PITY the schoolboys who faced Krisnan Inu and Jarryd Hayne on the same touch-footy field as the Westfield Sports High duo only a few years ago. Brisbane's fullback yesterday, Darius Boyd, would only have sympathy for their opponents after experiencing first hand their precocious brand of football, borne from the freedom of those days.

Boyd was on the wrong end of more sidesteps than a witches' hat in yesterday's 13-try demolition of the Broncos.

After playing a leading hand in one of the most complete dismantlings of a Wayne Bennett machine ever, Inu revealed that he and co-conspirator Hayne still stoop to playing touch footy in the park.

And, as if Inu and Hayne alone weren't electrifying enough back in the day, another member of their gang at Westfield was the Storm's hot rookie Israel Folau.

"We only played together once," Inu said. "I think we pretty much killed the team that day. Other than that, the only time we've all played together was playing touch in the park at Minto with all the locals, which is awesome. We still do it now some times."

Luckily for rugby league, most of their time is spent displaying their wares at a significantly higher level. And, luckier still, they've brought the park with them.

Some of the touches fullback Hayne and winger Inu got away with yesterday belong in the outer reaches of the footballing galaxy. Somewhere past outrageous, heading towards sublime.

Witness, for example, Inu's third try: hooker Mark Riddell toed a loose pass and the ball sailed into Inu's arms. Boyd looked up to see the carnival coming again. Inu shaped to chip Boyd but then looped away with one graceful step that left the fullback barely bothering to clutch at the air.

Kids are supposed to have that sort of nonsense drilled out of them. Safety-first football? No thanks. None of the reprogramming appears to have had any effect on Inu or Hayne, who scored two tries in a man-of-the-match performance.

The hard part for the Eels is to remember to do the hard work first, but Inu promised the bag of tricks won't be packed away in the finals. "I think the flashy stuff is always going to be there, it's just when to start using it," he said.

Scarily, Inu remembers Hayne playing better - although only on the small stage.

Centre Timana Tahu also claimed a double yesterday. But he won't say the kids have more skill - just less fear.

"I think [they have] more confidence," he said. "When I was growing up there was still a lot of old-school players, tough players like Tony Butterfield, David Fairleigh and Billy Peden," he said.

Also alight yesterday was Eels back-rower Feleti Mateo, who forms, along with Tahu and Inu, a deadly left flank.

With his huge right mitt swinging the footy around in the air like it's a tennis ball, Mateo is able to stand in the tackle and throw the defence into chaos. His effort, with three defenders lunging at him, to get a ball away to Hayne just on half-time was typical. The fact that it landed at Hayne's ankles turned it from a classy effort to another strike of the stake through Brisbane's heart. Hayne charged for the corner and, when savaged by three tacklers, flicked the ball behind him to Eric Grothe for a try.

Inu acknowledged a special bond between himself, Tahu and Mateo: "We've got our own way of bonding and our own way of talking … We've just got it in us - that little instinct that we know we're going to be there, that the pass is going to be on."