The Penrith Panthers have won back-to-back NRL premierships with a dominant 28-12 victory over the Parramatta Eels at Sydney's Olympic stadium.

The minor premiers led 18-0 at half-time thanks to tries from Stephen Crichton, Brian To'o and Scott Sorensen.

A contentious To'o four-pointer got the ball rolling in the second half for the Panthers, with Charlie Staines also crossing as Penrith underlined their dominance.

The Eels faced being held scoreless in a grand final for the second time in their history, but a Clint Gutherson try with three minutes remaining restored some dignity.

Jake Arthur then gathered a Will Penisini kick to score a second in as many minutes for the Eels, whose only solace is that they went down fighting in front of 82,415 spectators.

Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards won the Clive Churchill Medal, having ran for 281 metres, provided two try assists and pulled off a brilliant try-saving tackle on Bailey Simonsson.

"I think our first half was the best we have ever played," Nathan Cleary told the Nine Network after the match.

It is hard to disagree.

From the outset Penrith was totally dominant, running harder, passing crisper and hitting with more venom to force the Eels onto the back foot.

Crichton opened the scoring for the Panthers, cutting back inside after a slick backline move down the right to score under the posts.

The Panthers were relentless, crashing into the increasingly fractured Eels line with an unsettling regularity that held portents of a potential rout.

To'o crossed next, superbly finishing a well-worked move down the left this time as the Panthers threatened both sides of the Eels defence.

The Panthers were finding holes everywhere and — where none existed — they simply punched through anyway.

Viliame Kikau demolished Mitch Moses with another surging run and his quick play-the-ball allowed Cleary — who was again near-flawless for the Panthers — to create another break.

When Gutherson kicked out on the full from a goal-line dropout, those faint portents started screaming.

A Cleary penalty from that error helped the Panthers to a 12-0 lead, by which time they had enjoyed over 60 per cent possession.

By the time Sorensen gathered a deft Cleary kick in behind to score the Panther's third try, that figure had risen to 65 per cent.

It could have been worse too — only a stunning try-saving dive from Waqa Blake denied Kikau a score minutes before the break.

The Eels simply could not get hold of the ball but they almost scored a try on the stroke of half-time, with Jarome Luai taking the ball under his own crossbar to snuff out the danger of a Moses kick.

Trailing 18-0 at the break, the Eels needed everything to go their way in the second half if they were to get back into the contest.

But To'o crashed over in the corner to score the Panthers' fourth, with the try awarded despite a clear obstruction by Kikau on Moses.

The Eels kept trying, finally deploying their offload game to provoke the Panthers into a rare goal-line defensive set.

They should have scored too, but Maika Sivo dropped the ball over the line, with Crichton's last-ditch tackle just enough to dislodge the ball from the giant winger's grasp. 

The Eels then showed stunning inventiveness to create a brilliant chance for Simonsson down the right wing, when Reed Mahoney grubbered a ball through to the Eels centre after shimming through a handful of tackles.

But symptomatic of the Eels night, Edwards came flying in from fullback to bundle the Eels winger into touch on halfway.

To make matters worse, Simonsson never returned to the field, leaving down the tunnel cradling his arm with an injury.