Gus Gould often says there is only one thing harder than winning a game.
It’s winning it twice.
In Round 1, 2021, Parramatta came back from 16–0 down at halftime to beat Brisbane 24–16 at Suncorp.
Five years later, in Round 2 on Thursday night, it happened again. Only this time it was harder. Much harder.
Down 20–6, Parramatta stormed back to win 40–32 in a match you had to watch to believe.
Perhaps it wasn't surprising last night's Broncos vs Eels was the most searched topic on google, with the coverage attracting over 2.7 million viewers across Nine and Fox according to nrl.com.
But the difference is the Broncos of 2021 were a club rebuilding after their wooden spoon in 2020. If you punched them in the nose, they often wobbled. We also were regular finalists from 2019 back then. This Broncos side is very different. Defending premiers. Two grand final appearances in the past three seasons. One of the game's most dangerous attacking arsenals.
And half-way through the first-half they looked every inch the defending premiers.
Image: Walsh gets the Broncos off to a flyer | Getty.
The Broncos Blitz
At 20–6, in the twenty-fifth minute, Brisbane were in complete control. The scoreboard didn’t reflect how dominant they were.
Reece Walsh sliced through the middle in a manner fitting of his 2025 grand final heroics. For fun. Toying with us. Payne Haas strolled through our left edge like it was butter. The Broncos’ kicking game was lethal, and repeatedly caught our fullback out of position.
Image: Haas strolls through | Getty.
The stats didn’t lie. Field position. Momentum.
70% possession.
Perfect sets. 17 from 17 to our 7 from 9.
The tackle count told the real story.
129 to 64.
Parramatta weren’t just losing. They were barely surviving.
Even the restarts were already 4–0 against us. It felt eerily similar to last week's 52–4 mauling by Melbourne. Fatigue was setting in. The floodgates looked ready to open.
Any minute now.
And then the game flips on its head
Three tries in five minutes. Suddenly Brisbane’s dominance meant nothing. By halftime Parramatta had turned 20–6 into 22–20.
At first it looked chaotic. Opportunistic. Even lucky. But Andrew Johns noticed something. Parramatta weren’t just throwing the ball around Hail Mary style. They were running structured shapes, isolating Brisbane’s left edge with decoys, inside lines and outside runners appearing where defenders didn’t expect them. It was smart.
“Well coached,” Johns concluded.
And it worked. The Broncos’ left edge had been vulnerable last season, conceding the fourth-most tries in the competition. Parramatta found it again.
Surprise, Surprise, Momentum Swings Again
Two minutes into the second half, Iongi crossed on that same Broncos left edge. Parramatta extend the lead to 26–20.
But the pendulum swung yet again.
Brisbane hit back to level the scores at 26–26.
Then, at the 60-minute mark, Reece Walsh produced another moment of brilliance.
The Broncos surged ahead once more. 32–28.
Brisbane sensed blood. They had the momentum again. Eels fans could be forgiven for thinking the same thing. At least we put up a fight. The old Parramatta might have folded there. Many teams would have.
Bookies had tipped Brisbane to win this game comfortably. It was the most favored result of the entire round. A fait accompli. They had too much firepower. Especially, after last week’s humiliation where our fan base had spent the week in meltdown. Sack the recruitment team. Move Pezet on. Jason Ryles was Stephen Kearney 2.0.
The noise was loud. And about to go nuclear.
But Parramatta had other ideas.
The Second Comeback
They didn’t panic.
They did the boring things.
No miracle passes. No desperate offloads. No coast-to-coast going nowhere. Completed sets. Kicked long. Chased hard. Tackled hard. Just football. Mitchell Moses’ kicking game, well below its usual standard the week before, become the backbone.
66m kicked in the first half last week, became over 600m this week.
Instead of forcing errors, the Eels forced Brisbane to work from deep in their own half.
The Broncos pressed. We held. Eventually they cracked. Their errors increased. 12–5. Penalties mounted in our favour. 8–3. And when they made their mistakes, we pounced however they could.
It wasn’t always pretty. A few ugly Pezet kicks. But it worked. Almost everything we failed to do the previous week, we did this time. The middle was better. Ryley Smith was better. So was Tallyn Da Silva. Dylan Walker was a colossus. Kelma Tuilagi had the game of his career. Isaiah Iongi, class as usual. There was urgency.
We played for each other this week.
Our defence still needs work, we're not all there yet, but the most impressive part wasn’t the scoreboard.
It was between the ears.
We came back off the canvas from last week's massacre, down and out for the count. And then we came back to win the game. Twice. The real question is: Is this the real Eels?
Table: Comparing 2021 vs 2026 comebacks
Footnote: All Stats used in this article are from nrl.com unless noted otherwise.
Replies
The key to Parra isn't there stars it's there workers.If we can get consistency from them we'll be in every contest as then Moses can play off the back of it.It's not rely on Moses Iongi or whomever to pull a rabbit out of the hat.We fight and show grit in the little areas of the game as above we'll be competitive.
32 points is ugly after 52 last week so I guess this resurgence in improvement has to start somewhere I'd suggest there.Dragons this week and the best team in the comp next week I'd suggest the hill gets no easier to climb.