They’ve played in four consecutive grand finals, won three premierships in a row and are favourites to win it all again this year.
But the Panthers have not beaten Parramatta in a regular season game since 2021. Last season the Eels were the only team to beat Penrith twice.
The results included a
shock 32-18 win in round 26 despite missing halfback Mitchell Moses, and an earlier
golden-point victory.
As the two teams prepare to play on Friday night, we break down the tactics and talk to key players to see if Parramatta can keep their streak going in 2024.
Passing parade
The Panthers shouldn’t have such a dismal record against Parramatta. The three-time premiers often had a higher completion rate and a faster play-the-ball in their past four regular season games, but Eels’ forward Joe Ofahengaue said offloads had become a crucial tool in winning.
“You’ve got to look at the skill set that Parramatta has. Every forward has an offload, we’ve got some of the best halves [Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown] and one of the best fullbacks [Clint Gutherson] in the game, so for us middles we’ve just got to lay a great platform for them, and they’ll take over the game,” he said.
“That’s the difference, the platform that the forwards lay here, focus on just doing your own job rather than anything else.”
With one of the biggest forward packs in the game this year, Ryan Matterson said Parramatta were so successful against Penrith because they played to their strengths.
“Teams like to try and go around Penrith and make it pretty, and I don’t think that’s the way to do it,” he said. “I think you’ve got to go toe-to-toe with them and beat them at their own game, which is a power game, and I think we’ve done that the last couple of times.”
Left is right
Out of 18 tries scored against Penrith in the past four regular-season wins, half of them came from Parramatta’s left edge.
A third of those were scored by Maika Sivo, but the winger will sit out of Friday’s clash after being suspended for a
high tackle on AJ Brimson in the pre-season.
Bailey Simonsson has slipped onto the left wing in Sivo’s absence, and said the focus wasn’t so much on targeting the corner, but rather running plays designed to outnumber Penrith’s defence on a particular side of the field.
“If you look at most teams, most teams wingers score, it’s just on the back of the shape, they’re the last men there, and we’re the ones finishing it off,” he said.
“It’s not a target area for us, we just want to get to our spots and play our shape, and if you strip teams your winger is probably going to be the one that scores nine times out of 10.”
Parramatta were “clinical” in their last win against Penrith, according to Moses, who said the battle of the west brings out the best in both teams.
“No matter where the teams are coming on the ladder, any time you come up against Penrith, they’re probably thinking the same as well, it’s always a physical game, it’s always a tough game,” Moses said.
“We just need to come with our best, we need to start fast and match it with their pack. They got a big pack and we do too. So if we can match it there and get started fast we’ll see how we go.”
Penrith skipper Nathan Cleary is aware of Parramatta’s record against his team, and after a
round one loss to Melbourne last week, said Penrith were at risk of extending that unwanted record if they didn’t clean up their game.
“It is weird how it’s turned out, they have had our number in the regular season, but we seem to win those finals games against them,” he said.
“I don’t know [why], we’ve just got to play well, we’ve got to focus on ourselves [and] what we did poorly last week, turn that around because if we play the way we did last week, they’ll beat us again, so it’s just about improving.”
Eels coach Brad Arthur knows Penrith will be tough playing at home on Friday night but said there were lessons to take from Melbourne’s win over the reigning premiers.“I thought Melbourne were really desperate in defence. They scrambled really well...Penrith probably had a couple of opportunities that they would have nailed in the past, and it’s just a one-off game for them.
According to Cleary, the game will be won through the middle.
“You look at their team, and they’ve [Eels] got strike all across the park, and they’ve got star players pretty much everywhere,” he said. “I think it is a very evenly matched game, and through every sort of position.”
“I think it’s meant to be pretty wet on Friday, so it might be one of those games that’s won through the middle, but you never really know until the game starts. We’ll have a few game plans in place, but a lot of the times it’s just sort of feeling how it’s going and then adjusting off that.”
The Eels have won the past four regular season matches against the Panthers. What makes them so hard to beat?
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WCC and Round 1
