A week after having their desire publicly questioned by coach Jason Ryles, Parramatta have responded by belting Canterbury in a 38-20 NRL win.
With the heroes of the club's last premiership win in 1986 watching on at CommBank Stadium on Sunday, Ryles' depleted side - missing eight NRL regulars - rose to the occasion to cause a boilover.
It was a marked difference to the side which was booed off a week earlier after being handed their biggest home loss in more than 30 years by the Gold Coast Titans.
Mitchell Moses was influential but halves partner Ronald Volkman was just as electric as the Eels claimed a third win of the season.
"This time last week, we were questioning a lot of things and the turnaround came through our defence and our attitude," Ryles said.
"There's no better feeling than seeing the joy that they (the 1986 side) get out of the current crop performing the way they did.
"It wasn't so much the result, but I think it was how they did it and the grit and the resolve that the players showed."
Canterbury lacked attacking spark and Cameron Ciraldo's decision to use back-rower Josh Curran in the centres after Enari Tuala was ruled out with a hamstring issue before kick-off raised eyebrows.
Curran made four errors and the decision was all the more puzzling given Ciraldo named winger Jonathan Sua on the bench.
Sua eventually saw gametime when Jacob Kiraz limped off in the second half with a medial ligament issue.
Ciraldo described the performance as "crap" and said Kiraz would go for scans on Monday.
"We started with good energy and intent, but any sort of error and penalty we had, we showed no resilience," Ciraldo said.
"Parra were really good - exactly what we expected them to be - and deserved the win but we were way off our best."
The Dogs have won just one of their past four NRL games after failing to capitalise on a hot start when Bronson Xerri weaved down the left edge and offloaded to Kiraz.
Matt Burton missed the conversion before Parramatta hit the front when Volkman found Addo-Carr, who tiptoed down the sideline to score.
An illegal strip from Lachlan Galvin allowed the Eels to push ahead with Volkman jinking his way through the middle of the Bulldogs' defence on the next set.
Addo-Carr then smashed Curran to jolt the ball loose with the Eels going on a raid down the left.
Winger Brian Kelly grubbered ahead for Joash Papalii to touch down in the 34th minute to give the Eels a 18-4 halftime lead.
Kiraz came off early into the second half and Burton soldiered on with an ankle injury.
Galvin kept his side in it when he powered over Moses to grab the first try of the second half with 28 minutes left to play and cut the Eels' lead to eight points.
But three blunders from Curran put Parramatta back in the boxseat.
First the makeshift centre fumbled at the play-the-ball under pressure from rookie Eels centre Araz Nanva.
And then at the end of the ensuing set Curran dropped a Moses bomb into Dylan Walker's hands and the Eels utility crashed over.
Moses extended the Eels' buffer with a 70th-minute penalty goal.
The Dogs tried a short kick-off and Curran tapped the ball back to Eels interchange hooker Tallyn Da Silva who raced 50m to score.
Sua and Xerri scored tries in the final 10 minutes for the Bulldogs but it was a case of too little too late.
The only sour note for the Eels was hooker Ryley Smith being ruled out with a suspected sternum injury.
