It’s the favourite weekend of every footy fan with a leave pass: Magic Round. Or as it is better known, Schoolies for Dads. While every footy Instagram personality you know is pushing their multis from the Caxton Hotel this week, the Blue and Gold army are largely wishing it would all be over. Can Parramatta improve its miserable 1-5 record at the festival of footy? The only thing in the way is an out of sorts Melbourne Storm.
The Storm have feasted on Eel at Magic Round to the tune of a lot to not many in two prior contests, but this isn’t your dad’s Melbourne Storm. This is more like your dad on the third night of Dad Schoolies, a shell of himself who just wants a warm bed and a bucket of chicken to ease all the pain but instead finds himself with a XXXX in hand going down like nails, begging to be put out of his misery and packed into the middle seat of a late night flight home. Not speaking from experience at all there.
Can the Eels put the Storm out of their misery at Magic Round? It’ll take some doing, but there is certainly a path. Let’s dig into the preview!
Game Info
Date: Saturday, 16 May, 2026
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Kick-off: 7:45PM AEST
Referee: Peter Gough
Bunker: Chris Butler
Weather: Mild, wet
Broadcast: Fox League, Kayo
Sixties Speculates (All odds quoted are NSW Tab)
I hope you all got onto last week’s tip of over 61.5 total match points. Some missed conversions delayed reaching that mark but how sweet was the victory!
For mine, this week is much simpler.
Though it means nominating the Eels to win, the odds of $3.15 in the head to head market are quite attractive. Yes, Parra has a poor record against the Storm, both overall and especially those results in the opening rounds of the last two seasons. And Magic Round has never been kind.
But this Storm team remains vulnerable in 2026. The Eels need high completions and the ref remains a major concern. But maybe he’s due to have a better game?
Keep the punting fun by making it responsible. Go you mighty Eels.
Sixties
Teams
Parramatta Eels
1. Joash Papalii 2. Brian Kelly 3. Jordan Samrani 4. Sean Russell 5. Josh Addo-Carr 6. Ronald Volkman 7. Mitchell Moses 8. Luca Moretti 9. Tallyn Da Silva 10. Junior Paulo 11. Kelma Tuilagi 12. Jack Williams 13. Jack de Belin. 14. Dylan Walker 15. Saxon Pryke 16. Toni Mataele 17. Charlie Guymer 18. Apa Twidle 19. Teancum Brown. 20. Harrison Edwards 21. Araz Nanva 22. Jonah Pezet.
Is this right? No changes to the side? Is the Titanic out of deckchairs? Jason Ryles has the luxury of naming an unchanged lineup for this contest, and that continuity will surely bring about some defensive improvements. There is still some scope for late changes: mid-season arrival Harrison Edwards finds himself in the reserves, but it is looking likely the Eels will run out with the same side that beat the Cowboys last weekend.
Melbourne Storm
1. Sua Faalogo 2. Will Warbrick 3. Jack Howarth 4. Nick Meaney 5. Moses Leo 6. Cameron Munster 7. Jahrome Hughes 8. Stefano Utoikamanu 9. Harry Grant 10. Josh King 11. Shawn Blore 12. Ativalu Lisati 13. Trent Loiero. 14. Trent Toelau 15. Cooper Clarke 16. Davvy Moale 17. Joe Chan. 18. Stanley Huen 19. Preston Conn. 20. Josiah Pahulu.
Sua Faalogo is the surprise in for the Storm, apparently coming out of last week’s contest not with a concussion (and thus a mandatory stand down) but a sore face. Scans have cleared him of any lasting damage so he takes his place at the back. Moses Leo earns a recall thanks to the injury to Hugo Peel, and will immediately become a target for the Parramatta attack. There’s a bit of shuffling on the extended bench with names familiar only to deep Storm fans, and former potential future Eel and Zac Lomax trade chip Josiah Pahulu will show the Eels what they missed out on in declining that exchange from a spot on the extended reserves.
Fortunes Faded
Junior had one of his best performances of the year coming from the bench last week
The Storm may have terrorised the Eels in round one, but there hasn’t been a lot of happiness for Melbourne since then. They’ve won two games and lost seven, with the two wins coming against the Dragons and an injury depleted Tigers. Their defence has fallen to pieces and their big name attacking players are out of form, they got 50’d by Penrith and barely avoided it against Souths, a team they had never lost to in Melbourne, not once in 28 years. It’s been a treat.
