Today is yet another grim day for our Parramatta Eels.
At around 11:20am members received an email from CEO Jim Sarantinos informing us that Blaize Talagi and his management had decided to play elsewhere in 2025.
This official confirmation had followed months of speculation that the talented junior was going to depart the club.
Without question, the Eels are getting things wrong, and it needs to be addressed. And let me make it clear that I’m not brushing over how concerning the situation is. To be blunt, I fully expect to receive more bad news and more departures before we can start talking better times.
But there is a major issue facing the Eels that I haven’t written about until now. I’ve expressed my strong opinions to club management for some time, but given what has transpired today I have decided to address it on The Cumberland Throw.
That issue is player agents, and in this instance, Isaac Moses.
Isaac Moses is not responsible for all three of the 2024 debutants who will now part ways with Parra. There are three different agents in play there and he is just one of them.
However, I need to explain the strength of Isaac Moses and why I believe this is problematic for the Eels.
If you are a talented player, you probably want Moses and his Cove Agency handling your business. If he’s not the biggest agent in the NRL, he’s right at the top. Moses secures great deals for his high profile clients. He wields great power and he knows it. In some clubs there are both coaches and players who are Cove clients.
What about Parramatta?
His power is yet to fully materialise. No agent comes close to matching the number of players that Moses manages in Parramatta’s pathways. That doesn’t just happen. He doesn’t fluke it. He and his associates do the work every week. They are at the coal face, building connections and growing their stable.
I’ve been told the percentage of Eels pathways players that are Cove clients. If that figure is accurate, or close to correct, it would be absolutely impossible for any other agent to match it, even if they were operating in a duopoly.
It doesn’t matter who the agent is, it’s not healthy for one agent to have such influence.
And in going up against Moses, the Eels face a smart operator. Moses has invested in the future. The emerging players.
I’m going to be blunt about the future. There is no point in being a development club if the majority of the pathways talent is linked with the one agent. It should be crystal clear who holds the upper hand in this situation.
And that agent has now shown his hand.
His two most recent senior negotiations with the club have resulted in protracted talks, with incessant media speculation, social media rumours, and now the loss of one of the brightest young stars to have emerged from Eels juniors in years.
Clearly, Moses secures terrific deals for his clients, but it comes at a cost for clubs. That’s the game, right? Well, sometimes the clubs hold the advantage in negotiations, sometimes it’s the player and his agent. I believe that Moses will hold many aces in future dealings at the Eels.
What’s the answer?
The Eels have just experienced the pain of losing Talagi. I suspect there is more to come.
It’s time for the Eels to make a strong stand and my suggestion will also draw pain. But ultimately it will be a matter of taking back control.
The club needs to meet with Moses and explain that they no longer wish to deal with his agency. Inform him that they will honour all current contracts but should the player remain a Cove client at the end of the deal, then there will be no extension or new deal. They will undoubtedly lose players.
This may seem extreme but the club is facing an extreme horizon.
Without taking control, and doing so now, the consequences will be inevitable.
And today will be just a drop in the ocean.
Eels forever!
Sixties
Please note: I do not want replies to this post to be full of personal attacks against Moses or his agency. I don’t want unsubstantiated anecdotes. Also, everyone is aware of the NRL de-registering him a few years back. If it gets personal or abusive then the reply will be removed or edited as per TCT’s policy on comments. We can make a strong stand without going down that abusive path.
If you expect more talented eels to leave then I assume you mean guymer and/or tuivati? We haven’t got many blue chip ones left at this rate…
Ron I hope neither of those guys leave. guymer n tuivati are real talented n must look after their futures.
Most young player’s like blaize start to believe their own hype n seek that mega pay day that they eventually don’t live up to. good luck to blaize
I have no idea who 60s is alluding to but it doesn’t sound good at all
Nice in theory 60’s, but is the club going to refuse to resign Mitch Moses in a couple of years ?
Not bloody likely.
I’ve been saying this for awhile now, Isaac Moses has this level of power because our pathways are nowhere near productive enough, so when we do get a good player, we have to keep him, and he knows it.
Until we get to the point where we can afford to say no to even the most talented of kids, we’ll always be at his mercy.
Don’t worry Sixties!
We have MON, he is the Frank Ponisi of the West. According to Jim Sarantinos.
Moses doesn’t stand a chance with the combined business acumen of our Board of directors.
Note: extreme sarcasm above
Well said and not before time..you cauterise a festering sore to begin the healing process, pain before gain. Thanks for your honesty sixties…I hope the club hierarchy have paid attention 👍
It might seem extreme but believe me, in my opinion it’s the only course of action.
I agree with you 100% sixties.
Make it well known to all players that we won’t deal with him so that players know that if they want to join the Eels, they will need to get a new agent.
We will lose players Spark but the alternative is never regaining the upper hand.
One thing in business. A person who is incompetent in their job and faces No accountability will never improve.
We’ve had the same HOF and CEO for a number of years and there is zero improvement. In fact thingscare getting worse.
Do we keep repeating the same mistakes with the same people incharge? Or do we vote them out?
I say incumbents must go!
I’m sorry.
While i don’t disagree with your concerns and the issue of dealing with such a powerful agent – Your suggestion would seem to be a restraint of trade and wouldn’t pass muster.
