So tense was the climax to Sunday's finale at ANZ Stadium that even the match winner, Corey Norman, briefly lost his composure.
"Luckily we got away with the win," Norman told Channel Nine  seconds after the Eels had completed a 17-16 victory secured by his 77th-minute field goal. "It was scrappy by both teams, wasn't it? At the start it was end to end. But too many f------ errors."
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Eels sneak home via Norman field goal
Parramatta sealed victory over Wests Tigers in the final minutes.
Norman laughed when he realised what he'd said. It is not an accidental obscenity, though, that Parramatta have on their mind but another word beginning with the same letter.
Senior figures Tim Mannah and Michael Jennings gathered the Eels together in a huddle at the southern end of the venue after full-time to issue a few home truths.
The Eels are on the cusp of a first semi-finals series since 2009 but know they must play better if they are to book a top-eight spot and then make an impact in September.
"We just touched on how we've got to [get] better," Mannah said. "We've been saying all season 'next week we'll click, next week we'll hit our straps'. We can't keep playing like that and expect to keep playing until the end of the season."Â
Fortunately for the Eels, they had for the first time coach Brad Arthur could remember been last week practising the very field-goal play that won them the game on Sunday.
It was set up for Mitchell Moses to clinch the win over his former team but when the Tigers raced up on him he sent the ball onwards to Norman, whose left-footer from 30metres was not the cleanest effort but flew low over the cross bar.
"It didn't look nice, but it got us the point," Arthur said.
From the moment an exhilarating Semi Radradra streaked clear inside the first two minutes and was brought down expertly by James Tedesco, Sunday's match was an intoxicating affair.
Whether it was Tedesco applying the after burners, Manu Ma'u setting Brad Takairangi free down the left flank or Corey Norman being thwarted only by a Matt McIlwrick try saver this contest between the two western Sydney rivals swung from end to end in a first half brimming with adventure.
Not that Arthur was pleased with the exhibition being put on for the crowd of 30,901 on Stay Kind Day, among them Ralph Kelly, who was here despite being in hospital with pneumonia last week.
Eels fullback Clint Gutherson prophesied in an interview at half-time, as they led 10-8, that the coach would be giving them a "spray" at the break. Arthur did exactly that, although maintained it was "measured".
"The effort was there. We were just trying hard," the Eels coach said. "I just thought we were trying to win it every time we got the ball."Â
The second half, by contrast, shaped as more of an arm wrestle but was no less thrilling as Ivan Cleary's blend of youngsters and hardy types refused to back down. In attack, Parramatta found themselves rushed by a committed Tigers defence undeterred by their semi-finals aspirations having already been extinguished.
They were hurt by mistakes and ill discipline, too, deep inside their own territory, with Tigers five-eighth Tuimoala Lolohea taking advantage by slotting three penalty goals either side of the interval.
That gave them only a two-point lead with 25 minutes remaining, however, and there was always the likelihood that Parramatta wouldn't be restrained that long.Â
When Takairangi found Lolohea napping and a flying Radradra looming on his inside the Eels were back in front, with the Fijian winger preferring to let Gutherson waltz over rather than take Tedesco on again.
Lolohea had the opportunity to edge the Tigers ahead again when winger Malakai Watene-Zeleznkiak leapt high to level the score with 10 minutes on the clock. From 15 metres in from the left touchline, though, the five-eighth sprayed the ball wide of the left upright.
It would come back to bite the Tigers as Parramatta prevailed in a dramatic finale.
"[We've shown] good fight the last couple of weeks," Wests Tigers captain Aaron Woods said. "But we just can't put teams away."
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