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The search is finally over with the Parramatta Eels announcing Jason Ryles as their new head coach for the next four years. Sixties and Forty20 convene for an emergency episode of The Tip Sheet as they discuss the ramifications of the massive decision.
Why did the Eels pick Ryles over Josh Hannay and was it the right call? Was there even a wrong call between the two? The boys discuss what Jason Ryles brings to the club and how his ties to the Melbourne Storm and Sydney Roosters meet the requirements the Eels set in bringing a culture of success to the role.
It won’t be a simple path for the new commander-in-chief at Parramatta though as the podcast sift through the challenges that immediately face the new coach. From a potential roster overhaul to locking up key talent and assuaging incoming recruit Zac Lomax…Ryles will need to hit the ground at a full sprint.
It’s good to get some clarity. Personally, I would have preferred Hannay but that’s irrelevant now. I will fully back ryles and hope other fans do aswell.
However, in the bigger picture, this decision means little if O’Neill, Sarantinos and McElduff are going to remain in charge. Until that changes, we will never really compete with the top organisations.
Hannay is an attacking coach and Ryles is coming from defence first clubs, I do not believe Hannay was what we needed. I agree, Jason won’t be able to be fully effective unless the club’s decision makimg also drastically changes alongside a coach
Steve kearney the 2nd !!
Lot of lessons from that time, also recall Ricky Stuart cleaned out the roster as he departed, but time proved that step alone isn’t the answer. We were all looking forward to a Bellamy trained coach working some magic and I don’t think our front office was the Jack Gibson model.
Welcome Jason Ryles!
The thing I like about Ryles is he’s a defence minded coach.
He’s an ex prop that will be able to relate to Junior and Reg and our current situation in the forwards.
I still think we need changes to the so-called football department.
Not sure why the decision took so long?
Next question who will be the assistant coaches?
We cannot just keep appointing the cheapest option assistant or the bargain basement players. That crap has to stop!
It’s a good first step as you mentioned.. now just need the other cogs in the wheel to move in a supportive manor to make the coach succeed for us to his best ability
Agree Muz,
Time for new ideas and the club to stop its penny pinching. Release the resources andcspend the money required to win a comp. Nobody has won a comp with bargains and vacant roster spots.
We need quality assistants and strength and conditioning.
I think selecting a strong assistant will be crucial to success here. Ryles might be coming with a background in successful clubs, but he is still a rookie coach. With the right assistant to keep things on track, we could be in for better times ahead.
Agree Longfin
It’s much easier to be successful at a well run club. We are not well run as far as the HOF and football department is concerned. The club is profitable and is on great financial shape.
I’m fully supportive of the Ryles appointment. But as you say without having the right people to assist the job becomes much harder.
I’m begging you guys, nothing personal as I’m sure you’re all good blokes.
For the sake of the club;
Please please please
DO NOT become a stalker/cheerleader/spin doctor for the new coach.
Your spin re Arthur over the years was sickening, again nothing personal.
Put the club ahead of your own needs to be groupies & leave Ryles alone, let him do his job & keep a distance.
Call it as you see it, not positive spin because you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you.
Disagree. Just because they didn’t tear strips off the club at every opportunity doesn’t mean they were spin doctors or apologists. They naturally prefer glass half full and I respect that. They were still honest and criticised team/club when it was warranted.
Thanks Ron.
Forty20 and 60’s have their heart in the right place and probably should have gone harder plenty of time especially with Brad Arthur and Mark O’Neill but there is no evidence that any of these two fed them. This ‘access’ argument is something I’ve read on many forums but do you think the club would stop them in any way to do a live podcast at the Leagues Club or attend training if they professionally questioned the club? I don’t think so. This isn’t China.
Anyway I’m all for this appointment and would like the boys to speculate as much as they can about who now gets tapped on the shoulder and who we may recruit. That’s all we have left this season.
Agree
Cheers Avenger. By the way, I’m fairly certain that Danny C is Chief. The bloke has a disturbing obsession with us.
Disagree. These guys do a great job and are entitled to their opinion – like anyone else.
Without TCT there would not be much if any quality Parra information or insights produced regularly.
The quality of the information supplied by the club probably is at an all time low. Go to the website, click on “Teams”, have a look at the Cup list. Once in maybe March, it was fun to see ghat list published. There would be phitographs with esch player listing, personal statistics like height, weight, previous clubs, age. Currently, in Jjuly, several players who gave been with ys all uear still don’t have photographs attached. Most have no personal statistics. I understand it’s a pest to gave to turn up at training and garner tbhis information. It is also a matter of professionalism, a gesture of respect to players and supporters, no doubt much appreciated by journalists. A sign of the times.
Thanks Ben
In many ways TCT puts the club before their own needs. There’s more than enough informative, balanced, thought-provoking and entertaining content on TCT to be considered good quality overall, better any day than coming across, even occasionally,as self-opinionated, agenda-driven narks.
Appreciate your support BDon.
Nothing personal??? You fire a whole load of personal insults. What a load of crap that is, whoever you are!
There’s a simple action you can take if you don’t like our content. I suggest you do so.
Exactly as I see it if you dont like do not read or listen – simple find somewhere else go my friend
Thanks Parra AI – it seems like an easy enough answer but Danny C (Chief) is obsessed.
The TCT is a great site and I don’t know why people would criticise a site that is run “by volunteers” who do it because of their passion for the Eels and for Rugby League. It allows discussion – and the “hosts” should have an opinion – it’s their platform that they have built. And the beauty of this site – is it allows for open discussion , and different views – as long as the comments are not “personal” or “over the top”. Keep going team….2025 will be better !!!
