Key posts
We are underway
Game on. A preliminary final date with North Queensland and a premiership dream awaits the victor. A case of beers and a long off-season awaits the loser.
The Parramatta Eels and the Canberra Raiders square off at a packed CommBank Stadium. How good is finals footy, folks?
Full house
It’s a packed house in Parramatta tonight folks. The finals series has had an awesome reception this year, after a couple of seasons interrupted by COVID-19 restrictions.
Supporters flocked to the stadium.Credit:Getty
Eels fans in the stands.Credit:Getty
Raiders fans made the road trip.Credit:Getty
A word from the Eighth
By Andrew Johns
How will Parramatta come up mentally after the loss to Penrith? And what of Mitchell Moses, who suffered concussion against the Panthers last week? If he cops another whack, will that be the end of his night?
They are the big questions for this match. It will be a high-scoring game with fast and open footy — but the key is who can win the front-row battle.
It’s a battle that will shake the stadium: Parramatta’s Junior Paulo and Reagan Campbell-Gillard up against the Raiders’ Josh Papalii and Joe Tapine.
Joey’s tip: Eels by 8.
First try-scorer: Dylan Brown.
Man of the match: Junior Paulo.
How Eels exit and Arthur’s hard truths eventually launched an NRL revival
Jamal Fogarty’s first NRL contract with Parramatta lasted roughly nine months before he walked away ready to shelve his first-grade aspirations for good, but he still thanks Brad Arthur for imparting one of rugby league’s great life lessons.
A footballing lifetime ago, Mitchell Moses’ arrival at Parramatta midway through 2017 was followed shortly afterwards by Fogarty’s release request given his NRL pathway was blocked and he and his family were struggling with Sydney life.
When Fogarty left the Eels at age 23, the schoolboy star figured his NRL aspirations were staying behind in blue and gold as well.
His subsequent rise as a Titans injury fill-in wearing $80 boots (all his football gear was still sitting in a removal truck) later that year, followed by three years of Queensland Cup and an eventual NRL return, is one of the game’s great success stories.
Arthur says past failings won’t affect Eels side staring down unwanted finals record
Brad Arthur insists his team has no mental scars from four week two finals exits in the past five years as another unflattering post-season record looms if Parramatta stumble again. Not since a 2009 charge to the grand final have the Eels prevailed in week two of the finals.
You’ve got to wonder how conversations will go if the Eels bow out again tonight.
A couple of minor changes to the teams tonight. Corey Horsburgh starts at lock for Canberra and Corey Harawira-Naera moves to the bench. Parramatta have also made a change at lock, with Marata Niukore to start with Ryan Matterson shuffling to the bench.
A big week for the Stuart family
Six days ago, Ricky Stuart was preparing the Raiders for a sudden-death final in Melbourne – but he still had one eye on Canberra. His son Jackson Stuart helped the Queanbeyan Whites – Ricky’s old club – to their first John I Dent Cup triumph since 2010. A win tonight would continue a massive week for the family.
How the Milk got through to week two
Moses desperate to improve unflattering finals record
Tapine on top: Lord of the Rings trail runs and contract call of world’s No.1 prop
The battle of the forwards doesn’t get much better than this.
Joe Tapine and Josh Papalii versus Junior Paulo and Reagan Campbell-Gillard. Tapine has a childhood spent running hills that doubled as backdrops to the Lord of the Rings trilogy to thank for the career-best form and the motor that has several NRL rivals set to pursue the Canberra prop.
Along the way Tapine has been awarded the Mal Meninga Medal and billing as the world’s No.1 prop, prompting “half-a-dozen clubs” to register their interest should Tapine go to market from November 1.
Tapine too has heard the talk and concedes that, for a teen signed out of Wellington on a bargain deal by the late Peter Mulholland, one of the biggest decisions of his career looms.
