Recuperating Parramatta coach Michael Hagan is taking heart from his side's gutsy win over the Sydney Roosters, but won't be drawing on the Eels' miracle run to the NRL finals under Jason Taylor two years ago.

Hagan returned to work yesterday after a temporary bout of vertigo put him out of action late last week. In his absence, the Eels upset the Roosters 28-24 to keep their finals hopes alive.

"Hopefully, it's temporary. I certainly don't want to go through that all that often," Hagan said of his illness. "You can trigger it from rolling over in bed, you can trigger it digging in the garden, you can trigger it getting something out of the cupboard above your head so it's quite easy to set off and it's quite common.

"I don't know if there's any real particular cause for it but hopefully it will settle down in the next few weeks."

He is still feeling some effects from the illness, which resulted in assistant coach David Fairleigh taking the reins on Sunday.

The Eels' upset win and a reasonable run home have raised expectations Hagan's men could mount a charge similar to the nine straight victories the club had in 2006 after Taylor replaced Brian Smith. That would be ironic as Taylor and Hagan are hardly best mates following a run-in after the Eels beat Taylor's South Sydney side last year.

"It's probably quite a different group of people now if you look at the amount of people that moved on at the end of that year," Hagan said. "That was certainly a much different set of circumstances. We've won two of our last three, irrespective of how we won them, and we know that we've got a reasonable draw."

That draw pits them against the Wests Tigers on Monday, followed the wooden spoon favourites - the Bulldogs, then St George Illawarra and the Warriors.

"We've got two home games at Parramatta and two games at ANZ Stadium so geographically we don't have to go too far. From that point of view, we've got a reasonable opportunity to have a decent run in."

¡ Fullback Brett Morris and five-eighth Jamie Soward have been ruled out of St George Illawarra's clash with Brisbane tomorrow night at Suncorp Stadium.

Wendell Sailor, who comes into the side for Morris, is keen to front up against his former club and put in a better performance than round 13 when he suffered a fractured cheekbone in his comeback to the NRL following a two-year drug ban. "I'll be looking to come out of the game better than I did earlier this year," he said.

Ben Rogers has been called in at five-eighth, playing his first game for the club since a mid-season switch from South Sydney.

AAP