CALL it a funny game, but rugby league has a habit of tossing up ironies. That's the case for Daniel Alvaro this week when he plays his 100th NRL game - against the club he notched 89 of them with.
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The 27-year-old has been a surprise packet this season after he was released by the Eels to join the Dragons. It followed a season where he struggled to crack the Eels 17 and played six of eight games in 2020 for the Warriors in an on-loan capacity.
While he knew early in the the piece that he'd bring up the century against his former club, he says he won't be heading out onto Bankwest Stadium with a point to prove.
"Not really, I've just got to keep doing what I'm doing and try and be someone the boys here want to play with," Alvaro said.
"We've got a good thing going at the moment and I'm just keen to keep that going. I worked out not too long ago that it was going fall on this game if I played the first five rounds. Footy's funny like that.
"I didn't think too much of it until it came up on me but I'm really excited and I really can't wait to play and reach that [milestone]."
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The Eels are flying high off four straight wins to start the season and Alavaro says his side will need to step up despite riding a three-game streak of their own.
"It's massive challenge for us and something we're really looking forward to," he said.
"We're playing some really strong opposition and we've got a lot of things to work on and get right that we haven't been getting right the last couple of weeks. If we want to win on the weekend we're definitely going to need to fix those little areas up."