16 other clubs have to deal with Moses and his business. Why is it that we seem unable to manage a relationship with him? We all know the reason.
The reason is Mark O’Neil. He was wildly unqualified to do the job of being head of our football operations and negotiating player contracts, and he has failed time and time and time again to retain players. We don’t expect to keep them all, but we have to keep the key one’s. He fails at this almost every time and the one’s we do keep, seem to have contracts that are wildly in favour of the player. He clearly. Clearly. doesn’t have the ability to negotiate with big agents and we are on the brink of him bringing the Eels down to the level of the Wests Tigers and being stuck at the bottom of the ladder for close to a decade. That isn’t an exaggeration and it has been coming for 3 years now..
You can’t get Moses out of the game. You can get O’Neill out.
This has to be the end of O’Neill.
Is it a restraint of trade if he has other clubs that he can deal with? I wouldn’t think so. You might find that there are other clubs who “limit” their dealings with certain agents. If you are in any business and you don’t want to deal with someone when there are other options, you can’t be forced to do so.
Maybe someone gets a kickback?? or finders fee or sign a friend receive a gift card….call it what you like. But it keeps happening despite it being so obvious?
I mean it’s a valid question.
Nick Politis tried not dealing with him, didn’t work out for him, what chance does Jim Sarantinos have ?
People might be surprised to learn that Isaac was an epic Parra fan as a kid. His extended family remain rabidly blue and gold. I’m sure they’d be absolutely giving it to him today.
I doubt this is some personal vendetta against the club – he has found Blaize the best opportunity he could – partnering Nathan Cleary and going from one of the weakest clubs, to one of the strongest.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as filthy as anyone else. But the fact he was offered more money to stay and opted out speaks to this being more about what deal was better for Blaize long term. Clearly his family lost faith in where Parra are headed.
Sam Tuivati is the next Moses client we’ll fight hard to retain.
We will have to continue dealing with Isaac. We just need to deal with him smarter.
I’m well aware of the family support for Parra. And I’m not suggesting he’s doing anything untoward to Parra. I’m suggesting that any agent having such a level of influence is not good and that the club does not do well in our negotiations with him.
But every agent now has too much influence at Parra. Now you have Field wanting to get Guymer out. Why? Because we have a HoF and CEO who are utterly useless at their jobs. How can it be framed any other way?
And it isn’t their fault they are useless at their jobs – neither are qualified. O’Neill went from doing the job for 6 months at a club who have been awful for nearly two decades, to being HoF for one of the biggest rugby league operations in the world. And the CEO has no background in people and relationship management. His experience is essentially winding up failed businesses…. So he might come in handy soon at this rate i guess…
I understand player agents like Moses don’t care about clubs and want to maximise dollars but they work for the player at end of the day and for a 19 year old jnr who came through the system and to just turn his back on the eels when he was all but given the keys to the place like he the second coming of one Jarryd Hayne. King Gutho had to publicly come out and say he would be happy to accommodate this kid and move from a pos that he is currently far superior in. It’s a hard pill to swallow. Ethan you could understand he has brown and moses ahead of him, arthur issue again quiet unique but Eels went all in on Blaize and now it’s just applies more pressure on a rookie coach who will be seen as failing his first assistant of keeping Blaize at the club. My point to this is what’s wrong with our culture? Why don’t Jnrs want to stay can’t be all about money these kids won the SG ball together.. they had no dreams or plans to stick around and try win Parra their first premiership in over 38 years? Look at Penrith what they have achieved… they just up the road from us on the m4 yet drastically different attitudes from players.
Failed his first assignment^^^
Moses is doing his job very well. Unfortunately for us. But good for Blaize. I’d probably sign up for Moses too if I was a junior.
On the other hand MON is doing his job very poorly. That is something we can control. But we lack the nous and lack accountability.
We cannot blame the agents if the people in charge of the club are incompetent. This incompetence just continues and knows no bounds.
I’m so pissed off with this player manager shit, the incompetence of the board ,whatever . If your a young bloke who wants to play for the blue and gold, great . That’s were your passion for the club comes from. If you don’t , on your bike.
I remember suggesting Blaize be given a deadline instead of stringing out the inevitable. Instead we meekly allowed him to tour our opponents and pick the best.
A deadline would have allowed Parra to show it had some idea. Sadly, we were to dumb.
The other thing why did poorly. We gave him our offer first? We should have said test the market and then get back to us. Then we hold the cards….just basic failure of management. Moses would be laughing non stop. We are officially the worst recruitment team in NRL. The Frank Ponisi ofvthe West? How embarrassing from Eels Board.
Simple but on the money Prometheus. Absolutely no loyalty to a club anymore. It’s a case of going with fame and fortune and NOTHING else.
I reckon I said he does well for his clients. No question.
So what do we do? pay overs for juniors to hang around in the hope one of the 1st graders get injured. Talagi is not a fullback, he is a 5/8 or centre, now he has the opportunity at Penrith to partner Cleary, no chance at Parra. Same as Sanders, he is not going to hang around waiting for Moses to retire. If we had edge forwards, or wingers coming through, we would have a far better chance at signing them long term because there is no one blocking their path.
