Strong willed Eels get best shot at breaking 36-year drought

Young gun Will Penisini was seven years old the last time the Eels played in a grand final in 2009, and hadn’t even been born the time before that, when a season of dominance ended in despair at the hands of Newcastle in 2001.

Those two deciders stand as the only chances Parramatta have had to relive the glory days of the 1980s, when Peter Sterling, Brett Kenny, Ray Price and Mick Cronin delivered the club its maiden premiership and three more in the space of six years.

When Price and Cronin signed off amid emotional scenes in 1986 after the only tryless grand final in history, few could have imagined the Eels would miss the finals every year for the next decade.

The blue and gold army had become accustomed to success, accustomed to seeing Kenny score tries for fun in the big one, accustomed to the dry wit of the supercoach Jack Gibson… failure was foreign to the Eels faithful and not to be tolerated.

By the late 90s they were back in the mix and come 2001 they were back in the big one, but the eighth Immortal Andrew Johns spoiled the party.

Fast forward two decades and the Eels are in the finals for a fourth consecutive season, heading to Townsville on Friday night to chase their first grand final berth since 2009.

A chance to silence the knockers for at least another week and savour the special atmosphere of a grand final build-up. A chance to write their own page in Parra’s proud history.

“It’s nice to be at a club where the expectations are high. There’s always a lot of talk about us but we just embrace it and play footy for each other,” said Penisini, who has played every game in a breakout season.

“The 36-year wait is a motivation and a distraction all in one. We’re not really talking about it but we know how long it has been.

“We’ve got a bit of momentum behind us and we’re trying to use that going into this game.

“We started well [against the Raiders], everyone nailed their job and we really chased the game. “We played our style of footy, offloading and playing fast and hard, and the boys were on from the start.”

For skipper Clint Gutherson, who missed the Eels’ last finals clash with the Cowboys in 2017 due to injury, the win over the Raiders gave a clear indication his team is coping well with the expectations, both internal and external.

“The 36-year drought always gets mentioned, obviously by the media and by everyone outside the club, but as a group we haven’t spoken about it at all,” Gutherson said.

“We’re probably as healthy as we’ve ever been at this time of the year and it comes down to a bit of luck to have a good squad there.

“It probably was a bit of a relief to get through last week and to be able to put in a performance like we did makes it even more enjoyable but we do have bigger fish we want to catch and it starts again with the Cowboys.

“We’re just worried about playing footy and we’ll let the media control what they want to say about it.

"With a lot of the stories that were breaking last week before the Raiders game [about the week 2 curse], I think we went out and put a lot of those to bed so we’re looking forward to it this week. This is when you want to be playing footy.”

And if all goes to according to plan at a packed Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Gutherson and his men will be playing on the final day of the season for the first time in 13 years, looking to put their names up in lights alongside Sterlo, Pricey and The Crow.