One down, 24 to go.

The first eight games of the 2021 NRL season didn’t just provide us with our initial set of winners and losers, it raised another series of questions.

With each of the league’s 16 teams set to do battle again this weekend, we attempted to answer the major issues facing their playing lists and coaches alike.

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Parramatta Eels

Can they start like they finished?

Despite beating the Broncos is Round 1, Eels’ coach Brad Arthur will have been fuming with his side’s first half effort.

Arthur, like all of us, would have seen Souths’ equally limp first 40 in Melbourne and had the truth reaffirmed to him swiftly – if you don’t start well against the Storm, you don’t get the chocolates.

If Parramatta leak 16 points to zip again in the first half, you may as well whack a movie on instead of watching the second half, as the contest will be as dead as disco.

If the Eels decide to follow South Sydney’s approach of touching gloves and feeling their opponent out for the first half an hour, you can expect to see them huddled below the black dot repetitively before receive a bake at half time.

Despite their week one performance coming against last season’s bottom side, if the Eels start like they finished last week, they could give the reigning premiers a run for their money and us on the couch a cracker of a Thursday night contest.

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