That is how the West, I mean North was won. While the Cowboys may have had the Tom Chester Model 2026 on their side, it was the steely hand of Junior Paulo and the gilded boot of Mitchell Moses that ultimately allowed the Eels to conquer the frontier in Round 10. In a wild 33-30 shootout, Parramatta somehow secured their 4th win of the season and in doing so shockingly remain within touching distance of the Top 8 – although there is much work to be done on the points differential front.

Indeed, it was a cavalcade of points across all three grades this weekend. Alas, not all of it was good. While the Jersey Flegg were able to throttle the Kaiviti Silktails on Saturday in a 50-0 shutout, the NSW Cup were absolutely swamped in possession splits against the North Sydney Bears as they succumbed to a 46-10 beat down.

As the NRL is wont to say though, the spice points must flow.

Before I start wildly mixing even more Western themes with those of Frank Herbert’s Dune I reckon it might just be time to start the Weekend Wrap.

NRL Round 10

Parramatta Eels 33 defeat the North Queensland Cowboys 30

Has a game more perfectly encapsulated the manic in-game swings of the current rule set?

Defence was optional for both sides on Friday night as tackle busts, line breaks and points ran thick and fast through the 82-minutes of play. The Eels found themselves on the ropes repeatedly throughout this game but as flimsy as their defence proved to be in the tropics of Townsville, it was outweighed by their sheer desperation – particularly in the biggest moments of the contest.

Clutch moments from the grizzled veterans of the team undoubtedly won the day. Junior’s critical effort to deflect Jake Clifford’s potential game-winning field goal reminded all who bore witness that this truly is a game of the finest margins. Mitch roared to life as fatigue levels tipped to pure exhaustion to take the game to golden point with a vintage short-side raid before booming a brilliant no-doubter game winner…contrary to some bizarrely subdued commentary on television.

While the vets had their decisive plays, Jordan Samrani emerged as the player of the match with a colossal performance at right centre. In the torrid tropical conditions, Samrani hammered out damn near 250m from knee-buckling 25 carries and practically took over the game inside the final 10-minutes. His 74th-minute try and subsequent 76th-minute try assist to Joash Papalii (with the catalytic play from Moses, of course) helped the Eels bridge a seemingly insurmountable 12-point deficit.

Right from the outset in the preseason trial, things have just seemed to happen around this rangy centre and it was no different this week. There is absolutely a magnetic quality to his play in 2026 and I am here for it.

Tallyn Da Silva provided some lethal touches out of dummy-half for the Blue & Gold as he unleashed his wicked acceleration around the ruck. He poached an early try to push the Eels back into the lead in the 21st-minute and continued to test the middle defence of the Cowboys on either side of half time. There was even a sweet little last tackle play between he and Moses that nearly yielded points.

It was arguably Da Silva’s most complete offensive showing as an Eel and gee did they need it given the nature of the game. As expected, the defensive workload as an 80-minute (well, 82-minute) dummy-half was always going to be a challenge. The 8 missed tackles will understandably induce a wince from fans but I will give him credit for continuously throwing himself at the barrage led by Jason Taumalolo in the challenging conditions.

The absence of Sam Tuivaiti has been a glaring hole in Parramatta’s bench composition for nearly a month now. Obviously his imminent (I hope!) return will be a massive boost for Jason Ryles. Full credit to Toni Mataele on Friday night though. I thought he was bloody brilliant off the bench. After a couple of weeks of a nice, gradual build in first grade, Mataele was consigned to the NSW Cup in Round 9. He went back to reggies and thoroughly dominated the Warriors and then brought that same form and energy to Round 10 in the NRL.

Toni was incredibly productive through the middle as he pounded through the North Queensland ruck for 119m from 10 carries. He was a genuine load for their defence was consistently won his battles around the ruck. We do love some glamorous offensive production in the modern game but how about the clean sheet from the young middle? 20 tackles, 0 missed, 0 ineffective. Mataele was one of only a handful of players across either side to successfully avoid registering a missed or ineffective tackle and was the only player beyond Coen Hess to do so with 20 or more tackles completed.

