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Opinion
It was wet and wild, but the Parramatta Eels have stamped their claims as a genuine contender in 2021 with a gutsy victory over defending premiers the Melbourne Storm to open Round 2 on Thursday night.
When Maika Sivo somehow managed to grab a long-range bomb out of the air and run away to score, it just about summed up Parramatta’s performance in one motion. They simply never turned over, never made a bad decision and even when it all lined up against them, kept working to fight through.
It was a far cry from the Eels we have known in tough situations over the past couple of years.
The Round 2 opener would have been giving Parramatta fans nightmares coming into it.
A wet night, early in the season against Craig Bellamy’s Storm. It’s a game that they, and a vast majority of other teams, whether at the top or bottom end of the ladder, would have rolled over in and been beaten badly.
Parramatta couldn’t even argue that isn’t the case, having been rolled plenty by Melbourne in the past few years, including a 36-24 loss in Week 1 of the finals last year and a 64-10 loss during Magic Round in 2019.
Focusing on that finals loss last year though, and the obvious difference from that match to the one where Parramatta came away with two competition points last night was the attitude and grit with which they played through the 80 minutes.
Instead of going for Hail Mary plays and looking for any and all opportunities to throw the footy around, they made a conscious decision to play a more conservative style of footy.
Sure, it was Bankwest Stadium, but deciding their forwards could match it with Melbourne’s and going into the match with that sort of attitude on a night where puddles were forming even at a ground where drainage is excellent shows the attitude and confidence Brad Arthur has managed to build in his side during the off-season.
And sure, it wasn’t pretty, nor was it dominant, but the Eels won, and they won looking like a team who can match it with the top sides through the middle third. That, at the end of the day, is all that counts.
Particularly with the new rules, the battle of the middle third is the biggest one on the park this season. Metre gainage, territory and possession. That is what the new NRL is all about, and the Eels matched it with one of the best.
Melbourne may point to the fact they are only two games removed from the Cameron Smith era and are still missing Harry Grant – and yes it should certainly be pointed out when discussing the plight of the Storm – it shouldn’t matter a great deal for the men in blue and gold.
The Storm are still a fearsome team to face at the worst of times, and the conditions suited the men in purple down to the ground last night.
The fact the Eels got into the battle, hung around in a low-scoring, tight game at six-all for a long time, didn’t make rash decisions and waited for their opportunities speaks volumes about the team.
Not only the work of Brad Arthur either, but the ever-growing maturity of Mitchell Moses and Clint Gutherson as leaders, while Reed Mahoney in the middle third seems to have gone to another level.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Alongside Moses, Dylan Brown seems to be playing a lot less sideways footy, which only helps the directness of their excellent forward pack, and in turn the time and space Moses has to run the kicking game.
His start to the season, particularly defensively, has been phenomenal. Statistics are one thing, but the difference he is making through turning up for every tackle, through making them soundly and allowing his teammates to get set for the next play is working wonders for Parramatta.
But maybe the biggest change in their style of play last night was the way in which they reduced offloads, didn’t throw silly passes and held their kicking game to exceptionally high standards for the most part. Ball control was absolutely everything, and the blue and gold completed 37 of 42 sets, which is absolutely phenomenal in those conditions.
Junior Paulo and Nathan Brown have gone to another level too, with Paulo bursting onto a ball to score the second try last night.
None of this is to say the Storm were poor either, and a trip back down to Earth after blitzing the Rabbitohs in the first 20 minutes last week may have been exactly what they needed. They have plenty to work on without their former skipper, but are still right in the hunt to be competitive.
This really had to be the year for the Eels. They have been banging on the door for a few, and while most expected them to be in the second bracket of teams, those calculations may have to be rapidly changed after last night.
The questions surrounding their ability to play away from Bankwest Stadium still stand and won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, but the attitude they showed last night was the best an Eels team has shown since their great turnaround from the bottom of the table.
This is a club who have the ability to go places, and now, just might have the temperament alongside it.