I’m not going to disagree with any of that. Moses does well for his clients. Blaize has probably done well. But as an Eels fan I need to see the club do better and there is an issue in pathways which cannot be ignored.
As an Eels fan too. Firsrly. We have a huge issue of incompetence in the management of the club. The elephant in the room.
MON and Jim own these decisions. They are in charge of the clubs demise.
I agree, there are issues that can be mitigated. Moses is acting for his clients. Who is MON acting for?
As I said we lack nous and accountability. Moses will continue to run rings around this management. Unfortunately, More pain to come.
Bottom line our club is a mess, if Jason Ryles isn’t allowed to flex some muscle and be allowed to coach the team without the full support of the board, unfortunately he can have all the talent in the world as a coach, but without that support, he will unfortunately fail.
Can’t blame Blaize, compare our beloved club with Penrith right now, who would you want to play for, regardless of money…….
Ok he is going to Penrith, why choose Penrith over Parra. Simple logic if you take away the spirit of the jersey. Why is that?
Penrith will be successful on an ongoing basis because they are planning forward the whole time….. let’s understand why the agent, regardless of his name chose Penrith.
Face it, he gets a percentage but presumably prioritises his view to Penrith because of opportunity…..is there a way of ensuring no kickbacks take place? His percentage is to the highest bidder, unless there are other incentives he can only be doing the right thing by his client.
Parra is not easy to sell on its record, it has ongoing issues with regard to forward planning that is almost historical.
The mistake with Parra started after the 80’s when Denis Fitgerald failed to plan for the future. he just thought Parra had so many juniors and an unchallenged territorial advantage and could not fail continuing to be a powerhouse.
The problem this time around (38 years later) has again been an inability to plan forward in “football player, coaching and development”. Fields of dreams are being created, but the former have not come. They have gone elsewhere!
We need some dynamic planning and Ryles is first hitter up. That said unless he gets the right support from the front office then he is doomed, you could say set up to fail! Wow who would do that you ask?…..well no one deliberately but failure to plan leads to further failure.
Mark O’Neil needs to go for all the reasons of credibility and hindsight. MON maybe a victim but it’s too late for him (bite the bullet now Jim).
Jim Saratinos needs to start communicating, at least selectively to a public needing to know what is happening. If it’s not a skill, bring someone in that can confirm and deny some happenings to keep abreast of our constant PR failings. The media are inventing their own stories on Parra because they get no information. How often do we read “bullshit”.
We have all been impressed what a tight ship Parra has kept at a public level, but it has gone too far, Public Relations is so important with any front-line operation, and they have let themselves down in that respect.
In saying that about MON we need to replace him with a visionary. That may not be a Brian Smith but it needs to be someone with true sports management ability, the right person was someone like Cheika or McDermott with say Ryles taking on an a coaching role under a genuine Leader/General Manager Football who Ryles could/can report and communicate his needs through, someone closer to the action, who can convince the board to step in time and not outside the mainstream of their existence.
The opportunity is there now, the challenge to the board is not setting up Ryles to fail by ensuring he has the right person to communicate his needs through. In another club that maybe a person called Gould, guess who does the frontline communication and lets his coach to the coaching…..Yes that club who are heading in one direction whilst we are heading in another.
The way this club is going we will be lucky to be allowed to play in the NRL.
Sadly we are becoming the joke of the NRL and soon we will be like the Tigers and have to pay massive overs to attract plodders to the club. Yay us.
We are currently the Tigers. I won’t argue there. The club is getting things wrong and they can’t argue that point.
Good read!
I don’t think the blanket ban is a bad idea.
Though I think they should employ a partial ban on the amount of players a certain management has at the club.
Especially in the juniors.
I also think the NRL should prevent players having managers until they are 18.
Unfortunately they end up with an agent before they even hit junior reps.
One solution might be getting the balance right between junior player development- a balance between local kids and country/ NZ kids and thus break his dominance over our junior teams.
Anyone who knows some Parra Junior clubs understands how influential Moses is with some of the smaller / bigger clubs.He has long standing family influence in those clubs and he has significant influence at those clubs. As you said he has done the work to establish those ‘relationships’
We need to go back to spotting kids from the country and moving them towards other agencies. If it comes down to it we should cap the amount of Moses juniors in our rep teams. Make it a really low number. This might force parents to look elsewhere and if Moses takes those kids to other teams we can take on the juniors they don’t pick. We may not be as strong in the junior comps but what is the point of developing juniors that you can’t keep unless the agent gets what he wants.
I cannot help but think Blaize would be staying if the coach we appointed was from Moses agency.
Out of 2016 disaster we got some change that was hard to take but worthwhile. If we want to and are willing to make the tough calls loosing Blaize and probably others as you have hinted may be hard in the short term but Moses might end up eating the hand that feeds him.
I also think questions must be asked about our HOF. Ultimately it is his job to oversee roster management and deal with these managers.
Unfortunately the common denominator in all these issues is the Eels R&R area, not sure they have been on top of negotiations for a few years and certainly have not been able to replace even the 6/7 players that left in 2022.
