Parramatta Eels 15th
Welcome to a special post-season grades, an edition of the classic TCT grades that is part cathartic postmortem for a miserable season of rugby league and part apology for giving up on the weekly grades about the same time as Blaize Talagi gave up trying to make defensive reads. Life is too short to be doing things that make you miserable, and for most of this year writing about the Eels brought me nothing but misery.
Not now though. I’m penning this introduction having already written grades for 31 players, a coaching staff and a back office, and I feel great for having tackled the issues of 2024 and can put it to rest and move on. Knowing that the wooden spoon was barely avoided, that a new coach and a new era is on its way, I’m already looking forward to a fresh start in ‘25. I predict the first questions about whether Jason Ryles can coach will be coming to the grades comments by week 3.
So get comfortable, grab a coffee, a whiskey or a commemorative port in a bottle shaped like a football boot, and enjoy the final grades for season 2024. Good riddance.
While there were a couple of nice wins, season 2024 was largely devoid of any joy for Parramatta fans. The injury to Mitchell Moses derailed a promising start, the first domino to fall that ultimately led to a coach being sacked, an exodus of young talent and a season that finished one loss away from a wooden spoon. When you look up a wasted year in the rugby league dictionary you’ll find Parramatta’s team photo from season 2024.
Wait, this is meant to be the good section? The only good that 2024 will bring is still to come, and much of it is hypothetical. Jason Ryles is off to a promising start, putting together a good coaching group and landing a savvy recruit in Isaiah Iongi. Ryles has a tough, no nonsense reputation, and his coaching education has come at the feet of some of the toughest taskmasters in rugby league. He feels like a great fit for a team that was unfit at their best and downright soft at their worst. One way or another, he will fix those issues.
The other good is what turned out to be Brad Arthur’s parting gift to the club; the signing of our first marquee player in several years. Zac Lomax emerged as one of the best wingers in the game this year, and we got a brief taste of what is to come in his combination with Mitchell Moses in sky blue jerseys this year. Speaking of Origin, Moses becoming an Origin hero was another good, I suppose, though it came at great expense to the Eels as he once again went down injured. At least by that point our season was already cooked.
Most of what was delivered on the field can be classified as “Bad” in season 2024, but it was a unique kind of bad. Only three or four times can you say Eels phoned their performance in; against Canberra, Melbourne and South Sydney, and for the second half of the Dolphins loss. The Eels could break out to a lead against anybody, and they could capitulate like few sides in rugby league history could do. They were a minute from becoming record breakers against the Dragons, while they threw away an all time upset in collapsing against the Panthers. If games went 40 minutes the Eels would be a finals team, heck they might be premiership favourites.
Unfortunately the Eels had an unshakeable habit of collapsing in a heap. There were many reasons for it; a defensive structure and resolve so paper thin that any kind of ad-lib football would bust through it, a lack of fitness and continued terrible interchange strategy, and the psychological damage of giving up leads creating a vicious cycle of failure. The structure and leadership Mitchell Moses brought papered over those cracks early on, but by the time he returned from injury this was a team with flaws beyond his abilities to repair.
The meek collapse to the Dolphins was the end for coach Brad Arthur, whose 11 year tenure with the club came to an ignominious end as he was led on, jerked around and then ultimately sacked on his 50th birthday after another embarrassing loss to the Storm. It was time for a change, but the interim coaching stint of Trent Barrett did nothing to better the team and I can’t imagine the results on the field would have been any worse had Brad stuck it out for season 2024. There might not have been a good way to let Brad go, but needlessly knifing him didn’t improve things on the field and likely cost us the most promising junior we had coming through the ranks in his son Matt. It was a shame his time at the Eels had to end like that, but then again, how many coaching stints have a happy ending?
You’d think the Eels more than any other club would understand the wisdom of Jack Gibson, particularly his pearl that winning starts in the front office. There have been whispered questions about the competence of Parramatta management for several years now, largely stemming from recruitment and retention (or the lack of it) of the 2022 grand final side. The whispers grew louder as the Eels finished season 2023 without a full roster, and the questions are coming with a full-throated roar now as retention has bottomed out, a coach was sacked with no real plan for his replacement, and evidently we are also in a salary cap pinch that resulted in releasing one of the few blokes who could hold his head up high at the end of season 2024 in Reagan Campbell-Gillard.
The appointment of Jason Ryles was (eventually) a win and he appears to have been given the freedom to put together the staff he wants. Hopefully he gets similar freedom in recruitment, though he is hamstrung by the contracts he inherits that will make 2025 and even 2026 harder than they should be. A football club is more than a first grade coach, however, and given the structures of the rugby league club we’re going to be relying on the management level self-reflecting and self-improving, because turfing them out will be harder than watching Blaize Talagi and Daejarn Asi defend next to each other.
The Eels have abysmal relations with player managers, little sway with the NRL, refuse to make use of third party arrangement because of shellshock from mismanagement a decade ago, and are terrible at structuring contracts for junior players while calling themselves a development club. Four promising juniors debuted in 2024 and three did so without long term deals in place, while the fourth had a development deal but was given compassionate leave to sign elsewhere. The only one who did stay, Charlie Guymer, had his manager scrounging for a better deal literally days after putting pen to paper.
Salary cap management has been so bad that Ron Massey Cup players had to be used to fill gaps this year because the first grade squad had four vacancies and several more who had clearly been marked “never to debut”. Players have been publicly shopped yet still received no interest. Worst of all was the misguided pursuit of Wayne Bennett, where the club completely misread the situation then acted far too late on the deal anyway.
2025 is a massive year for the management level of the Parramatta Eels. There are already rumblings of Leagues Club board challenges, because that’s all the agitators know how to do. The structure of the football club in the wake of the 2010s salary cap breaches is such that mass changes in the PLC board will do little more than fill column inches and talkback radio airtime while creating further embarrassment to the club as footballing dinosaurs get involved in a world that has passed them by. The football club board is nigh on untouchable, but given their only responsibility is the success of the rugby league club, you would hope their patience is wearing thin with those they entrust the operation of the club. The CEO, the Chairman, the Head of Football Operations, if they don’t improve in 2025 then action must be taken.
Clint Gutherson
Fullback
The King has been busting his backside and playing busted, a worrying trend in recent years as he pays the price for a career built on high effort play and littered with early knee injuries. For a guy who ranks up there among my favourite all-time Eels, I can’t comprehend why much of the fanbase wants to turf him to the centres, or the bench, or the middle, to make way for a one-game rookie. I think Jason Ryles will watch one week of pre-season training and realise Gutho has to be at the back, where he has at least one more year to offer.
Analysing whether the King has really dropped off so much is beyond the scope of a quick fire grades wrap, but his playmaking this year was as potent as ever and his tryscoring regression was not unexpected coming off a career year. His defensive performance wasn’t helped by the soggy toilet paper of a defensive line that the Eels presented for most of the season, but he’s still one of the better defensive fullbacks in the competition. That’s before looking at the intangibles he brings to the table in fitness, leadership and selflessness. Some of this team should be ashamed of the effort they put in while Gutherson is out there playing with busted ribs and a broken hand.
I could get behind him being relieved of captaincy duties; his rapport with several referees is beyond salvage at this point, but if you believe the Eels are a quick turnaround job to contention and not a multi-year rebuild (and that is the way I lean), Gutherson has to be fullback in 2025.
