NRL Pre-Season: Eels & Dolphins impress with big wins

The Parramatta Eels and Dolphins both impressed in their NRL Pre-Season Challenge clashes on Friday evening, piling on the points against the Newcastle Knights and North Queensland Cowboys, respectively.

Parramatta arrived at the McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle as slight underdogs across NRL betting sites but put on a clinical performance to win 44-18 in their first hit-out of the year.

Dylan Brown got the Eels off to a strong start, crossing over after barely a minute to get the visitors on the scoreboard.

The Knights hit back through Greg Marzhew midway through the first half, but three quick tries from Jake Tago, Kelma Tuilagi and Joash Papalii blew out the half-time score to 22-4 in Parramatta’s favour.

After oranges, Newcastle made a game of it, reeling the Eels back in to make it 22-18 with 20 minutes to go thanks to four-pointers by Logan Aoake, Kyle McCarthy and Jermaine McEwen.

But the Eels finished the stronger of the two sides with Jordan Samrani and Samuel Loizou running in tries while Arthur Miller-Stephen bagged a brace.

Over in the evening’s other match, the Dolphins were even more impressive against the Cowboys.

19-year-old LJ Nonu was the star of the show at Barlow Park in Cairns, picking up his maiden hattrick in the NRL, including two tries in the first seven minutes.

It was a fast start by Kristian Woolf’s side with six tries in the opening half to make it 34-4 at half-time.

Three more tries were added in the second to take the Redcliffe-based club over the half-century mark by full-time, winning 50-8.

Despite the big scorelines, both the Eels and Dolphins remain at long odds to win the NRL Premiership this year.

The Eels sit on the 10th line of betting across the top bookmakers, paying $26 to lift the trophy in 2025.

The Dolphins, meanwhile, are at even longer odds, returning a long $51 at BetOnline to bag their maiden title in the NRL.

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