Parramatta Eels end 15-year curse in Canberra with NRL thrashing

The NRL world stunned after one of the league’s heavyweights was slaughtered on their home turf in a stunning capitulation.

Ricky Stuart has slammed his side's terrible performance.

The Parramatta Eels have demolished the Canberra Raiders 35-10 in a shocking boilover in the nation’s capital.

The score was 12-10 at halftime but the Raider appeared to not come out of the sheds in the second half as the Eels flexed their muscles with a 21-0 second half to run rampant.

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Even more impressive for the Eels was that they hadn’t won in Canberra since 2006, crushing a 15-year hoodoo.

After being belted by the St George Illawarra Dragons last week in a lose that had pundits questioning their premiership credential, the Eels bounced back brilliantly.

“Last week after the Dragons, there were lots of question marks about their middle third,” Cronk said. “Tonight, the middle third dominated a very big aggressive Canberra Raiders middle third.

“And Mitchell Moses for me, that is the new standard for Mitchell Moses. Beautiful kicking game, pulled the trigger when he needed to and that was a class performance from the No. 7. It was one of the best games I’ve seen from him in a Parramatta jersey.”

The Eels had a hell of a game against Canberra.

But while the Eels were able to bounce back from a belting by the Dragons at Bankwest Stadium, the Raiders appear to be in a rut, having lost 30-10 against the Panthers last week.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart appeared to cut a forlorn figure in the coaches box at full-time.

For Meninga, a Raiders legend, he said “Ricky’s got some problems”.

Similarly, Raiders star Josh Hodgson was scratching for answers.

“It was a million miles off tonight,” he said. “We were really disappointed in ourselves. We spoke that we have been patchy in attack and we’ve been turning up defensively, but it was both sides of the coin tonight, it wasn’t there.”

But Raiders coach Stuart was far from pleased with the performance.

“It was disappointing, we had a massive crowd and every reason to make them proud of us and we embarrassed ourselves on a night we could have made them proud of our effort and the team they support,” he said. “I feel sorry for them and sorry for (fullback and club debutant) Caleb Aekins.”

He added that the Raiders “were embarrassed” by the second half, as the Eels ran rampant.

Stuart said that some individuals were out-enthused.

“Don’t put everyone in that category,” he said. “There were individuals there leaning on other, there were individuals there that were waiting for someone else to do it, individuals that were happy to pull on an NRL jumper but not thinking like an NRL player.”

Stuart refused to answer the question if there would be changes but said he felt sorry for the players who were giving their all.

The Raiders were pummelled by the Eels.

While social media was quick to praise the Eels, it was equally perplexed by the drop off from the Raiders.

Great win here by Eel. Travel to Canberra to smash the Raider. That’s impressive. Played by far the better football in second half. Raider capable of some great attacking passages of play. Also capable of some horrible attack and defence. Very loose indeed. Eel too good.

— Phil Gould (@PhilGould15) April 17, 2021

Well done @TheParraEels.. 👏🏻 you absolutely deserved the win. @RaidersCanberra have been oddly flat so far this season. Still a long way to go, but we’d better start finding some form and go on a run. Smash the @nthqldcowboys then make a statement against @storm.
#NRLRaidersEels

— Craig Norenbergs (@CraigNorenbergs) April 17, 2021

No linespeed, poor kicking game, poor D. Thats what you get #nrlraiderseels

— Jodan Perry (@Jodan_Perry) April 17, 2021

In the post match press conference, Arthur said he didn’t really care about hoodoos.

“I’m more pleased we came with the right attitude today,” he said. “We chased the collision, we knew we had to and we’re a better football team when we do that.

“We were prepared to roll the sleeves up and I’m disappointed but last week, we wanted to play pretty and fancy and we're not that kind of team.”

Originally published as Parramatta Eels end 15-year curse in Canberra with NRL thrashing