Eels coach Brad Arthur and his players aren't planning to wait around hoping for a mathematical miracle to revive their finals hopes, despite stunning the Panthers 32-18 on Thursday night.
With a bye in next weekend's final round of the season, Parramatta will finish on 30 points and the victory has given last season's runners-up a mathematical chance of scraping into the final eight.
However, they will need a number of results to go their way in the next 10 days to overcome South Sydney's 60-point superior for-and-against without the Roosters or Cowboys leapfrogging them on the premiership ladder.
Panthers v Eels - Round 26, 2023
The Eels have a for-and-against of +13 and must rely on:
- The Cowboys (28 points, +12) losing to the Dolphins and/or Panthers. If the Cowboys win one of those games, the margin of their loss needs to be higher. If they win both games, the Eels are out.
- The Roosters (28 points, -62) losing to Wests Tigers and beating the Rabbitohs (30 points, +73) by 60 points. If the Roosters win both games, the Eels are out.
- Souths have a bye and if they win next Friday night against the Roosters or lose by less than 60 points, the Eels are out.
The Eels are likely to train next week unsure whether their season is officially finished but Arthur said they were destined to spend the summer lamenting they had not won at least one more match.
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"We only had to find one more win and we have got to learn how important each game is and each moment in the games is," Arthur said.
The hurt will be there even more, knowing that we just had to find one more win somewhere,
"I know what the team can do if we get in the eight, and I'm sure there are a few teams that are glad we are not in the eight, but we are just going to have to wear it."
The Eels have incurred suspensions totalling 22 matches this season compared to just one match last year when they made the grand final, and Arthur said the ill-discipline had proved costly.
"They are fair reasons why we are not playing finals," Arthur said.
Injuries happen and every club has got to deal with it but the suspensions are self-inflicted.
"We can control that so we have got no one to blame but ourselves and 22 weeks of players missing through suspension is not good enough. The team that we played tonight, I think, have got one or two weeks."
Injuries have also been a factor and the Eels lost inspirational captain Clint Gutherson with a knee injury midway through the second half, while star halfback Mitchell Moses has been sidelined with a fractured cheekbone.
Gutherson succumbs to his injury
Gutherson scored two tries, set up another and repeatedly covered kicks by Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary into the Eels in-goal, despite being troubled by a knee injury that is likely to require off-season surgery.
“He’s been on one leg for the last six weeks,” Arthur said. “He’s got some knee issues so he’ll need a bit of a clean-out.
“He probably shouldn’t have been playing for the last six weeks, but that’s the sort of bloke he is and he wants to play for his teammates.”