On a day celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 2001 Grand Final, it was the Parramatta Eels who got their revenge on the nib Newcastle Knights, running out 40-4 winners on Old Boys Day at McDonald Jones Stadium.
A first half Eels blitz set up the result, with a Maika Sivo double sending the Eels 22-0 up at half-time as the Eels ran in five tries to nil in front of a season-high crowd of 23,015.
While both sides traded errors in the opening quarter, there was no doubting Parramatta got the jump.
The Eels attack was direct, fast and difficult to handle, with Clint Gutherson and Mitch Moses running the show.
It took them just three minutes to find the stripe, with Ryan Matterson charging onto a short ball to open the scoring.
Young gun Haze Dunster had their second 13 minutes later, cleaning up the snaps after Brayden Musgrove failed to diffuse a Moses bomb.
Enter Sivo.
The Fijian flyer bulldozed his way over for two tries before the break, before setting up Clint Gutherson with a clutch offload on the stroke of half-time.
Only the wobbly boot of Moses kept the Knights at all in the contest, kicking just 1/5 on the Eels' way to half-time.
The onslaught continued in the second half, with the inexperienced Newcastle outfit struggling to keep up with a near-full strength Eels.
Bryce Cartwright and Tom Opacic both ran in soft tries after the break, with Parramatta proving their top four credentials with a totally dominant display.
Waqa Blake made it 40-0 in the final ten minutes, before Enari Tuala nabbed a consolation four-pointer four minutes from full-time.
The team will have just six days to turn the result around, with South Sydney awaiting at Stadium Australia on Saturday night.