Thanks Greg.
I don’t get it, if you don’t like the way they do things why do you jump on this site or listen to their podcast. There are soo many other RL sites and podcasts that love to put the boots into the club that can satisfy you.
They do a great job and are very measured in their responses. They criticise when it’s warranted.
Cheers Iron Mike
He should be able to meet the first, urgent vtask – to use the pre-season to get them NRL fit, which cleaely, this year, several of them are not.
Agreed Noel.
Storm and Roosters have elite fitness which has a huge focus on speed. Hopefully he can bring in the right people to Eels to assist the sluggishness we have. Fitness, defence and recruitment needs to be front and centre.
I note Flanagan said one of the first things he did at Dragons was change body types of certain players. Ciraldo had players leave because training was too tough and he sacked two captains. Both headed to finals our team fades out in games. Hopefully Ryles can address this. It will be a case of shape up or ship out.
Largely agree Pete.
Withe worst defensive record in the NRL, and even with the very good string of wins in the Knock On comp, our defense is atrocious (in both grades). This has been obvious for a number of years.
If Ryles and team can change this then our future is bright. Jason has my support.
I’m very very excited with the appointment.
Again, Sixties you rightly pointed out the missteps and lack of support of the board to the coaching staff has to be addressed but you continue to use this as a total excuse for the failures of the club.
Any analysis has to be fair and part of that just has to address the failure of the coaching staff.
Information from the Board is that BA was a major voice in the recruitment and retention committee but any missteps are continually laid at the Boards incompetence which is just not fair.
Again you spoke about recruitment but laid the fault squarely at the boards feet for the failures to land certain players.
What if those players were happy with the conditions but just didn’t want to be coached by Brad Arthur ?
Surely that’s possible?
We will never know but making assumptions that it’s all the boards incompetence or penny pinching is again disingenuous.
To further add to his standing, if by chance the team goes bust next year will the overriding view be that the sacking of BA wasn’t the problem after all ?
Conversely, if the team goes well next year, will the consensus be that it’s all because the board has finally backed the coach and if they had backed BA, he would have achieved similar success ?
It was plain to see that there was a major disconnect between the players ,coaching staff and the board which was illustrated by their performances.
Good players just don’t play like and it’s the coaches job to own that.
I suppose at the end of the day we can argue about the merits of BA and his relationship with the board or what has transpired in 2024 but maybe it’s time to just honour the incredible legacy that Brad left to the Eels and move on ?
I personally believe that the Parramatta Eels needed a complete hosing out and I congratulate the Board for having the stones to do it amid withering criticism.
Now I look forward to the announcement of his assistants.
Trent Barrett is on record saying that he would have worked under Hannay but not Ryles.
If by some absolute miracle, we are able to wrestle Brian McDermott over as an assistant…I’ll be the reincarnation of Big Kev !!!
Hopefully, we obtain some decent assistants like Jim Dymock who have been around decent systems and are experienced.
At the end of the day, Ryles is known for two things.
1. He’s a defensive specialist and that was why he was bought into the England Union team and damn … Don’t we need help in that area !
If we can improve our defence by 50% we will win a lot more games and
2. He is very keen to promote youth. Raise your hands to the sky !!!
No more incumbency without performance and young players will know they have a decent chance to debut.
What’s in the future ? – look to the players saying things like ” it’s the best pre season I’ve ever had”. Ryles is fantastic, I’ve learnt so much from him ”
The future is very bright !
That last remark about the future isnt a knock on BA by any means . – it was an illustration of how fickle footballers are and how quickly they change their allegiance.
“Trent Barrett is on record saying that he would have worked under Hannay but not Ryles.”
I missed that comment from Trent. Where/when did he say that? Baz and Bendy have been mates for many years.
I’m sure I read it recently but happy to be wrong !
I think they would be able to work together Brett.
I hope so because Trent has some quality that’s for sure.
Spark, I don’t want to get into any debate about BA, because the club has made its decision. I always rated BA as a coach and will always be appreciative of the job that he did. But Brad has no more role to play. For the club to move forward the Eels have to be reflective on what they need to do better and address it. I believe that their processes need to change. We wouldn’t be sitting where we are if there weren’t things to fix.
I’m with you we have to leave the past in the past.
And the clubs got to improve its overall processes and move faster or the new coach won’t be supported sufficiently to succeed to his maximum potential.
Ryles is apparently very detail oriented and patient, with smart people in his circle.
He would not have taken this job without doing significant due diligence into the inner workings of the club and how hard it is to make changes to get what he wants.
The club has come to Jason in a position of weakness and one could argue desperation.
The clubs obviously said to him they are willing to provide him with what he needs and open to suggestions – or you could expect Jason would have said no to the job.
Jason’s also not got the west tigers here.
He still has two rep halves and a few very strong club snr players, and a few very talented rookies.
If all Jason is able to do it tighten up our edges defensively with lomax and simmonson next year.
And better optimise our forwards performances by adding in some youth and maybe improving some of them fitness wise in the off season.
We could see a massive difference in the team next year.
