Every season one club has the unfortunate honour of being death-ridden by the rugby league public. They're the good team many would most like to see fail at the pointy end of the season.

The reasons for becoming this team change every year. Sometimes, simply being the best is enough for people to cheer for their demise. Maybe a 50:50 call against a cellar-dweller side goes their way followed by cries of ''they get all of the calls''. Perhaps an upward trending team with no recent history of real success is getting a little bit too far ahead of themselves. The rugby league echo chamber tends to pick one or two reasons to single out a club and hope for the worst.

While seeing the Sydney Roosters avoid a three-peat and the Melbourne Storm fall short will be towards the top of many death-ride power rankings, the Parramatta Eels appear to be the new team the neutral NRL fan is collectively hoping comes up short in October.

They've been trending up for 18 months and have their sights set on the Grand Finals - tick.

They just beat the Storm with an 8-1 penalty count prompting suggestions that they're getting the rub of the green with the referees - two ticks given those suggestions came against the side that typically has a mortgage on apparent referee bias.

So, with many footy fans assessing Parramatta's chances and predicting the likelihood in which they can bask in blue and gold tears, let's take a look at the arguments for and against possible premiership glory.

For Winning the Premiership

The Eels finished the 2019 season at 5th on the ladder with 14 wins and 10 losses. They went on to thrash the Broncos in Week 1 of the finals before being comprehensively beaten by the Storm in Week 2. 

With key additions through the middle, the development of their spine and - for the pessimists - a worrying amount of luck in the injury department so far this season, the 2020 Eels are an elite defensive team and improved overall this time around.

Nathan Brown's kamikaze style, which has often resulted in injury and suspension, hasn't kept him off the field too often this season. He's played 11 games in 2020 while averaging a career-high 162 running metres per game. Backed up by Reagan Campbell-Gillard, the erstwhile Panther looks a different player to 12 months ago. He's upped his average yardage from 107 metres per game in 2019 to a career-high 175 metres per game in 2020.

But the most important player in Parramatta's middle is Junior Paulo. 

The hulking Samoan is playing out a career-best year as he eats metres in hard sets and provides the Eels with an unlikely ball-player close to the line. His 161 running metres, like Brown and Campbell-Gillard, is a career-high. However, it's his career-high three try assists in 2020 that makes him so dangerous.

Few can stand in a tackle and release an offload close to the line better than Paulo.

Nobody close to Paulo's 188cm and 123kg can take possession on a shift, straighten, engage the line and produce a perfect pass to his fullback as he did against the Broncos in Round 3 this season.

Paulo's ability to act as an extra link in the spine adds width to the Eels attack and is further evidenced in the two tries above. In the first, Paulo receives the ball from Reed Mahoney before sending Mitchell Moses over the line. In the second, Dylan Brown shifts the ball wide to Paulo who links up with Clint Gutherson.

With what Paulo offers with the ball along with the yardage Brown, Campbell-Gillard and the improving rotation of Marata Niukore, Kane Evans, Ray Stone and Oregon Kaufusi offer, the Eels have the go-forward to get up the field and create try-scoring opportunities. They currently lead the NRL in yardage with 1,896 metres per game which, historically, puts them in a strong position to contend for the premiership.

Given their luck in the injury department, the Eels have been able to spend the first 15 rounds of this season developing cohesion across the park.

Blake Ferguson's absence in Round 10 is the only match this season that their first-choice backline hasn't run out to start the match. Through the middle, Paulo, Campbell-Gillard, Niukore (between lock and the bench) Mahoney and Shaun Lane have all played every game this season. Brown and Ryan Matterson have missed just four games each.

In a year that threatens to be defined by a significant increase in injuries as key players in almost every team have spent lengthy periods on the sideline or had their season cut short, Parramatta are the outlier at the moment.

That cohesion has played a key role in Parramatta entering the final month of the regular season with the NRL's best defence conceding just 11.7 points per game - another area that historically translates into premiership contention.

Against Winning the Premiership

While all of the above sounds good and plenty in Parramatta will be booking Grand Final tickets if crowds can enter ANZ Stadium on October 25, it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.

The Eels last finished inside the top four in 2017. They played the 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th-placed teams twice each that season. Once faced with finals footy and high-quality opposition, they bowed out of the finals with back-to-back losses before finishing the following season holding the wooden spoon. 

This year, they'll end up playing the Sea Eagles (11th), Broncos (15th) and Bulldogs (16th) twice and have so far played just six games against Top 8 teams. If you narrow those six games down a little further, they had the fortune of playing the injury-ravaged Storm in Round 15.

Yes, you can only play what is in front of you, and so far, Parramatta has played them well to win 12 of their 15 games this season. However, "you can only play what's in front of you" is just as dismissive as ignoring the fact that Parramatta has had a friendly run and maybe somewhat overachieving. Their attack, in particular, still needs to improve if they're to have enough points in them to get past elite attacking teams in the finals.

While they've put 46 points on the Titans, 34 points on the Broncos and 42 points on the Cowboys, the Eels have averaged just 14.8 points per game against teams in the Top 8 to rank 8th in the NRL in scoring at 20.8 points per game. Unlike the yardage and defensive numbers, their scoring doesn't sit well when measured against premiership winners in previous years.

The 20.8 points per game look worse when put beside fellow contenders this season, too.

The main area of concern comes in Parramatta's poor efficiency close to the line. Only the Warriors (0.48), Bulldogs (0.49), Cowboys (0.56) and Titans (0.57) score fewer than the Eels' 0.573 points per tackle inside the opposition 20-metre line. Those four teams all fall into the bottom six in the competition in points per game.

We know that defence wins premierships, but you need to pile up a few points to defend as well. It's one area the Eels may struggle in come finals time.

Looking Ahead

The 2020 Eels are a very good football side. Their left edge attack is one of the most dangerous in the NRL and we've already touched on their powerful middle and elite defence. They need to do a little bit more against the top three teams before stamping their ticket to the Grand Final, though.

The Stats Insider futures model puts the Eels at 18.4% to win the Grand Final, behind the Panthers (20.5%), Roosters (21.4%) and Storm (24.1%). Sitting on the fourth line in the premiership probabilities feels right for the Eels given what we know at the moment. However, their Round 18 clash against the Panthers could tell us a lot more while also acting as a possible Grand Final preview.

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