A desperate Parramatta kept their NRL season alive with an entertaining 30-14 upset victory over Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.

Needing to win to keep in touch with the top eight, Parramatta buried their second half fade out against the Titans last weekend to hold off the Broncos.

A spectacular individual try by veteran winger Luke Burt in the 72nd minute after he chipped over the head of Brisbane fullback Josh Hoffman stretched the Eels' lead to 24-14 before rookie Anthony Mitchell finished the job with a try on debut in the final minute.

Parramatta's blue and yellow wall hung on desperately in the second half, denying Brisbane forward Sam Thaiday a try with four minutes remaining that would have set up a grandstand finish for the crowd of 38,193.

Parramatta deserved the win with lock Feleti Mateo outstanding in attack along with fullback Jarryd Hayne who scored the opening try and was desperately unlucky not to get a double in the 58th minute.

"We really dug deep," said Parramatta skipper Nathan Cayless whose 217th game as captain eclipsed the previous best by former Penrith and Roosters great Brad Fittler.

"We played to our potential tonight, we've been disappointing.

"We've kept our season alive.

"We played some footy tonight, we'd got away from that a bit."

Hayne's almost try was typically spectacular.

After splitting the defence the fullback angles a clever chip kick past Brisbane opposite Josh Hoffman before regathering the ball and appearing to score a freakish try.

Brisbane winger Antonio Winterstein did his best to stop Hayne from grounding the ball and after numerous looks from various angles video referee Sean Hampstead correctly ruled Hayne had failed to ground the ball.

A try would have kicked Parramatta out to a 24-10 lead but instead, Brisbane scored five minutes later through forward Ben T'eo who cashed in on a great Shane Tronc off-load after he was swamped by four defenders.

Brisbane appeared to miss Darren Lockyer's guidance with stand-in pivot Matt Gillett having a quiet game.

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