We all know the story of how Manu Ma'u and Suaia Matagi turned their lives around after spending time in Aotearoa prisons. There's no need to dwell on that story much more but this week sparked a new chapter in that story as Ma'u re-signed with Parrmatta Eels until the end of 2019 and Matagi was snapped up by Parramatta for two years from Penrith Panthers. 

Parramatta have brought together Ma'u and Matagi, re-uniting the pair from their days at  Auckland Vulcans which was one of their early steps of their respective paths back into the NRL. This provides a low key bit of funk when you consider that Ma'u and Matagi were both there, sitting in the lap of New Zealand Warriors and are now going to team up for the Eels next season. Matagi did manage to play for the Warriors, but was allowed to leave without much fuss and Ma'u was swiftly poached by Parramatta.

Allow me to drop some names that featured in an Auckland Vulcans team from April 4, 2012; Dylan Collier (went back to rugby and has been playing provincial rugby in Aoteraoa), Krisnan Inu (went to Europe), Konrad Hurrell (now Gold Coast Titan), Pita Godinet (played for Manly last year), Agnatius Paasi (now Gold Coast Titan), Sam Lousi (Wellington rugby).

Parramatta and Ma'u have formed a fairly special connection since Ma'u left Auckland to join the Eels. Featuring mainly on Parramatta's left edge, Ma'u has been one of the more consistent forces for the Eels and while a lot has gone on around Ma'u with Parramatta's off-field dramas causing all sorts of problems, Ma'u has done a job for coach Brad Arthur each and every week. This is why Ma'u won the Ken Thornett Medal as Parramatta's Player of the Year. 

Ma'u also showed some low key utility value this season as he filled in at centre a few times and that Ma'u re-signed with Parramatta despite apparent interest from Manly, shows the connection between Ma'u, the Eels and coach Arthur. We can now look forward to Ma'u holding down an edge forward spot with the Eels for the next two seasons and given that the Eels have gone on a re-signing/signing binge, there's a fair chance that Ma'u will not only continue to get better but also play a key role in the Eels getting themselves back into the upper echelons of the NRL.

The signing of Matagi conveniently comes after prop Danny Wicks announced a shock retirement. Parramatta lost Junior Paulo to Canberra earlier this year and without Wicks, Parramatta needed to bolster their prop stocks which they have done nicely in signing Matagi and Siosaia Vave (from Manly).

A lot went right for Penrith in the back-end of this season, through my #KiwiNRL lenses though I can see that in the 12 games they played since round 14, Penrith lost just three of those games and Matagi started all of those games. Prior to round 14, Matagi had come off the bench in all of those games which basically means that Matagi is either a good luck charm or really good at doing his job in the middle of the field.

Matagi was rarely used to play big minutes, despite starting and that doesn't really matter because Matagi was incredibly efficient in his work. While he played over 40 minutes just once, Matagi avearged 10m per-carry in six of those 12 games and across that entire 12-span, Matagi averaged 10.03m per-carry.

Other props might play more minutes, they might break more tackles and they might offload more but Matagi did a fantastic job in getting Penrith on the front foot. Plenty of carries usually means plenty of metres, Matagi is leading the way with his efficiency though.

In Matagi and Ma'u alone, Parramatta have two lads who are going to run the footy excessively hard, one through the middle and one out of the edge. Vave also did this well with Manly last season while the signing of Frank Pritchard is also a great piece of business as he'll line up on the opposite edge to Ma'u. Combine Matagi, Ma'u, Vave and Pritchard with Beau Scott, Kenny Edwards, Tim Mannah, Daniel Alvaro and Peni Terepo; Corey Norman's gonna love working his magic behind that forward pack.

Parramatta were never one of the #KiwiNRL teams I made sure to watch, however with Ma'u and Matagi in their team, I'm going to be paying close attention.