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As has become tradition in recent years, The Tip Sheet sits down with Mark O’Neill in December to breakdown the year that was and what lies ahead for the club from the NRL and NRLW right through to the junior representative programs.
Sixties and Forty20 discuss a wide range of topics with the General Manager of Football for the Parramatta Eels. The show starts with discussion around the ‘Project PARRAdise’ video and dovetailing into the 2024 preseason before tackling the trials and tribulations of the failed 2023 campaign.
How is the roster shaping up? The boys looks at the new faces in Kelma Tuilagi and Morgan Harper, the upstart young talents working towards a NRL debut and who or what role the Eels are targetting to round out their Top 30.
In the final chapter of the interview, O’Neill breaks down the organisational changes with new coaches heading the junior programs. The departure of the popular Nathan Brown is imminent and Steve Georgallis replacing him. What role and impact that Georgallis have with the NRLW?
Interesting listen, though I think MON needs to take greater responsibility for the recruitment failures in the NRL and NRLW squads. It would also be nice to hear how they plan to rectify such failures.
I’d also like to know the decision making behind changing the coaching set up of the successful SG Ball team and to a lesser extent Harold Mathews and Jersey Flagg teams. They were all finalists yet they have changed coaches, whereas the NSW cup and NRL teams failed to make the finals and coaches were remained. Without explanations it seems that failure is rewarded and success punished.
Hi mate and thanks for the reply.
Regarding the coaches, Steve O’Dea has moved up from coaching SG Ball to being assistant to Jordan Rankin with Flegg (NB Flegg is a full season whereas Junior Reps are less than half that). Brenno will be Caylo’s assistant in NSW Cup. Howie was Matts coach and didn’t apply for the gig in 2024. Ryan Walker was the Gale coach but now has a full time pathways role. Char Henry was the assistant coach and is now the head coach.
Thanks for clarifying the coaching 60s.
I have to admit I am worried about the lack of movement and efficiency with recruitment. I hope it came up in their review of the last season and I hope MON’s comment that nothing is in the pipeline is a smokescreen.
Cheers
Comments re responsibility for recruitment is interesting, MON is very hard working but could never be described as dynamic, and player managers mention that he is very hard to budge and reasonably difficult to negotiate with.
Definitely has the best intentions of the club and to that end he does a job, disappointing that we do not seem to be able to land that special player since he took charge. Still time before the season starts and perhaps clubs will be looking to offload the backline player we need.
I though Mark oriel was leaving to the tigers .
That was a media rumour.
Certain Tele scribes been going on ad nauseum about that move. I suppose it fills the gaps in their columns in the off season.
It was disappointing to hear our general manager say we were short in crucial positions as a reason why we failed to make the finals this year. I’m sorry but part of his job is to make sure we aren’t short on depth before it becomes a problem. Sixties then brought up being short on backs and O’Neil wanted to bring up Dunster not coming back as expected from a leg injury. Again it is the job of the general manager to know that the year after a player has an ACL injury is basically a write off as they need time to regain strength and confidence.
There are some exciting prospects coming through and I believe along with the experience and talent already in the team I think we can re-enter the race for the premiership. But we cannot afford to be short on depth or crucial positions like we allowed to happen this year.
Spot on mate
Well said mate. It was a pretty limp showing from MON. Justifications or, more accurately, excuses like that are embarrassing from the “head of football”. And what is more embarrassing is the recruitment for this year after such gaping holes were exposed in the squad. I’m sure MON works hard but working smarter always beats working harder and geez we haven’t been smart with our roster composition/salary cap. Got a whole bunch of players coming off contract at end of this year and hopgood is ripe to get picked up by another club if we aren’t more proactive
The roster is stronger in the forwards 2024 than gf side 2022 and backs no worse ron , they’ve declared they’re in the market for an x factor with the funds to pay for it , what more do you want mate, incidentally those coming off , momosea , cini , rodwell,makatoa , asi , ogden , none im fretting about especially given the kids coming thru plus moretti , all exciting for most fans ron , arthur, blaze ,pryke , tuivati etc 👍👍👍
Sorry I should have said off contract in 25 but able to speak to other clubs from November 24 (rcg, Bryce, gutho, hopgood, joe ofa, Blaze, tuivati etc). It’s a big chunk and if hopgood even plays a dead rubber or gun game this year his value sky rockets with more and more clubs testing his resolve to stay. I get hopgood my be holding off for precisely that prospect but the better clubs don’t let heaps of players come off contract at same time yet alone same time + a new nrl club flush with cash with join nrl
Wont lose any we don’t want to my opinion , some people at top of the trees value will have declined as well by then making room for a really good crop of youngsters , dyl ,oregan, reedy etc last crop ,this crop better and more of with more following ask 60s and ham , positivity ron !!!!
Great interview, good to hear they are still looking for a game breaker with some “brilliance”
I’m hoping that Ado carr is still a possibility.
I would of loved a question about young Sanders staying or going.
Guess you can’t ask every thing nor can everything be answered right now.
Cheers,
Tony
Tony, unfortunately any question about Sanders would be difficult to answer without disclosing negotiation details. I decided against asking it.
Yep fully understand mate.
Sixties…. I can confirm Ethan Sanders is still in contact with the Raiders. It is still his intention to join the Raiders. The Raiders will have him mid season if possible. Ethan would leave mid season if given the opportunity and made this known to the club. No idea if this is the reason why he is not being considered 🤷
Thanks gents. Have to agree with some of the comments though about some pretty poor responses re recruitment and squad depth. Other than Morgan Harper and Dunster maybe being a bit closer to fitness, nothing material seems to have changed in outside backs.
The other thing I thought was telling is that in response to what 2024 expectations are, top 4 or 6 was the answer. That’s hardly confidence inspiring. Surely the only acceptable answer is “we can’t promise anything, but we should have the squad to meaningfully contend for a premiership”. If that’s not the case, then we don’t have balance in the roster in my view.
If 2024 isn’t realistic, it’s hard to see 2025 being a possibility with an ageing forward pack. Not to sound too doomsday about things, but we need to be a threat in 2024, otherwise there’s a few years of roster rebuild ahead of us I think.
Mick I think there’s a damned if you do and damned if you don’t element to that question. Again, this was a question that I wondered whether any response would be accepted. I well remember how supporters on social media used to respond to Tim Mannah’s positive responses about the upcoming season during the lean years. Maybe it’s a question I shouldn’t have asked.
Yeah I get that, and at the end of the day it was just words about crystal ball gazing type stuff.
However, I bet if you asked the Panthers equivalent, he’d be saying “our goal is 4 in a row”. It wouldn’t be anywhere near as complacent as an answer. Winning is a mindset, and if you don’t have that mindset, it makes it even harder to put into practice.
I have supported MON since he was recommended by the review team and I believe he did a great job leading in during that time.
I still want to support him but one of the commentators used the word “limp” and I think he came over a bit that way in this interview. His comment about Dunster was forgettable and to emphasise this further, Dunster was only ever promising and he certainly made a singular impression scoring that try off his toenails….but he was never the answer to last years problems.
That said O’Neill does come over like a real Parra man and he has certainly adopted the culture and I love that he see’s that culture as an absolute imperative within the club.
I hope that he is not falling for the trap of not upsetting anyone for the sake of harmony, always a fine line in someone like his position.
Lets hope that JAC is the secret ingredient he is holding back on.