were better.
That one off performance can't be enough for Parramatta. It won't be enough for the fans. Success has been a long time coming. Close enough isn't good enough anymore.
Next weekend they take on a Canberra Raiders team with plenty of firepower but coming off two poor performances.
A win here will deliver a two-fold statement.
First it will strengthen their top four aspirations.
Second it will deliver a statement to the competition that they are Premiership contenders.
It's up to the Eels to show they have the mentality and drive to do that.
Replies
Great read but IMO, our errors and the ref interpretation of the ruck cost us that game. The roosters are very good no doubt, but we made them look better. They played as well as they can - we didn't. I take plenty of solace from that.....
If we can eliminate some of our silly errors, fix our right hand defence and get a fair rub from the refs we will give this comp an almighty shake.
Even if you take the ref out of it (let's be realistic, the ref is out of our control), cleaning up our handling and defence means that becomes a two point game in all likelihood and I'd back us to pull out the ridiculous play to win in that situation.
Great read, Super. Eels of old could have been behind 20-0 at half time. There's more pride in our D, especially the goal-line D.
Agree with Frank & you: errors & RHS need addressing immediately. 80% of our tries are conceded there. Two leaky RHS' facing off this week.
Also, we need to keep playing straighter, more direct, to the advantage line, with Moses & Dylan taking on the line more. We looked best then, IMO.
Our smarts & kicking game is coming on. Reed, Moses, Dylan all improving under Joey.
We're only playing at 70-75% of our potential.
Reed's kicking game deserves a special mention. He had some beauties on Saturday night.
The stats may prove me wrong but I thought Blake had been doing a decent job up to the Roosters game in defence. He'd been nice and aggressive on our line and I couldn't recall any glaringly poor defensive games. Hopefully that was a bit of a one off. Morris is arguably the form Centre in the comp (whichever one is the centre i think Josh?).
Blake has missed a few one on ones this season. Has shot in and missed his man as well, but our scramble has usually covered him. Fergo doesn't trust him so he's always turning in and leaving his man.
Michael, I'm a big fan of Waqa, too. Agree he didn't look himself in the second half. Moses & him missed more tackles than normal (14 between them from the team's 37).
RHS is a problem. But, Morris brothers caused us troubles on either side. Don't forget the first Morris try was on our LHS, off a bounced ball. He got around around Sivo, and through missed tackles by Dylan & Gutho.
Re Waqa: one of the rare moments in the game he got clean ball, with room, it led to a bust and good field position in the Roosters' red zone. Followed by some great cut out passes from Reed to Moses to Dylan to Jennings. Try. Waqa started it from next to nothing.
I have to admit I was a little unsure when we signed him because he had a reputation as being a bit unreliable. But I thought he had been getting the job done. He's defenitely got strike about him. However if what Super is saying is true about him having made a few one on one misses (I hadn't noticed until the Roosters) then it's a problem. If one of your centres is weak defensively that's the easiest way for good sides to formulate a plan to beat you. That will defenitely need to be addressed.
Yeah Michael, Expect the Raiders left - Crocker, Rapana, Whitehead - to raid regularly.
Reckon our left will send plenty their way, too. Reckon Jennings, Sivo, Dylan, or Lane, might score a try or two. Manly scored all their points on Raiders' RHS (Curtis Scott).
Curtis Scott struggles with bigger bodies. Jennings won't be a problem for him but he won't like Sivo coming at him.
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