The question is: did they play themselves back into form against the hapless Tigers last week? A 44-16 win is no doubt impressive, but the Tigers were missing at least nine first choice players, including three quarters of their spine (and the one left is more cheerleader than footballer, who spent the week prior being paraded in a new club’s colours). There is plenty of scope for this being a mirage, papering over the serious issues at the Storm.
Most of those issues will be familiar to Eels fans. The Melbourne edge defence is porous, easily cracked by good shape and hard running on both sides. They are the worst team in the NRL at defending from set restarts. Our favourite the Eye Test has a detailed breakdown on the numbers outlining both of these issues, and it is particularly damning just how bad the Storm have been defending extended sets, especially when it has been a strong suit for them historically.
Parramatta hasn’t been great in either of those departments, highlighted last week by the Cowboys strolling through the edges time and again and the Eels conceding tries after each of the first three set restarts against them. This one might just come down to who draws the ire of the referee first, and then rides that momentum to a handy lead.
The bad news for the Eels is that their favourite referee is in charge of this contest, Peter Gough, who in addition to pulling out some of the more baffling rule interpretations we’ve seen has hammered Parramatta with the arm waves this year. It’s a right bore to talk referees (and if the Eels were good enough, we wouldn’t need to) but the fact is Parramatta’s record with Gough is so anomalous that his presence has to be taken into account.
Fair Shake
Ronnie’s running game has been a huge weapon
Let’s make a bold assumption and say we get a fair shake; how do you beat Melbourne? The reductive but mostly correct answer is simple: run at them. Their edge combinations have struggled mightily all season, a mixture of inexperience and a reduced level of talent caused by injury and player movement. The current back row of Lisati and Blore is perhaps the strongest they’ve fielded all year, but both have missed significant time with injury and have raw combinations to their left and right. Both halves are among the worst in the NRL for tries conceded, usually a sign that the playmakers have been left on an island by their inside and/or outside defenders. Nick Meaney and Will Warbrick are similarly at the top of the try concedes leaderboard, while Moses Leo would join them if he hadn’t been dropped for his own defensive issues.
Getting into good ball to exploit this defence will be the challenge for Parramatta. The Storm aren’t an elite metre making side but they steamrolled the Eels in round one on the back of momentum, particularly Harry Grant and Stefano Utoikamanu. They don’t make a lot of errors, but those restart defence numbers show that the combination of a piggyback downfield and some extended fatigue is usually enough for a good attacking team to crack them.
The Eels attack hasn’t been a well oiled machine in 2026, but last week showed a lot of promise as both halves had their running games on point. Ronnie Volkman has been particularly effective, and his threat will create opportunities out wide for Josh Addo-Carr. On the other side, Jordan Samrani runs great lines and will make anything but a committed attempt pay; he has to be a focal point of the attack in combination with Kelma Tuilagi. The Parramatta edge attack has been stymied by rushing defence this year, but one good play the ball should be all Moses needs to line those two up in shape and threaten the weak edges.
Defensively the Eels just need to be better. It’s reductive, but Parramatta’s edge reads with anything but a fully set defensive line are just terrible, with back rowers and centres making panicked choices and leaving gaping holes in the line either by marking the wrong man or shooting out of shape. The tackling isn’t always great, the Eels forwards give up too many standing play-the-balls and are scattered like ten pins for fast rucks too often, and that momentum often leads to the issues out wide, but that is a harder problem to solve that defenders just sticking to their shape and marking the right player. The defence is never going to be good (we’ve already given up more points in ten weeks than Penrith will all year) but bringing the clanger rate down and not conceding 30 every week would be a positive step.
One area of interest is whether Jason Ryles runs with the same bench strategy as last week, with Junior Paulo coming off the pine for impact. In combination with Dylan Walker’s playmaking and the improved power game Toni Mataele showed against North Queensland, that could be a match turning shift if the Eels can stay even with the Storm for the first 20 minutes. Winning momentum in that period will be crucial, as it is when Harry Grant goes to work and finds success, which will be much more difficult for the Maroons rake if his side are on the back foot.
The Game
Toni Mataele had a coming of age performance last week
I’ve had a dig at Magic Round to start this preview, but it shouldn’t play much of a part here. Melbourne may love playing at Suncorp, but they also love playing in Melbourne and in the space of the last month meekly surrendered a 12 year home winning streak against New Zealand and not just lost to Souths at home for the first time, but lost by 42. 28 years, 20 matches. Gone. That’s the level of fall we’ve seen from Melbourne this year.
