Cowboys lock Jason Taumalolo will be looking for redemption on Friday night after coming off a one-game suspension, while his opponents the Eels' bid to avoid the wooden spoon has become much harder having lost their hardest-working middle forwards Daniel Alvaro and Nathan Brown.
With Alvaro and Brown sidelined by knee injuries the responsibility of leading the way for Parramatta's forwards will fall on the shoulders of prop Peni Terepo, who sits on 1123 VB Hard Earned index points, ranking third on the club's leaderboard.
Taumalolo's absence in last Saturday night's 28-16 loss to the Sharks resulted in him dropping from sixth place to 10th on the leaderboard. But the steamroller is still the leading Cowboy this season on 1495 index points.
Each week the VB Hard-Earned Award Index is calculated by doubling the amount of runs a player makes, plus adding in the amount of tackles, support plays and decoys, along with offloads, tackles breaks and charge downs.
Players lose one point for each missed tackle, four points for each error or penalty they concede and eight points for a sin bin.
Sea Eagles lock Jake Trbojevic still holds the title for the hardest working player this season after extending his lead on the season leaderboard to 1851 index points after Manly's 42-34 loss to the Titans last Friday night.
Titans skipper Ryan James (1717) remains in second place, with Knights second-rower Aidan Guerra (1712) in third. Wests Tigers lock Matthew Eisenhuth (1617) has worked his way up to fourth, overtaking Penrith's James Fisher-Harris (1560) who is now ranked fifth.
Due to Taumalolo missing round 23, Bulldogs captain Josh Jackson, Sea Eagles lock Martin Taupau, Sharks prop Andrew Fifita and Rabbitohs second-rower Angus Crichton have each shuttled up once place on the ladder.