Maika Sivo
Wing
Whatever they spiked Sivo’s Weet-Bix with in the last two weeks of the year, keep it up because we haven’t seen the big winger look that dangerous since the days before COVID lockdowns. If we can get that Sivo for most of a season (just most, I’m not greedy enough to ask for a whole year of it) then not only is his contract not an issue, but our outside back problems are a lot more solvable.
Unfortunately this review is rating the season as a whole, and for most of it I, along with most of the fanbase, wanted Sivo on the next plane to the UK. His kick returns are legendary for the contrast between the size and power of the man running and the weakness and submission of the runs, and when he makes the wrong decision in defence, he REALLY makes the wrong decision.
In the right structure and with the level of motivation he showed to close the year, Sivo could be a valuable asset to the Eels in 2025. I understand why the relationship is beyond repair for many fans who used to chant his name every time he strolled over untouched for a four-pointer anybody could have scored, but at his best Sivo does things no other player in the NRL can replicate and the last two weeks showed he’s still got some of his best in him.
Bailey Simonsson
Wing / Centre
It was a cruel end to Simonsson’s 2024 season, which was shaping as his best in Blue and Gold despite the turmoil around him. Simonsson has grown into a solid NRL centre, providing some much needed speed and footwork to a plodding Parramatta backline and proving himself adept at finding creases in the defence while working the ball out of the ruck for those crucial extra metres. One day he’ll start turning all of those tackle breaks into clean breaks and we’ll suddenly have one of the best centres in the game.
It has been a stunning transformation for a player I once compared unfavourably with a COVID variant to then spend 2024 banging the drum for his re-signing. Indeed a three year deal has been done despite his injury, which in true rugby league fan style I will immediately complain about. It’s a nice show of faith in Simonsson but a year longer than I’d have offered given the injury, and it looks to have been done in expectation that 2025 is a write-off for Bailey. He’ll be crucial depth at the business end, but next year looks to be all about recovery for probably our best outside back of 2024.
Will Penisini
Centre
I’ll give Willy P the benefit of the doubt for this season, but his defensive performances in 2024 have wiped away his budding reputation as a strong defensive player and started teetering him into liability territory. Given the shifts in combinations and the quality (or lack of) around him it is understandable, but considering Will debuted with plus level first grade defence, such a rarity for a young player, it’s concerning that he’s regressed so significantly.
He continues to grow with the ball, he can be a powerful runner and a solid finisher, and he is the one constant in that backline when angry fans draft their crazy 2025 Eels lineups. Will has shown he can thrive in good systems, which should become apparent again next year, but in 2024 he was thoroughly mediocre.
Sean Russell
Wing / Centre
All of that Sean Russell stock I scooped up at the start of the season is worth about as much as my “Eels to make the 8” betting ticket now, after Russell failed to make much of an impression in his first extended stint in the top grade. That long range chase on speedster Xavier Savage in the trial certainly feels like a lifetime ago now.
I’d say Russell’s ceiling right now is a decent backup utility back. He had some reasonable attacking moments at centre, but struggled there defensively, while on the wing he isn’t a first grade quality finisher or noted speedster. Solid is a great way to describe him; with a strong supporting cast and competent structures around him he’d be a fine fourth outside back, but this team needs more than that right now. I’m not writing him off just yet, but he’ll factor into few “best 17s” for next season.
Blaize Talagi
Wing / Centre / Fullback / Turncoat
Talagi and the people around him certainly threw Eels fans into the washing machine in 2024, dragging out what ultimately ended in his departure from the club. I don’t care one bit for how it was all handled, but given the defensive deficiencies Blaize showed in 2024 the numbers bandied about that he rejected are twice what he is worth at this stage of his career.
While Blaize offered some truly electric moments with the ball in hand, particularly with his footwork, he was easily the worst defensive player in the NRL and put up numbers that challenge historic levels. He was attributed twice as many tries caused as the next worst centre, and you don’t need stats to see how lost at sea he was in the line. His decision making, contact, technique and positioning were all, well, SG Ball level, and while some of that is on us for throwing him to the wolves so early in his career, if you are going to command half a million dollars on the market, you should at least be able to defend at an open age level.
Defence can be fixed, sure, but it isn’t a guarantee. Penrith is a pretty good place to learn those systems, but he’ll wash out quickly if he can’t handle it and now he has the added pressure of marquee signing status, replacing a representative half in the most successful team of the modern era. After the way his exit here was handled, I won’t be rooting for him.
Jake Tago
Wing
For a bloke who started the year in Ron Massey Cup alongside part timers, Jake Tago has had a dream ascension to first grade. His high effort footy was a welcome relief after months of mediocrity, but ultimately he was found out repeatedly on the defensive side and doesn’t have the physical abilities to make up for that like say, a Maika Sivo does.
Extending Tago on a top grade deal is a bit of a strange one; a just reward for effort on one hand but it feels likely he could have remained stashed in the reserves on a Cup deal or development contract without much fuss. Ultimately his ceiling is “break glass in case of emergency”, though I can see him improving defensively with better structures and a full off-season to learn them. If you’d told me we’d have two Ron Massey wingers playing first grade for us this year, I’d have expected worse results than what Tago delivered.
Lorenzo Mulitalo
Wing
Speaking of Ron Massey wingers, while Mulitalo was much closer to what I would have expected, particularly defensively, he still put in a brave effort with the ball in his sole first grade appearance this year. In a year without much joy on the field, it was nice to see these journeymen players who probably never expected a first grade debut get their chance. I’m hoping we never have another year where I get to see it, but as a silver lining on a turd sandwich of a season, it was nice.
Morgan Harper
Centre / Wing
I tried so hard to like Morgan Harper, and honestly I succeeded, but not because of his football. Call me a sucker for guys that look like they care.
Harper just isn’t up to first grade in a side like ours. Maybe with strong defenders around him and a good system he could be a passable first grader, but here he was lost at sea without the ball and his many mistakes with it secured his ticket to reserve grade through a late-season injury crisis. His status as one of only two Eels signings meant he drew more scrutiny than he deserved, and experienced first grade depth was something this side needed. Unfortunately he was thrown in straight away due to injuries and suspensions, and then he didn’t provide the level of stability in that role that his experience suggests he should have.
Daejarn Asi
Five Eighth / Centre
Season 2024 provided two of the all time defensive balls-ups I’ve seen; Kelma Tuilagi at centre against Izack Tago, and Daejarn Asi marking up against Stephen Crichton. In both games you can safely say that the Eels win each contest with a replacement level first grader in the backline instead. The lack of speed and poor positional play condemned Asi to the role of career utility, and despite his flexibility we’ve rarely actually played him in his best fit.
That would be as a replacement for Dylan Brown as a running half. Until the last 20 minutes of football of the year Brown has been indestructible, forcing Asi to fill in at centre or halfback, and while he had some moments at half he just wasn’t the man to fill the huge boots of Mitchell Moses as a leader of this team. If it isn’t too late I’d throw him one more year knowing Dylan could miss most of 2025, but I’d be just as happy with some of the names being floated as potential recruitment targets in that depth half role, so if he has played his last game in Blue and Gold, I wouldn’t be too upset. He had some big plays, had a couple of shockers, probably played a lot more footy than I thought he would when we signed him, but he’s just a scratch below first grade level.
Ethan Sanders
Halfback
Another of the departing young brigade, but the only one I don’t begrudge (much) for doing so. Sure, he’s going to a similar situation in Canberra; established first grader and young buck ahead of him, but considering the ridiculous wraps given to Lachlan Galvin this year from commentators and football executives who should know better, imagine what has been said to a player of legitimate talent like Sanders. The problem with telling the kids that they are future stars is they want to be paid like stars before they’ve even made a dent in first grade.
