THIS is the thing you might want to take into account about Parramatta starting off their season with successive defeats. When Jarryd Hayne crashed to the turf in the 16th minute of last night's match, one of the first blokes to comfort him in the dressing rooms was his good mate Ben Smith.
Smith was also missing last night after suffering a pectoral injury in that rotten trial match loss to the Panthers a few weeks backs, when Hayne initially injured his knee.
And standing there talking to him after the game, it reminds you that inspirational skipper Nathan Hindmarsh was also missing after succumbing to a virus on game day.
This kind of luck destroys the confidence of struggling footy teams.
Yet last night the Eels still pushed last year's grand finalists for 70 minutes in another Monday night thriller - and for that alone they deserve some credit.
In the end they were struck down by two late runaway tries, but for most of the match they made it one hell of a fight.
Don't worry, the Warriors will be a force again this year but those wanting to write off the Eels as wooden-spoon certainties might want to think again.
Former Bulldog Ben Roberts looked terrific with the ball, and Chris Sandow played like he was in a world heavyweight title fight.
So what if the Eels paid top dollar to pinch him from Souths, on impact alone he's worth paying your way through the gate.
Sandow finished with two tries and if you didn't see his crunching shoulder charge on young Kiwi giant Konrad Hurrell, do yourself a favour and find it on YouTube.
Sandow is 80kg wringing wet, young Hurrell is the bloke Scott Sattler has labelled the new Sonny Bill, a 101kg mountain of muscle.
Yet Sandow sent him sprawling.
It's understandable Steve Kearney spoke with pride after the loss. Often it is the coach's job to find positives when it seems everyone else wants to burn the house down.
Kearney made a huge call when he dropped veteran winger Luke Burt to reserve grade. Some fans wanted his blood, but for all the sentimentality, at some point you have to build a future. And young wingers Ken Sio and Cheyse Blair are a part of it.
Blair is a two-time Australian schoolboy with a stack of ability, while Sio never made the junior rep teams but fought his way into grade by tearing the Bundy Cup to pieces. He earned his shot at the big league through hard work and did a fair job filling in for Hayne at fullback.When Kearney arrived at the Eels the club was a rabble, at least now hope is starting to emerge.
Which perhaps best sums up the thoughts of Smith when he emerged from the rooms last night.
"Jarryd was pretty upbeat about it all in there," Smith said.
"As a fan you could hear the whole stadium saying, 'Oh, no'.
"But I thought the boys went all right tonight, didn't you?
"They made some opportunities, scored some points. Everyone jumped to conclusions too early last week saying we were dribble."