Until we have a competent and experienced recruitment manager , who has contacts with the media and player managers , then we are Unlikely to see improvement , This downward spiral has been obvious prior to the GF , needs be actioned immediately. Not sure that the current CEO and Chairman have the necessary football nous to get it right. Hope that’s wrong, but until we get significant change expect little to enthuse about.
Blaize and his family decided not to resign with the eels.
Sixties, Moses does not make the decision for the player he works for the player.
They had the choice to sign a good offer and to wear the blue and gold and he decided he does not love the club enough to do that.
That is the question why???
Look in our own back yard and don’t blame a manager who just does his job for the player and gets the offers in, he does not hold the pen and sign the paper.
Blaize did that!
Look after the players we have that might show signs they will bleed for the club, maybe that will be Richard Penisini, or Charlie G, or Jock Brazel or Mohammad.
Move on and get a better culture at the joint and make young players infest in and love the jumper.
With a back line that includes Gutho, Lomax, Moses, Brown, Will P and some recruits to come in with the Blaize cash I’m still bullish with what Ryles can do in the future.
Tony
Tony, you would have noted that I’m not pointing the finger at Moses for Blaize.
Of course not, you are just saying that the club shouldn’t deal with this player agent. You are all over the place, sixties and acting on emotion.
No emotion in this Avenger. I’ve expressed this opinion to the club for quite some time.
I’ve been very precise.
Moses gets the best for his clients, not the clubs.
He has massive numbers of our pathways players as his clients.
This gives him a powerful position in dealing with Parra and it is not good business to have any player agent in this position.
The Eels have to take back control. I gave my solution.
Not sure what you can’t follow man.
You realise he also represents our best player? You want us not to extend Moses as per your suggestion when his clause comes up? No extension or deal. Your words not mine. Like I said, you are emotional. I get it, we all are but your suggestion as always leaves out the biggest fail factor here. MARK “Buckets” O’NEILL.
Not sure why you can’t address the elephant in the room.
Many years ago when I was a first year student at Northmead High School, I remember a wonderful cartoon at the time. It was a sort of silly cartoon but one that resonates with most of the early year students of the time, best part was the way the cartoon was played at the time and most of the lower grade students helped with the calls.
The key figure was a cartoon crow that made sure he had those around the arena’s//land scapes, and would make sure his message was perfect for those who would relay/respond to an ongoing ditty type song when dealing with others in the and around the arena’s.
The Crows ditty was excellent as whenever any opposition to came to play/ply/mix with those around his call was great and he never changed it.
Your nothing but a nothing, your not a thing at all! It pretty much put many cartoonists and pro/crows in their place.
Where do the local crowers stand now?
Absolutely…but it begs the question of …despite the shenanigans of the front office ..
. Where was his loyalty..I feel there is none
. I don’t want to feel old..
but is it the belief of instant (supposedly) success of signing with Penrith…..without the graft.
What goes around comes around..
. I feel strongly that he should not wear our precious colours at any level again this season
Cheers M8
Whilst I agree Isaac Moses is clearly a parasitic entity of some sort in the NRL world.
All other clubs have to deal with him and they do. The main issue is that our club is clearly being ran bu people who have no clue what’s going on.
They think we have a premiership winning roster, they also told NRL 360 folk MON is a star head of football, a “Frank Pomisi of the west.”
To the rest of the NRL world both fans and commentators alike, it simply looks like we have incompetent buffoons who have no idea what they are doing.
I agree that dealing with this guy is bad business. But we must not deflect blame to outside forces, our REAL issues are the people up in the head office.
The clear evidence of this is some of the statements they’ve made about of roster, head of football, or how they waited until there was 0% chance of getting Wayne Bennetts signature before going after him.
Our clubs got the potential to go along the same path here as the wests tigers if they do not watch themselves, 1 GF appearance and BA’s great ability to get the most out of average players has given these incompetent people who run the parra eels a false sense of confidence.
All if will take for us is to get a poor result next year and to piss of Moses or brown enough to use their clauses to explore the market, and gutho retires, and suddenly we are in wests tigers territory which can take years to reverse.
If all of us parra fans are being fair dinkum with ourselves, we need to start getting our voices heard up in the front office and to the board members. If this charade continues, all it will take is 1-2 bad years and we would risk losing once in a generation players like Moses & Brown who any club in the top 8 would be licking their lips to gain a signature from if the eels ship fails to set sail under Ryles.
Isaac moses is an issue.
But the clowns who played a significant role in us going from GF to wooden spoon contenders in 2 seasons are a far bigger problem than him (just my opinion), as fish rots from the top in every way organisation.
Jack Gibson once said “winning starts at the front office”
That’s Clearly the case at Roosters & Panthers. Compare that to parra… we think of those in charge of our eels as being completely delusional or having zero footy IQ. And Hurts me to say it. We are just too weak, Isaac moses probably looks at us like a poorly ran club he can leach off without as much effort, due to eels HQ incompetency.
How can we get our voices heard up in the board or to the leaders / execs of the club?
I wonder if we should start petitions. I’m sure 10,000 + eels fans would vote they’ve had enough!
Everyone see NRL 360 blasting the eels tonight?
They are calling them out our clubs leadership and calling us embarrassing.
It’s completely true, who goes from a grand final to wooden spoon contention in 2 years?