Dent would be generous to describe the impact Sanders had in his two first grade appearances. His skillset is unlikely to manifest immediately in first grade like a running player’s would, but he’s clearly got some developing to do getting up to first grade speed. He had some great games in Cup, but the Grade referred to in “TCT Grades” is first grade, and on that front Sanders made little impression, and now he’s leaving.
Dylan Brown
Five Eighth
Dylan Brown didn’t continue on his upwards trajectory in 2024, but he certainly didn’t regress and I don’t know how much more impressive he could have been given the state of the squad around him. He went missing too often and showed he isn’t the guy to lead a team around the park, but that’s why we pay another player over a million bucks a year to do those jobs and leave him to wreak havoc on the other side of the field.
At his best there are few like Brown, and even in a team like this one he can hold his head high for defensive effort. I’m not going to begrudge that he couldn’t be something that he isn’t and replace Mitchell Moses as the organiser and leader of the side. His avoiding an ACL tear in the final stages of the season is a huge bonus, though the history of partial tears turning to full ones suggests Parramatta fans have a future to look forward to of holding their breath every time he steps off that knee.
Mitchell Moses
Halfback
While we might not have gotten our money’s worth out of Mitchell Moses in 2024, at least our performances without him proved he’s worth every cent we pay for him. We didn’t suddenly forget how to tackle or play for 80 minutes just because Moses was gone, those problems were going to be there all year regardless, but the boot, the composure and the attacking energy he provided sure papered over those massive cracks.
As a New South Welshman I was thrilled that Moses played the best halves game in Sky Blue in two decades, but losing him for the season as a result was too high a price to pay. Not that we were particularly crash hot with Moses after he came back, but we’d at least have avoided this nauseating week of spoon bowl coverage from Fox.
Joey Lussick
Hooker
I’d hoped for and expected more from Joey Lussick in 2024. A starting first grade spot was there for the taking, and instead he spent most of his time coming off the bench and only that because there was nobody else there to fill the role after Matt Arthur bid adieu. He was everything Brad Arthur didn’t want in a dummy half; making ill-advised dives from close range, missing tackles and not always delivering crisp service.
Sometimes a journeyman is what you thought he would be, and I certainly expected too much of a guy who has fewer NRL starts than Brendan Hands and no real proven NRL pedigree beyond a hope-filled stint in a much better 2021 Eels team. He’ll need dramatic improvement next year to factor into Jason Ryles’ plans beyond that.
Brendan Hands
Hooker
Brad Arthur infamously devalued the hooking position, preferring solid defence and good service to any kind of attacking thrust, and with three other elite playmakers in the spine and a huge forward pack I could understand where he was coming from. Just get the other players the ball. In that regard, Hands has emerged as our best option over the last two years, providing solid service, moments of competent defence and little in the way of flash.
We’ll see if Jason Ryles, who has spent the last few years with the most creative hooker in the game and previously the most crafty ever to lace a boot, will feel the same way about the rake role. If he wants more, then Hands may struggle to deliver it. As a guy filling a role and not becoming a problem, Hands was fine in 2024, but even after playing most of the last two seasons he feels temporary in this spot.
Matt Arthur
Hooker
I don’t know if Matt Arthur was always going to follow his old man out the door, but I’m sure the needlessly vicious way that Brad Arthur was sacked (on his birthday, after being lied to about having a few weeks to save his job, a week before his halfback returned from injury, to take the most pathetic, too little too late shot at a replacement that was never going to come to the club) would not have helped our chances of retaining the best young prospect in his position across all of rugby league.
Matt was solid if unspectacular in his short first grade stint, in a year where unspectacular would have been fine if it meant he got up to speed for an extended run in the future. Instead he requested his release and never sniffed first grade again, the kind of strong arm move I wish the club could have pulled with Blaize Talagi had we any cover for his position at all. We’re going to regret this one, I’m sure, but Brad ultimately needed to go and if it was always going to cost us his son as well, then there isn’t much that could have been done about it.
Junior Paulo
Prop
Big Junior played a couple of the most dominant games I can remember from him early in the year and we all thought we’d unlocked an NRL cheat code in starting him from the bench. Then we played the Tigers and their pop-gun forward pack, the impact wasn’t there, and it never really came back. It was as baffling as it was infuriating.
While it hints at a late stage career revival could come with fewer minutes and a refined, impact role, Junior’s salary demands a lot more than 20 good minutes from the bench. On his 2024 form, Junior’s contract is the biggest issue going forward with the Eels, as his efforts this year were worth half of what he’s earning. Even recovering from an injury he’ll probably box this off-season and miss some pre-season, when frankly I think he needs every minute of flogging around the park that Jason Ryles can give him. Like most of our pack, I’m hoping a new coach and sweeping changes around the club will revitalise some careers, and boy does Junior need it.
RCG
Prop
It hasn’t been much of a year for Big Reg, who played busted, dealt with tough personal circumstances and was rewarded for maintaining consistent footy through all of that by being publicly shopped around the NRL. Sure, that is because he’s the only Eels forward playing up to the huge salary he’s earning, but that is likely to be cold comfort to the guy in the shop window.
While his post-match comments this week give me some hope his departure isn’t as forgone a conclusion as we think it is (update: it was) how many players in the history of the game have come back from the farewell conversion? Somebody get David Middleton on the phone to tell me there’s a chance. Reg is consistent, tough and plays like he cares every minute of every game, even when he’s left out there too long and running on very tired legs, something I didn’t think any coach could do more than Brad Arthur, until I saw Trent Barrett (RCG averaged 52 minutes under Brad, nearly 59 under Trent). Caring and toughing it out for 80 minutes was a trait seen far too rarely in the Eels pack this year, and losing one of the guys who continued to deliver exactly what we need is baffling to me, but if our cap situation is as dire as our indifference to filling a full roster two years running suggests it is, somebody on big money needs to be offloaded and if I was a general manager of another NRL team, Reg is the only Eels forward I’d be buying.
Bryce Cartwright
Second Row
The Carty Party is what it is at this point of his career; we’re never going to get consistency and his defensive ceiling is “passable”. His best attacking moments are incredible, but without them he’s a below average metre-maker and defender. We had space for a guy like that when the rest of the pack were solid, but what Cartwright does best is not the cure for what ails the Eels right now.
Cartwright wasn’t helped in 2024 by injury; he came back too early from a busted rib and it took him a long time to hit the heights he set early in the season. By the time he was right, the Eels season was over and making tackles was far more important than throwing offloads. I don’t know Jason Ryles at all, but I get the feeling flashy players like Cartwright aren’t what he is going to feel we need more of.
Kelma Tuilagi
Second Row
On balance, I think we got what we expected out of Kelma Tuilagi. If he was the finished product he wouldn’t be joining his third club in three years, so we got some dropped balls and ordinary play every now and then, but we also got some brutal, tough line running and some real attacking spark. We also learned that he is not a centre.
Did the good outweigh the bad for Kelma? Despite that charge down being one of the dumbest plays I’ve seen in Blue and Gold since Paul Carige, I’m going to call it a draw. Some of those backbreaking errors in yardage are hard to forgive, but he also put on some hits and run harder than anybody else in the side at times. We’re already too heavy on “impact edge forwards” with Shaun Lane and Bryce Cartwright, so the team balance isn’t there, but he’s got a lot more room for growth in his game than those other two so I’m looking forward to how he develops under a new coach.
