The Tip Sheet is also available on Spotify and iTunes!
The Preview Podcast goes up another gear this week with the launch of the Harvey Norman Women’s Premiership for season 2024. The Parramatta Eels have announced both their inaugural squad and Round 1 team as Sixties and Forty20 analyse a team rich in pathways talent and how they line up for a clash against the Sea Eagles.
The Flegg, Cup and NRL are all in action against the Rabbitohs this week. For the Under 21s it is now must-win territory after dropping games against the Raiders and Knights. Reserve grade however find themselves just one win outside of the Top 6 and with a huge chance to kick down the door this week against the Bunnies.
Debuts for Jake Tago and Charlie Guymer punctuate the preview for the NRL. Trent Barrett continues to tap into the spring of youth amidst Parramatta’s struggles as these two debuts follow that of Matthew Arthur last week. Mitchell Moses is fired up and Forty20 thinks that will bring out more of the best in him this week but will it be enough to upset the Rabbitohs?
Exciting day ladies & gentlemen. I love watching our jnr players debut for the Eels. Let’s go Charlie & Tago. I get a good feeling about Charlie I feel like he is going to become a good first grader.
Thanks for the podcast as usual fellas we appreciate your dedication and hard work, even when we whinge about our clubs mishaps constantly on here; we just love our eels like you guys!
Charlie was a stand out – it showed how slow and a lack of urgency our old forward pack trike has! Hats off to Guymer 💙 💛
If BA was here maybe Charlie & Tago would of gotten a debut next year 😅
On a more serious note – I’m hoping our club’s administration SEES from this match how urgent it is we move on those old players and load up our roster with young talent!
It’s simply not good enough having slow players who look stuck in the mud.
Charlie played better than paulo, lane and matto put together have played all year on his DEBUT!
Blaize is also progressing.
This is what our clubs desperately needed for SO LONG.
Imagine how could we could be with a bunch of young players all getting consistent game time?
They improve their game 2x faster than old players and you can see those young legs.
Let’s go parra!
Apparently Josh Hannay is our new coach it’s been leaked via the mole tonight.
I wanna see a clean out of all these old forwards shopped off and told to leave – the problem is no other club would even realistically want them, as bad as if sounds..
Too big and slow for the game. New coach needs to get russel & peninsini on a diet too so they are faster in defence on our edges, enough of this power game heavy nonsense!
Love that reserve boys won. Let’s go 1st grade eh? I’ll love my Eels forever.
Sean Russell should be no where near first grade as a centre. But I could say that about many of parra’s players
Guymer is putting most parra players to shame. Joey is ripping the rest of the team that rookie is out working them on and off ball
Ron, so true mate he was unreal for us.
It was a big wake up call for our stupid leaders as well.
THIS is what happens when you put in star quality young players into a team on fast legs and hungry to play!
Our club needs to watch these old slow players we have and how one young athletic forward can outwork them all 2:1 in effort and impact.
The board and the donkey HOF needs to Sit down and study how much better & faster our younger players look.
All we need is a bunch of young faster players both in forwards and centres and all the sudden we are a dangerous team again.
Sean russel & will p have become horrible defenders and too slow on their feet in scramble to make crucial tries.
Once again – Sean used to be fast & scored regularly in all grades.
but parra bulked Sean up to be a power parra type player now he’s unable to score or even move fast enough VS other backs to stop them defensively.
Let’s hope the new coach addresses all of this and puts a end to this retirement home of old slow forwards and brings in youth and let’s them gain the experience they need.
I should have mentioned Joe O, that guy puts in every week. I feel sorry for him, he left one shit show and joined the mother of shit shows.
Sorry, meant to post below.
Hey Jo yeah mate Jo o definitely puts in every week and has become a regular hard worker for our team I agree nice and straight runs and plays with intensity
I have to disagree with Joe o. He tries but he pretty ineffective and straight up gives up when tired. Too often takes lazy and cheap outs in defence when such an option is presented
Ron I don’t think he is being a stand out as in perfect performance
But on a weekly basis he looks better than paulo, lane, matto, makatoa
And he came over as a unwanted player by the tigers only last year
That says something about our roster and older players at present
An unwanted tiger is looking probably better than most of our forwards
The coach might of left him out there too long at times tho
He looks like he tries a lot harder than many other forwards we have got
Welcome to first grade Charlie and say goodbye to Cup, you are never playing there again.
As for the team, they’re such a hard watch, the team is at a point where weaknesses can’t be isolated, they share the shitness now. I can’t pick a handful of players who are playing consistently good football. Moses and Rookies aside and like BA said, our players are part time footballers.
Just watch the games up close you’ll see the teams keep running in behind our Ruck and attacking us back thru the middle with forwards because our forwards gas or too slow to get back inside in behind markers.
This looks like it gassed out our team completely in the middle and they lose the battle of the forwards & middle and then other players have to compress inwards to fill in space.
My assumption is this is largely a massive strategic mistake from BA & co who signed a power squad in the forwards and didn’t adapt to the new faster version of the game we are seeing especially the last two years.
