Manly was reduced to 12 players inside five minutes and Eels captain Clint Gutherson accepted the gift to put Parramatta ahead early by two points before Maiko Sivo scored the opening try.
Manly drew level in the 28th minute.
The Eels leaned to their left edge in the 33rd minute, as Gutherson unleashed Sivo with a cut-out pass.
The winger had plenty of work to do with defenders ahead of him, but made light work of the situation to score a trademark Sivo try.
A string of perfectly timed passes by Dylan Brown, Gutherson and Will Penisini created a clear path to the try line for Bailey Simonsson, and he leaped his way to the stripe as defenders loomed.
All three of Parramatta’s sideline conversion attempts were unsuccessful, but the Eels took a 14-6 lead to the break.
Manly returned from halftime with all guns blazing and had snatched an 18-14 lead by the 50th minute before hitting a six-point advantage with 22 minutes remaining.
Sivo scored again, completing his match hat-trick but the Eels’ momentum was extinguished five minutes later when he was sin binned and another Manly try sealed their fate.
Eels coach Brad Arthur said they fell into a massive hole.
“But with the effort and courage we’ve shown before and if we keep doing that, we’ll fight our way out of it,” he said.
The Eels have a bye in round 9 and next take on the Broncos on Friday, May 10, from 8pm at CommBank Stadium.
