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While the NRL may be winding down for the Parramatta Eels in 2024, it seems like there is more footy to discuss than ever for The Tip Sheet as Sixties, Forty20 and Clint unleash a gargantuan episode of the news.
New coaches and training staff are on the way and it looks like Jason Ryles has leaned into rugby union to help form his coaching crew. What should we expect and are the boys excited for the new look coaches?
Rumours have surfaced again about Parra’s interest in Blake Wilson. Is he the right target for the roster revamp? Are there other positions the club should be focusing on?
The NRL news wraps another hectic week in the NRL and NRLW while the boys discuss the latest on Latrell Mitchell. What has the Bunker done now? How did Stephen Crichton avoid a sin bin or even a send off for his shoulder charge on Roger Tuivasa-Sheck?
Beyond question Blake Wilson is a talent who would add to the squad. As to whether he should be the priority, it is impossible to make a judgement without knowing where reported efforts to release contracted players is up to. Blaize is going; is Mika? How is Simonssen’s knee progressing? If both Regan and Shaun do in fact move on we’ll suddenly be very short on experienced forwards.
Lots of water to go under the bridge between now and November one.
Again, why was Blaize Tagali named in the side ???
Surely Morgan Harper or someone else deserves the spot before him.
Notwithstanding the fact that we should have kicked him to the curb when he signed for Penrith, this weekend’s game is for naught.
We are just giving him first grade exposure to benefit the Panthers.
Absolutely crazy stuff.
Our identity is important and one marker is to pick players who actually want to play for the club.
Morgan may not be the latest flash in the pan but he’s there giving his all.
Hey mate I agree Harper isn’t too bad defensively and actually holds his own there Imo. He has Lot more experience. Maybe the club sees Blaize as a player who might come back to the club in future and don’t want to give him opportunity before he leaves. Just an idea. Not that I agree with it. Harper there or Tago gaining some first grade minutes would be more beneficial for our club next year and moving forwards.
Mate more so I reckon Barrett has just given up.
It’s a bit like when we at school and the teams at lunch time picked themselves.
Everyone is looking forward to the end.
The Saints game can go two ways, we either throw the ball around willy nilly and score a heap or we get buried.
We either lose 50 – 0 or lose 55- 45.
Either way, we won’t be doing too much defence.
Really at the end of the day, we come last or second last – what’s the difference?
The current staff and some players just want to end it now and get out of Dodge.
Yeah true maybe mate. I hope baz hasn’t given up and his heart is still in it until the end. I can’t imagine he wants to win a wooden spoon. The Blaize decision is questionable though in my decision. He isn’t ready to defend there, it’s guaranteed tries if a team explores there. Morgan Harper can play well defensively if you ask me. Morgan isn’t as bad as people make out. Ba likely would have had Harper go into that spot of blaize could not defend there. As you know apparently this weeks game doesn’t matter, we need to beat tigers to avoid wooden spoon. Hopefully they rest gutho so he can turn up 100% for the spoon bowl.. Crazy as it sounds. We must avoid that 🥄 at all costs..
Spark lot of good news around parra today:
Hopgood signed for longer. Matto confirmed to stay. Gutho staying and just being shifted positionally. Much smarter move, he could add significant defensive strength to us on the left edge or around the middle, his gas tank and tackling ability is still #1 in the parramatta eels club as far as I’m concerned.
Souths Hawkins (NSW cup player of the year i believe) is leaving south’s and apparently is going the eels! Ryles is apparently trying with Wilson again (much Needed speed) if we got him my prediction it’s a 2-3 year project to get him to a high level first grader like Bailey Simmonson.
If we get Hawkins it’s a huge win for our clubs depth. A much needed legitimate half back who can fill in sufficiently. This would take us to another level. For years we legitimately have not have a proper back up half back or back up fullback who’s NRL level. If Ryles can pull this off in the first year before even being out head coach yet – it looks blaming MON alone was a farce. Our former head coach only ever went that aggressively after forwards, if Ryles can nab us the (apparently) best fullback & best half back from NSW cup and snag another back or two for 2025. Then it’s clear The clubs made the right decision by hiring Jason Ryles to the parramatta eels and moving Brad on mid season. As much as people will disagree with that, I’m a club first person. If Jason can recruit this good for us so quickly, before even being coach? Then I personally feel this is so far a good move for the club. Our backs & roster has been severely unbalanced for too long. It’s not a knock on Brad he’s a good coach, he possibly just lacked the ability or insight to have confidence building a team which didn’t have so much cap invested into forwards to win the collision.. that isn’t working as good since the constant 6 agains took over our game.
Good news for eels fans, we deserve it after this horrible year!
I’m with Spark here. Not seeking to make it personal at all with Blaize, but the reality is if he is on our edge with Asi then it’s almost a guarantee we lose. I can’t understand why we boxed Sanders out of playing first grade but persist with Blaize. It makes no sense to me.
Saw the good news re Hopgood too.
Yep lots of good news mate!
Spark, there was a time I hoped Barrett would be our assistant coach, now I’m glad he’s gone.
Kicks on tackle three from inside our halve, wingers on the bench and turnstiles on the left edge.
Walters and Barrett, good luck Broncos.
