Ben Ikin: Unstructured Eels win my vote

Ben Ikin is backing the Eels to win tonight's NRL premiership decider. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

If you go into this game with any certainty then you are a smarter man than me but my heart tells me the Eels will win it.

As good as Melbourne have been in recent weeks, I think we have been given a false impression of where they are really at. Manly weren't in the right space in the first week of the finals and got dispatched and the Broncos didn't play nearly as well as they did the previous week against the Dragons. They had already played their grand final when they met the Storm.

There's just something about the Eels. It's not just that they play exciting, ad-lib, unstructured football but their defence has been outstanding.

They are the equal of Melbourne in this respect and I wonder if the structured way Melbourne play will work against the Eels defence and whether the unstructured way the Eels attack will send the Storm mad.

Melbourne aren't that much different to the side that played in the grand final four years ago. Parramatta have had so much success because opposition coaches can't get their head around what they are going to do.

You can say all you want about Jarryd Hayne and his brilliance but, for me, it's Nathan Hindmarsh. If he was a Queenslander, he would've played 40 Origin games (he's played 16 for New South Wales). He's brilliant and deserves a premiership.

* Ben Ikin is a former Australian and Queensland State of Origin five-eighth