A concern, of course, is that, to my knowledge neither Simonssen nor Talagai is signed for next year. I guess signings have been held on hold pending the coaching appointment. There’s also the little matter of four or five vacancies on the NRL roster. My calculation is that the 2025 pre-season starts in 16 weeks. I see that Ray Stone has been re-signed by The Dolphins for a couple more years. With a limited player market I would be checking the availibility of Ky Rodwell and Tom Opacic, and I guess there’s going to be a lot of competition for thr signatutr of Tavita Pangai Junior if Souths don’t already have him tied up
Please, no, not Tavita Pangai Jun. He’s not the kind of player we need imo. Opacic, sure. Rodwell too. But not TPJ.
TPJ would probably be a let down for the eels.
IMO, as 60’s said the only available & young prop with plenty of potential upside is Stefano.
A good coach and some good halves feeding him ball and directing him – Stefano would make a decent forward in our team.
TPJ is big and lazy and Imo would not flourish at a already known lazy & inconsistent eels roster,
Firstly gents, as it’s come up thank you for both your efforts regarding this site.
We do appreciate the ability to discuss these matters.
I think some of the contributors should go and have a look at the old 50s film called ’12 Angry Men’ with Henry Fonda. A great delve into evidence, innuendo and assumptions. It’s a great old film.
The starting premise of a lot of the vitriol against the board and the Recruit and Retention Committee is that they withheld players from the coaching staff and as such the last few years, the coaching staff only had a limited number of players to operate with. It paints the popular picture of the coaches, cap in hand, asking for more.
“It’s not fair! how can the coaching staff operate with such a disadvantage!”
But there is only one FACT here and that is that the roster was in complete.
Who is actually responsible for that, we can only deal with assumptions and conjecture and should never be passed on as fact unless there is evidence to the contrary.
There three possible reasons why the roster was incomplete –
1. The R&R committee voted (by majority, as again BA was a member) to withhold players from the coaching staff despite the pleas to make a full roster OR
2. The R&R committee voted to complete the roster and gave everything the coaching staff wanted but BA decided that he didn’t want a complete roster, perhaps leaving some spots open for mid-year signings. OR
3. A combination of the above.
Unless we obtain the minutes of the R&R committees’ meetings, or we hear from the participants then we are just making it up.
I look forward to BAs autobiography down the track so that we can get to the bottom of it!
Yes, we do need changes, but I honestly think we are on the right track moving forward !
Sixties
We are sitting where we are because BA stacked the roster with forwards in ‘chasing the collision’ and didn’t evolve our squad with mobility with the 6 again rule. We now look slow and old. BA is as much to blame as any system put in place. I get you rate him and that’s fine but the Chairman when asked by Rothfield said today that Brad had the first and last say in a player, staying, signing or leaving.
Some of the nonsense suggested that others picked the team for him is simply bullshit. The reason we couldn’t sign anyone out-wide of quality was because he made our aging props and Shaun Lane multi millionaires with contracts that have ratchet clauses in them. He was part of the recruitment committee and the majority partner unless of course McElduff is lying.
Quite frankly he entered and left the club in the same position, in the cellar.
Hopefully Ryles can improve it and rid the club of the obvious click that BA left behind.
Did he say that again today did he?
I’m also of the belief that BA stacked out roster with power forwards and find it hard to believe he constantly landed forwards but never could with any backs.
But I believe there’s more issues than just who our coaches and head of football are or were for example.
There’s a philosophy in the place that’s been there for a long time to chase bargains and ignore any players who are significantly valuable assets because they aren’t cheapies.
So I believe it was more then just the coach or head of football, if the leaders of the club saw this as a issue they would of fired ba & HOF a long time ago – the ceo & board supported the bargain hunting.
Or they could have stopped it long ago by voicing concerns or removing them.
So it’s definitely not as easy as only blaming our former head coach.
But I agree it’s not realistic to say he had no say in the matter.
Head coaches at every club more or less have the main say on recruiting, etc.
We simply didn’t have a balanced roster that suited the faster playing style with all the 6 agains and what not…
Not only that, our key players are two years older than GF year.
To be fair to past recruitment they did land Zac Lomax, eaily the best signing for next year so far and certainly not cheap.
Sixties, I agree with your comments re BA.
On reflection though, as I watched some of the posts that had BA seemed in a corner at each of the post match agenda, and not having Gutho & Mitch sitting next to him, one could see things being hard/harsh in a sort of deflection to those not taking the commentary from the players rather than the coach.
I tended to wonder even at that point of time and covering action from BA seemed a somewhat difference in his commentary at games end. With the loss of both players I mention, there was some sort of deflection away from both BA and who their position certainly had at that time.
While I watched the games on the box when available and not taken over by the players who were missed owing to there being only Kao or other selected team, as found with the eels, I admit to the fact that I stopped watching such games.
Colin, my stance on BA was always clear, but I think the move away from Parra will probably be good for Brad’s career. I think he’s made a good choice with the short term Leeds gig as it gives time for him to consider that as a longer term option without committing now. By that time, the Perth situation might be clearer.
Fair call sixties, and would not disagree with what you have said.
Spark I reckon even a 10-20% improvement on our try line defensively our side would see us winning a lot more games.
We have lost so many close games during the last 2 seasons.
Or we score loads of tries….
And still manage to lose.
Defence is our issue and baz and our last coach have not been able to improve it.
So this new coach needs to do something or the results won’t be much better.
We have loads of points in our team.
The issue is largely our defence and fitness.
We look unfit.
This could be a size issue but my spidey senses tell me all the players look less fit than players at other clubs.
I don’t have the data to prove it.
But they look lazier and less fit than other NRL teams in 24’
Yeah mate, I’ve always said that we appear to be behind in the fitness area. Junior needs to lose about 10kgs for a start.