South’s have Murray And Keon running up the middle getting quick play the balls and it creates havoc and too much momentum for our team to stop it.
The forwards you can see are all too big and slow with leg speed.
Matto and lane look like slow motion in the legs even compared to Charlie Guymer and have zero venom in their tackles.
Charlie out here up better aggressive tackles and runs than honestly any of our other forwards almost all season.
If you remember years ago as I’ve posted on here before, and I watched some highlights recently of our old games.
We used to defend and run with aggression particularly early and if would almost take the edge off the other team’s confidence.
Now we only have slow players in the middle who run like they are jogging and tackle soft.
Charlie may not be able to play like that on a weekly basis.
But we saw a glimpse there of what will happen if this club swings its roster over to younger faster legged players who are not huge power forwards or simply too old.
We can hope the club and board of directors can identify this evidence we saw lossy night and the whole lot of them get on the same page about what we truly need:
– A proper clean out of older players and no more heavy slow forwards, replace with players under 26 ideally who are fit
If the club all watched that game they will finally wake up and see some first hand evidence of how forwards are supposed to play now, Charlie was a great wake up call for anyone who doubted our issues.
I’m 100% confident it’s largely due to age & weight of our players, zero leg speed or sustained aggression like a young forward provides.
I 100% agree all of our rookies looked amazing.
All of them.
Hands is also playing greatly.
Remember not long ago we got stuck with lussick and hands was blocked too?
This issue at the club is seemingly due to the clubs clear bias towards using old experienced players and sticking with them.
Hopefully Charlie has finally woken them up and this will change their approach in not just recruiting but also how they want to develop their players.
Faster more agile players are far more effective than big bulked up power players.
A good example of Sean russel used to be lean and a try scoring machine for years, in every grade, and even for our NRL team.
We billed him up into a power built player and added 10kgs.
Now he’s no longer even close to being a threat to the opposition and has seemingly 0 elusiveness.
Look at the hammer or Reece Walsh those guys are not bulked up or anything even close to that.
And they destroy every team’s defences both at club and origin level.
The eels would not of for years now even touched guys like them because they are too small.
This is in my opinion the thinking that’s held is back.
I know it’s BA who loved the power playing.
But surely the clubs leaders also could have identified this issue and addressed it with him or HOF.
No Leg speed and no agility has been a large part of our issue all along.
and Charlie last night and Tago, blaize, all looked most dangerous.
They all paid it bare for everyone who’s a supporter to see – youth and speed is what we have been missing.
It took rookies to go and show up our high paid first graders for it to become evidently clear what our issues are.
Excellent again Muz.
The blueprint against Sean Russell at centre is to run a decoy on his right shoulder when attacking the line.
He ALWAYS takes the bait and moves to his right.
The sweep player either the opposing centre or the fullback is then given a few yards of space and Russell, realising the mistake tries to catch up with him but hasn’t got the speed.
The attacker then either runs himself or pulls the winger in.
Russell does this EVERY time on his line and they score EVERY time against him.
He has to understand that the decoy is well covered by others but just can’t help himself.
It’s a standard play but somehow he just can’t get it out if his game.
His decisions in the middle of the field are poor.
In offence he has absolutely no idea how to set up his winger.
He tries very hard but really shouldn’t be anywhere near a NRL side.
Well Russell got zero out of last night for his highlights reel but a few gems for a bloopers tape. I don’t want to lay into the guy as it wasn’t just him, there were plenty of errors by plenty of players, but its the fundamental errors he’s making week on week that are neon flashing types. Good on the debutantes and recently so for bringing some energy and desire into the playing group. I can’t recall how long its been since one of our wingers made a mid field break like Blaize did. He, Charlie and Jake at least provided some reason for making the effort to attend last night in the cold and wet.
True mate Sean needs a lot of help defensively with his work
Hopefully a new coach or team tjet get in can help us more in this aspect for 25’ season
Sean is young and with the right coaching can probably improve his defence a lot
Mate I just think he’s just too slow over 20 metres for the backline. Would make a good lock.
Boods arthur isn’t what people have been saying. He’s small and low leg speed.
I’m sorry but he needs to show the new coach more to be extended. He has two years to go anyway so what’s all the panic to extended him
If he follows Brad to wherever- I wouldn’t be getting upset over it.
He’s no Harry Grant or Cook. Too slow
It’s not he’s fault we’re losing. Our outside backs aren’t making any yards out of the backfeild and the errors in attack and d are horrendous.
Seems like a bunch of players have just given up
The Cartwright not filling the gap on the inside just before half time was absolutely ridiculous and super lazy
Young Matt certainly needs to get into the Gym.
My money is on young Ryley Smith to be out long term hooker.
You want someone to blame, and we are sounding like a broken record here but how the hell does Shaun Lane stay in that side ????
If Jason Ryles gets this gig, Lane will have to have a real good look at his future because Ryles won’t cop that.