Shaun Lane
Second Row / Lock / Prop
Ten year sitcoms where every main character has dated the other have a less complicated set of relationships than Eels fans have with Shaun Lane. 2024 was very much the “ninth season and just doing it for the money” stage of the Shaun Lane show, but we’re signed on for two more years after this one and nobody is going to be taking him off our hands.
The infuriating part of Lane’s game is that it is concentration and effort areas where he falls down. He’s got a unique build and plus skillset, throwing offloads few players could, but his drops would be comical if it wasn’t my football team that I’ve suffered for forty years he was crushing whenever he did it. He doesn’t have it in him to follow the play in defence and is regularly caught in concrete boots if a play swings back towards him. Our best hope is Jason Ryles either figures out how to get consistency out of him or isn’t afraid to cut his losses and let him wallow in reserve grade. I can’t do another season of this.
Joe Ofahengaue
Prop / Lock
Joe O was an island in 2024, the one forward still busting in cover, making his tackles and looking like he wanted to win for a full 80 minutes. Whether he was a “surprise” switch into the starting lineup to take the heat out of the game before Junior Paulo arrived or used for that bench impact himself, Ofahengaue held the line and looked a level above most of his teammates in fitness, technique and professionalism.
Joe might not have that top gear that makes the highlight reels, but in 2024 being good at the tough stuff was a crucial ingredient missing from the Eels pack and the dash of it Ofahengaue brought to the team stood out like wearing an Eels jersey at a funeral. He’s my favourite for the Thornett Medal, though some of that is definitely my love of middle forwards winning team awards when the side has had a shocking year.
J’maine Hopgood
Lock
It might say more about Queensland than Hopgood that he made his maroon debut this year, as second year syndrome was real for the lock forward. He wasn’t bad, but he’s always missed a fair few tackles (he makes plenty more) and the mistakes crept in while the attacking plays dropped off. Then he gets injured playing Origin and misses the rest of the year. Great.
The flexibility of Hopgood will be crucial moving forward. Depending on the future makeup of the Eels pack, he could be best used as a distributor, offloading attacking threat or a battering ram. If Reg leaves he’ll be needed for metre eating, if Matterson or Paulo are gone then we’ll need the distribution and offloading. He’s a good player to have and the future of this side, even if 2024 wasn’t up to the high standards his debut year set.
Ryan Matterson
Lock / Second Row
Whether it was a mistake or an act of selfishness, Matto not taking the fine has become a clear turning point in the fortune of the Eels. Karmically we might need him to leave just to wipe the slate clean, even if I still think he’s got good football left in him. Those big effort games are still there; when he wants his motor can last forever, he eats metres for fun and while the moments are fewer and further between, he is still a great offloader and attacking player.
Those highs definitely don’t come at the same frequency they used to, and his career long ability to be seen walking behind plays that have moved past him in the line is becoming more obvious in an Eels pack we will generously call “less dedicated”. He’s good enough, but the question has always been “does he care enough?” He’s here until 2026 and despite some very public fishing there were no bites for him, so we’ve got two more years to get a definitive answer on that last question. Like so many, I’m hoping a new coach can shake him up and get the best out of him, but the odds of that working for all of our underperforming stars is slim. While Matterson isn’t the worst performer of those, he’s the one I give the least chance to improve.
Charlie Guymer
Prop / Lock
Guymer made a big impact on debut, showing up his veteran teammates in effort areas and really highlighting the gap in desire between a young buck debuting in grade and the Eels veterans that were cashing cheques for much of 2024. You could see it in the improvement in some players after Guymer’s debut; being shown up like that by a rookie should have stung.
Charlie will have a spot in this pack for years to come with that level of effort, though his manager’s abysmal efforts to cash in on the Blaize Talagi contract dramas by creating some of his own before the ink was dry on Guymer’s extension suggests we’re going to be in for a fight the whole way through. For his part, Guymer said all the right things and played the right way. I can’t wait to see him back in ‘25.
Wiremu Greig
Prop
What happened Wiremu? This was meant to be your big breakout year, delivering on the promise after an encouraging 2023. Instead Greig spent more time in Cup than first grade, and his time in firsts was marked by once again not looking fit enough to play decent minutes. He wasn’t the only Eel with fitness issues this year, but his ability to regularly put in Reg-esque minutes at Cup level suggests his problems in the top grade may not just be cardiovascular.
While Greig has another year to run on his deal the writing seems to be on the wall for him in modern rugby league, which is quickly moving away from the big bodies populating the Parramatta engine room. He’s still young enough to turn it around, but even if he does the Eels need a dramatic shift in pack composition and Junior Paulo isn’t going anywhere for two years, and he fills that “big man off the bench” quota far more effectively than Wiremu can.
Ofahiki Ogden
Prop
Ogden missed a big chunk of the mid-season through injury, but as a first grader I think the writing was on the wall for him well before that. He played just two first grade games this year bringing his career total in Blue and Gold to 13, and that is where it will stay as he has not been re-signed for 2025.
Like Wiremu, it has always felt like Ogden is just a run of luck away from putting it all together. At his best there is a first grader there; that chase in the Dragons game was a huge effort play, and he’s had games where he’s looked like the best prop on the park with his hard running. Unfortunately the consistency has never been there, and at 29 years old and triple figure lower grade games, he’s probably not going to find it.
Luca Moretti
Prop / Lock
Moretti is a classic depth player, a guy who doesn’t shine through with natural ability but plays hard and tough and with an old school edge to him. His mid-season case of the dropsies showed some of the limits of that skillset, but for the most part when Moretti was asked to do a job, he did it. I can see Jason Ryles appreciating that, and the forwards of the 2025 Eels side will need to cross the “Luca Moretti line” to crack the first grade side.
There is still some growth to come for Moretti, and with a few more tools in the belt he could be a valuable first grade bench player. He should get his chance in 2025 given the lack of forward recruitment, but right now his ceiling feels like “beloved journeyman”, the next in a storied line at the Eels as he follows in the footsteps of David Gower, Ray Stone and Andrew Davey.
Makahesi Makatoa
Prop
Another of the departing brigade, Big Mak has provided faithful service to the Eels for several years, cracking 50 grade games over four seasons. He was never flashy and oft misused; he’s far better as a minute eating middle than an impact player, but that time he patted Nelson Asofa-Solomona on the head will forever live among my cherished Eels memories and for that I thank him.
On the field, this wasn’t his best season in Blue and Gold, and when he was asked to do more in a struggling side he couldn’t find that extra gear. He’s always been a complementary piece of the pack, but this year we needed leaders. That’s not his fault, and it is a tribute to his consistency and reliability that he played more first grade than Cup in his time at the Eels considering the flashier, higher impact players that he was regularly selected ahead of, like Ogden and Greig.
Dan Keir
Lock
His efforts on the football field were fine, but as one of the few feel-good stories in the miserable second half of the 2024 Eels season Dan Keir was an important part of the campaign. Nothing gets me like blokes making their debut late in their careers, their family and friends all getting round them to celebrate something most of them likely thought would never happen.
Keir played like every first grade game might be his last, and that was exactly what this squad needed with the malaise setting in around them. If I’m honest, I hope he never has to play first grade for us again, but knowing he’ll be able to step up if he does is a comfort.
