Maika Sivo scored a hat-trick as the Eels left St George Illawarra relying on other results to make the finals after scoring the most points by a losing team in the game’s history.
The Dragons went into the match against the bottom-of-the-ladder Eels knowing that a win and another victory against Canberra at home next weekend would secure eighth-place but fell short with a 44-40 loss at CommBank Stadium.
With the Broncos and Dolphins among four other teams in play-off contention, the winner of their clash at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night was guaranteed to leapfrog the Dragons on for-and-against.
The Knights host the Titans on Sunday, while the Raiders face the second-placed Roosters at Allianz Stadium.
After trailing 44-12 in the 70th minute, St George Illawarra laid on five tries in the last 10 minutes but the Eels hung on for their second win in 11 matches heading into next weekend’s wooden spoon battle against Wests Tigers.
The Dragons couldn’t have gotten off to a much worse start, making three errors in the opening three minutes before Eels five-eighth Dylan Brown put centre Will Penisini over.
Fijian superstar Maika Sivo crashed over five minutes later to bring up his century of tries for Parramatta and extend their lead to 10-0.
Rookie hooker Connor Mulheisen, who received a late call up after Jacob Liddle’s partner went into labour with their first child, scored his first NRL try as the Dragons fought their way back into the game.
St George Illawarra had back-to-back tries disallowed after Mat Feagai had the ball stripped by Clint Gutherson and Zac Lomax caused an obstruction as Tyrell Sloan crossed from a scrum.
However, Parramatta regained momentum as errors continued to hurt the Dragons, with Sivo making a break and Clint Gutherson backing up to score in the 23rd minute.
Winger Jake Tago and prop Shaun Lane followed their captain over the tryline before halftime to give the Eels a 26-6 lead.
The second started the same as the first, with Brown and Gutherson scoring in the opening five minutes to all but put paid to any hope of a Dragons comeback.
Fullback Tyrell Sloan tried his best to spark the visitors and Lomax scored in the 51st minute after finishing a good backline movement and reduce Parramatta’s lead to 36-12 but it was too little too late.
Sivo completed his hat-trick in the 63rd minute before the Dragons hit back late through a Sloan double and hat-trick by Mat Feagai.