A spirited Parramatta have handed outgoing coach Stephen Kearney the best farewell present he could have hoped for with an upset 16-10 NRL win over Melbourne at Parramatta Stadium.
In Kearney’s final game as Eels coach after he stepped down from the role midweek, the last placed Eels’ enthusiasm was too much for the Storm who had led the competition coming into round 20.
However the three tries to two win was soured by another injury to fullback Jarryd Hayne, who was a late inclusion in the Eels side before being driven off in a medicab in the 73rd minute with a leg injury after falling awkwardly in a tackle.
Parramatta led 10-0 after 22 minutes in a strong opening period but, after that, the errors and ill discipline that have been a part of their play for much of the season began to creep back in and the Storm kept within reach throughout the game.
Hayne had a hand in both of the Eels’ first-half tries, throwing the last pass for Ken Sio’s eighth-minute four-pointer and grubbering through for Ben Smith’s benefit-of-the-doubt touchdown in the 21st minute which was converted by veteran Luke Burt.
Despite enjoying the better of field position, an out-of-sorts Melbourne didn’t cross until the final minute of the first half when five-eighth Rory Kostjasyn reached out to score and captain Cameron Smith converted for the halftime score of 10-6.
With rumours of Ricky Stuart’s signing as new Eels coach sweeping through the Parramatta Stadium crowd, the second half was a dour affair until Parramatta captain Nathan Hindmarsh deservedly crashed over from a Chris Sandow offload in the 71st minute.
Burt converted for Parramatta to lead 16-6.
Ryan Hoffman scored for the Storm with two minutes left for the fulltime score of 16-10.
The win, just Parramatta’s fourth this year, lifted Kearney’s record with the Eels over his two seasons at the club to 10 wins from 42 games.
The freak
Guest
The refs gave the Storm every chance to get back in the game...
Gremlin
Guest
Kearny's inability to coach the players he had rather than trying to turn them into to the Storm was always going to be the death of him. Having said that, shurely aggression and commitment in defence like last nightsgame would have given the coach a bit more breatging room and the large amount of younger players time to develop. Without reserve grade, it takesmost players about two years to adapt to NRL from NYC. And yes Kearny's retention and recruitment decisions were to blame for the youth heavy team. Which is why its such abig risk for any club to change head coach, they each have thier own ideas on which juniors to keep and move on, its almost like starting from scratch. Anyway, I'v change topic, Kearny must be wondering where has that effort been for the last 18 months.
julie scott
Guest
AWESOME!!!
Meesta Cool
Guest
Storm were terrible last night, losses against Raiders and Eels will guarentee that I get better odds on teir premiership.. lol -- I think the team swapped attitudes before the game.. they have been poor in defence, with no iea in attack and very few attacking moves... I saw this happen to St George last year after SOO... -- hope he hangover gets fixed quickly....
steve b
Roar Guru
It was good to see hindy with as smile on his face ,they tell me you could here the roar at Parra central when hindy went over for his try, one game dosen't take back the disappointment of the season but it sure put smiles on every Parra fan , and where has that defence beem all year ,, it just goes to show that passion and wanting to succeed for the man beside you can create a winning team. L ets just hope sticky can keep that going next year...