Matt Doorey
Lock / Second Row
On his 2024 cameos, Matt Doorey might not have it as a first grader. Injury derailed him for some time, but he got a few chances and didn’t really shine, then a NSW Cup journeyman in Dan Keir was preferred over him to close the season. Who were we fighting off to need to extend him to 2025?
What an absolute punish of a football season. If you’ve got this far, thank you for reading, and apologies again for leaving you looking back down the beach at one set of footprints when you needed the grades the most. Like the grades have oft suggested, I got into the sea.
We’ll be back, refreshed, revitalised and full of hope for season 2025 and the Jason Ryles era. Long may he reign! I can’t wait for the training reports about the toughest pre-season ever.
Until then, stay slippery, Eels fans.
Gol
Stats and images provided by NRL / Eels media
A solid effort Gol – Thank you for your contributions.
Give or take a + or a – I agree with most of those. My minor quibbles…
Players you might have been tough on:
Moses (I presume he is graded down because of his time out)
RCG, He led when the only other forward having a crack was Joe O – who I am glad you recognised. Nudge RCG up to B+
I could have given Klema a C too I think. I had pretty low expectations there.
Players you were generous to:
Simonson: Having his best season doesn’t make it a good quality season considering the low base he was coming from. Still too sideways but he does try.
Brown: This is the one I have big issue with. I would give him a C- or a D. He promised to make up for last year – he didn’t. He needed to step up when we lost Moses, he didn’t. In previous years his efforts were superhuman, this year they were just human. And worst of all he (at least earlier in the year) continued to let his team down with his.. day before the game preparations..
Penisini is probably lucky to escape a D grading
And what did you give Lane – checks notes – oh. D+… still too high. ;p
Mark O’Neil gets a D- as does the CEO
Not sure B.A devalued the hooking position. It was MON’s inability to broker a deal against Gus and then signing a bloke from a palliative care home.
But a good read and a good laugh.
Cheers
I doubt any club in the history of rugby league would have kept Shaun Lane over RCG. but we have. Our K.T. medallist then out the door. Something amiss at this place.
We love a bit of Stockholm syndrome at this club – sivo and lane are terrible and should have been moved on at end of last year but we aren’t ruthless enough at cutting players and moving on. We accept
Mediocrity (as seen by recent praise of sivo – the bloke did bare minimum and is treated like a great player). Sure there will be a cost to cap but we will be better for it if we cut and move on. I’d rather se e young players get a shot with Moses etc back to provide experiences then hope the plodders finally decide to put in. They are well past it
Charlie Guymer is off to the Raiders. You heard it here first.
Surely that won’t be happening. We’d have to release him and why would we do that?
Charlie and his father have been in talks and at Raiders HQ a number of times. They want out of the Eels. Only a matter time.
Charlie and his father have been in talks and at Raiders HQ a number of times. They want out of the Eels. Only a matter time. Raiders will pay overs for him. Eels will take the cash.
And were are you hearing this, or are you Charlie’s father ?
Makes no sense that a player under contract would be allowed to negotiate in such a brazen way .
It’s his father. Has it in for the Eels. Not brazen when you are looking. I have no idea of negotiations.
Why does his father have it in for the eels?
Tks Gol. I’m in the football equivalent of wandering around in a daze. Such is the head damage from the past 2 years, late last night I checked to see if Team List Tuesday was posted, but there was Grades, not Spoon Bowl but the season. I worked my way through it and must say in a warped way enjoyed it, and late at night could only come up with two reactions…1) I reckon there is maybe 5 forwards who have a pair of concrete boots, some wear them more than others, 2) Do you use a whiteboard to set the grades to get good comparative settings?
Well done for 2024, even the weeks you missed, this dazed reader got it totally. I also liked the way you stood firm on opinion and whenever it seemed a bit harsh, it was fair and real. These guys take brutal hits on the park as a job, they’ll get over a few tongue-in-cheek jibes. I don’t want flaky journo’s who blow with the wind.
Just as an aside, has anybody heard about a financial fraud court case recently involving with the football club or leagues club ???,
To be frank, when you look at the names on the grades above, it’s no wonder we were languishing at the bottom of the ladder all season. Most of these guys are Reserve Graders at best and it is a big ask for them to have the skills to fill in for the majority of the season at NRL level. I can only count 10 players who would make it in the top 17 for other clubs (and that is being generous). That really speaks to a wooden spoon team, and boy do Parra fans know what that looks like!
I know we are getting a couple of very good players come into the squad and a very different coaching team, but we will need much more than that. We can’t expect to win games unless we have a top 17 stacked full of NRL players. Yes we need the back-ups, but they should be 18-30 level.
If we can’t attract big name players, we need to understand why that is. I’ll have a guess that the main reason is the lack of TPLs. There is no way we can mix it with the big clubs until we start playing this game. If our club management are not prepared to go down that path, then the fans need to demand they step aside and let someone run the club who truly knows what a successful NRL club looks like.
Longfin good points. It’s unfortunate but we have a real deep seated mediocrity culture that’s formed into the dna of our team & club. There’s no high expectations, a good example is how player can slip so far in form for several Seasons to the point they aren’t even NRL worthy and no nrl clubs would touch them. I don’t think it’s as easy as blaming ba either. Because we’ve had the retirement home tag for a long time. The club is ran by people too to bottom who don’t demand greatness from themselves or their employees. Therefore we will likely be in the shadows of the clubs that do, until there is dramatic change. Ryles & co is a step in the right direction. Will they be as successful as BA? Who knows. But at least the club is actually trying something different. Let’s hope for better times in 25-26 and beyond.
Thanks as always Gol. Great to see grades back after the hiatus. Missed them!
Agree with most of what you have said.
To add,
– Brad Arthur whether you agree with how it was done or not, had to be sacked. Bring on Ryles and hopefully a much fitter team that won’t give up when the going gets tough
– Joe O deserves an A- at least. The hardest working player in our team.
– couldn’t agree more on Blaize, for every nice play in attack, there was 6 woeful plays in defence. The media need to stop blowing smoke up his arse. He is nothing yet.
– Matt Arthur’s grade is generous at best. His cameo’s were nothing better than average. He is so slow, he better have a good football brain
– the other player I thought was well and truly underrated by Arthur as well as here in the grades was Moretti. Has a bit of mongrel, doesn’t take a backward step, runs with ferocity and tackles hard.
I was going to agree with MOST of what Gol said until I read your reply Wally.
You nailed it.
I fully agree on your assessment of Joe Ofahengaue. I think he could not have done much more. Busted his guts out for the team in the middle. Probably deserved an A
Wally I agree Joe O’ could have been one of our best players this year. He was up there with gutho & Rcg
RCG, Gutho and Ofahengaue ought to be lauded for never throwing in the towel and applying themselves with 100% committment. They were clearly head and shoulders above all. I reckon these grades are pretty difficult top argue against. Sivo and Lane probably deserved even lower scores. They’ve got that much physicality and talent, what a wasted year for them AND the team. There was nothing more disheartening than seeing Maika amble in for a hit-up with hardly any venom nor urgency. Except seeing Lane with his feet planted to the ground time and again being beaten by an opposing player with a bit more motivation and effort.
The most chilling thing you wrote Gol was “Matto not taking the fine has become a clear turning point in the fortune of the Eels”.
