Parramatta face their toughest test yet against the red-hot Roosters

Enjoying their best start to a season since their most recent premiership year in 1986, the Parramatta Eels will face their toughest test of the year when they confront reigning premiers the Sydney Roosters at Bankwest Stadium this Saturday night.

After five rounds, the Eels are unbeaten at 5-0 for the first time in 34 years, while the Roosters have won their past three matches since the season resumption after losing their first two matches on the other side of the shutdown.

It is a clash of the league’s best two defences, with the Eels having only conceded 40 points at an average of eight per game, and the Roosters 47 (9.4 average).

In attack, the Roosters have scored 151 points at an average of 30.2 per game, while the Eels are equal with the Cowboys in second with 123 points scored at an average of 24.6.

Last week, the blue-and-golds came from 10-0 down at halftime, scoring three tries within a ten-minute period in the second half to overhaul the Penrith Panthers 16-10, while the Roosters ran riot against the Bulldogs, scoring a 42-6 win at Bankwest Stadium.

Against the Bulldogs, James Tedesco proved just why he is the game’s best player at the moment, scoring three tries and setting up two others as the Chooks continued on their attacking rampage, having now scored 101 points in their past two matches.

(Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

That followed on from their 59-0 demolition of the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium, in which they became the first team to keep the Broncos to a duck egg at what was previously a graveyard for the men from Bondi Junction.

This has put the Roosters’ bid for a three-peat back on track, and it would be poetic if they end up facing the Eels in this year’s grand final, as the westerners were the last team to win three consecutive premierships, way back in 1981-83.

While no team has completed a premiership hat trick since then, the recently retired Cooper Cronk managed to do it on his own, winning a premiership medallion in his final game for the Storm in 2017 before guiding the Chooks to the past two titles, one of them with a broken shoulder.

The modern-day Eels still have a long way to go before they can match their heroes from over 30 years ago. Since then, they have lost two grand finals (in 2001 and 2009) and claimed three wooden spoons in the past decade (2012, 2013 and 2018).

Most notably, the Eels were hot favourites against the Newcastle Knights going into the 2001 decider, only to be on the receiving end of an Andrew Johns masterclass in the first night grand final to be played in Sydney.

And in 2009, they rose from as low as third-last halfway through the season to finish in eighth place, before making it as far as the grand final where they fell to a Melbourne Storm side that was later found to have cheated the salary cap.

To the present now, and prior to their win over the Panthers, they had also beaten the Broncos 34-6 at Suncorp Stadium while they also escaped with a 19-16 win over the Sea Eagles after the visitors were pinged for a forward pass at the death in Round 4.

Halfback Mitchell Moses is currently in career-best form, and he along with James Tedesco and Boyd Cordner would just about be the first three players NSW coach Brad Fittler selects as the Blues plot a third consecutive series victory over Queensland this November.

(AAP Image/Dean Lewins)

The clash has already been touted as a potential grand final preview, with the Roosters having won their past three matches by a combined total of 129-18 since the season resumed on May 28, and the Eels enjoying their best start to a season this millennium.

But while the Eels may feel right at home at Bankwest Stadium, it will actually be a Sydney Roosters home game, with the Chooks currently playing their home games at the venue while they await clearance to once again resume playing at the SCG from Round 10 onwards.

On that note, the Roosters will be permitted to invite club members to attend the match, while the Eels will not. This also means the Eels will be forced to use the visitors’ change rooms, which is nothing new to them.

Still, this will be the Eels’ third match in a string of five straight matches at their Western Sydney home, after which they will face last year’s beaten grand finalists, the Canberra Raiders, in another test as to where they are at.

For the Roosters, this is the second match in a string of three straight at the venue, after which they will face consecutive road trips against the Melbourne Storm and North Queensland Cowboys in Rounds 8 and 9 respectively.

Recent history favours the Chooks, who have won their past three against the westerners, including the past two at ANZ Stadium, which the Eels used as a temporary home ground while they awaited the completion of the construction of Bankwest Stadium.

However, the Eels won their most recent meeting at their true home, winning 22-18 at the since-demolished Pirtek Stadium in 2016. And while the Roosters haven’t beaten the Eels at Parramatta since 2013, they have won all three matches at Bankwest Stadium so far.

While the Chooks may be in red-hot form, a win for the Eels in front of what could only be a small number of Roosters supporters who will be seated in the corporate boxes would definitely prove their worth as genuine premiership contenders in 2020.