This week, Mary Kaye looks back at Round 14 where the Eels came away with a 26-22 victory over the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park. You can catch up on Mary Kaye's blogs at Ladies who League here
A trip down to AAMI Park in Melbourne is never easy. The Melbourne Storm are one of the most professional, clinical and disciplined teams in the competition and AAMI Park is their fortress - one which the Parramatta Eels were hoping to penetrate on Monday night.
I can think of only one word to describe our performance on Monday night and that word is courageous. The win clearly meant to much not just to the fans but to all of our players.
Injuries are something which has really hurt our team at different times so far this season, but Monday night was something else entirely. I had a lot of trouble remembering which player was playing where because of the ever increasing injury toll.
Despite a slow start, our boys, somehow found a way to comeback and defeat the Melbourne Storm 26-22. It was a thriller down to the last moment and thanks to the determination, commitment and desperation of our boys, we come away from Melbourne with the two points. I may have woken up the rest of the neighbourhood when David Gower, through a great short ball, put Tepai Moeroa through in the final minutes to score the match winning try.
The win did not come without challenges though, especially in respect of injury. In 80 minutes we managed to lose Reece Robinson (fractured cheekbone), Nathan Peats (knee), Kaysa Pritchard (shoulder) and Anthony Watmough (knew). There is also a wait to hear back on the knee of Brad Takairangi, who played the full 80 minutes despite sustaining an injury. Brad absolutely epitomised courage on Monday night and did the blue and gold proud.
This victory has come at a very important time for us. We have struggled in recent weeks with injury have lost a couple of very tight games, some in heartbreaking circumstances. This win will give the boys some confidence heading into the bye weekend and has demonstrated that hard work really does pay off.
The bye comes at an opportune time and will give our boys the opportunity to have a rest, regroup and come back to Pirtek Stadium next weekend for a big game against the St. George Illawarra Dragons, hopefully in front of a full house.
A win was the perfect present for Anthony Watmough who on Monday night became only the 23rd man ever in the NRL to reach 300 NRL games. This is a tremendous achievement and I'm so pleased that Choc has reached this milestone whilst playing for the Eels.
It was also the perfect present for Ladies who League who celebrated its 2nd birthday on Tuesday. Our birthday celebrations could not have possibly gotten off to a better start.
Enjoy the bye weekend, Eels fans, I'll be back next week to preview our game against the Dragons!
