NRL Team List
Round 17, Saturday 5:30PM, McDonald Jones Stadium
The Eels come out of the bye with a bang after the announcement that Parramatta Eel #846 will be none other than Matthew Arthur. Fresh off captaining the NSW Under 19s to a thrilling victory over their Queensland counterparts last Thursday, the young dummy half dubbed ‘Boods’ now notches one of the most significant personal milestones in his career as he plays from the bench against the Newcastle Knights.
Given that Parramatta’s finals aspirations have evaporated into the aether, prioritising the development of prospects that can tangibly bolster our hopes for season 2025 makes plenty of sense. Arthur, like Blaize Talagi, is one of those crucial pieces and the timing for this move is right following a dominant individual campaign in the NSW Cup from the crafty rake. Will he dominate first grade right out of the gates? Who knows? The most likely answer is naturally no – or rather not yet – with the jump in quality likely to test Arthur. Likewise, this could and should be the catalyst for interim coach Trent Barrett to soon pull the same trigger on Charlie Guymer, who as it so happens is also present for this week’s team sheet.
Maika Sivo looks to have finally overcome a hamstring injury that sidelined him for contests against the Bulldogs and Roosters. Despite all (legitimate) grievances about the consistency of his play, it is a welcome sight for a backline that is utterly short on troops. Sivo’s presence allows Sean Russell to return to left centre with Will Penisini and Blaize Talagi operating down the right together.
Concerns over J’maine Hopgood’s back see him missing in action this week as Joe Ofahengaue starts at look forward. The combination of Hopgood’s back injury and Kelma Tuilagi’s broken thumb has also opened the door for Matt Doorey to make a well-deserved return to the NRL. He is joined on the bench by Arthur, Makatoa and Matterson.
Parramatta’s opponents this week have a change in the halves with 21-year-old five-eighth Will Pryce making his debut for the Novocastrians. He partners Jackson Hastings at the helm of the team with Tyson Frizell leading the Knights at captain.
| Parramatta Eels | Newcastle Knights | |
| Clinton Gutherson | 1 | Fletcher Sharpe |
| Maika Sivo | 2 | Enari Tuala |
| Will Penisini | 3 | Dane Gagai |
| Sean Russel | 4 | Bradman Best |
| Blaize Talagi | 5 | Greg Marzhew |
| Dylan Brown | 6 | Will Pryce |
| Mitchell Moses | 7 | Jackson Hastings |
| Reagan Campbell-Gillard | 8 | Jacob Saifiti |
| Brendan Hands | 9 | Phoenix Crossland |
| Junior Paulo | 10 | Leo Thompson |
| Shaun Lane | 11 | Tyson Frizell |
| Bryce Cartwright | 12 | Dylan Lucas |
| Joe Ofahengaue | 13 | Adam Elliot |
| Interchange | ||
| Matthew Arthur | 14 | Jayden Brailey |
| Makahesi Makatoa | 15 | Daniel Saifiti |
| Matt Doorey | 16 | Kai Pearce-Paul |
| Ryan Matterson | 17 | Brodie Jones |
| Reserves | ||
| Daejan Asi | 18 | Mat Croker |
| Joey Lussick | 19 | Jack Hetherington |
| Wiremu Greig | 20 | Jack Cogger |
| Jake Tago | 21 | Krystian Mapapalangi |
| Charlie Guymer | 22 | David Armstrong |
NSW Cup Team List
Round 17, Saturday 3:00PM, McDonald Jones Stadium
Awful weather produced equally abominable footy from the Eels last week and they will need to put all that behind them as they look to reset against the Knights. Daejarn Asi returns at five-eighth this week while Charlie Guymer is back starting on the edge with Matt Doorey playing NRL. Speaking of backrowers, the bench is reinforced by a pair of young prospects in Jock Brazel and Saxon Pryke – again a move to be lauded as the club continues to salvage what it can from this season.
| 1 | Zac Cini |
| 2 | Lorenzo Mulitalo |
| 3 | Jake Tago |
| 4 | Morgan Harper |
| 5 | Isaac Lumelume |
| 6 | Daejarn Asi |
| 7 | Ethan Sanders |
| 8 | Luca Moretti |
| 9 | Joey Lussick |
| 10 | Wiremu Greig |
| 11 | Dan Keir |
| 12 | Charlie Guymer |
| 13 | Brock Parker |
| Interchange | |
| 15 | Meni Luke |
| 16 | Jock Brazel |
| 17 | Saxon Pryke |
| 17 | Reece Alderton |
Jersey Flegg Team List
Round 17, Saturday 1:15PM, McDonald Jones Stadium
The Eels will probably end up rueing a huge opportunity to spring a monster boilover as they fell narrow losers to the Canberra Raiders on the weekend. As with the Cup above, there is no time to contemplate what could have been as they turn around and rip right into the Knights this week.