I just could not imagine any other team other than the Eels or Tigers allowing that to happen. That whole episode shocked me to the core. I am not superstitious and nor do I need to be, to understand the bad juju, the curse, the unholy voodoo that kind of attitude – in a team sport where teams scab around for absolutely every bit of advantage in order to win – would unleash. The Eels got what they deserved and still, I am not sure if anyone showed any accountability for that. 3 weeks out. 3 losses. Joy has been sparse since hasn’t it.
I can’t wait for the 2025 re-set. There is a core of a footie team there.
Most grades are fair, some deserve better gradings. Joe O with Reg were our pillars, Joe O exceeded my expectations of him, he has to be a starter next year. I think you were a bit hard on Barrett, he had us playing football, unlike BA who had us chasing the collision. I think BA didn’t give Barrett the freedom to let our players play football, BA was more committed to earning the opportunity to score tries. Soon as BA left, we were still getting beaten but, we were scoring 30+ points a game. A lot of the tries we scored in the latter part of the season would never have been scored if BA was still coach. I’m not saying Barrett is a better coach, I just think it WAS the right time to part ways with BA, his style became too predictable. I think you were a bit hard on DB as well, he is not a controlling half, he is a running 5/8, one week he’s playing half on the left, the next it’s on the right, different players around him every week. Opposition knew he was our only dangerous attacking player, they heavily marked him, but he still busted a gut.
This whole saga of bagging BA for chasing the collision is just laughable and is the talk of people who have no clue about footy and are just wanting to attack BA for the sake of it. There’s not a club in the NRL that doesn’t chase the collision – it’s a simple fact that gets missed by simple people. If anyone can show me a team that consistently wins by just throwing the ball around and not controlling the ruck I’ll retract my statement, but until then people need to give that reason for bagging BA a break.
I disagree re Dylan Brown. I think he gets rough treatment by a lot of people. His effort on effort plays are second only to Gutho, and he is still our most creative player outside Moses. I’ve given him an A for this year, I think he was our best player all things considered. I don’t know what more people actually expect of the guy tbh.
Totally agree Brett, what he did this year will make us a better, more dangerous team. He won’t be as heavily marked with Moses back next season.
Good observations Mick, agree totally with you and Brett Allen with regards to Dylan.
Like any thinking person on here, what do you expect to get from someone that is absolutely busting his guts every week.
He was my choice for the KTM as well….with daylight second.
Well said mate totally agree
I have to agree, particularly given that he was forced to be the chief playmaker – a role his skills really don’t allow for. This season would hopefully have given him some learnings he can take into next season, and with good luck playing alongside Moses for the whole season where we should see him at his very best.
Joey Lussick is everything that BA didn’t want in a dummy half, yet he started every game until BA was sacked? Makes sense.
Great write-up Gol. I’m still trying to interpret what you meant here though:
“given the structures of the rugby league club we’re going to be relying on the management level self-reflecting and self-improving, because turfing them out will be harder than watching Blaize Talagi and Daejarn Asi defend next to each other”
I’d have thought given the utter state of our recruitment, retention and cap management that keeping the same folks in charge of the Football Department is a recipe for disaster.
I for one am not keen to give them another year to prove their worth – they’ve shown their performance, and it’s been severely lacking.
Surely there’s a level of accountability here that says at least some heads must roll. We can’t pin R&R on BA…that is scapegoating. Ryles is a great step towards a new era, but someone or someone’s need to be held accountable for our R&R.
It’s simple; the football club board is, by design, protected from votes and political machinations. They have sole control over the people running football operations and there is no mechanism to replace them, so the only way things improve on that front is from within themselves.
Yes, agreed the board is protected by design – and given our history that’s how it has to be.
But those in the football department must be held accountable by the CEO and the board. That is part of their job. There must have been performance metrics around R&R, and they must have been failed multiple times over by now.
There is no way this can’t have happened. And by that fact alone it should be an expectation of everyone (including our current Head of Football) that their performance has been so substandard that they need to be moved on.
The board has been protected to shield from agenda driven member groups, not to shield from doing their job or holding people to account.
We shouldn’t be removing the board, the board should be doing their job and holding the CEO to account. And the CEO should be doing his job and holding his Football department to account.
Whichever way we spin it, if there are no further folks asked to move on from the football department responsible for this R&R debacle then the CEO and the Board aren’t performing their roles. Plain and simple.
And to be clear (because I just realised I wasn’t) – this isn’t management self reflecting and self improving, this is the executive level doing their job and culling those at the management and operational level who have failed in their duties.
That’s not self reflection and improvement. That is real change. You can’t fail multiple times over and still be given chances if we want to be a high performing outfit.
So my gripe was with the language of “self reflection” which implies the same people just doing better. That isn’t what we need. We need new people, and it’s the duty of the CEO and failing that the board to demand that.
“(He was) easily the best player of the year,” Gould said on his Six Tackles With Gus podcast.
“I cannot understand how they are letting him go, it just doesn’t make sense to me.
“I must watch a different game, I really must.
– Phil Guild.
Are we making the same mistake we made with other good players after the grand final we were never able to replace?
I wonder if any other club in the league would let their clubs best player simply walk out early with no (shown) replacement or player that can fill the void?
Hope I’m not mistaken here.
This is our next forward my a long shot. Even with his statistics declining in 2024 vs other years…
Mate it’s just Gus trying the grease the wheels in typical Gus style.
There is a fair bit of info around that Gus wants him at the Bulldogs but wants him to lower his price a bit.
He will probably be a bulldog next year.
Yeah probably but it does suck seeing our best forward who just got player of the year leave us. And obviously I love reg too as a eel. there’s a lot more to it then probably most of us know. Funny if he ends up in UK with B.A in super league
Well for once I don’t agree with Gus, I don’t think Reg was our best player, and it was, at least statistically, his worst year for us. Let’s remember that Gus has always had a major hard on for Reg, and rightly so, but I’m not sure he’s been watching us that closely this year.
I’m actually becoming more and more comfortable with the decision. In any event, Reg wants out and as we saw at the Panthers a sulking Reg isn’t helpful.
Yeah Brett I still think gutho and Jo O’ then possibly RCG our best players this year. I think reg was probably only our best player towards end of season. I like Jo’s scrambles & efforts on efforts more than Rcg in that sense.
Yes again Brett, I appreciate RCG’s service as well, but I think he is now outdated and it maybe the best thing that can happen, depending on how wisely we spend the money. If we can pick up Jazz T from the Warriors and bring him onto the bench, he will cover the whole pack including Hooker and allow some real freedom with a bench of some imagination.
I like your thinking on Tevaga.At 28 should still be at or near his best, he’s experienced, got that give and take with a dash of controlled feral approach.
Ricky Stuart ditched 12 players as he headed for the door, unfortunately the next coach and roster was not a happy ending, but players like Tevaga
could make it happier this time around.
Poppa where is the talk of Jazz T coming from?
Its been around for awhile JE, but listening to the car radio a couple of hours ago and the talk is he has gone to Manly.
I also heard it was between us and Manly……..I fear the worst?
Jazz T signed with Manly
Thanks Gol!
You and I don’t always agree … on much. But on Blaize we are exactly on the same page. At this stage I can’t see what all the who-ha is and was about.
He was good for at least 4 glaring mistakes every game. Poor under a high ball, missed tackles at crucial and non-crucial times, dropsy …. should I go on? Scored some good tries but at most games cost us more than he made up for.
I think the swap with Isaiah Iongi may well be in our favour.
The great mystery was why was Talagi picked in those last 3 games…..extend that a bit further and if he needed to be picked, why wasn’t it on the wing.
Tago was more a centre than a winger and the opportunity was there to blood him for the experience.
