Nathan Hindmarsh is pretty confident he would have heard if Nathan Cayless had made a decision on his future, but not necessarily from the Parramatta captain himself.

As the Eels’ two most experienced players, the Nathans are close, but their wives might be even closer.

“He hasn’t told me anything,” Hindmarsh said.

“Our wives talk and I’d usually hear something down the line but I haven’t heard anything from my wife yet either.”

Veteran Cayless is off-contract at season’s end and is mulling over a move to England, retirement or prolonging his stay at Parramatta amidst reports he is under pressure to retain his starting spot.

“He’s a pretty tight-lipped person so he keeps his cards pretty close to his chest and, to be honest with you, I don’t really want to ask him in case he tells me something I don’t want to know,” Hindmarsh said.

The Kangaroos back rower is keen for his 31-year-old skipper to stay and has urged Parramatta to find room for him, even as the club tries to strike deals with stars such as Feleti Mateo, Krisnan Inu and Kris Keating.

“He’s been great for the club over the years,” Hindmarsh said.

“The last couple of years he’s been playing some really good football.

“He’s fit, he’s still got all the skills and he can still play a lot of minutes compared to some front rowers.

“Whether or not Nathan wants to hang around, that’s up to him but it would be great to see him stay on and finish his career.”

The two Eels warriors will line up together again at Parramatta Stadium in Sunday’s clash with traditional rivals Manly.

Both sides are desperate to get their seasons underway after they endured identically poor starts of two wins from their first seven matches last year.

Manly has not lost at Parramatta since 2006 but are under the pump after losing star full-back Brett Stewart (knee) long-term, in-form front rower George Rose (suspension) and winger David Williams (collarbone).

Hindmarsh is reluctant to say how much the Wests Tigers provided the blueprint, especially with their left-side attack, for how to beat Manly in Monday night’s 26-22 win.

But he did confirm left centre Timana Tahu will see plenty of ball.

“Timana had an awesome game on Friday night for us, physically in defence he’s added a little bit extra there for us but we’ll give him some ball, definitely,” he said.

Hindmarsh says the Sea Eagles’ forwards will be primed for an 80-minute performance after the Tigers ran them down from 20-4 behind.

“I think they maybe got a bit complacent with how the scoreline was sitting,” he said.

“I went to bed anyway, I thought they’d won it so it was a surprise to me when I woke up the next day.

“(Manly coach) Dessy (Hasler) would have hammered into them that it’s a full 80-minute game and you can’t afford to clock off.”

- AAP