I hope that Ryles has a fitness plan.
Every year, the Storm have a gruelling army camp to get them into shape run by some made bastards.
i would assume that may be on the cards for the Eels too and hahaha they are going to hate it.
That’s hilarious spark, maybe the eels we want gone off the roster may quit and leave voluntarily after that book camp (lol)
Watch Jesse Marchske interview he talks about pre season training when he went down to Melbourne and said it’s next level training like nothing else he’s had at other clubs
And he was in the roosters system for a few years
The Melbourne storm turn up every week and they turn normal players who are willing to work hard into Champions
Our clubs been soft you can see it
Even when our roster was strong as hell some years
We were either inconsistent or exhausted by finals time and bowed our early earning a reputation as being chokers & pretenders
We had some amazing teams yet nearly always flopped towards the end of the year
None of us could Clearly identify the cause of that issue in a factual matter
But I’m willing to bet our players simply aren’t fit enough to keep it up all year like the storm or panthers
I don’t know who’s to blame for it, it may even just be a mix of having less simply athletic athletes
Or a less difficult training regime with less cardio & less wrestling compared to top teams
Im not complaining – bs kept us a solid team for many years
But it would be nice for us eels fans to see our club finally become one of the top teams after many many years of heart ache and no premierships
Honestly hats off to the club for taking action if they believe it’s going to help
We were stuck at bottom of table and a very poor second season in a row
They rolled the dice
No offence but with brads playing style and such emphasis on only signing forwards all the time
I could not see us winning a competition before anyway
You can’t win the comp with every year having weak defence out wide and consistently having the slowest team in the comp
I don’t think for a second Brad had no influence on that
He never failed to consistently get forwards
They for many years invested into any really solid backline players
Lomax is probably the best back signing since gutho, which feels like was a million years ago now
Remis smith is not getting first pick to start at Melbourne anymore …
He defends well – which is most important for us
He works hard, far superior defender to Russel and probably will P’
He will be available I believe after this season
I would like to see Jason go after him
Remis, Bailey, lomax, gutho
That’s 4 solid backs right there who can defend and have legit NRL ability
I’m afraid sivo, russel, will p, have all been playing like reserve graders for far too long
Jason will not feel too emotionally attached to these guys
The eels have said they want a coach who more or less wont be afraid to make the hard calls and is coach first before friend so to speak
A lot of these guys need to go back to NSW cup or show Jason that they can be part of our NRL 17 for next year
P.s you watch some of them to suddenly scramble and play for their lives
Jason is a former forward and a hard minded guy
He won’t take no shit
If these guys are getting out played by reserve graders anymore
Jason Ryles will push the club to shop them off or get rid of them before the end of the year so he doesn’t waste a pre season on them
Jason’s a successful man who’s only worked in high performance & high standard environments
He’s played origin, INTL rep, he might of even won a premiership
2nd in command coached at the two best clubs Melbourne & Roosters
If these lazy Parra forwards and even backs think for a second their contracts have secured their jobs
They are in for a rude shock
Jason will take absolutely no shit and would already have our clubs higher ups approval to move on and get rid of anyone who he thinks has to go
It’s said he knocked back St George because they would not do this for him
Jason will be trying to shift the club full 180
It won’t happen instantly
But his whole career as a head coach may rely on his first 1-2 years as parramatta coach
Jason would not have taken this role unless he has pre approved permission to have significant power over this current roster shit fight
The fact he’s here tells you that parra have had to meet him half way and give him more agreed power & resources than St George was willing to offer
This is a man who was next in line to coach the storm
He would not have left unless he’s been told by parra he will be provided the sufficient resources needed to succeed
Hopefully good times ahead, or at the bare least,,,,
Just no more wooden spoons 😑
Muz, you should not confuse lazy forwards with those who are tired – worn out because they were flogged to death by the former coach.
Hey Muz, I think we need to keep an open mind on Penisini, his first NRL game he outplayed Olam late in the year and then had a really good following year. You don’t just lose talent, but you can get blunted by the system you’re in. His handling and tackling haven’t been great, he needs a re-set, a new coach, better roster and defensive system will provide that. He’s still very young..In the meantime he just has to keep it simple, relax and concentrate for 80. I get the impression that Matterson is on this strategy already, he seems to be focussing on doing his job, no frills, no fancy stuff.
On 360 tonight Anasta was asked about Ryles and he said, having worked with him… Next year the Eels will be tough and disciplined….. My heart skipped a beat 😊
Good point zero 58
I’m also of the belief paulo & RCG did too many minutes
Remember we didn’t really use a proper bench rotation for a good while there?
Bdon I think will p at times looked good enough to be a possible future origin player
I agree he’s got good ability & potential
Just fallen off a cliff atm with the rest of the team at present
You are right, new coach and new season may assist him
Spark that’s good I want to watch replay and listen what he says
I am of the belief Jason’s a very strong disciplined man going from his reputation and no bullshit mentality
He was a champion player too, not a chump, and the two best clubs have employed him as a 2nd coach
He obviously is valuable and strong
Just hope our club gives him the man power & resources
That’s the main concern
I was not a fan of the club sacking BA but I have moved on. I was not a fan of Jason Ryles mainly because I remember him as a player. He was prone to brain farts as a player.
Notwithstanding all of that if anyone thinks getting rid of BA will fix the issues then they are going to be disappointed.
