Sunday, Parramatta Stadium, 3pm
Referee: Ben Cummins

Parramatta become the third team to be blessed by the luck of the draw, when they catch the Storm on the weekend before State of Origin III. The Storm will be without nine Origin stars, while the Eels will be missing only centre Jarryd Hayne to that cause. The Storm had virtually no chance in their games before Origins I and II, so weakened were they by representative commitments. The Dragons whipped them 36-12 and Titans won 18-0. Now it is the turn of the Eels to surely complete a treble of losses for the Storm under those circumstances.

It will be a stunning result if the Eels don't win. They had a disappointing first half of the season, in which they made too many mistakes and lost concentration at critical times in games. Their results were inconsistent, but in their last three games they have won easily over both the Raiders and Tigers and lost narrowly to the Sharks. The return from injury of centre Krisnan Inu and the introduction of blockbusting winger Tony Williams have made a big difference to the Eels. They are powerful given any sport of space out wide and they can make that strength count for plenty of points in this game.

The Storm will be committed. Halves Mark Geyer and Cooper Cronk will do their best to get something going in attack. But if the Eels don't win by a big margin, they ought to be embarrassed.

LATE MAIL
Eels coach Michael Hagan said he could see "no problems" ahead of his side's clash with the understrength Melbourne at Parramatta Stadium on Sunday.

Forward Sam Tagataese (shoulder) is a slim chance to play for the Storm with changes foreshadowed to the bench but not the starting 13.
Glenn Jackson

EELS: Luke Burt, Taulima Tautai, Krisnan Inu, Joel Reddy, Tony Williams, Feleti Mateo, Brett Finch, Nathan Cayless (capt), Mark Riddell, Josh Cordoba, Nathan Hindmarsh, Daniel Wagon, Chad Robinson, Interchange: Matthew Keating, Todd Lowrie, Weller Hauraki, Brendan Oake.

STORM: Steve Turner, Brett Anderson, Joseph Tomane, Jeremy Smith, Sam Joe, Matt Geyer, Cooper Cronk, Jeff Lima, Russ Aitken, Scott Anderson, Antonio Kaufusi, Sika Manu, Adam Blair. Interchange: Liam Foran, Kevin Proctor, Aiden Tolman, Clifford Manua, Sinbad Kali, Lucas Miller (two to be omitted).