It’s absolutely diabolical, shameful, yet the clown CEO & co are telling reporters our HOF is the “Frank Ponissi of the west.” How do people like this even keep their job? Embarrassing. 🤡’s
Can I just say that I have had on good authority that Moses and other agents hate dealing with Mark O’Neill. He is a handbrake in most negotiations and lacks communication skills.
O’Neill is more to blame than any other factor here. Our skinny roster, ratchet clauses and player options as far as the eye can see.
This needs to be addressed before we try and exercise a perceived restraint of trade.
How do we get rid of him tho mate? Eels execs tell media folk that he is a genius and Frank Ponisi of the west?
Apparently MON works like a puppet for the eels higher ups doing whatever they want to save them coin and so they like him hence sacking BA whilst backing MON and boasting how great he is to them.
Then the question begins, is it eels higher ups incompetence? Or O’Neil? Because O’Neil is only there because the board & CEO placed him there and kept him in charge. Then doubled down how good he Is apparently. How do we get rid of him if they approve of him?
The new coach assumes control. Ryles has a 4 year deal. He demands action in that area and confronts the club if he does not get his way.
Been told that basically ONeil has no relations with the media or player managers, and has a tendency to low ball offers believing it will keep the price down. Also have been told that many times the player agent often won’t approach ONeil with players and will negotiates elsewhere first as he regarded as slow, difficult, with a hard personality.
Yep a Tigers life member and his offsiderTiger mate making the Eels into a Leichhardt level club, currently even the often criticised Shane Richardson looks more competent than our HOF.
HOF is mates with John Elias…
So you’re in communication with Moses and other agents? Interesting.
One thing is certain though and that is the club should drop him immediately.
We are not in the race for the semis so we have nothing to lose but what we can do as a club, is make a really strong statement and ensure that he plays no further part wearing our jersey.
Wearing our first grade jersey is a privilege.
It’s not like he’s going to be putting his body on the line for the club now.
Totally agree…forget all the noise over the incompetence of the front office…he had a chance with a new coach to be part of a new beginning…instead he takes supposed instant success with Penrith..what goes around comes around..they were once shit and will be again…drop him from all teams
100% agree with that. Whatever players we lose so be it but we need to take a hard stance against Moses agency.
But like you have mentioned there are problems within our club that need addressing and we need someone who knows what they are doing as head of football.
As for Blaize, he is only in first grade as part of his development and now he is leaving we shouldn’t be playing him again. Bring in Harper for this weekend and the rest of the year.
Ohh gents this one hit hard, sat in my car for an hour trying to process. Even worse the wifes a panther fan trying to get our newest addition to follow suit (not happening).
We had a crack, threw a great offer but at the end of the day he doesnt want to be here. To be honest was kinda getting some Diva vibes about him.
Not all is doomed, heads up. Ryles can instill some culture and have players wanting to play for the blue/gold. Look at what the doggies are doing, playing for the jersey and playing for each other. Also No more contracts with freaking player options (mitch has one which is frightening). Dyl bags coming out this week was reassuring aswell saying not to worry.
Plus grass aint greener on the other side – To’o whispers, losing fisher harris/luai. Plus we have the origin winning half back 😉 Good luck defending in the front line Blaize, i saw enough when lachy galvin skinned ya.
Lachlan Galvin is twice the player that Blaize Talagi will ever be.
Who knows how timings go but I reckon there is every chance that Lachlan will one day wear the Eels colours.
Media raving on about the possibility of us losing our star centre Will Penisini!
Will Penisini is a solid young player but come on … A star ???
We.wont lose Mitch Moses.
All is not lost.. we pick up Lomax and supplement a couple of quick players and we will go much better next year.
Ryles has already worked out his coaching assistants who have really good resumes.
People just have to stop cutting their wrists over this !
Talagi didn’t want to be at the Eels. We need to accept it and move on.
I deadset believe we will be a powerhouse again in 2025/2026.
This is Isaac Moses. Just wait until we have Sam Ayoub or his son sorting out Junior and Guthos deals. I mean we are going to be in the news for the next two years or more.
The truth is any agent has the upper hand when dealing with the incompetent Eels administration.
We are so bad we make medicine sick.
Great read Sixties
Yes I Moses is an issue…but the club has to take responsibility here. We are a joke and have become the poor cousins of the Riff.
I’m absolutely over it.
Mill, it is in the Eels court for how they handle this situation. We can’t undo what has just happened, but if we allow the current balance of power in negotiations to remain then I fear what lies ahead.
Sixties, i would tell a club to get stuffed if I was the father of a young talented footballer who was told my son is not welcome because he’s managed by Moses.
I agree, we need leverage when negation time comes, that comes with being a successfully run club both financially and on the field.
Look at Stefano, he’s leaving our sister club not for the money but to play for a well managed club. The Eels would have been literally the last club he would’ve joined.
Money was never going to keep Blaize. And a side note, on what planet does an 18 year old yet to debut end up with PO in his favour? That would have to be one of dumbest decisions I’ve seen made by equally dumb people.
I’m afraid this time, fans will vote with their wallets, I’m yet to cross that line but I’m warming to the idea.
I’m not close enough to understand all the complexities of how all of this works and plays out, so anything I add here is pure speculation.
