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Jason Ryles has spoken in an official capacity for the very first time as the new head coach of the Parramatta Eels. Sixties, Forty20 and Clint eschew the regularly scheduled news podcast (don’t worry, it is still coming) in order to react to all of the important questions posed by Adam Hawse.
Parramatta’s new commander-in-chief details what has he learned from the likes of Craig Bellamy, Trent Robinson and Eddie Jones and what do each of the new appointments to his coaching staff bring to the table for both the club and himself.
How does he rate the current roster and who are his elite players? What do Zac Lomax and Isaiah Iongi add to his backline and why did he let Reagan Campbell-Gillard walk? Ryles gives insight into the state of his roster and offers some early clues to some of the first moves he will make.
The show closes out with an important dive into JR’s view on the Parramatta pathways and the intergration of former players into the modern setup before looking at his closing message to all the stakeholders of the Blue & Gold.
It was interesting to hear Ryles say about Gutho “when he’s on the field we will be playing differently to every other team”. Whilst that’s good in attack, I wonder what this means for the
defence. Given Gutho’s time at fullback his ability to cover a lot of ground in the game, his non-stop talk, and his tackling 1v1 will be a massive boost in the middle (assuming that’s where he plays).
Overall the content of the interview wasn’t anything supporters haven’t heard before but I guess with the way our fan base is the club felt like it needed to get on the front foot with this media. Hopefully they’re on the front foot about signing and retaining elite level players.
We want the club to be on the front foot, proactive, with everything. This was about connecting with supporters as soon as was reasonable. They couldn’t talk with Ryles on these topics whilst the season was still in play.
It’s good to hear Ryles talk about the possible versatility of Clint , he could play anywhere because of his effort. But I’ll bet my left nut he starts at no.1 next year.
Mate I hope you still have your right one because you may need it !
Guthos days of playing fullback are gone.
Good introduction to Ryles.
He seems like a straight shooter.
He’s clearly got a plan and I’m glad he hasn’t put it out there and he hasn’t promised anyone anything.
Interesting about Gutho – the player power (or is it agent power) is too strong at Eels. He had to meet with Gutho’s agent ahead of November 1st. It will be interesting if we get the same crap as last time in the media. 360, last night were a bunch of whining birches about it. Although Anasta and Tallis tried to straighten them out.
“I sat down with (Gutherson’s agents) Liam and Sam (Ayoub),” he said.
“At no stage did we discuss Gutho moving before the end of his contract.
“That’s one thing that’s never been discussed before. Then the next part is, let’s just see how things go and let’s just see what the future looks like.
“If this role works out for us, then I don’t see why it can’t be part of Parramatta for much longer.”
Gutherson comes off contract at the end of 2025, which means he’ll become a free agent from November 1.
If there is a cancer around the playing group it needs to be removed early.
Pete, the Gutho question will remain one of the topics under the microscope. Ryles will get his first experience of Gutho in preseason. It’s a sight!
It’s interesting that Gutho leaving early has never been discussed.
Yet the media picked up a story about it? Or they made up a story? Or maybe it was from Ayoub? Who knows. But after Guthos last contract playing out publicly. Someone could be Ttying to wedge the club into a promise or a guarantee. It’s
good that Ryles didn’t blink and kept it
open to what the club needs.
I was looking forward to seeing Iongi give an example of Panthers fitness. But apparently he’s injured?
It’s 100% made up story.
Pete I hope it’s not a media circus or they are underestimating how important the king still is to this team. He must realise this isn’t the riff, or melb.. where your best player can be out and the team still wins or plays almost the same. At parra, stat wise if gutho isn’t there our team collapses. Iongi (having an actual fullback) might offset the effect it will have. But make no mistake, our team is severely weak in many positions still. Not just player wise but they lack the skills & ability to defend or operate like good teams do even when they’re best players off the field. If they shaft or treat gutho as trash with a tiny contract, not only will my confidence reduce significantly. But I would be afraid moses & co would also be more likely reconsider their positions at our club when their next player options arise. Low balling or disrespecting gutho in my opinion is enough to derail our moral coming into next season. The last things EELS need is a shit show and their best player, their leader, seemingly being disrespected or being treated unfairly (in their eyes). I get it gutho is on his way out. But even with broken ribs, damaged knees, torn quad, the bloke is still harder working and more reliable then all of our other players who are not injured and younger. Anyway.. I hope gutho stays. Ignore the “he is slow” crap. Even on his damaged body, he is more reliable, consistent and useful than Reece Walsh who’s the games biggest star (if you go off hype and social media followers).. and is the QLD fullback.
