THE ANALYST

With all the scientific training methods, gym work, skills sessions and video analyses that NRL teams use in the modern era, it's amazing how toughness, enthusiasm and desire still rank as the most significant factors in a team's winning performance.

There's no statistic to measure these important qualities. All we have is our eyes to examine the body language of the combatants, and our intuition, fuelled by the vibe of the game.

When your team is full of bounce, it creates a buzz in the grandstands. Conversely, if the home team is poor, it can put the crowd to sleep, incite them to boo their lethargic efforts, or even decide not to turn up at all.

It's fair to say we witnessed all those reactions from the Parramatta fans yesterday. The Panthers clearly outpointed the Eels in the enthusiasm stakes. They looked more excited, energetic and hungry.

The Eels dragged their feet throughout most of the contest. They appeared to be waiting for one of their gifted individuals to get them the result. They've played like this for most of the season.

The small crowd in attendance at Parramatta Stadium to watch this local derby, played on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, could indicate that past performances have kept supporters away.

Those who did attend had little to cheer about. The occasional rippling of boos from the outer indicated they were less than happy with the lack of enterprise being shown.

The Panthers were terrific. They entertained with plenty of expansive plays.

Big forwards Frank Pritchard and Petero Civoniceva led admirably from the front. Halfback Luke Lewis came up with some inspiring individual contributions at crucial times. Outside backs Michael Jennings, Rhys Wesser, Maurice Blair and Brad Tighe always looked dangerous with the ball in hand.

Blair deserves special mention for his efforts in defence. Keeping Parramatta's Krisnan Inu quiet for an entire afternoon is no mean feat. He never gave his opposite number any room to move.

The Panthers' biggest improvement has been sparked by their two rookies, Lachlan Coote and Wade Graham. These kids have had a tremendous impact. Their enthusiasm and brash confidence in their own ability has inspired the older players.

They ran the Eels forwards ragged with their constant sideline-to-sideline ball movement and quickly helped Penrith run up a 16-0 lead.

Notice I didn't refer to that as a match-winning lead. Parramatta has so many talented attacking players that I never felt comfortable that the Panthers were home.

However, any thoughts of a home-team comeback were based purely on the tremendous potential that exists in this Parramatta team, rather than any concrete evidence emanating from their attitude or body language.

Mind you, they were given every chance to make a late run at winning the game if they felt so inclined.

Firstly, the Panthers started to shy away from victory like a wayward racehorse in sight of the winning post. They just didn't know how to finish off the game.

They probably knew they should have kept attacking and running the Eels around. However, nerves and perhaps the negative experience gained from narrow losses in the past saw them clam up in attack and they were guilty of playing very conservatively for the final 15 minutes.

Secondly, the Eels benefited from a whopping advantage in the penalty count, which gave them more than enough chances to post points.

The final penalty count was 11-4 in favour of the Eels. In fact, investigation of penalty counts this season reveals that in 15 games played, the Eels have only lost the penalty count on three occasions.

And they have won all the penalty counts when playing at Parramatta Stadium this year, with the biggest disparity over a visiting side being eight penalties in their favour.

I don't know what to make of this good fortune. I just know that with figures like that, the Eels are entitled to be leading the competition.

Alas, after yesterday's loss, they again sit outside the top eight. The Panthers have leap-frogged them and they're back in play-off contention.

May I say on both scores, deservedly so.