With Joshua Lynn back in the halves, Apa Twidle slips to fullback while Devonte Vaivela returns in the centres. Will Lewis and the De Stradis brothers start in the backrow as another SG Ball graduate earns a cap in the Flegg this week with Javahn Stevenson-Hala named on the bench.
| 1 | Apa Twidle |
| 2 | Mohamed Alameddine |
| 3 | Devonte Vaivela |
| 4 | Araz Nanva |
| 5 | Beau Newlands |
| 6 | Joshua Lynn |
| 7 | Matthew Hunter |
| 8 | Sam Tuivati |
| 9 | Ryley Smith |
| 10 | Teancum Brown |
| 11 | Will Lewis |
| 12 | Raf De Stradis |
| 13 | Dom De Stradis |
| Interchange | |
| 14 | Yehya Ayache |
| 15 | Tyrese Lokeni |
| 16 | Javahn Stevenson-Hala |
| 17 | Damascus Neemia |
| 18 | Zach Hunter |
Good to see Sixties predictions come true.
Really excited to Arthur and Doorey again.
Makatoa to drop off the bench and hopefully Gymer gets a debut.
This game is winnable.
With Matt Arthur being named it’s time to grab a crate of milk and celebrate!
Fantastic to see the Arthur name live on at the club so let’s hope he turns out to be a roaring success like his father was.
Finally feeling a bit confident again
Yes mate
It’s awesome news mate, and I love to see Arthur’s name I’m there. It makes me happy as a fan to be able to see both of brads sons debut in NRL. Hopefully Matt’s debut is a ripper. Father must be very proud. 💙💛
Wish there was some place we could leave comments for Brad too thanking him for his service for us and to congratulate him on his sons upcoming debut.
Brad probably doesn’t know how much we appreciate him for his dedication for our team especially during those harder early years.
I assume the hip-drop tackle in flegg last week injured Latu? Really want to see him progress through. I rate him much more then Brazel.
I don’t understand why Alamadine and Tuivita are not playing cup. The have to do it now before players like Mataele, Dunster, Tuilagi, etc come back from injury.
I hope the shit to fullback does not affect Twiddle’s form. He has been our best player in attack when a 5/8. Set up all 3 tries last week
A long shot maybe but do think brad and his missus could present Matt with his debut jersey .it would be a nice touch .probably can’t or won’t happen
Can’t see why not Tanky, the club organised Papali’is parents to present his jersey for his 100th game and that was after he signed with the Tigers.
It would be a nice touch and just quietly, a step in the right direction to securing Matt long term.
That would be awesome mate, and is eels fans (most of us) would love to see that too. Good idea mate.
Let’s hope Brad not being there anymore will reduce the flak young Matt receives from some fans.
Good idea Tankey. That would be a very nice touch.
I agree Forty, Matt probably won’t tear it up. He will however have half a season of NRL under his belt and with a full preseason under his belt, he may just be ready to tear it up off the bench in 2025.
Happy to see Doorey back, he kinda reminds me of Hudson Young, he runs great lines and has a knack of finding the try line.
I’d like to see Moretti have another crack, I thought he was unlucky to be dropped at the time. He did put a few passes down but I can’t see the point blooding a guy and then stopping his progress. I would understand if he had handling issues in Cup but he doesn’t.
As Sixties wrote, let’s see what we’ve got, let’s push our Flegg standouts into Cup now, give them a run with the big boys. Creme always rises to the top, I would prefer to see young outside backs making mistakes while they learn their trade to more experienced backs that will never be NRL players. At best, we might unearth a standout NRL talent, at worst, we have a depth player we can rely on to fill a hole when injury strikes.
Joseph we’ve been forced to give our jnrs a real pathway to nrl.
