Mitchell Moses was flattened and failed a head injury assessment to cap a forgettable night for Parramatta.
Gold Coast completed a clean sweep for the Queensland clubs at Magic Round with their 26-24 over the Eels on Sunday night coming on the back of wins by Brisbane, the Dolphins and North Queensland.
Moses’ head slammed into the hip of 19-year-old debutant Keano Kini and displayed category-one symptoms, which means he will be unavailable for next weekend’s clash against a resurgent Canberra.
Hopefully his halves partner Dylan Brown can build on what was an outstanding game against the Titans, which featured 200 run metres and a try assist.
“He’s fine now, but he wasn’t good [at the time],” coach Brad Arthur said.
“[As for Brown] he chased the game hard, stepped up, he ran, and that’s two weeks in a row he’s been like that. He was there trying to win the game for us.”
Mitch Moses makes an early exit from the Suncorp pitch.Credit: Getty
The Eels will wake up on Monday wondering how on earth they let that result slip.
“I just asked the team then, ‘how did we lose that because I felt like we did more than enough to win it’,” Arthur said. “I thought our effort was really good, we did more good things than bad but a couple of big moments and some system errors in defence hurt us.”
The Eels got off to the perfect start when Maika Sivo scored inside the first minute.
But skipper Clint Gutherson was sin-binned for holding back Titans flyer Alofiana Khan-Pereira after Brian Kelly had put through a grubber.
Queenslander: Gold Coast Titans completed a Queensland clubs’ cleansweep at Magic Round.Credit: Getty
The Eels skipper was stunned referee Chris Butler gave him 10 minutes on the sidelines.
The Titans made the most of the extra man on the field with former Eel Kieran Foran racing in for two tries.
“It’s a tough one, you’re both going for the ball, and it’s in the moment, you’re trying a try and they’re trying to score one; it was the ref’s decision, so we need to live with it,” Gutherson said.
Foran could have had a third when he pushed up in support of Khan-Pereira, who opted to chip and chase for himself rather than throw the ball back inside for his five-eighth.
Kieran Foran cashed in for the Titans when Parramatta were a man down.Credit: Getty
Khan-Pereira scored a sizzling 90m intercept try in the second half to take his season tally to 11. He is the short-priced favourite for rookie of the year, but Wests Tigers No. 1 Jahream Bula is sure to make a run for the honour in the second half of the year.
It was amazing Foran was on the field judging by the way he hobbled in pain just eight days earlier at his old Manly stomping ground.
“I’ve got a few bumps and bruises I manage through the week, I don’t train too much, I’m basically on ice, then try to get myself going at the back end of the week,” Foran said.
The Eels trailed 16-4 at the break, but two more tries to Sivo, and a handy four-pointer for Gutherson, had the 46,835 fans anticipating a blue and gold fightback.
The final attendance across the three days was 147,095. There were no streakers. There will be plenty of headaches on Monday morning. None as bad as the one Moses will nurse.
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