Somebody needs to get hold of the roster and cap and give JR (look how quickly I adapt) a solid top 30, quality backup and lots of speed both in the backs and forwards.
I don’t believe that this will happen overnight but there needs to be significant change over the next two seasons. There is some low hanging fruit such as Simonson, won’t break the bank, Blaize Talagi, may break the bank and Charlie Guymer. Charlie was outstanding in his debut especially given he is young playing in the middle against seasoned forwards.
One player who has stood out to me all year is Joe Offahengaui, spelling? He has been a model of consistency this year and a keeper.
Stay tuned and see the story unfold. We are hopefully on a winner.
Good luck to Brad at Leeds.Hope he gets the job in Perth. The Perth franchise will be a success. Lots of support and money over there.
True John,
blaize, Bailey, lomax, those are 3 pretty handy backs next year he has to work with.
Saxon Pryke and we saw Guymer those are both very high work rate fast legged forwards Jason will have to help him revive out packs work-rate, energy, and line speed.
Jo O’ has been a solid effort player all year and due to his logger body weight seems to be able to keep up with the games speed now more compared to say paulo & lane.
Also props to Brad & Good luck to him at Leeds.
BA is a coach who could help them and to be fair, Ba could help a lot of teams especially ones struggling, he will take the lessons from the eels and possibly improve his ability even further.
If BA got the Perth gig I also wish them the best over there too.
As a parra fan I’ll probably have a soft spot for any club BA who’s a true man in blue & gold coaches in his future jobs as a coach.
Joe o’s lighter* body weight i meant to say..
Yes Muz, I’d love to see him get the Perth job and will forever have a soft spot for him. he’s an Eel through and through that’s for sure.
Ryles is often quoted as a defensive specialist and on the pure coaching front this should be his focus when he steps through the door.
The comments re club structures, recruitment and retention etc are all things that need addressing but in pure football terms Ryles priority should be to build a top 4 defensive unit – it’s been proven that everything else is secondary in chasing a premiership if this isn’t achieved.
Bp it all goes back to defence as u said and we have always had weak edge defence, good teams like south’s for years have a Field day against us. I’ll be happy if Jason can just improve this area, defence. We have points in us just poor defence last two years especially. Bulldogs are winning on defence
Thanks gents. I’ve got no view on Ryles v others as an appointment. Only time will tell.
The only thing that concerned me today is I thought I read McElduff re-endorse the roster. Ryles in winning the gig would naturally have needed to be on the same page. Sure he can come in with new ideas, but as a Board I doubt they would have humoured a full overhaul. So if McElduff thinks the roster is competitive, that’s a concern. Admittedly I’m potentially reading into things too much, but more things need to change over time, than stay the same.
MickB reading into things is a skill you need to perfect in the modern world of political double speak.
If you read McElduff saying that the roster is good I think you could interpret that as, this is the way we will be recruiting.
Having said that we need to see what goes down and give them the benefit of optimism.
Complacency played a big part in this years teams going in static lines, with no real idea as to where the team was Hedding. It has really showed the overall lack of real direction as well as not working as needed with the players, especially as the team folded over the time of this season.
The sorrow though is that with two primary players being Gotho and Mich, were not on the field owing to their injuries, and only just now starting to play as they need to have been in the team which is in start mode, something akin to how the team in general worked anyway. Hopefully the step up with Mitch and Gutho being the leaders to take the team forward, along with bringing the general excitement that should work post from this newish start from today with the coach arriving to at least start making some contact starts post this season.
I have followed the eels since early days of the old ground through to the new locations, wins were not a great mark for the teams over all but there were many great matches that brought the followers to the game, whether winning or losing. I was always proud of what Cumberland oval brought to the eels.
My hope in my old age and one with progressing dementure is a burden but one that I hold onto and look to watch what I can as I can. BA ushered in a new start, but the length of the game did not meet the want and overall ability of the eels overall to make that last step.
This new year, should “”hopefully”” usher in a new start that should boost the eels as a team and supporters heading into and hopefully with the remains of the eels team taking them forward especially with a real desire to go forward and allow for the eels to rebuild themselves into a winning team, along with the back players in the lower grades.
I hope to see a new team and players bringing the team together rather than the rabble that appears more in their show statices, then really putting their true efforts on the paddock that should bring the teams, and players together going to the future, which really should be on a winning show, that will rid the angst that is in control.
Colin good to see you posting again.
In line with your comments I see Wayne Bennett wasting no time putting his footprint all over the Bunnies.
You see it in defence and recruiting such as Damien Cook being released to the Dragons. Flanagan may get a bit more out of Cook but Bennett didn’t believe he could.
Ryles must do the same at the Eels in the same two areas. It needs to be no mystery to the squad what he is expecting to see in 2025.
Gooday John
I see in my mind a level of changes that will begin before this years end. Reason being that a big charge will carry the eels forward based on the players who are willing to put life effort into the teams they are part of and they will be wanted by the supporters as well as teams and the coaches, along with the Heads of Football but for long regarding them.
I would love to see the changes that will take place before the end of this round, no doubt in my mind will show out the players that will be moved on before end of year, those that don’t want to leave, will end up in reserves, and not get any runs unless they can show cause on the fields as to why they should keep their jerseys and positions with the club.
Welcome Jason Ryles to the chaos that is Parramatta. I do hope you can bring some order. The BA era is over and time to look forward.
It will be interesting to see what players are signed before next season and who is moved on. While the roster needs an overhaul there are some players down on form and confidence that a different voice may help resurrect.
