Eels vs Panthers – Round 8, 2017

The battle for Sydney’s west takes place on Saturday afternoon however for both teams, much more will be up for grabs than just territorial bragging rights.

Penrith and Parramatta and just two and three wins respectively with both desperate to stay in touch with the top sides in the competition.

For Penrith, their offense in recent weeks has been a far cry from their flashy brilliance that we saw in 2016 with that coming to a halt last weekend as they tried to run around instead of through the Cronulla line.

They’re at their best when they’re throwing the ball around and forcing the opposition defence to back peddle, something they’ll want to get back to this weekend.

Kirisome Auva’a performance last week was simply nothing short of dominant and they’ll need something similar from him and Michael Jennings – who busted a combined 14 tackles – if they are to upset the more fancied Panthers.

This Penrith team is far too good to be where they are on the ladder, so look for them to bounce back this week.

Panthers by 8.