Want-away Parramatta young gun Blaize Talagi has shown Eels fans what they’ll be missing next year by starring in a 30-20 defeat of the Warriors in Auckland.
The 19-year-old centre scored a try and set up another on Friday night, just days after news broke he was set to join Penrith in 2025,.
Parramatta, second-bottom on the ladder, produced one of their most convincing attacking displays of the season to snap a six-game losing streak and all but end the Warriors' NRL finals hopes.
Defeat will have come as a bitter disappointment to the New Zealanders, who had it all to play for.
The 12th-placed Warriors remain three points adrift of the top eight, with their finals rivals yet to play.
But Warriors coach Andrew Webster believes it's not over yet.
"Let's see what happens. I still think if we win four games we can get there," he said.
"We haven't made it easy on ourselves tonight but we haven't given up."
Parramatta had only pride to play for and were coming off a torrid week when they lost Talagi and had promising forward Charlie Guymer ask permission to speak to other clubs.
But Talagi is not gone yet.
He set up the first try of the night, finding the last pass for winger Jake Tago in a sweeping move to the left.
"It's obviously disappointing to lose Blaize, but Blaize is a great young kid and to have the guts to chase what he wants to chase, all credit to Blaize," said Parramatta captain Clint Gutherson.
"We love the kid here, he's a great kid, a really polite kid. He's got a big future in the game and we'd love to keep him. But rugby league is a weird sport. It's a business. Blaize thought, for his career, he had to chase somewhere else and we've got to respect that and help Blaize grow over the next five weeks."
Joey Lussick doubled the Eels’ advantage before the Warriors hit back through Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, with Shaun Johnson involved in the build up in his return from injury.
Gutherson also starred in one of his better performances in a disappointing season.
The fullback scored one try and assisted one, but perhaps his most impressive moment was an incredible one-on-one strip on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak when the Warriors winger looked certain to score in the dying minutes.
Halfback Daejarn Asi slipped through a sieve-like Warriors defence to round out the first period, before Talagi extended the lead to 26 points soon after halftime.
Even with Johnson back organising the line, the Warriors attack looked bereft of ideas until the 71st minute.
"Too many errors around last plays in particular, poor one-on-one misses for tries," Webster said.
"We were physically really dominant early and then the moment we made an error we didn't defend it and dropped our bundle.
"We just kept compounding it from then on. They were really good. They made us pay for it."
The Warriors finally hit back through fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad before Tago was sent to the sin bin for a professional foul with five minutes left.
Exploiting their numerical advantage, the Warriors ran in tries to Marata Niukore and Watene-Zelezniak, but it was too little too late.
