A Will Kennedy hat-trick led the Sharks to a 30-26 win over the Eels in a Friday night shootout at CommBank Stadium.
Both sides scored five tries but in the end it was the goalkicking of Braydon Trindall that proved the difference as the Sharks opened their account for 2023 and retained the Johnny Mannah Cup.
An early offside penalty against the Sharks invited Parramatta into the red zone and J'maine Hopgood delivered a perfect flick pass for Reagan Campbell-Gillard to cross for the opening try.
Two minutes later Hopgood came to the fore again with a superb offload to Josh Hodgson who found Clint Gutherson, the skipper showing great hands to move the ball on to Dylan Brown and then Waqa Blake and finally out to Maika Sivo to power away for the second try.
The Sharks hit back in the 15th minute after Briton Nikora steamed into a hole from close range after taking a short ball from Trindall.
Sharks fullback Will Kennedy then made it four tries in the space of 15 minutes when he exposed the Eels' left side defence to score and the visitors had taken the lead at 12-10.
Bench forward Cameron McInnes threatened to put the Sharks further ahead with half-time approaching but he lost the ball a metre out as the Eels defence muscled up.
A dropped ball by Kennedy handed Parra field position and halfback Mitch Moses broke through a Jesse Ramien tackle to score wide out to make it 14-12 to the home side.
Kennedy made amends soon after when he backed up a Matt Moylan break and raced away to give the Sharks the lead but Sivo's second in the 44th minute put the Eels back in front as the sides continued to trade tries.
After defending their line grimly for three sets the Sharks broke away through an intercept by Ronaldo Mulitalo, who was cut down by Moses in a great cover tackle. With the Eels struggling to get back onside, Siosifa Talakai found Kennedy who danced his way across the line for his third try and the Sharks led 24-20 with 23 minutes to play.
On the hour mark the Sharks went further ahead when Mulitalo soared above Bailey Simonsson to bring down a Moylan bomb to score and Trindall's sideline conversion made it 30-20.
With seven minutes to play it was Moses racing away for his second try courtesy of more great lead-up work by Hopgood and the Eels were back within four points.
The Eels then mounted one last raid but Blake dropped the ball in the left hand corner and Ramien picked up the scraps and the chance was lost.
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Story first published by: NRL.com