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A week ago, Eels coach Jason Ryles lamented that his team wouldn’t have “beaten a park footy side” as they crashed to a 32-12 loss to South Sydney.
How to explain then, his patchwork Parramatta outfit rocking Manly’s top-four tilt with a 23-14 upset, set up with a match-winning Jonah Pezet try, and sealed with a game-clinching Isaiah Iongi try-saver?
The Eels had $1.3 million halfback Mitchell Moses in Origin camp. His fellow co-captain Junior Paulo is sidelined alongside Will Penisini, Bailey Simonsson, Matt Doorey and J’maine Hopgood. And Manly came in with all the running.
But with the Sea Eagles needing a minor miracle to pinch Parramatta’s thoroughly deserved sixth win of the season, Ethan Bullemor was try-line bound and threatening to deliver it. Such has been the Eels season, he was a short price to get there.
Instead, it was Iongi, chopping him down with half a metre to spare, having already missed much of 2026 through injury.
Minutes earlier, Pezet, who has managed just five games through injuries and suspension, had the shock win truly in the offing. After a wretched run, Pezet grubbered and regathered on the first tackle, sweet relief for a star signing who has hardly shone this season.
With their old boys in the stands and a crowd of 18,778 growing into the game as the Eels did, a tense first half gave way to an increasingly rambunctious second stanza.
Dylan Walker lit up a tense contest after Manly had led 8-6 at half-time, dummying his way into the backfield before finding Kelma Tuilagi with an audacious Harlem Globetrotters flick pass around his back.
Reuben Garrick responded with his own cheeky short kick-off and regather. Joey Walsh was bashing into the goal post padding from a batback and finding the in-goal moments later.
Two tries in the first four minutes of the half sat alongside an opening stanza dominated by Manly, with only one four-pointer and two penalty goals to their name. The Sea Eagles frittering away of possession – they made 17 errors in all – was on show early, and only intensified as the game wore on.
Even still, their class and bright attacking efforts from Walsh, stepping into Luke Brooks’s No.6 jumper, kept the comeback in play.
With 14 minutes to play when Walsh got too cute with a flick pass for Tom Trbojevic, the comeback should have been done and dusted. Tuilagi had 30 metres to the try line, but only made it as far as one of the year’s great heartbreaking bloopers.
Lehi Hopoate made just enough contact as he gunned for the try line, and Tuilagi spilled the Steeden in agonising, Funniest Home Videos fashion, losing control with a match-winner looming.
Instead, it was Pezet who eventually struck, delivering in Moses’ place and helping to lift Parramatta out of 16th place, an ignominious ladder position that now belongs to premiers Brisbane.
Manly still have the top-four in reach, such is the congestion behind front-runners Penrith. However, they now sit seventh and have a fight to stay in the top eight on their hands.