Does one win against a Tigers reserve grade side change that? The flaws in this Storm side are still there, and the Eels have the tools to exploit them. Unfortunately the Eels also have similar weaknesses and for all the problems with Melbourne’s defence, they still boast some of the best attacking players in rugby league. Parramatta need to get better, but the chance for the upset is absolutely there
The range of outcomes here is massive. Early momentum is going to be huge, as neither side has much resilience and loves to concede on the back of possession. I’m reluctant to bet on the Eels to win any kind of ruck contest or six again war, but that’s an eye test observation, statistically we’re middling for set restart discipline. Gough hasn’t been our friend but it usually isn’t one-sided restart counts that cruel us with him this year but baffling inconsistency in his decisions, both with the rules of the sport and from his prior calls in the contest.
It’s another one of those “I’m hopeful, but I can’t tip us” kind of games. It’s a big turnaround to go from getting 50’d in round 1 to winning in round 11, overcoming demons and history. It can certainly be done, but it is the minority potential outcome here. The Eels should come in with belief, and they had better give this one a good shake, if only because they could put a nail in the coffin of a bitter rival. Let’s do it.
Go you Eels!
Prediction: Storm 36 d Eels 22
Man of the Match: Harry Grant
Gol
Absolutely and completely a question of the quality of our defence. If it stays as it has been the Melbourne spine will see more than thirty put on us, which we won’t be able to match. If we can negate their spine – which we have not been able to do for a couple of seasons now- we’ll win comfortably.
I’m particularly hopeful that Mataele and Utoikamanu will be on the field at the same time; I’d be interested to see who prevails.
Harry Grant is the smartest footballer in the world now, much much too smart for our defensive frailties.
I’m sure he wakes up with a spring in his step whenever he knows he’s going up against the Eels.
Look for a Harry Grant special this evening.
A try from dummy half from a metre out or a repeat of the ultra embarrassing 60 metre special that he put on us last time, or maybe both.
Watch how he cons the referee with his antics and scoots away as the hapless Eels scream ” hey not fair Sir ”
Watch how their fullback plays like the reincarnation of a combination of Bob Fulton and Dally Messenger as he side steps and weaves through our broken defensive lines and scores tries from 70 metres out like it’s a touch footy day out at the local park.
It’s going to be a smashing and we all know it.
You may be proven right Spark but I’m not so pessimistic.
Hope you are right Noel.
I’d love to see us beat them.
Spark, the only way I can engage in that mood is to offer odds that Grant will put on his pathetic kindergarten act when a player on the ground is unable to move as the ball is played quickly…he doesn’t get obstructed but behaves like a 4 year old, and 50% of the time the ref buys in without making a quick common sense judgement’ did the player on the ground in any way cause disruption’. I think I’d set the board at 20 to 1 on.
Mate that’s exactly what he will do. 100% !!
Smart man and those stupid officials fall for it all the time !
Can you imagine the carnage?
Harry Grant v Peter Gough ???????
They may even set the record for the most 6 agains ever awarded to a side in history!
Peter Gough will be like putty in Harry Grants hands, its just no contest.
Harry is a master magician that would rival and some say outcheat Cameron Smith and Gough is a very inexperienced, inept referee who will be led around and won’t even realise it.
Every tackle, Grant will be protesting to Gough and like a puppet, Gough will react.
I didn’t check how many 6 Agains were called in the opening NRL Magic Round game Dolphins v Rabbits, but it was suddenly more than we have been seeing over past few weeks. Carnival atmosphere, big crowds, lots of tries…Am I being too cynical???
I’m hoping for a brave and committed performance. Expressions such as “the hapless Eels” and “touch footy day out at the local park” are unfair and unworthy of an Eels supporter, especially after the courageous performance against the Cowboys.
Come on mate, let’s not fall into the silly group that proclaims that being pessermistic is somehow unworthy as an Eels supporter.
Blind optimism sometimes requires some balance on this site !
We would all be over the moon if it’s not 36 -0 at halftime to the Storm ! …but history suggests that it will be the case.
They are just too fast and too agile for our team especially in the backline.
