Young bags hat-trick as Roosters belt Eels in the wet

But the Roosters never appeared to get out of second gear once they overcame a sloppy start, feasting on the Eels' leaky edges during two separate sin-binnings.

Easts are set to finish the weekend third on the NRL ladder with the competition's best points differential.

Pending other results, they could be three points inside the top four at the end of round 24, and face no more top-eight sides across the last three rounds of the regular season.

The Roosters' Connor Watson was cleaned up by this tackle in the clash against the Eels. (Mark Evans/AAP PHOTOS)

Trent Robinson would have been pleased by his side's renewed defensive vigour after giving up 64 points across the two games before the bye.

But their attacking prowess was on full show as well, Young shaking off a hamstring issue to confirm his first hat-trick of an up-and-down opening season in red, white and blue.

The Eels did themselves few favours and struggled to contain the best attacking side in the NRL, conceding four of their seven tries while reduced to 12 men.

Parramatta first lost Wiremu Greig to the sin bin after the prop made shoulder contact with Connor Watson's head in the first half and then needed to contend without Brendan Hands following a professional foul just after the break.

By the time Greig came back on after 25 minutes, Young and Daniel Tupou had crossed on either edge, ballooning the lead to 18 points to give the 16th-placed Eels a mountain to climb.

Watson left the field for a head injury assessment after the shot from Greig and was unable to return so will miss next Sunday's away clash against Gold Coast.

James Tedesco's 60-metre runaway try was a particular highlight once the Eels regained the full complement.

Just after Greig returned, the captain poked between Will Penisini and Sean Russell before selling Clint Gutherson a dummy so convincingly that the Eels fullback slipped over in one of the many pools of water that had formed on the pitch.

Walker's vision for Tupouniua 🤩 — NRL (@NRL) #NRLRoostersEels pic.twitter.com/7PNjMWeLMaAugust 16, 2024

In his 100th NRL game, Sitili Tupouniua chased a Sam Walker chip kick through to the line to help extend the lead to 30 points while Hands was in the bin.

Young bagged his third on an overlap as Hands watched from the sidelines before earning an early mark in the final 10 minutes.

Gutherson toiled hard and put Kelma Tuilagi over for the try that opened the Eels' account in the second half, but the inspirational skipper could not prevent Parramatta from missing 57 tackles.

Joey Lussick darted out of dummy-half to put a little more respectability on the scoreboard in the final minute of the game.