At the beginning of the 2020 NRL season, a lot of people rated the Parramatta Eels as premiership favourites.
They started the season in tremendous form, winning their opening five games of the season either side of the competition’s suspension to sit in first place after nine rounds with only one loss.
Even though they had some lucky escapes, such as victories against Manly, Penrith and Canberra, they still dominated most of their matches.
In the past few weeks, they have suffered a dip in form, losing against the struggling Dragons, unconvincingly beating a severely under-strength Melbourne and getting thrashed 38-0 by South Sydney.
This run of poor form has led many to write off the Eels as pretenders, but things aren’t as grim as they appear.
Plenty of teams experiencing a poor end to the regular season are able to turn it around come finals time.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
It’s often said that a team needs to have a loss to get their minds back on the job as they hunt for the premiership and has been shown by a number of teams in recent seasons.
In 2015, North Queensland lost three of their final five games of the regular season after winning 11 straight earlier in the year.
Even though they were defeated by Brisbane in their opening qualifying final, they were still able to turn it around and win their maiden premiership a few weeks later.
Even in 2017, they lost five of their last six regular season matches before they made the grand final.
In 2014, Canterbury lost six of their last eight regular season games to fall from third to seventh before they qualified for the grand final, where they ultimately lost to South Sydney.
Cronulla’s premiership win in 2016 is the example that Parramatta fans can look to most for solace. The Sharks beat all comers during the early parts of that season, winning a club-record 15 straight games, before drawing with Gold Coast.
From there, they lost four of their final five games, including a 26-6 loss against the Storm in Melbourne in the minor premiership play-off to finish third.
They were largely written off by experts and punters alike, but they turned it around to upset the Raiders in Canberra, smash the Cowboys in Sydney before they reversed the result against the Storm in the grand final.
Parramatta might be out of form at the moment, but they’ve put themselves in a position where they can still be a threat in the finals and claim a drought-breaking premiership.
They have an excellent roster, a good coach and now know what to expect from finals footy. To write them off this far out from the finals is nothing short of foolish.
Big Mig
Roar Rookie
FT - I agree with you on Wighton and the Raiders, they are the underdogs and that's were Sticky wants to be to get the best out of his side. tough though if they don't make the top 4.
Big Mig
Roar Rookie
With Parra if Moses and Gutho are off their game, then the team has very little creativity and spark in attack. Parra fans have to hope that these two keep fit and focussed to have a chance of winning.
Parasite
Roar Rookie
I'm prepared to say it now, if the eels can't get over the Warriors today, they'll be out in straight sets. I'd like to see the Warriors come good eventually but my team has been as garbage as they have been and then some so sorry to the cuzzies, not this year :rugby:
Greg
Roar Pro
no its not
Harry Selassie
Roar Rookie
I don't think a comprehensive win is necessary but this match against the Warriors should tell us a lot about the Eels ability to rebound from adversity.
Paul
Roar Guru
This is the part of the season where teams need to be very strong mentally. It's clear Parra have the squad to play some seriously good footy, otherwise they wouldn't have won 12 games and be sitting third on the ladder. Brad Arthur and the players with great mental strength in his squad, need to make sure the rest of the guys are playing with the right attitude and commitment. They can still win games in the minor rounds without it, but come the finals, they'll get creamed if they don't turn up mentally ready to play high pressure footy. The Broncos showed what can happen with a poor attitude in last year's finals.
Parasite
Roar Rookie
Well it isn't another spoon year so far unless we get busted again so no complaints here. When you follow a team like the eels, you sorta get used to mediocrity and learn to enjoy the few wins you get each year. Happy I seen them win 4 GF's tho, I probably won't see them win another 1 but it's all part of following sport.
Eelsalmighty
Roar Rookie
On the plus side: There's a lot of talent within the playing group, and we've seen that they can play well as a team during the first half of the season. Their defence has been very solid for most of the 80 min, in most games to date. Obviously not last week against the Bunnies, and there's still been a few too many short lapses during games that allowed some soft tries. That said, overall I think they've been very solid in defence for the majority of the season to date. We're not carrying too many injuries, other than Brown which is a big blow, and we've got reasonable depth at least. Overall, I think there's a lot more points in this team than we've seen to date, especially for the past 5,6,7 weeks, and I suspect/hope/summise that their lack of scoring is draining their confidence, and maybe (maybe) that lack of confidence/frustration lead to the very poor show last week. I'm hoping (hoping) we can get some of those very close but missed attacking plays to pay off over the next few weeks, which should (should) boost their confidence again (hopefully) and we go into the finals with our energy back. I think it's fair to say I'm not holding my breath for a premiership this year, but I'm still hoping for it, and at the very least we've done enough to date to give ourselves a chance.
Chris
Roar Pro
It only takes a few weeks for a team to find form and go from pretenders to contenders. Souths went from scraping wins against St George and the Cowboys to recording 40 point-ish wins over Manly and Parra. They looked very competitive last night as well against the Storm. But maybe they want the underdog tag. It looks like all the attention will be on Penrith, Melb, Canberra and the Chooks come finals. They might fly under the radar anyway due to current form. In my view, this Parra will be in different shape come finals.
mushi
Roar Guru
Not sure comparing them to lightning in a bottle grand final losers is great. Especially given where those clubs sit now suggests it was false hope. As for the two winners both the sharks and boys had decent FA differentials. Which, if parra limp to the finish, will not be the case for the eels.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
No, it's September, the time we right them off every year
Tony
Roar Guru
Lachlan, thousands of Eels supporters are praying that you are right, although anything but a comprehensive victory over the Warriors this weekend will most likely see their prayers go unanswered.
Duncan Smith
Roar Guru
They smashed the Storm 14-0. Parra will win the comp easily.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
Playing poorly for a while and being written off can release the pressure valve and help a team like the Eels coming in to the finals. After their long drought they need some kind of help to cope with the expectations coming in to the big games. Any team which gets it's defence in peak order and is relatively healthy and makes the top 4 is a shot at the title. The Storm and Chooks are down on strike players who can win the big games for their club like Mitchell and Slater and it has bought them back to the pack to an extent which I believe is being overlooked. I realise the counter argument is that they have plenty of strike still but you can't duplicate Mitchells ability to score when there was nothing on. It's the rarest trait in the game. I wouldn't be shocked if Wighton leads the Raiders to the crown.