Lane and matto must be first on chopping block. Too soft, too slow and too ineffective in modern game. I don’t care how many metres matto runs, his first up contact is pathetic and his defence work in general (retreating back to line, double efforts) are bad. Lane is just terrible is most footballing respects these days. How they extended him on this deal when he has only ever played 10 weeks of good football in 2022 period is beyond me.
Hey cardinal, each to their own
But Brendan hands is only really coming of age to be an actual First grader this year and parts of last year
Hands is 24
Not each dummy half is going to be say a new Grant or Cook – that’s the 2 best hookers you could argue over the last 5 years out of possibly 50 + dummy halves who have played NRL games in that space
The other thing to consider Boods is only 19
Hands is just looking like a real first grader consistently at age 24 now
I’m not saying he is going to be a mega star or that you are wrong
But what we lack in our club is people who are patient enough to see the larger picture
The NSW blues can see him as not only being good enough to be in the team, but a captain
You don’t even think he is good enough to be at the club ?
This is where I draw the line in that claim being more or less a form of ridiculousness
Whilst I agree he is not a NRL first grade standard dummy half yet – and may not ever be a star (even if he was, it could take 6 years)
Our club and fans have to be patient with younger players who are exceeding at lower level football
Players like gutho were seen as second class talent at manly as a fullback and let go of in his early days
Nicho hynes was told at manly he would never become a first grade player
Mitch moses was seen as a speed bump and too frail & emotional in his younger years
Majority of players are actually very poor or seemingly average during their first 1-3 years of NRL
Compared to how they can be rated as players 2-8 years down the track
Moses has been playing first grade almost 10 years and has only just become good enough & confident enough to lead our NSW blues to a origin victory in a important game
You know this but we can all be a bit impatient at times, not all players even look close to being stand outs in the first 1-3 years of NRL
Some of them may only become average first graders – but this is still important for a clubs depth
Not all players need to be a cook or grant at age 19 or they are useless
This is non rational thinking and plain stupid if we all blast young guys who are not at proper NRL level yet who are called up due to depth issues
You constantly rip on blaize too –
yet other clubs like flanno st dragons who’s a known expert player developer and keen eye for talent wants him
Yet you think he is poor and what not?
Obviously we all have our own opinions
But these kids you keep on blasting literally just came up from SG ball
Many of them have not yet even completed 1 year in NSW cup and you judge them like they played 4 years in first grade and are 27 years of age
I’m not saying that all of them are future stars, or even ready yet for consistent first grade
But our club and its fans will only ever become a successful club again if we stop bashing young players and scaring them off
We don’t even have a backup half back who can even remotely fill the roll when Moses gets hurt
Our spare one the other Arthur got bullied off by fans and left the club
Our next in line proper #7 is Sanders
But he too has not even completed 1 season of NSW cup yet
And is leaving us next year
So although I don’t agree with how J Arthur was sometimes used
I also don’t agree with our club having such weak depth we are fast tracking so many green players possibly too fast – to be a actual threat to win the comp
– fans must stop bashing them
The clubs far better off losing with young players who will only dramatically get better & fast
Than have a bunch of old first graders taking up each position and then we move them on and repeat the cycle again every few years
The panthers have played endless amounts of raw talent in their teams and let go of great players
But they play the long game and within a few seasons they become young solid NRL players eventually
We may not have the talents of depth as they do at panthers
But out of these say 5 or 6 decent NSW cup players who we have
1 or 2 of them within a few short years are going to become extremely valuable first grade standard NRL players for our club
And being so young – this often means they could have 5 + years of quality playing ahead of them for us
We have to move on from this old mindset that only fully experienced players who are at their peak can play in our team
This is part of why we are in this mess
Almost all of our roster in the 17 each week for a long time has been old players
And this is said to be because parra is always chasing short term success
We never play the long game and give the priority to younger men and let them develop even if we lose more in the short term
I understand you like to bad mouth all the younger players who are far from perfect NRL standard players yet
But have you looked at our club?
The roster is old and slow
Because for too long that’s always who we gave priority to
The broncos had a shocking few years full of the baby broncos
Every week fans in their IG comment sections were how bad they all were to sack them
Guess what happened?
It took only about 2-3 years of them developing and then adding in a veteran star half back
They went from outside the top 8 to a grand final the next season
Panthers went from average to grand finals in a few seasons by focusing resources to their young players who succeeded in lower grades
We also scared off young talent from joining us previously
Because we were known as a team hard to break into because we do not reward young talents with the same opportunities as many other NRL clubs do in terms of showing a clear path to NRL
We can all have opinions obviously
But don’t think you are going to do our club any Benefits always thinking short term and bagging out the green players
We only need 1-2 of the cup players to become true NRL talents and that can be seen as a huge success and integral part of the team
A lot of todays best players were not even regarded at quality first graders during the earlier parts of their careers
A lot of parras best players over the last 6 years we got
We’re literally average players or unwanted at other clubs before we got them
Ice was barley on the bench for NZ, and become a Daly m second rower with us
Hopgood could not make first grade for panthers – now is a QLD maroon
A lot of good young players just need more time and opportunity
It’s not as easy as trying it judge the final product by their first years in reserve grade or first grade