Come hell or high water, or the loss of competition points for salary cap cheating, Kieran Foran is adamant Parramatta will be there come NRL finals time.
The Eels are expected to find out within 10 days whether they will be slugged points as the NRL investigates a series of dubious third-party deals.
It's been speculated the club could lose up to 10 competition points and, while that might seem like an insurmountable hurdle for their top-eight hopes, a defiant Foran says they can overcome it.
"It'd be tough; I'm not going to lie about it. Losing eight or 10 points in such a tight comp in which every team wants to be playing finals, it's going to be hard," Eels skipper Foran said.
"We have a genuine belief here that we want to be playing finals footy.
"We're not going to let eight or 10 points stop us from doing that."
The loss of competition points would be a cruel blow for a side which has positioned itself as a genuine contender after seven rounds.
They have won five of their past six to sit in fourth, just one victory behind pacesetters Brisbane.
After winning the Auckland Nines and sprinting out of the blocks, they deserve to be spoken about as contenders along with Brisbane and North Queensland, and will receive a further litmus test on Saturday against the Cowboys in Townsville.
While club great Peter Sterling this week questioned whether the Eels could recover from the loss of eight points, Foran said he would not allow it to be the death knell of their premiership campaign.
"We've worked our arses off all pre-season to prepare ourselves for this year and we're not going to let eight points, 10 points derail our year," Foran said.
"We're a passionate side and our fans deserve for us to put our best foot forward and do everything we can to play finals football."