As much as I hate how many players we’ve had injured in our depth stocks, or players old of form.
It’s forced our club to do what it’s notoriously bad at compared to many other clubs:
Giving a real opportunity to young players and letting them gain experience and thinking for the future.
I don’t want to be negative but if you look at:
Kafusi, Stefan U, papali’i, Mahoney, Marata Niokora.
All of them are not old players.
We let go of all the players who were younger forwards to retain paulo and a few others.
Paulo has had 1 great year in the last 3 years.
We bet too big on stock whose value was about to drop.
Due to the age and workload – ba places massive minutes & load especially on Paulo & RCG.
He did it for obvious reasons, they were our next forwards.
But the issue is this has caused a massive decline at a much faster rate, in my opinion to both of them.
RCG is not looking like the same player of one or two years ago, paulo the same.
Joe O’ and hopgood are now our best forwards in my opinion moving forward.
What do they have in common?
Both are younger and also more mobile on their feet.
We could look honestly like a brand new team with some more younger quality forwards playing.
I don’t believe our club is too far off being a competitive team again.
As 60’s says add in some of our younger players to the team.
But also imagine what we could buy without giving paulo $850k per year or whatever he is on.
You could get 2 quality upcoming developing middles for around the same price.
Or at least one quality forward who has another 4 + years of prime years ahead of him.
Stefano is young and has years of good football ahead.
I’m of the belief lane, paulo, matto, and sivo are on far too much money and are significantly less effective players than they were a few years ago.
It’s unfortunate but seems to be the case in 24’
There’s players out there 2x hungrier and (soon enough), better than them.
Who are probably dying for an opportunity.
Let’s hope we can see some good decisions happening shortly. 💛💙
Best wishes for Boods; very big step; hope he makes it. Blaize obviously is very talented; best luck to him too.Still yet to convince. If we win in 2026, will he be there? Charlie hasn’t been named at Cup so probably he’s going to get a run in Newcastle, maybe the most interesting call of thdm all if it happens.
My prediction moses won’t back up Asi will come in to 7 and kick goals.
Arthur will get those 10 mins and some obscure time with no actual plan that Lussick has been getting.
We will be close in the 1st half then fade away like the unfit amateur team we are
But glad to see Arthur get a run and Doorey too.
It’s a sad indictment of our systems that Makatoa is in our best 17
Great to see Matt Arthur make his debut in the NRL. Happy for him and happy for Brad.
Well deserved selection.
Best news 🗞️ in a long time
It’s a start in the right direction, win or lose we must support Matt in his debut.
He could be the best Eels hooker we have had that’s developed internally for as long as I can remember.
Great to see some of our talented jnr players getting the recognition they deserve.
I would like to see Guymer in the 17. That’s my only change on the teams list.
Maybe I’m overly optimistic – but I get excited when eels jnrs get a chance to debut for our NRL team.
I’d say it’s refreshing to be finally optimistic. Watching a team full of experienced players underperform and be in last place is a lot worse than a team with a good mixture of youth developing and being in last place! If done correctly there can be a big bounce back factor the year after as seen in 2019.
Yeah 100% good points and I agree!
What’s the point of sitting dead last with a squad of old players who most likely, many will be sacked next year or two.
Much rather us be down the bottom with young players on the team gaining experience for next year.
I don’t mind watching us even if we lose if it’s our younger players and they are genuinely learning and fighting until the very end.
Most fans probably feel similar.
We’ve got Sean Lane starting in second row.
I’m certainly not confident on that.
You can bet going off his last 5-10 games.
Sean lane is to drop the ball when it matters most.
i thought Sean has looked a lot better playing in the middle.
He’s confidence is non existent on the edges.
Yeah Muz, I hope there’s a few changes prior to game day. As you said, Lane was better in the middle with limited minutes. He’s not an 80 minute edge back rower.
Hey Pete, true with any luck as you said there’s late changes.
My coffee has gone cold so to speak long ago waiting for Sean’s form to return after dropping balls in every single game playing edge.
He’s been looking pretty tidy in the middle I think.
I’m a fan of Sean’s form In the middle recently.
The only future I can see of Sean in our team is in the middle rotation.
I don’t know what happened to him – but he has not played one good game in a long time at second row.
Shame too because he probably feels awful about it for us fans.
Sean seems like a top bloke.