Bring on 2025!
Thanks for the podcast gents.
I’m happy with Ryles, he won’t be afraid to make tough decisions, he proved that when he told the Dragons to get stuffed.
Locking up Blaize and Guymer and extending Hopgood should be first and foremost.
Ryles won’t need the next few weeks to decide who he wants to keep in 2025.
I expect players will be tapped on the shoulder in the coming days, players we don’t require would be of value to other clubs and will be shopped around. No doubt the club will be paying some of their contracts to play elsewhere, we can’t get out of this mess without pain. Ryles would have left a “to do list”
Our board needs to get busy negotiating player swaps, releases ect starting now.
It will get messy, there will be player discontent.
There is no soft approach for where we are now, like the boys said, we’ve wasted two years, there’s no more time to waste, we have the nucleus of a good team, we can’t wait until Moses is past his best and Gutho is completely busted, this roster needs to sorted before we enter the offseason. I’d rather get all the bullshit out of the way now, I’m sure Ryles will shake the joint hard and fast.
Eels news will go through the roof in the coming weeks.
Jo I hope you are right and massive roster action is taken and fast
The eels can either leave them all on mostly – and fail again next year even with a new coach
Or make hard decisions now and cut losses
They don’t want to go into another pre season with all of this roster or it’s a waste of time
Even if Jason keeps the exact same roster and does a pre season
They will be another 1 year older and many forwards even worst next year than this year
This would nearly guarantee failure for 2025
The issue that’s worrying Mcelduff and the ceo have said multiple times
“We believe the roster is strong and not a issue” or something along those words
I’m not saying a roster overhaul is the silver bullet
We have some of worst defence stats in multiple grades
This is a fundamental and systemic issue in our football club
Why?
Because it’s proven this is the main area of the game
you can’t win premierships without having top defensive stats in the comp
The new coaches need to strongly address this and also hire & promote players who fit the mould of a defence first mentality
Charlie Guymer and Hopgood or gutho type mentality
Work ethic upon work ethic, the people who you can tell in any grade actually want to win
These are the people who will do your 1% efforts and never want to lose
These are your type of players who make your defensive efforts energetic
We must love off the overloaded roster of big forwards who aren’t suitable for this repeat 6 again & fast moving game we have
Or out defence will always be shambles
The forwards we have are so far toasted at the minute
1 reserve grader in his first NRL game made them all look silly
Jason needs to move nearly all the forwards on and start building for future success
Except for RCG, hopgood, Joe O’, Guymer, I would keep those, and maybe Carty is he’s just injured atm hence playing avg.
The rest I would happily see let go of and either replace with some more of out strong NSW upcoming forwards
And sign a few more mobile forwards who are known for their defence and good agility
Maybe sign stefano as a future leading prop of our club too as 60’s suggested
Paulo, lane, Matto, makatoa, wiremu, Ogden.
These guys are not fast enough or mobile enough to take our team forward from 25’ and onwards.
Holding on to the past is part of the reason why we are dead last.
The proof is in the pudding.
Saxon Pryke and Guymer are Better work rate forwards than these guys.
And both of them are our reserve graders, with only Guymer with 1 nrl game.
This is the state of our club in 2024
Reserve graders on debut have become probably our best forwards.
Only this would happen at parra, no other clubs would allow this to get so bad so quickly.
Hey Muz, I hope you are well.
The last thing I want to hear from Ryles or the board is “ it will take time” or worse, it will take a few season to be competitive, that’s loser talk.
We have the nucleus of a very good roster, any club that can boast the likes of Moses, Gutherson, Brown, Lomax, Hopgood, Penisini, Joe O, Matterson and Cartwright is not a “rebuild” candidate. Add our young guns to our list and it’s little wonder Ryles applied for the role.
The solution appears simple, we need two established outside backs, a mobile front rower and a strike edge forward. Kelma might be that strike edge forward if he can get fit and refine his game.
Lane is finished with us, the sooner they get him out of the team and our door the better, debut another rookie, how much less can a rookie offer than Lane. We have 1.7 million tied up in two front rowers, one has to go, RGC has arguably been better than Paulo but I can see RGC being tapped on the shoulder first, purely due to contractual arrangements. Paulo is signed for the next two years, the club would need to fork out a pretty penny for another club to take on Paulo, RGC has the one year left which is more manageable. RGC would also be more attractive to another club.
Regardless, the club needs to be aggressive and push the salary cap limits, no more fart arsing around.
I agree with the boys, bring Stefano home, just get it done.
I don’t buy into the notion that our furtunes can’t be turned around overnight because the club can if they stop taking soft, safe options, the board had the balls to sack BA, use those same balls to sign the players we need and move on the players we don’t. Push every boundary until the job is done. FFS, we approach the player market with a tea spoon while the likes of Gould and Politis use shovels.
Time is not our friend, a club that has not won a premiership since 1986 does not have the luxury of time.
Too manly good points there to touch on them all but probably the most true / spot on comments on here.
Paulos contract is honestly a joke, and I mean no offence to the big fellah.
It strongly benefits him and his family, but does not serve the parra eels club and fan base.
His on $950k allegedly, you want a Big Tino or a Pat Carrigan for $950k, or maybe a Payne haas.
That’s almost Mitch moses money his on and his a bench forward now and honestly never looks like our best forward, in my opinion anyway.
I like him and what not, but our clubs paying way too much.
That’s ridiculous to have that tied up in a forward.
With regard to time and a new coach as you just mentioned,
We don’t have time, I agree.
