Parra Eels vs Melbourne Storm (18-16)

In what was advertised as Parra legend Nathan Hindmarsh's 250th game for the Eels, this game quickly turned into a showdown between 2 of the best full backs in the league. Whenever one would pull off something brilliant, the other would answer back with a show of his own.

Jarryd Hayne continued his brilliant form sparked mid-season by State of Origin, and proved a handful for the Melbourne defense whenever he got the ball. On offense he continuously got involved in set plays and made half breaks to keep the Storm on their toes. On defense he ran down Billy Slater multiple times (which isn't easy) and saved a number of tries with his excellent positioning.

As always, Billy Slater looks dangerous every time he touches the ball and if it wasn't for some hard nosed Parra defense the score line would read a Melbourne victory. Slater played an important role, along with Greg Inglis (origin center) and Cooper Cronk to lead a late rush after being down by 10-0 at the half.

Don't worry I haven't forgotten that this was supposed to be Hindmarsh's game, I'll elaborate more on that in tomorrows post with some more photos from the game.

Both photos were taken with the EOS 50D and EF 70-200 f2.8L IS USM.

Settings: ISO 1600, 1/320, f/2.8

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A rare victory

After editing so many photos from the Wentworth Falls trek, today seemed like a very ordinary day. Wake up, shopping, work, home. The day took a drastic turn when I switched on the TV and saw the Parra Eels leading 4-0 against the Brisbane Broncos. It was a great game to watch, with a grand stand finish and resulted in a 21-14 Parra victory. You can get the recap here.

It was a game dominated by sons and newphews of past rugby league greats and current electric in form players. The first try featured an off-load by Joel Reddy (son of the great Rod "Rocket" Reddy) to Eric Grothe Jr (son of parra great Eric Grothe Sr).

The second try involved Grothe Jr breaking multiple tackles before off-loading to Reddy for a sprint to the finish line.

The last, and perhaps the most unexpected try came from young Daniel Mortimer (nephew of Steve Mortimer) slicing through some tired Broncos defense to seal the deal. As with any other Parra game, we can't ignore the work of Hayne (267 run meters) and Hindmarsh (47 tackles, 13 Hitups).

In another match, it was the nephew of another great that sparked his team to victory.

And that, of course, is none other than Canberra's Terry Campese (nephew of Rugby Union great David Campese). So far this week has been a round full of upsets, and hopefully the Eels will keep up the recent improvement in form to make the top 8 for finals footy.

The photos were all taken with my Canon EOS 50D + EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM

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ORIGIN

Many of my readers are from Australia, so most of you will also know that State of Origin II just went by. Here are some other things that you may or may not know:

- NSW had yet another horrible start (18-0)

- NSW had yet another great 3rd quarter of the game (caught up to 18-14)

- QLD somehow managed to score the last try again ...

and in doing so made the scoreline a lot less respectable (24-14)

- The Blatchy Blues wigs are ridiculously itchy

- Wolfman had a shocker of a 1st half

- Jarryd Hayne had a legendary 1st half

- Jonathan Thurston is still a wanker

- The Maroons secured their 4th straight Origin series and made history

"I don't know what to say ... I'm shattered" said Blues Captain Kurt Gidley. Well Kurt, as easy as it is to point the blame at the captain, the coach, the selectors ... the whole team needed to put their best foot forward, and only a few answered the call.

With all that aside, being a part of the 80 000 at the near sellout stadium was definitely the best $60 I've ever spent. Being there at a packed stadium (see 1st photo) is easily the best way to support your team, the atmosphere alone is worth it. Other sporting events/teams I would love to hit up include:

- Staples Centre (Lakers home game)

- Madison Square Gardens (Knicks home)

- NCAA Final Four

- Old Trafford (Man U)

- FIFA world cup finals (anywhere)

About the photos, both were taken with my Panasonic Lumix LX-3. 1st photo was a 4 photo stitch using Photoshop CS3. 2nd photo was a 12 photo stitch using Photoshop CS3, and that explains the distortion that you see in the photo.

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