However what is obvious is that there is a lack of confidence with the club, what its doing, the direction, the playing roster, R&R, pathways etc. I said a couple of weeks ago that there is a large range of natural advantages the Eels have over most other clubs in the competition (and potentially all Sydney clubs), so as an organisation it is really impressive (for all the wrong reasons) that they manage to stuff things up so badly. Look at the Tigers – you can understand some of their natural challenges as a merged club. But why in the hell are the Eels in the same position?
I’ve been critical of Moses since before his ban, and his methods (whilst effective for him) are very disruptive for the club.
But Moses is not the problem here.
We have messed up our pathways and retention across multiple players, multiple contracts and multiple players agents.
The common denominator is not Moses. The common denominator is our Head of Football.
Name any other club who would be in a position where the likely NRL Rookie of the Year leaves right after their breakout session. It’s deadset embarrassing.
No more scapegoats. We need to fix the problem where it lies – R&R.
The bright lights of Commbank. The carefully curated insta posts. The corporate cliches of our executive. This is all part of the Potemkin village hiding the undesirable reality that we aren’t a serious football club.
At some stage between 2021 and 2022 (yes, this started before the GF), we took a wrong turn. Some realised sooner than others but weren’t heard. No we’re all looking up. It ain’t pretty. It’s a long way back.
Thankfully, it’s just a game.
What a Painfull day it has been…after watching this kid, Blaize that could become Anything he is so talented…& to add to The Pain..on my 56th Birthday.
I have supported The Mighty EELS SINCE 1976….& started playing junior rugby league in 1977 with the Parramatta Junior Eels & Winning a Premiership that 1st year.
Went to the 1977 Replay Grand Final aged 9yo with my Dad..Also went to 1982 & 1983 Grand Finals, ..Was at Pasrra Leagues as an 18yo for our Last Grand Final Win in 1986…..thats A Long, Long Time.
Am Starting to really think…will not see Another Premiership before i Die.
Trev
The buzz is that Blaize is going to Penrith where he will immediately take the number 6 possibly his best position. Had I been managng hi.m talk of Number One would have been a disincentive. We now can expect his younger brother also to depart. Blaize, of course, will have seen the absurd length of the Dylan Brown contract and seen no future there.
My personal guess – Dylan will go to The Roosters in 2026 rather than take up his option. If that happens we’ll have ente t ed into a contract which cost us a very promusing player without tying down the position. Not since the Will Hopoate fiasco which cost us
Will and Remis Smith with Will having to be p aid anyway have we seen such an outcome.
This us the stark reality – according to Zero Tackle we have three players committed for 2026 – Mosess (who’s getting injured an awful lot), Paulo and Lomax. Players with options their way (again according to Zero Tackle) are Brown, Penisini, Lane, Matterson and Sivo. Of those I think Lane, Matterson and Sivo the most likely to take up the options.
I hate to be pessimistic but it’s hard to see much success on the horizon.
Mate it’s all good.
It’s all about timings.
In a perfect world Brown leaves and Galvin is available.
I will tell you for a fact that Galvin will give his right testicle to play for the Eels, still loves the club.
If the Eels could unload either Junior or RCG, Stefano would be straight back here.
Look, Ryles isn’t stupid, he took the job over the Saints job a reason.
Those media hacks will be the first to kiss Ryles arse next year when we improve.
Moa will be great for our defence. We fix our defence up a little bit we instantly go to a mid table team.
Talagi has done nothing. We will be fine.
Get excited mate !!!!
Brown will not be going to the Roosters, he burnt his bridges there last year. Dyllan’s victim was the daughter of a club sponsor, personal friend of Politis….. try Warriors if you just want him to go.
Blaize Talagi is moving from a team trying to avoid the spoon who has just signed a rookie NRL coach, a team that is on a huge losing streak, to the best team with a coach who is a mutiple premiership winner, with the idea that he will be perhaps partnering the best player in the game in the halves.
I don’t blame him. I think we now have to use the money that Talagi would have gotten on someone else. But I am shattered. But I think we all saw it coming, deep down.
If the Eels were high flying right now, Blaize probably would have stayed. Successful teams have momentum and appeal. To me, losing all those players after the grand final loss and not being able to replace them adequately led us here. Hopgood is the only decent signing since that GF playing for us.
Sixties, I reckon everything bad happening at the Eels seems self-inflicted. After all, other teams have to deal with Isaac Moses.
Who is accountable?
If politics and roosters couldn’t stamp out Moses parra have no chance. A novel idea 60s but I think the reality is the r and r team need to be refreshed and new people who can actually negotiate well put in place. The Hof and ceo have overseen disgraceful results on the field and off the field as to r and r. The options in contracts are at the point of laughable.
Blaize should never have been allowed to enter his debut NRL year with a player option – that is insane and what player or agent wouldn’t take the opportunity to leverage that to get a great deal. Who’s responsible for allowing that situation? O’Neill.
O’Neill has been a disaster and must go. He has overseen the loss of quality players, the acquisition of Ron Massey cup level players as replacements, failed to fill our top 30 for 2 seasons running and now our most promising group of pathways players for years are walking out the door to strengthen other NRL clubs.
The roster remains littered with play options leaving the club vulnerable and I agree there’s further pain to come.