The issue is we need patience with Jason it’s his first HC job.
And his got a roster where all the budgets imbalanced.
Who puts that much cap into forwards and no NRL leading backs?
It’s ridiculous.
Lomax is only one player, and simmonson is good.
But I obviously want our club to look good next year.
But if Jason’s got our old forward pack sucking up so much budget.
And NOT performing / not suited for the game anymore.
There will only be so much juice Jason can squeeze out of them.
I’m not making excuses for him.
But we’ve got several forwards on 700k + per year.
Who a got out played by a reserve grade first NRL game rookie.
I don’t doubt Jason will help them defensively as that’s his thing.
Just hope the club is flexible in letting some players go early.
He was my pick due to his work mentors Robinson and Bellamy. I hope he will hire a great defensive coach, especially to correct their slide defensive.
He is a defensive coach. I hope he keeps Barrett – he is our attack coach and a good one.
That could work
I remember a big, lazy forward who played for Balmain. He could do things no-one else could do but he had no discipline and they couldn’t get him fir. His nick name was “Half a game.” They were happy to let him go. He turned up at The Roosters. His name was Arthur Beetson. I see a lot of similarities with TP Jr
Moses needs to pipe down ! We’ve heard enough crap about BA and now Baz from the players. They haven’t done their talking on the field as they should have. Too much say over the club over the years, too much say over the training, even the GF preparation was to placate the players – staying in their own beds and travelling separately to the stadium. All massive own goals. The leadership group needs a reality check.
Moses – we have an Origin decider – concentrate on that.
Paulo – saw a picture of Paulo at the Bulldogs game after he got injured and should have been off his foot and not walking around on it.
Matto and Dylan suspensions last year. Poor discipline in the club is a cancer. Some players coasting along unchallenged and not accountable.
I dont think Ryles was selected just to keep things comfortable for the playing group. The playing group in many ways made this bed.
We have a good core of players that just need a leader.
I hear what you are saying Pete. I don’t think Ryles will stand for that nonsense from the players and will demand professionalism from them. In the end if they can’t abide by that, they can find another club. This is so crucial to our success that we need to get player culture right.
Reading between the lines, the club is looking in a new direction, which is exactly what is required. There may be some immediate pain coming next season but good things await if we just get all the basics right. Ryles is one step towards this, but it will take a lot more people to fix the mess.
Excellent article by Michael Chammas in the SMH.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/broncos-of-the-west-how-the-eels-landed-their-man-ryles-20240708-p5jru0.html
Ryles rightly sees the potential in the Eels who have the location, the resources and the Juniors to be an absolute powerhouse.
I admire BA but he was stuck into a “love the collision” strategy. That’s not working any more. Must have speed men outside clever and creative halfs. Hopefully Lomax can add something there.
I feel a surge of optimism about 2025. Let’s get tough, hard to score against and move the ball in attack.
Good article thanks McFersie
The fox NRL 360 guys are already trying to spin the narrative negative again ….
They are spinning that BA is going to be Perth’s NRL team head coach.
And that folks like Dylan brown, and many others, are going to follow him.
Last week Dylan brown was going to the roosters.
This week it’s Dylan brown is leaving to follow BA when he starts as head coach for a Perth team.
Honestly…
Can they go make up rumours about the storm or roosters? Maybe panthers?
I get we are a huge club & fan base
(and a EASY target at the moment)
But for gods sake, can they just leave us alone?
Agree Muz,
The media make up everything.
The Lomax backflip was made up because Flanagan said “I’m not filling your newspaper” and a wry smile. Because he didn’t flat out reject it they ran with the story. They repeat it so much that eventually the player starts to think about it. They literally plant the seeds of demise in their articles. They have NO interest in truth their only interest is click bait and being first to say something…anything as long as it’s first.
P S I don’t support Trump. But he did first popularly describe it as Fake News. I think now everyone has ‘woke’ to this common practise.
Pete you make a good point and Trumpstet calls it as he sees it!
lol Muz, he was going to the Warriors before the Roosters.
I saw that too on 360, that’s one of the longest bows I’ve ever seen drawn, even for 360.
They have no shame, firstly linking a coach to a franchise that doesn’t exist followed by a player he’s going to pouch in 2028! It’s funny if nothing else.
Maybe he will be linked to the all blacks next 😂
In all honesty, the media is a joke – they’ve linked brown to different clubs each week
““I honestly, couldn’t care less [where I play], I’ve said it my whole career. I just love playing, whether it’s off the bench, on the wing, anywhere. From the get-go I’ve always said I’ll move if the coach thinks it’s right,” Gutherson said.”
Maybe Tago on the wing and a stint of jobshare in the centres with Talagi at the back would be a good way to instill discipline in the defensive line.
I can’t see Blaize making tackles like the King was making against the Roosters but he needs to learn and it would be a shame to lose him.
In my view Blaize is a centre. He could maybe do a job at 6 if needed. For some reason there’s this push to make him a full back. Dylan Brown has more potential as a fullback than Blaize has. He is a gifted ball carrier close to the line. That is his strength. If some other club sees him in a different light and wants to pay him more than he’s worth so be it.
Asi named at 7 for Moses. Dylan remains at 6. The charade is over.
Mulitalo to debut on wing.
Doorey and Gymer to start.
Moretti on bench with MA, Lane and Carty.
Leumeleume on extended reserves list.
This side is looking more at 2025 than back to 2022.
