It's been 10 years since Parramatta won as many games as they have this season, continuing their charge to the top four by compounding Canterbury's woes with a 20-4 victory on Thursday night.
Mitchell Moses, who at the Wests Tigers at the start of the season looked a shadow of the footballer many anticipated he would develop into, appears to have rediscovered his mojo in new surroundings under the tutelage of Eels coach Brad Arthur.
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Eels notch sixth straight win
The Parramatta Eels continue their impressive form with a 20-4 win over the Canterbury Bulldogs.
The Eels halfback orchestrated his side's 13th win of the season on a wet and miserable night at ANZ Stadium, adding further damage to the trainwreck that is Canterbury's season.
With win No.6 on the trot, a top four finish for the Eels for the first time since 2005 now looks on the cards as they continue to gather momentum with Moses and Corey Norman calling the shots.
The kicking game of the Eels playmakers strangled the Bulldogs out of the contest, forcing more repeat sets (nine) than the Bulldogs scored points on another night to forget for Des Hasler's men.Â
"We've still got a bit to work on," Arthur said.
"But if we can continue to improve every week and stick to our plan like we did tonight with our discipline and not get carried away, I think we can make some real noise."
Hasler decided to tinker with the formation, dropping Matt Frawley to reserve grade to give Chase Stanley his shot at the five-eighth role. No one could deny the Bulldogs should be experimenting given their season is over and what they had been doing for the past 21 weeks hasn't worked. But unfortunately for Hasler, the Stanley experiment was far from the stroke of genius he was hoping for, with a disjointed attack looking even worse with the former Dragons and Storm back in the halves.
"You don't have to be a football whiz to work out that we made it pretty easy for them," Hasler said.
"For those conditions we were just unbelievably undisciplined with the ball."
There was a moment in the second half that threatened to dominate the news cycle for the rest of the week when the referee said to Eels backrower Frank Pritchard "He bit your face? Do you want to make an allegation".
It was in reference to a collision with Bulldogs prop David Klemmer, but Pritchard didn't want to take things further, and replays showed little to suggest foul play from Klemmer.
Hasler would have been fuming with the fashion in which his side conceded first points of the game, with Eels prop Daniel Alvaro humiliating James Graham and Aiden Tolman when he carried the pair over the line to give his side an early 6-0 lead.
The embarrassment continued for the Bulldogs soon after, with Josh Morris coughing up possession unopposed, kicking the ball out of his own hands from a tap restart with the defense still 10 metres away.
Canterbury, as they have been throughout a disastrous campaign, were their own worst enemy.
Penalties and a lack of respect for the ball saw the Eels dominate possession in the opening exchanges, with the Bulldogs waiting 24 minutes before finally making inroads inside the Parramatta 20-metre zone.
But it was Moses who set up the opening try when he sliced open the Bulldogs defence, stepping Chase Stanley, to set up Bevan French with his sixth consecutive try in as many appearances.
Canterbury finally saw quality ball in the dying stages of the first half, but in the wet conditions and with a stuttering attack, they failed to trouble a rock-solid Parramatta defence that looks ready to withstand the rigours of finals football.
A penalty goal saw the Eels extend their lead to 18-0 in the second half, but the Bulldogs managed to hit back through Marcelo Montoya after a runaway Brenko Lee put his winger over for his eighth try in his debut season.Â
Another penalty goal added insult to injury for the Bulldogs, the infringement coming after Josh Reynolds failed to take a goal-line drop out on the mark.
The Eels lost Bevan French to a leg injury in the second half but he is expected to be fit for next Friday night's clash against Newcastle.
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