Mick & Jo with blaize, Asi, Sivo on one side of the field if it happens again it’s probably one of the worst defensive sides of a nrl team. And a winger on the bench? Strange
Add in kelma and it is the worst defensive edge in comp. Kelma does some decent things with ball in hand but is terrible in defence. I don’t see how he can ever start for us until he improves his fitness and learns basic defensive reads
Ron the dragons will go there all night. I think they are playing Lomax there at right centre too. They’ll be kicking to Lomax probably too knowing blaize & co won’t really be able to compete. I do hope we win our last home game for the departure of RCG. It’s been a sad year but I don’t think most of us realise how sad it’s going to be with RCG and a few others possibly leaving us. Might be their last ever game at commbank as a Eel.
Yep I’m feeling the same way
I wish RCG got to leave on better / more positive terms. RCG has been one of the best props we have had at parra in a long time. Not to mention he loved our club, a fan favourite, and a genuinely good bloke. He apparently always put the team first even during hard times when losing family members if i remember correctly. I wish we got to have a good year, it’s a shame some are leaving the eels with us possibly getting a wooden spoon. RCG is a true parra man forever as far as I’m concerned.. I’ll always support him. I think he will come out firing for us one last time at home for the blue & gold. RCG has served our club very well if you ask me. A class prop and class bloke at the eels 💙💛
Any of you see rumours today Blake Wilson might of signed? I have seen it in two different places..
If we had in our backline all healthy;
Wilson, gutho, Iongi, Lomax, Simmonson. Suddenly we have more speed & backs depth we’ve had in the last 10 years if it’s true. Iongi & (possibly) Wilson are very good signings.
Gday fellas. It’s great to hear the good news about Hopgood resigning with us.
Hopgood mentioning how much he loves the club and the opportunity they have given him was great to hear for us fans. And really nice to see one of our players speaking so positively about the club, and showing some loyalty.
Both Bailey and Hopgood have publicly stated their gratitude for us and shown our club appreciation. It might not sound like much to some. But this is the type of news we need to hear more of.
I’m my view our best back next year (besides the king) is Bailey Simmonson. Lomax is still yet to play for us so can’t measure.
Hopgood is probably our best forward now. Besides Joe o’, Hopgood is a very consistent effort type player who’s got many more good years ahead.
In summary: it’s great to hear two of our best players Re-signing with the Eels and publicly stating they love our club and showing gratitude. We’ve needed some positive news! It means a lot to the fans & club moral.
It just happens to be the two players who you could argue were our most consistent players besides gutho saying how much they appreciate & like the club.
In my view it just goes to show how important this is. When players genuinely appreciate & like the club, they’ll play for that Jersey with pride. Showing great work ethic & spirit.
Besides all the doom & gloom im faithful the Eels & Coach Ryles are making some good chess moves behind the scenes:
Hopgood , Simmonson, Gutho, Brown, Moses, Lomax, Joe o’, Iongi, Charlie Guymer, Brendan Hands, Ryan Matto, Iongi.
This is a very strong group of players to build your team around! If we get minimal injuries year…
We can finish in the top 8!
The new rugby assistant coaches may also help our backs attack better. They love an early shift!
Matterson seemed to move to a play safe, play simple, do your job type approach around half way through the year after Moses was injured and our game fell away.
At first it appeared a little pedestrian but over a few weeks it was far better than many around him. It was obvious he was only off loading when it was 110% on.
His defence was tidy. He reverted to the text book, at least he had a plan not to sink.
Showed some football IQ I’d say.
I know Bailey won some fans this year with his effort, he even turned me around, but pinning any hopes on him as a defender will lead to disappointment.
It seems to be forgotten that all last year he was the worst defender in the team.
Ryles needs to get some discipline into the backline to stop the wingers coming in and leaving easy points down the outside. Then he might be able to translate that effort into game winning performances.
I see the story about Gutho playing lock next year. He’s become the most out of position fullback of all time, and it often leads to problems.
Last week he was packing in at lock and he has been taking the tackle 3 hit-up for months.
Guilty of trying too hard, but guilty nonetheless.
If only the team could give him the confidence to be in the right place at the right time.
56 I see your points Mate about Bailey. But he has improved by a fair bit.. even Moses was known as a bad / soft defender once. He is now a class defender and I believe got tackle of the year a few years ago against the storm captain? Unless my memory is incorrect. Bailey is a player who probably still has a lot of room to grow. Speed is also very handy in defensive situations covering missed tackles & helping to limit line breaks. I agree the new coaches need to overhaul our wingers coming in on every play – it’s the most disastrous edge defence in the NRL. They will have work to do. Gutho won’t be used to carry the team next year alone, new young fullback will be there allegedly at #1. Lomax can also play fullback at a sufficient NRL level if needed. Ryles won’t be playing our team the same way it’s been managed now. Defensive systems will also be completely different. Which may take time to dial in. Even with BA gone we still have the same coaching staff helping baz, not much has changed. But things will with a full off season of new coaching ideas & drills as you know.. interesting to see!
Bdon I agree. Matto defensively had been really good in the middle defensively. Matto might be a player who needs a fire under his ass so to speak to perform 100%. He didn’t play as good until he got tapped on the shoulder allegedly. Ryles & co will have to consider a stronger discipline towards holding a standard to these players to avoid them dipping. Matto always plays good when it’s a contract year or he is about to be let go of. Coach needs to keep hard on them next year, matto might be one of those players you need to stay hard on to prevent him from getting a bit complacent. He’s solid when he turns up at 100%! Can he improve next year with new coaching & new off season of prep? Interested to see. 👍