How good 👍
And we need to give props to baz
The best starting 13 we could manage. Got my doubts aboit the bench. Lussick is not a great dummy half but he’s a tough competitor; I’d have found a place for him as things are. Wiremu Greig and Trent obviously don’t see eye to eye.
Mate lussick and greig are not there for a reason both of them have failed to play one good game for us all year. Lussick has not spot in this team moving forward it looks like and nobody will seem to argue that.
U hit the nail on the head, brown NOT at 7
Dylan I’m afraid could be the best player in the comp but plays like you can hardly notice he is there most weeks
The guys simply not a half back or team leader at this point in time
Im loving the more debuting jnrs & cup players getting a run as you just mentioned
Also mate – this could be Ryles having his influence already on the team
Trent might be coaching for a assistant coaching role
If he can snag some wins and get our young players firing up
Parra might have a job for him post 24’ if he can show some value
I wouldn’t be surprised if Jason or the clubs encouraging him to plan ahead and blood players for next year
That or Trent’s legit just going for it now and willing to do whatever it takes to find out next best players so he can string together some wins
I don’t think people realise how selfless this is for baz
He could easily use more experienced players like Harper at centre and lussick instead of Boods, etc
And possibly leak less points in defence
He’s going all out here and flipping the coin
We could get absolutely flogged
Or absolutely strike gold
But us fans, our club wins either way with our young players gaining proper NRL experience
We look to have already found 1 NRL level player in Guymer
And luck and we can find another 1-3 solid ones for 25 and beyond
Blaize & Boods (still very green)
Tago (looked solid for a debut)
Parra fans must not just look at short term wins as a source of success for us this year
It’s all about the next 4 years now
And under Arthur most these guys would never have gotten a fair go
Not anytime soon anyway
This period of experience building for our youth might create a new pathway of success at the parra eels
We’ve never done something this expansive in over a decade
It’s always been rookies get last priority and old players, even when they stink, got first choice
I don’t care what anyone says about Trent barret
He’s doing something so important and substantial for our clubs future right now, most people won’t even get it
He’s placing the future of our club ahead of his own short term success or winning % as a coach
There may be incentives like a future job at our club and what not
But trust me, BA would never have ever ran this many rookies and overlooked SNR players
Lussick, Harper, Russel, these guys would be all still blocking NRL spots from our NSW cup talents getting in first grade
We may not see the immediate ROI from these young fellas all playing now
But in 1 or 2 seasons from now, we will 5 or 6 really young talented players who are already very experienced and confident at NRL level
We cannot go on only trusted old players
The best teams who win the comp constantly have a healthy turn over of players with young regularly coming into the roster and getting NRL minutes
We have substantially lacked in this front
Or when we get the youth a spot we stay too loyal to them even when they don’t deserve the spot
We must reward performance, not just experience or age
A good example of our club being too slow
What is Sean russel doing in there and lane being first choice for countless weeks?
When we constantly have 3 or more people in power grades who are performing far better than them?
There’s been a clear bias towards experience players having the free run to play shit and drop their standards
And not pay the price for it
Melbourne will drop any player to the bench or even reserve grade until they lift performances again
We need that hard nose mentality
I don’t wanna hear the excuses “oh, we don’t have the roster”
We actually do have much more that we just never used
Tago, blaize, Guymer, now Mulitalo, and there’s more in the cup squad
These young guys are HUNGRY and will outplay some of these main stay players in our NRL side
Some of them already have
This is what parra has needed for so long
It’s not going to increase our win % straight away
But our team will sit rocket once these young fellas get comfortable
The sky will be the limit
We all need to be thanking baz
This would never have happened before
Guymer and Tago may not have gotten a first grade debut even this season
It’s highly possible lane & Harper would of gotten preferential treatment
I was a fan of BA for the most part
But I’m glad he’s gone in this respect
I want to see our club think long term
There’s ZERO long term dividends for our club constantly playing say Lane or Harper
Where’s there’s unlimited upside by getting our young players in those same spots
Because they will multiply in effectiveness for our club, the more we play them
Smart clubs think & manage rosters like this
We simply don’t
I’m happy that hopefully times are going to change
Ryles will likely copy what he learnt at Melbourne & roosters
Also Ryles was coached by Wayne Bennet
He will have a substantially higher knowledge base to work with in regards to how to run our team
Is it helpful for Mitch to start telling incoming coach that he should keep assistant coaches…just a thought…is this the start of a campaign to leave our Eels???
Is Moses comments helpful….or the start of manipulation to leave the Blue and Gold ???
He’s probably just loyal to baz and the players probably dislike the higher ups at the eels like most of us fans do as well. Most players like baz and having met him, he seems like a remarkably likeable person if I’m being honest, very down to earth and easy to talk to.
Kenny, I think the players should do their talking on the field. Moses could have iced those last two games but he didn’t. If we won he could simply say Baz has been great. After a loss it just sounds like BS.
Interesting podcast fellas and thank you for this.
Lots of things to be considered and more moves to be made but as you said it needs to be done with certainty and pace and whatever process they currently have for retention just is not working.
We have seen some current NRL deals made that raise eyebrows in terms of length/ cost and Clause. We need the right people in this role.
As capt obvious the young kids need to be signed now and some others tapped on shoulders asap.
I also take the tak of Ba taking players elsewhere as just that – talk. The players weren’t putting in consistently for him so it’s all talk.
I also feel it’s time for Moses to be captain..that may not be popular but for me it’s a no brainer and Hopgood for the future.