By Joe O'Shea Parramatta have joined the Dragons in earning next week off after recording a comfortable 46-22 NRL finals win over Manly at Parramatta Stadium.
The game was effectively over at half-time, with the visitors trailing 28-0 after a woeful opening half which saw them miss 29 tackles and hand the Eels too much possession.
Manly outscored the home side four tries to three in the second stanza as Brian Smith's men took the foot off the pedal, but were never in the hunt after conceding too many points early.
The Eels started the match strongly when they capitalised on a penalty given away by Manly centre Steve Matai, who also missed the one-on-one tackle that allowed Timana Tahu to cross for the first four-pointer of the game in the eighth minute.
Rookie of the Year Tim Smith had the home side in again four minutes later when he beat the defensive line and found lock Chad Robinson steaming through to score under the posts. Luke Burt added the extras to put the Eels out by 10 points.
Manly only had themselves to blame when Mark Riddell crashed over from five metres out after repeatedly turning over the ball to the home side through silly errors.
Burt's conversion had the Eels leading by 16 points after just 18 minutes and had the home crowd in a state of pandemonium.
A blistering counter-attack from a Manly chip kick saw the Eels on the attack 20 metres out, and in the 27th minute Eric Grothe got through a thin Manly defensive line to have the scoreboard reading 22-0 with Burt's conversion.
The Sea Eagles' errors continued to hurt them, and a Brett Stewart knock-on from a high bomb gave the Eels the ball 10 metres out and handed Burt his first try of the day three minutes out from the break.
Second half
Manly made a strong start to the second half when their two most dangerous players, Ben Kennedy and Anthony Watmough, combined for a much-needed try.
Kennedy ran to the line and gave a great flick pass back to Watmough who beat two Eels defenders to register his side's first points.
But it took only five minutes for Parramatta to remind everyone why they finished minor premiers, as a slick backline movement saw Tahu race away 50 metres to score his second try and take the score to 34-4.
The Sea Eagles had several opportunities in attack, but a combination of poor execution and resilient Parramatta defence kept them from taking advantage of good field position.
It took a former Eel in the form of Michael Witt to score Manly's second try, a brilliant individual effort that saw him jink and dummy his way to the tryline. He then converted his own try to make the score 34-10 in Parramatta's favour.
But the Eels showed they were far from finished when Daniel Wagon, who replaced the injured Nathan Hindmarsh, crashed over after sustained pressure from the blue and gold's.
Kennedy was rewarded for his tireless efforts this season when he crossed for two tries in as many minutes, both times the result of neat chip kicks in behind the Eels defensive line.
At that stage the scoreline of 40-22 flattered the Sea Eagles, but a late try to Eels interchange player Adam Peek gave the home side a 24-point win.
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