Despite his team suffering yet another heart-breaking close loss to the Dragons on Thursday night, Eels centre Jarryd Hayne produced his best match of the year as he returns towards his best attacking form.
Hayne's nine tackle busts were his most since his Dally M Medal-winning season in blue and gold in 2014, while his 147 run metres were his most since he ran for 156 metres playing fullback for the Titans against Penrith on July 22 in round 20 last year.
Hayne played just two matches between rounds three and 13 (round three and round seven) and only 29 minutes in each due to a hip injury which has clearly dented his season averages. Either way, round 16 represented a big increase on what he has produced so far this year.
From rounds 1-14, Hayne averaged 87 metres per game, 3.7 busts, 7.3 support runs and 3.1 post-contact metres per carry. On Thursday those numbers were 147, nine, 10 and 3.9.
The off-contract former Blues star remains coy on his playing future post-2018 but a few more performances like Thursday could come in handy if he is hoping for an extension at Parramatta.
There were questions raised last year when Parramatta signed him on a one-year $500,000 deal that it was not at market value.
It's unlikely he will fetch that much on the open market for the 2019 season unless he can continue trending back towards his peak attacking form over the closing rounds of this year.