The thing is with Blaize … is he is going to the Panthers with the expectation of taking the no 6 ?
There are some damned good players in the halves at the Panthers who would be very eager to take the 6 and won’t look too kindly on Blaize trying to grab it from them.
He’s come from the Eels with stuff all competition to a place where the potential suitors will be bashing him sideways.
In this point, you must say kudos to the kid if he backs himself that much that he thinks he’s going to waltz in there and do that.
Personally, I can see some very rough times for him. He’s nowhere near going to make that position his own, there is only so much ‘ training on the job’ the Panthers will allow.
It will be interesting to see where it all goes.
I’m not sure what the ranks of playmakers coming through for Penrith is like now that a few have left, but whoever is coming through those systems is going to be several classes above Talagi defensively. He’s got an off season to fix a lot of problems, otherwise he will be a problem. Penrith are due some mis-steps, hopefully this is one of them.
The great mystery was why was Talagi picked in those last 3 games…..extend that a bit further and if he needed to be picked, why wasn’t it on the wing.
Tago was more a centre than a winger and the opportunity was there to blood him for the experience.
Agree With the grades!
To me Blaize reminds me of a young Ryan Matterson. Very talented. Both think they are/were halves. I guess time will tell if Blaize ends up returning to Eels as an edge backrower or 13. I’m guessing that MON was making sure Izaac Moses and Blaize were not peed off. So kept being selected.
Loved Reg he was a family favourite. But wasn’t
good early. He was unfit and carrying extra weight. Reg said he’d die for BA. Then came out with 8 runs 70m in the next game. He’s been busy in the Latter part of season because he was putting
himself in the shop window. As all players do come contact time.
Interesting Sean was thanking Billy Rodgers and MON saying they been busy building the roster with Jason Ryles. Given we have only signed 2 players they couldn’t have been that busy – just BS. MON and Rodgers need to be polaxed out of the joint. They’ve effectively let the place slip to the basement.
Mate just because they haven’t been announced doesn’t mean they arent coming.
Still pieces of the jigsaw to be put together.
Yeah mate I guess I must show patience lol
Those two haven’t earned a lot of trust over the last few years, we need action and results, not words. Sadly I think the first part of their work is cleaning up their own mess, hence Reg leaving to free up enough cap space to put a full roster together.
True points Pete.
Blaize is possibly years off being a proper rounder first grader in D aspects, maybe rif’s systems will help him. It’s going to be a blessing in disguise he has left I believe. He can come back when he can tackle and read plays, doesn’t seem fast enough to be an elite modern half or a back. Interested to see how it plays out.
Also the stuff regarding them making signings and working hard in background. There’s whispers the clubs been working on Bulldogs blake Wilson who you know has torn us up before. There’s apparently 2 or 3 players they are currently working on hopefully that sign. Hawkins from south’s (they announced he’s leaving). Wilson from dogs. And then the young qld cup prop I forgot his name they are working on. Plus Bunty Afoa.
Word is I’ve heard is the eels are heavily relying on RCG to be moved on to finalise some of these contracts with the cap space it opens up.
If all of this is true mate and we sign even Afoa, Wilson, Hawkins, this to me is a significant bolstered eels roster as In makes us way more well rounded. There’s a few others they’ve made inquiries about but my sources (friends of friends who work for the club) have suggested that they believe at Least Wilson is a high probability. I really hope that is true. We desperately need fast backs playing outside brown & moses. It would open up our attack like nothing we have seen for years at the eels. Hopefully it all pans out. But MON & co have a reputation of letting us eels fans down, hopefully Ryles has improved our chances 🤞 p.s I also think Tanah Boyd is a good hooker depth option, any luck they snag him for cheap. Better than Lussick. Boyd on outta at titans as you would have seen.. probably cheap too.
Fingers crossed 🤞
Not much to disagree with.
Simmonsen was possibly pipped for most improved by Asi.
He still has major defence issues to resolve but I’m blaming a lot of the 3/4 defensive problems on the team strategy.
That’s why Sivo deserves a higher rating. He made the most of every sliver of an opportunity to score that he was given. There just weren’t enough of them.
If Ryles fixes the wingers coming in, we win games like the Penrith & Melbourne games we played in the last few rounds of the season, and would have finished top 8.
Any of you watch the storm sharks game?
It’s glaringly evident where eels have gone wrong. Our teams been designed & trained to be the complete oppose of the storm and how they play in 24’.
There’s times in todays game in where there is 5 + mins of game play without stopping.
The storms roster and playing style now is designed to fight out those types of battles set for set without stoppages and best people on fitness.
No offence to ba who i personally believe did a good job for many years but his front load the game and power style game plan as well as the players being conditioned for that is literally outdated in the game today how fast & fitness related it is.
Even watching panthers last night flog chooks or storm today you can just see the constantly moving legs of all players on these teams all game and seemingly never get tired and can just grind out set for set for 80 and expect to do so is just the complete oppose of the parramatta eels.
Gus guild was saying look at this storm team every play, every persons body is moving. And with panthers vs chooks panthers are all moving during every set and you could see the panthers players are all ultra fit you could not see any evidence of players slacking off or looking gassed.
The parramatta eels have a lot of work to do in the off season and I’m not too confident the new coaches can turn this ship around as quickly as we would hope. We have a roster of ba’s power style forward game and we do not have fit forwards besides Joe and hopgood and maybe matto who can defend set after set and compete in defence like these good teams do without seemingly gassing like the eels team does.
The only way I can see this reversing next year is if we are surprised by some of our younger players who progress significantly to make up for how much wasted cap we have in certain players. If Guymer, Luca moretti, Joe O’, matto and hopgood all have very solid years and good luck we might off set some of our issues.
But as far as the modern game in 25’ will go the likes of Lane, Jnr paulo, carty, sivo, maybe even tualagi, I doubt have the fitness or defensive prowess to help make the eels into a premiership threat.
One off season of all new fitness and defensive focus will not be enough to make us catch up to the teams who are at the top and foreseen the trend of the game changing towards the current trend we are seeing where teams like panthers or storm are full of youth, full of seemingly endless gas in the legs, and can tackle all night long.
I’m not suggesting that we cannot improve. I strongly believe that we will. But my observation is that to be realistic we cannot expect coach Ryles to get our team to catch up to the storm or Penrith with one off season and a roster full of older forwards and having players on our roster who are on big money that a fringe reserve grader at storm or Penrith could out perform on half of the pay rate that some eels players are on.
We must remain patient next year and be realistic. Years worth of training & preparation for a different style of game, then complete turning it on its head, with much of the same roster will be too risky and more than likely ineffective.
I think that like we saw at the bulldogs the new coaches will not be able to make their mark until they get enough of the players on the roster they want that they believe can execute the game style & game plan which they wish to implement into the new Eels team moving forwards.
There’s zero hope players like paulo, sivo, lane
etc are magically going to become high work rate, fit, great defenders in one off season. They are older now and NOT built for that high work rate / fit style which is ideal for having a strong defensive team.
We may see a top 8 or close to finish next year. But we must remember the coach will need more than one off season to catch the boys up with the poor defensive issues / systems which they have been handicapped with for years. This could take them 2 seasons to master and dial in until they perform like a defensive unit week in week out like panthers or the storm.
Apparently we scored more tries than the panthers this year? I haven’t confirmed but read it somewhere. We do NOT have points issues… what we have is a poorly trained defensive team which bottom of the ladder or close to it defence and years worth of piss weak try line defence on our edges, that’s been haunting our players for years.
