Friday should have been Tom Trbojevic’s night – it should have been the Manly fullback’s time to show Blues coach Laurie Daley he’d made a mistake not picking him in his NSW Origin I squad.
Instead, it was the Parramatta show, as Joash Papalii ran away with a try on debut to help the Eels to a 30-10 upset against the Sea Eagles without star players Mitchell Moses and Zac Lomax.
The Sea Eagles now tumble out of the top eight, as the Eels claimed back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
Trbojevic did have moments – he had his hand in both Lehi Hopoate’s first-half tries – but it was nowhere near the show-stopping performance you’d expect from a player of his calibre who’d been overlooked for the biggest series of the year.
Manly coach Anthony Seibold said his team were struggling to find consistency week-to-week.
“We lacked cohesion tonight. For whatever reason, we just didn’t look like we have been when we’ve been at our best,” Seibold said.
“I’ve got to give Parramatta credit, I think they completed at over 90 per cent, so they kept handing over the footy to us in deep yardage, and we just couldn’t find a way to get field position. The couple of times we did in the first half we scored, but ultimately, I was really disappointed because we’re just lacking consistency in some parts of our game at the moment.”
Trbojevic, who captained Manly on Friday in Daly Cherry-Evans absence, was deflated after the match.
“We didn’t win the field position battle, so it’s hard to attack out of your own end, so we weren’t good enough,” he said.
Parramatta’s Ryley Smith and Manly’s Tom Trbojevic.Credit: Getty Images
Parramatta, on the other hand, were gritty.
Even after the Eels lost Will Penisini in the second minute to concussion, the team rallied.
It meant Papalii made his debut via the bench much earlier than anticipated, but the 20-year-old came bounding onto the field, ready to play the next 78 minutes.
It wasn’t perfect, with Manly targeting Papalii’s side for both of Hopoate’s tries, but it was enough. The Eels’ rising star also managed a flick pass out the back to Jordan Samrani for Parramatta’s first try of the night.
Manly in general were clunky, and the team struggled to come up with any sort of attacking edge without halfback Daly Cherry-Evans who was away on Origin duties.
Second-string halfback Jake Arthur struggled to have any kind of meaningful impact on the game, and the Sea Eagles attack suffered as a result.
Lehi Hopoate scored a double on the left wing.Credit: Getty Images
Second half tries for Isaiah Iongi and J’maine Hopgood all but sealed the win for Parramatta with 20 minutes to go, especially after Hopoate was denied a hat-trick and taken over the sideline.
There were only 13,500 fans at CommBank Stadium on Friday night, but when the full-time siren sounded, the crowd erupted.
Friday’s win lifts the Eels off the bottom of the ladder, with the two teams directly above them – Penrith and Newcastle – facing off against each other on Saturday.