If O’Neill was in a corporate environment demonstrating this level of incompetence he would have been shown the door long ago.
I can’t blame the kid for going any player with half a Brain would go to the Panthers for unders he will comeout a better player worth more and will have final experience possibly a premiership.
Stay here active nothing maybe get a top 8 spot that is a success for a small club like ours is.
The kid good but not great none of our Pathways players are world beaters our Path ways produce ok players not superstars.
Blame his Manager all you want but it’s the club we are a shit team that had had 4 good seasons in our history and zero likelihood of winning another premiership within the next 10 years.
Unfortunately, if anything the Blaize contract saga and mismanagement by the club will only encourage other juniors to sign up to Moses.
MON has made himself employee of the year as voted by Jim.
Ok he is going to Penrith, why choose Penrith over Parra. Simple logic if you take away the spirit of the jersey. Why is that?
Penrith will be successful on an ongoing basis because they are planning forward the whole time….. let’s understand why the agent, regardless of his name chose Penrith.
Face it, he gets a percentage but presumably prioritises his view to Penrith because of opportunity…..is there a way of ensuring no kickbacks take place? His percentage is to the highest bidder, unless there are other incentives he can only be doing the right thing by his client.
Parra is not easy to sell on its record, it has ongoing issues with regard to forward planning that is almost historical.
The mistake with Parra started after the 80’s when Denis Fitgerald failed to plan for the future. he just thought Parra had so many juniors and an unchallenged territorial advantage and could not fail continuing to be a powerhouse.
The problem this time around (38 years later) has again been an inability to plan forward in “football player, coaching and development”. Fields of dreams are being created, but the former have not come. They have gone elsewhere!
We need some dynamic planning and Ryles is first hitter up. That said unless he gets the right support from the front office then he is doomed, you could say set up to fail! Wow who would do that you ask?…..well no one deliberately but failure to plan leads to further failure.
Mark O’Neil needs to go for all the reasons of credibility and hindsight. MON maybe a victim but it’s too late for him (bite the bullet now Jim).
Jim Saratinos needs to start communicating, at least selectively to a public needing to know what is happening. If it’s not a skill, bring someone in that can confirm and deny some happenings to keep abreast of our constant PR failings. The media are inventing their own stories on Parra because they get no information. How often do we read “bullshit”.
We have all been impressed what a tight ship Parra has kept at a public level, but it has gone too far, Public Relations is so important with any front-line operation, and they have let themselves down in that respect.
In saying that about MON we need to replace him with a visionary. That may not be a Brian Smith but it needs to be someone with true sports management ability, the right person was someone like Cheika or McDermott with say Ryles taking on an a coaching role under a genuine Leader/General Manager Football who Ryles could/can report and communicate his needs through, someone closer to the action, who can convince the board to step in time and not outside the mainstream of their existence.
The opportunity is there now, the challenge to the board is not setting up Ryles to fail by ensuring he has the right person to communicate his needs through. In another club that maybe a person called Gould, guess who does the frontline communication and lets his coach to the coaching…..Yes that club who are heading in one direction whilst we are heading in another.
Good read poppa
It’s good that he’s backing himself but let’s just have a look at the previous ‘greatest juniors’ ….
Kylie Flanagan was once described as a once in a generation player that was given the keys to the Roosters only to fall in a heap.
Brodie Croft was anointed as the next Cooper Cronk and where is he now ?
Everyone was chasing Lachlan Illias as the next big thing but now he can’t get a gig anywhere.
There is every likelihood that the Eels get their shit together next year and Blaize spends the next 2 years in the reserves out at Penrith with him and his ungrateful family wondering how it all went so pear shaped.
He may turn out to be a decent player but come on .. he will never ever be a Jarryd Hayne or a Freddy Fitler or a Joey Johns. Those players were dominating games when they came into grade, not missing heaps of tackles and dropping standard balls but listening to some commentators, we have lost a future immortal!
It IS concerning that we can’t hold our juniors but that’s modern footy.
The club has rightly identified that they have stuffed up with the player option deals but they are there. Isnt it better that they learn from the errors instead of plowing into the future with the same mindset ??
Let’s get the basics right – Fitness, pride in the jersey and our identity back and then we will see players come to the club.
If Talagi doesnt want to play for us – that’s his loss, the club is much much bigger than him.
The club has got the finances squared away and have given the keys to Ryles to get the football program back on track.
Im more convinced than ever that we are on the right track and better days are ahead.
I can’t wait for next year to start !
Good points Spark
Spark that reads like someone with one blue eye and one gold eye. I commend you and feel your pain.
But mate, Talagi, may not be a future immortal, but he has talent up the wahzoo! Flannagan, Croft and Illias – all have a couple of things in common. They were all half backs and they were all small. Blaize is neither of those things. He is big and powerful and barely 19. His ceiling is Turbo (without the hamstring injuries) and any club would sign him up if they could.
To say we are on the right track is head in the sand stuff, and what we are dealing with with a CEO who is doing just that.
We are facing a decade at the bottom of the ladder. The older guys are getting older, the younger guys are getting taken away and the talent in the middle, all have options to walk away. And potentially two new clubs are about to enter the market looking to sign players – Players we desperately need.