This game reminds me of last year when we played the Panthers just after origin and they were running dead last. But they played Clearly who won them the game in a tough match. As we know Parra actually played Penrith into form as they went from last to the grand final. They might not acknowledge that was the game that started their comeback but it was!
Thankfully the Storm got up against the Tigers last week although I have this feeling it was more of an emotional match for the Storm considering Bellamy’s health prognosis. Otherwise I can see a repeat of 2025 where Parra plays the Storm back into form and do what the Panthers did last year.
My blue and gold heart wants to tip them to beat the Storm (just like I tipped them to beat the Cowboys) but I can’t. For two reasons – a) the referee who clearly displays a bias against the Eels and b) last week’s win for the Storm will give them confidence playing Parra in Brisbane in the magic round.
We keep harping on that first round crushing loss, but I say again the Storm would have flogged anyone that day simply because it is equal to a grand final game. They don’t want to be the first team to lose game one.
And, yes Harry Grant will do a Cleary and win it for them.
Then again maybe it is just right for an upset. Will hell freeze over? No!
Gough is a major factor. I’m generally sympathetic to refs; I wouldn’t for a second consider volunteering for the job, but I find it hard to believe that some of his efforts pass official scrutiny.
Actually, hell is an old English word representative of the common grave of mankind. Not a place of burning torment. So in fact hell can freeze over. There you are – am I now tipping the Eels? No! But I really want to – it’s that old saying my heart says yes but my head says no. Go the Eels!!
Is it honestly even worth the pain to watch this game guys? 😅🤣
Honestly 5 seasons why am not excited:
1). Gough is ref = NRL’s “blowtorch?” How dare us little slippery eels stan up to the mighty NRL / the biased agenda driven corporate money hungry scheme it has become
2). Storm & Harry grant will get a 6 again every time he cries to Gough – watch out for 4 six agains going Melbournes way inside the FIRST 15-30 minutes
3). WATCH how fast storms ruck is and how quickly they get up, and yet we will still give away 6 agains for us not getting up fast enough
4).Watch the storm LAY ALL OVER PARRA / wrestle yet he won’t willingly blow the whistle until the game is almost over – so it’s not overly obvious how bias the officiating stats look after the game is completed
5). Watch how they throw forward passes or out loads of kick pressure on us creatly offside (usually where at a critical point in the game) which will coincidentally go in Theo favour not ours
I really hope I’m wrong here but I’ve seen this circus take place too many times to come into a storm match especially with GOUGH to expect anything different
I really do hope that boys fire up though and outsmart this Gough bloke and give him minimal excuses to blow 6 agains
If this weekends games trend of point scoring continues – whoever gets a few tries early on probably wins by 40-50 points
If Gough blows even 2-6 six agains against us early in the first half = the game will be over be for it rgen begins
Make not mistake about it – the 6 again rules who wins the game now …:
And it’s not even remotely consistent so whoever gets the rug of the green probably scores 40-50 points it seems like
Geez Muz, you weren’t far off! Grant did a dummy spit at dummy half, Gough obliged..then Moretti put his hands on a tackled player getting up..6 Again…try. If it was a correct call, the Storm proceeded to do it at least 2 or 3 times the same as Moretti but no 6 Again.
We have something like a 17% Lower win rate percentage under Gough
That’s far too poor to be a coincidence this guy doesn’t like the eels
He was apparently a Jnr rep for the parramatta eels back in his early days
What happened?
He probably got told he wasn’t good enough and we killed his NRL dreams so he probably hated parramatta ever since 😂
Luca moretti getting toyed with by grant in defence.
Moretti is a one trick pony. Awful player.
Volkman is having a shocker.
Damn we need to get rid of these rocks and diamonds players.
Any other team would be all over the storm as they have nothing tonight but we just seem to shit ourselves whenever we play them.
Exactly like I predicted above ^
They get to lay all over us & slow down the ruck
But we let them up faster and give away 6 agains
We look dead awful here – and the early 6 agains which went against us in the game I think gassed our tanks early (hence the errors)
Truly poor football all round both sides
This is worst than round 1, simply execute our plays and we win. Tonight is the first time I have to admit we have a real roster crisis. I’ve tried to stay positive. So far off the pace.
What a miserable excuse of a club we are.
Agree 100%.
That was just embarrassing.
Totally agree, too angry to say anything else
We missed 47 tackles; that’s all she wrote. The centres missed eleven tackles between them. Oh to have Tom Opacic back and in his prime!
