With a re-match with St George Illawarra in the first week of the NRL finals on the cards, Parramatta coach Daniel Anderson had a simple message for Eels fans fearing the bubble had burst - "We'll be ready."

The Eels stumbled to their first loss since July 18 when they were shutout 37-0 by the Dragons on Friday night, Anderson admitting the minor premiers were just far too good on the night.

The defeat will no doubt ease some of the expectation Parramatta's stunning surge to the finals had created, but Anderson said he still had the belief that the Eels could cause some damage during the play-offs.

"We didn't aim to lose by 37 points, we didn't want that to happen - we wanted to win the game," Anderson said.

"We'll be ready next week - that's the bottom line.

"We have to brush ourselves off - they were good tonight. They were hungry and they were powerful.

"The season proper is over now and we're going to finish in seventh or eighth spot and we're in the playoffs. We've got to win four games now."

Asked about the possibility of playing a rampant Dragons side again in the next week's qualifying finals, Anderson said: "They'll find a different team to play against next week."

That will definitely be the case with backrower Nathan Hindmarsh (toe injury) certain to come back into the line-up, while winger Eric Grothe is also likely to be available after missing Friday night's game with a stomach virus.

Dragons coach Wayne Bennett said he hadn't given too much thought to his side's finals opponents, which will either be the Eels or Penrith, if they can beat Newcastle on Sunday.

But having witnessed his own side's dramatic turnaround in beating the Eels, Bennett said it was too early to start writing off the blue and golds.

"They've just gone where we've been - welcome to our world," Bennett said.

"They've been up for seven weeks - I said it when it happened to us and we had to turn things around.

"They just had a night where we were hot ... they probably came at the end of their run.

"It's new competition next week and they had a couple of key players missing tonight ... you don't become a bad side overnight."

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