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Eels smash Dogs, showing the season that might have been

Semi Radradra is off to France. Bon voyage! (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)
Roar Guru
29th April, 2016
15

Although Parramatta and Canterbury-Bankstown enjoy a traditional rivalry, their clashes have felt more pointed and personal than normal in 2016.

After finishing fifth on the NRL ladder in 2015, the Dogs have made a concerted effort to break into the top 4.

After finishing 12th, the Eels have made a similar effort to break into the top 8, although the rise of Semi Radradra and the arrival of Michael Jennings and Kieran Foran has propelled them higher than anybody could have hoped.

Canterbury-Bankstown’s reconfiguration in 2016 has also improved more successful than anybody could have predicted, with Moses Mbye quickly graduating into a worthy halves partner for Josh Reynolds and Will Hopoate doing wonders at fullback.

Both teams must sense that this is their moment to shine, especially since both teams have managed to strike a better balance between veterans and young guns – and old hats and newer acquisitions – than virtually any other outfit in the competition.

In the last couple of weeks, however, Parra’s dreams have been put on hold in quite a brutal fashion.

Not only were they forced to contemplating having competition points docked in the wake of their magnificent victory over the Raiders in Round 6 and their almost equally impressive victory at Brookvale in Round 7, but the recent departure of Kieran Foran has left the team with a bit of an identity crisis.

After all, Foran symbolised the new and improved Pirtek outfit. While he has been quieter at Parra than at Manly, his calm, steely demeanour has lent a new kind of resilience to the Blue and Gold.

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As if that weren’t enough, the woes continued into last night’s match at ANZ Stadium, with Tim Mannah off in the first twenty minutes, Michael Gordon off at half time and Nathan Peats putting in a fairly muted game after copping a hit to the sternum.

When they faced up against the Dogs in Round 3, it genuinely felt as if the finals were – distantly – at stake.

At this stage, however, it is going to take a minor miracle for the Eels to reach those last few weeks.

Last night, then, they were fighting for pride, fighting to prove that they still held the keys to Western Sydney despite their standing in the actual competition.

The result was arguably their greatest victory of the year so far.

There’s winning when you’re at the top of the ladder, there’s winning when you’re at the bottom of the ladder and then there’s winning when you’re about to be shunted from the top of the ladder to the bottom of the ladder.

Seeing the Eels grind it out against the Dogs was like seeing the club take a deep breath and plunge into their footy despite whatever the future might hold.

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Given how much the team had been reconfigured – Brad Takairangi replacing Foran in the halves, Beau Scott replacing Tepai Moeroa in the middle – it felt as if Parra were fighting for unity all night.

That they managed to achieve it without being able to depend on their fullback, their halfback or either of their club captains was a tribute to the renewed Parra culture under Brad Arthur.

It didn’t hurt either that Takairangi put in a terrific performance, with the former centre scoring the first try of the night as well as putting in a nice cross-field kick to Vai Toutai for the last four points as well.

Still, the Dogs put up a fierce battle.

By the end it felt like a throwback to the great Bulldogs-Eels grudge matches of the 80s, especially in the wake of 80s Week at Leichhardt Oval a fortnight ago.

Nevertheless, while the Dogs can regroup from here, the Eels are going to face more of an uphill battle.

Even if they sink down the ladder, they can’t afford to play like a cellar-dwelling team.

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After years of disappointments and frustrations, they’ve finally got a winning team, as well as arguably the best winger in the competition.

The challenge now is to play like a winning team even if they end up having no chance of winning.

For any other outfit, that might be a pretty demoralising and demotivating prospect.

But the Blue and Gold have reserves of strength that other footy clubs can only dream about. Let’s hope that they draw on it in the coming rounds to impress us all with the winning season that could have been.

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