North Queensland trainer interrupts clash with Parramatta as NRL ground manager steps in
Captain Mitch Moses booted the winning field goal with five minutes left in Sunday's game to give the Eels their seventh win of the season and help them leapfrog the Cowboys into 13th spot with four games to play.
The Cowboys looked to have snatched an unlikely victory in the last 30 seconds when Jake Clifford crossed, but the try was correctly disallowed by the bunker for interference on Moses.
Fittingly in the final game of the NRL's Indigenous Round, a pair of first-half tries to Josh Addo-Carr boosted the Eels.
But it was Moses' kicking game and one-pointer that ultimately made the difference.
The match was punctuated by another controversy involving a trainer late in the piece when the North Queensland orange shirt runner got in the way of play following an Eels kick down field that was fumbled by the Cowboys.
The ball ricocheted onto the trainer and referee Liam Kennedy stopped play but there was no direct impact on a scoring opportunity. The trainer was later seen on the sideline in conversation with the NRL's ground manager.
Last week Penrith were whacked with a $50,000 fine and had a trainer suspended for five matches after the club official ran in front of Gold Coast star Jayden Campbell before he missed a crucial conversion.
The win was another step forward in Parramatta's rebuild under Jason Ryles, with youngsters Joash Papali'i, Ryley Smith, Charlie Guymer and Luca Moretti again showing glimpses of why the Eels are on the rise.
'I'm relieved,' Ryles said. 'I thought we fought really hard tonight, and we found a way to win and there was moments in the game where it could have went either way and I think we defended really well tonight.
'Our focus is always getting better every day and every week and the results like that will start to drop.'
The loss for the Cowboys increases the pressure on coach Todd Payten.
On a positive note for North Queensland, Jason Taumalolo returned from a long layoff, and with Coen Hess, turned back the clock with some punishing running in the middle of the field, pleasing Payten.
'Very glad to have Jason back,' Payten said. 'I thought he was really good in that first half, had some moments in that second half too.
'Coen Hess has been playing good footy now for six, seven weeks. He's a real handful, full of energy and an important player for us.'
Hess might be in trouble with the match review committee, however, put on report early in the game for a dangerous tackle, diving at the legs of an already wrapped up Papali'i.
Zac Lomax opened the scoring for the Eels with a penalty goal in the sixth minute, but it was the Cowboys' Jaxon Purdue who grabbed the first try 15 minutes in, pouncing on a kick from Clifford after Lomax slipped in pursuit.
Addo-Carr then grabbed his double within six minutes, the latter from a deft Moses grubber, to put Parramatta up 12-8 after an entertaining first half.
It took just three minutes of the second half for the Eels to extend their lead when Will Penisini touched down, but the Cowboys returned serve when Braidon Burns scored after an intercept from Semi Valemei.
Two minutes later impressive Eels fullback Joash Papali'i spilled a bomb and Purdue capitalised to lock things up at 18-all, before Moses' heroics decided the outcome.
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