As much as it pains me to say, we are facing early 90’s level disaster. I hope in the next year or so, you are saying “i told you so”, but sadly, I don’t think that will happen.
Good positive stuff Spark.
Now there’s talk of Charlie Guymer wanting out. His manager Anthony Field, a part of ignite agency, has nothing to do with Moses and Cove agency. Sorry but if the problem was only with Moses and cove agency then yes we could argue the merits of not having to deal with him. But when the issue is across multiple players, multiple managers and multiple agencies then they’re not necessarily the issue. The issue is clearly internal and at this point that is what the club can control. The rest of the “R&R committee” have failed to do their job and ensure that the club is an attractive destination for players to come and stay, as seen it isn’t always about money or contract longevity. The PLC need to now step in and sack the PNRL board as it is quite obvious they are not up to the job.
I have never been more pessimistic about the club’s prospects. We’re a plastic club run by plastic people and while I will always support the club, the people in charge are making it extremely difficult to like the Parramatta Eels.
Agreed it’s not a Moses issue.
So now we don’t work with Anthony Field either??
It’s a club issue and players not wanting be here issue.
They are now using the Brad sold us a vision and now he is gone argument.
For god sake spare me, young players getting ahead of themselves and expecting a coach to stay on for 20 years and coach them.
That only happens if you are a Bennett or Bellemy and win trophies.
Ryles will rebuild the place and get rid of the players he dos not want and hopefully not fight for over hyped juniors who are wanting overs.
Well said, the emotional dribble started by Sixties was there for all to read. Yet he will never address the elephant(s) in the room by name and the root cause of this mess.
Plenty of credibility has been lost, yet inevitably he will post some fluff and say that he stands by every comment he makes and identify himself by name as a means of trying to get some brownie points by his followers and diminish everyone else’s contribution who dare post with a pseudonym.
Let me give you a tip. Sixties, like all of us, you are a nobody.
Well put your name to your statements.
Mr Nobody
At least I don’t hide behind a pseudonym
It’ll be hard for ryles to rebuild the place when those who make the decisions don’t seem to be working in the best interests of the club. Or at least if they believe they are they’re incapable of putting it into place
What’s wrong Charlie ? BA was nice and friendly but Ryles looks like a grumpy man ??
FMD. The place needs a reset that’s for sure.
The club just said no. It’s a business and he can either turn up and honour his contract or sit in the stands.
I applaud the club for saying no.
We have to approach this like a business not a charity. Those days are over.
It’s pretty clear there has been collusion by these kids, it’s all happening far too quickly for it to be coincidence.
They have clearly at some point got together and decided to screw the club when they broke through.
Well put Ham, I have never seen you that disillusioned and it indicates how far this cancer is spreading!
As I understand it the PLC can’t even change the light bulbs at the Eels anymore.
Blaize should have signed his first senior contract with the Eels – at least for the first two years of his NRL career. There’s still time Blaize.
“Failure with Impunity” The Boards moto.
I still follow the team. But i cannot support the management of this club and the rudderless direction and zero accountability.
The constant failure and mediocrity is baked into every decision. “Failure with impunity” should be emblazoned on the leagues club walls.
Boycott the club. Stop buying; food, drinks, merchandise and stop attending games.
Vote out the incumbents at the AGM.
If you see MON or Sleepy Jim give them a serve!!
I don’t blame players for leaving a sinking ship!
Three of the incumbents, including McElduff were reelected for a further three years earlier this year. Did you see the quality of the opposition, they were the dregs of society.
Hi Brett, not suprising unfortunately. We have the dregs of business on the board.
But they were reelected because their opponents were worse. Horribly worse, like no way you could even consider voting for them worse.
Unfortunately we can’t loosen the standards because it would make it much easier for the old factions to gain by a foothold again.
Hi Brett, that’s terrible.
So basically we are powerless.
As I said above the boards motto failure with impunity. Just about sums it up
I starting to think keeping Trent Barrett on was the biggest mistake, he could be white anting the joint and influencing the young kids
I think that’s an unfortunate remark. Barrett has not had the success as coach he might have wished but I can see no basis to question his professionalism and integrity.
People people – relax.
We can’t get rid of the board no matter what we say or how many times we stamp our feet !!
They are there for the long run so let’s put that to bed.
If it was Mitch Moses asking for a release, then I’d be worried.
Charlie Guymer??? Hahaha
Played one game off the bench and had a great game then played the next and was off the pace.
Has he been playing back the commentary from that first game ?
Look, we have world class halves.
A great fullback
The hottest centre in the game inbound next year.
We need a decent hooker to round it off and apparently we are in negotiations at the moment.
The Storm have won premierships with a great spine and filling in the spaces and we can do the same.
I can assure you the club is not just sitting on their hands at the moment. They have identified the players that Ryles wants.
The club is giving the media nothing but plenty is happening. You can imagine the media hacks asking all the managers if their kids want out !! Hahahaha
We have a very solid foundation and there are heaps of talent just busting to be given a chance.
Lol this is the worst take I’ve heard on this site (and there has been a few). So instead of improving our ability (getting in the right people) to deal with Moses you just want to run away from the problem. Yea, lets be cowards. Fucking ridiculous suggestion.