A weakness of the modern game? The number of one sided thrashings we’re seeing. There is simply no entertainment value in waiting to see if a side is going to have fifty put on them.
The high quality rugby league player is a remarkable human being, which is why we admire them so much. Do we have enough of them to create seventeen competitive teams? I don’t think so. And here come tomorrow.
How many clubs in this competition are a realistic chance of winning it? Four? That’s an awful lot of supporters left with teams making up the numbers, an awful lot of uncompetitive games. One of the most compelling spectacles of my sports watching was the 1986 grand final, four two with two Brett Kenny tries disallowed, at least one of them unfairly. Will we ever see a game like that again?
As an aside, I thought Gough was fine.
I can’t see any positives with this squad, awful, plus our junior talent coming through or identifying it is not there
It’s awful – no speed or skill in young backline prospects. Some good forwards who aren’t ready. Nrl is full of plodders and overrated juniors. Ryles has to complete the rebuild by being ruthless – not this half arsed rebuild with a team replete with players who wouldn’t get a look in at most other clubs
The injuries have ripped the bandaid off – we are so far off even when healthy. A few plucky wins at end of last year doesn’t hide that reality
Conceding Almost 40 (thus far) against this mediocre storm team… this team (irrespective of injuries) is so far off the pace. Need to cut a lot of fat (doorey, moretti, volkman, Richard penisini, Jake Tago, matto, Kelma, jdb etc) and build properly. Ryles is on a highway to nothing with a half rebuild
And bloody hell can we get a conversion kicker – Moses is putrid at conversions
Couldn’t hit a barn door at 2 feet mate
I forgot to add I don’t rate Guymer or will peninsini either. More Parra fans do but they overate our juniors. For example look at Russell. He is so average and lacks fundamentals but parra fans love him when bostock is already better at centre. There’s so many better players out there but we jealously try to play juniors who have severe holes in their games (will penisini lack of speed and defence, Russell, Guymer etc). Add to that the plodders we recruit and it’s dark times unless the club acknowledges its reality as a laughing stock
Mate they just have to. Just can’t continue with these reserve grade players moving forward.
Mitchell Moses will enjoy playing with half decent players when he plays in SOO instead of the wood ducks he has to suffer with at the Eels.
I think Ryles should just walk into the presser and say. ” We are shit” and then walk out.
We are starting to see cracks in Jason ryles ability as a coach in some areas
Why not let Volkman or Papalii kick goals both are currently better than Moses
Why shop Volkman off and destroy his aura / confidence right as he started playing good and had shown better ability than Pezet? Lorenzo will not be NRL high standard for possibly 2-4 seasons (even if he lives up to the hype)
We also stopped using Walker as a centre field playmaker like we used to – why did we go away from what worked all last year?
We seem to have a very predictable attack and no offloads really or dummy half running when there’s fast play the balls
It’s largely a battle issue but something IS going on under ryles – both Lomax and Moses went bad kicking goals under him… is it kicking coaches they bring in trying to change their style?
Is there too much structure in the processes & systems where players are pushed away from what worked for them previously? Which often has a negative effect on a players game
Have we seem Moses improve under the new coaches & systems? No I would argue he has declined in attack, defence, and goal kicking
Something isn’t right .. both Lomax and Moses goal kicking and playing ability / form actually regressed under ryles
I think some players improved but it was mostly the very young players – snr players had to change their game, no more offloads and off the cuff plays
And now parramatta looks like a bog average side with maybe the most predictable attacking shapes and systems you see out of any nrl side
That was a shocking performance the storm gave us endless opportunities and we played worse than a reserve grade side
We are diabolically unfit as a squad , we have players who are barely first graders and that performance of volkmann should end his career in the nrl , his sulking was similar to bevan French when he was told he wouldn’t be resigned
Don’t wish to be corrosively critical of the players or coaching staff, but on any view that was an abysmal effort, total lack of enthusiasm. I hope the players gave all they had, but we don’t have the quality, and we haven’t for 20 years. Recruitment and retention is absolutely to blame, and has been for 20 years. We are laughed at in the recruitment corridors of other clubs and agents offices. For god sake Parramatta wake up the beast or lose the biggest following in Sydney.
That was utterly pathetic, totally down to years of neglect in recruitment and fostering our best. I’m embarrassed.