This can not be fully fixed in one off season. We can just hope that it’s enough to make us defend like a top 8 team. I’m predicting in season 2 is when we will see the club turn a real corner defensively when Ryles can off load more of these heavy or ageing forwards who are sucking up a lot of our cap and offering very little in return.
We will also need sheer luck. We will need gutherson and Moses on the field basically all season. We still look like half a team the moment either of these two gentleman are not on the field for our beloved parramatta eels. If we can snag some luck, then I am confident we make the top 8. 🤞
Muz, Grand Final 2022, we were gassed somewhere around the 15-20 minute mark .The Panthers put that all in, high tempo style that you’re talking about on us, and I couldn’t help but think on Friday night Panthers V Chooks it was a carbon copy.
Bdon true I remember that and it seems like they have a whole other gear of fitness & gas that our players don’t.
And they did it 100% on chooks this weekend, it was like a flash back.
People say “it’s not a fitness issue at parra”
It 100% is heavily related to it.
Our players wouldn’t be able to join that panthers side and be able to keep up with the line in both defence and attack..
Even when there’s a line break, you see them all get back on side in seemingly a flash to defend that try line like their lives depend on it.
Our parra eels fitness wise are like 3 round amateur boxers vs 12 round champion boxers.
We are trained & conditioning, as well as roster body type balanced in a way where it would be near impossible to win a premiership.
The panthers fringe first grader backs & forwards I reckon would have a game fitness level higher than most of our players on significant $ contracts.
Bdon also regarding our gf when we were gassed in the first 15. We also didn’t move the ball around enough until the game was done. I didn’t like the game plan, they didn’t move it around until there was nothing to lose. Cronk said we had one game plan win the collision and it didn’t work. Some fans on here argue that’s nonsense, but we did hit ups and played conservative more or less for too long. We could not win the forward battle, the panthers smashed them and knew it was coming. We had no plan B if our forwards couldn’t win the battle. I’m not saying our coach was to deploy blame. But it deserves questioning. Why did we not change our game plan until we more or less lost until we started to move the ball around and chase the win? It was one of the worst grand final performances ever. We were never in it. If fans on here or anywhere online can’t handle the facts they need to get past emotions. We have a (possibly soon) near 50 year premiership drought and they played in a way (game style & decision making) that ensured the game was over fast. Most teams even when they get out-classed put up a fight in a grand final. We didn’t start to throw the ball around and moving freely until it was too late and game was over. Ba’s game plan didn’t accommodate the fact if we cohost get it over them in the middle we had to chance our hand and just risk it to win the game, go out in a blaze of Glory moving the ball freely parra style, off loads, off the cuff plays, etc. that risky play was only played once realistically we were toast. The fitness has also been a issue for years and many former players say fitness is your answer to defence. If you have unfit players, that simply leak tries. Im 100% certain our inconsistency and defence especially this year and years past is our players are trained & conditioned in a way to front load efforts early (power style) and if that fails as we have seen too many times we simply cannot win.
A good example is this year. I saw some stats and basically we won the first half of most games this year. And lost the second half of most of them. It’s largely mismanagement.
Yes,
The other observation is from the 22 GF the game changers. In the GF we were rolling off the tackled player quickly because of the penalties awarded the previous year and earlier in the season. Remember we were the least penalised team in the comp.
The GF came and Panthers laid all over us. We rolled off fast giving them quick play the balls every tackle. We were gassed 10-15 minutes.
No messages out to the team in the GF. It was just a set and forget strategy even though the ref always puts the whistle away in the GF.
We kept that strategy rolling off
fast up to this year. Other teams look at the ref and wait to be told to get off. Especially if a dominant tackle.
We also kept the one of the slowest play the balls and the weakest marker defence.
BA was good but. He was basically a set and forget strategist. The same game plan no matter the team or conditions. Darwin was a classic example.
Yeah good points Pete I forgot about this too until you mentioned it. We gave them lightening quick play the balls whilst they slept all over us and ba didn’t tell them to adjust. You can also consider it as we don’t have much proper deep finals experience either.
Interesting you said that because storm players stayed Bellamy told players before the game VS sharks other day be prepared to fight it out set for set long periods during game possibly because it’s finals and ref might put the whistle away.
You could see them doing exactly what you just said. Laying all over the sharks and looking at the ref waiting for him to tell them in in some cases.
This is why I don’t believe Ryles is a saviour or messiah (lol), but having actual former rep NRL players as coaches at the eels is much much needed.
Bellamy or Ryles knows all these details from playing as well as being part of coaching staff of the best teams for many many years.
We not only lack premiership work ethic and fitness to keep lets moving and tackle for 80 to fight like the top teams when it counts.
We have stupid things going on like what you just mentioned that would not happen to a top club come finals time.
There’s small details that win you the big games when it’s tight.
Look at manly today beating the dogs. They got flogged for field position all night, and the sheer class and experience of Daly cherry Evans (who’s almost a coach as well as captain) at manly he apparently has that much pull at manly.
He got them over the line by kicking attacking kicks causing knock ons and uncertainty in the dogs, they do not win today without DCE’s bombs / kicking.
Moses has hardly allowed to throw up big bombs. This is one example and I know first hand why from people who are involved. The Eels defence is so bad we have historically leaked long range tries from those high 50/50 chance bombs where there is unbroken play. The coaching staff stopped our boys going after them more or less. You saw Asi do a bomb recently? See how big it was? Imagine Moses? He can kick as long as Burton.
Ba and co advised taking risky bombs out of our main stay playing style because we leaked too many long range tries. Today DCE could not win them that game without those bomb kicks where you risk your team being torn open by having your scattered defence.
What I’m saying is rather than address we leak those long range tries because we have the unfittest, slowest team in the comp. We instead more or less stopped doing big bombs as regularlu and went more conservative. Because Ba didn’t like them and our team was too shit at defending against players possibly catching the ball while our big middle players are too slow or tired to defend once chase the ball.
I think we’ve been handicapped. The sea eagles lost the collision today. Stuck in their own end. Lost the field position game and possession most the game.
What they did have is defence, and fitness & speed. And they have a team who’s allowed to chance their hand with risky arial kicks repeatedly that are 50/50 chance. We virtually never win games when possession or field position consistently goes against us. We need run of the ball or we get tired and lose.
I know some people are happy we got a new coach and I’m happy for that too. But we need to develop a brand new brand of football and DNA.
We would have copped 30 on us easily from the dogs today if we were in manlys position. Because we are too unfit and can’t defend either.
The new coach is only 1 step on the ladder. It could take a clean out of 50% of our roster before we see this old slow / unfit, only win when things go our way style of football is removed from our dna.
We are still going to have most of the same players here next year who are the same players who almost won us a wooden spoon this year. We need a miracle if one off season is enough to help them lose all of these poor habits and years of consistently having the slowest team in the league and piss poor fitness.
I really hope Ryles isn’t underestimating this. A teams dna can take a near whole roster clean out sometimes, it’s very hard to teach old dogs new tricks and new habits as we all know. New recruits who have Penrith or storm like work ethics are probably the only short term solution I can see. I can’t see those major culture & work habits changes coming players who are already around 30. lol
Agree Muz,
Clubs talk about culture (too much) and professionalism. But if you look at the KTM awards pictures. The number of Senior players without a tie on just sums up our lack of professionalism and pride.
We need to give a few people a kick up the backside.