Have yourself a game, young man.

It was another week of some pretty horrific defensive issues for the Eels. Obviously you can allocate some of the struggles to the oppressive humidity and the ice-rink like turf conditions this week. Injuries are a legitimate factor here as well. Missing front-line personnel and the constant rotations and fractured combinations that result from it all are clearly a handicap.

Fundamentally though, there were some poor decisions made by Parramatta defenders and it is far from an isolated issue after 10 weeks of footy.I loved the hustle and resilience they showed to overcome their defensive lapses on Friday night but the sooner they can address this issue – at least somewhat – the vastly improved the team will be on a weekly basis.

It feels a bit surreal that for all our struggles and injuries that the Eels are just a controversial Easter Monday loss to the Tigers away from floating at 5-5 on the year. They can make another major push towards parity on the ladder in Round 11 if they can overcome of their bogey teams in Magic Round in the Melbourne Storm.

NSW Cup Round 10

North Sydney Bears 46 defeat the Parramatta Eels 10

The Bears buried the Eels in the second half of this game – both on the scoreboard and in possession. Obviously, those two things are pretty deeply linked and North Sydney made sure to eke out every bit of advantage that came with their 62% majority split of the ball.

You would be forgiven for thinking this game was actually close at any point but the Eels actually fought hard through the entire first half and only entered the break down 16-10. An audacious juggling, scoring effort from Teancum Brown and a sharp attacking raid down the left edge that ended with Mohamed Alameddine diving over out wide kept the Eels close to the Bears.

Parramatta were stretched incredibly thin in their back line in Round 10 with young back rower Jezaiah Funa-Iuta forced to moonlight at right centre. Readers of TCT and listeners of The Tip Sheet will know I am a massive wrap of JFI as a prospect for the Eels but the Bears did an excellent job of exploiting his unfamiliarity with the role as he accrued 8 missed tackles.

It was tough sledding for other bright, young talents too with Ryda Talagi (5 missed tackles) and Chris Petrus (10 missed tackles) also struggling in defence under the monsoonal possession splits. Teachable moments come in all shapes and sizes and the reason why I highlight some ugly numbers for these young men is that these momentary struggles are part of the journey.

I look forward to seeing how they – and the team – bounce back from this heavy loss.

Credit to the Bears as well. They came into this game as favourites given their 2nd place seeding on the ladder but they proved to be well drilled and did an excellent job of suffocating the Eels in the second half.

Jersey Flegg Cup Round 10

Parramatta Eels 50 defeat the Kaiviti Silktails 0

As the scoreboard suggests, this was ultimately a one-sided affair with the Parramatta Eels applying consistent pressure to the scoreboard with a 9-try outing that started in the 7th-minute for Cameron Bamblett and ended with Corey Leigh completing his hat-trick on the stroke of full time in the 79th-minute.

The Silktails brought some serious physicality to the game and their starting front rower in captain Gabriel Rawamila and Noah Raulini had some quality moments in the first half. However, while both teams were guilty of turning the ball over the Fijians were spotting the Eels far more favourable field position. The Blue & Gold have too much talent across the park not to cash in on those opportunities and cash in they did.

Bamblett, who returned to his customary position of fullback this week, dominated as he scored the opening points and set up plenty more scoring sequences down both side of the field. He even had a couple of try assists to Jeshua Maa-Nelson taken away that could have added even more to his impressive showing.

The halves pairing of Kade Moujalli and Ioane Lui did a really tidy job of directing the Eels around the pack and Lui in particular was sharp in his return to the team after missing the last couple of games. Young bull Steven Nunn relished the opportunity to start with a very robust performance across multiple stints on the field while Markkuz Ofanoa brought plenty of juice from the interchange for Blue & Gold.

While the Eels still find themselves in 4th at the end of Round 10 with other contenders also winning, the expansive nature of this victory lifts them to the current best points differential in the competition at +146.

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