If we have 5 injured guthos with broken ribs, wonky knees, torn quads, that team would still won more games then we did this year.
Obviously I’m happy to see we signed a good young fullback. Lomax can fill at fullback too. We needed recruits in that aspect. Bud Jason and co must not think we are the storm or roosters where if your best player is out you just plug the hole and continue winning… gutho is the equivalent of having 2 extra men when he is on that field for the eels.
We do not have the roster depth, roster balance, or elite coaching which the storms roosters, Penrith etc have at their disposal. The parramatta eels are a 3 wheeled trailer the moment the king isn’t there. Let’s hope Ryles & co are not going to underestimate the negative impacts that will follow if they simply throw a rookie in at #1 and throw gutho on the bench or something. He deserves more respect, and slow or not.. is still our best player besides moses. Last thing we need is the media circus during off season all about guthos contract. It could be enough to derail our moral in the off season. My prediction is gutho will come out and be our best player next season. I thought he was our best player this year too (even whilst heavily damaged)., speaks volumes about the bloke. Reece Walsh or ponga would not have played one game with broken ribs of a torn quad. You could bet on that.
I think the media will beat it up no matter what happens.
If they give Gutho 3 months warning of a thing that might happen. That’s being honest. But, according to Hooper it’s being disrespectful. People said the same about Tedesco being dumped as Origin Captain. Disrespectful. But it’s about winning.
Bulldogs waited until almost the finish
of preseason to dump Mahoney and it
was a great move by Gus lol. Suck-suck
Hooper’s head is still a bit brown from the story.
Ryles has said let’s see how it goes and go from there. Ryles is being honest. Ryles wants to look at combinations
first. Ryles is not being rushed into a 3
year extension and promises of Gutho
staying at fullback on $1m per year.
Hooper pulled out Guthos stats last night. He is a great player in the top 5 of
Fullbacks. But he isn’t first in anything. I think his highest was 2nd for possessions. Overall, in the NRL he was
20th for run meters from 21 games. Dylan Edwards 5th (18 games). Gutho is
great for us. But compared to the comp we are well behind.
2022 ARM he was 3rd, 2023 15th and 2024 20th. (2022 Reg 4th and Junior 9th
ARM). All our players have gone
backwards not just Gutho.
Gutho has been struggling with injury and I hope he can get back to 2022 form but he’ll be 31 next year.
I just hope Gutho proves everyone wrong and gets back to his best form.
Yeah it’s interesting man I thought hopper would go after easy targets the eels he hates us lol
He is just trying to help take pressure off tigers and try cause division to us and hoping for cheap headlines
I didn’t see this about the stats but I’m not surprised you can see it with how bad our team has been
Thanks good podcast fellas. I still think they are underestimating how much Clinton gutherson holds this team together like glue. I hope I’m wrong but if they try to play gutho at 14 and think the other men can all do a better job then HIM.. they will be in for a rude shock. This hint at possible change of positions also means gutho might be losing captaincy or sharing it with Moses. Good times ahead. Hopefully some new ideas and a reset as you guys suggested helps our men come back in refreshed and ready for action. I’ll support our new coach 100% up until he starts playing lussick over hands consistently or something like that. Or dropping Luca morreti back to reserve grade every time he dropped 1 ball while Sean lane and sivo could individually lose us games every week and not get dropped. That was my personal breaking point of supporting ba wholeheartedly. Regardless, pumped for Ryles & co. We have still amazing players at parra. If we avoid injuries we WILL play finals next year!
I’m going to reserve any early prediction calls till I see what starts to play out in preseason, and that probably means late January as there will be some late starters this preseason given the current injuries.
Honest question:
How many games do you think will parra will need to lose next year until Chief comes on here attacking 60’s after every bad game for supporting the head coach?
Lol 😂
I wish Jason mentioned “win the collision” in his media interview so that he could have sent the Brad Arthur derangement syndrome sufferers into overdrive for a laugh. 😅
Mate if he had said “Win the collision” I’d have ended up in a straight jacket😂😂
Clive he should have said it. Would have been hilarious. it would have gone wild over on 1 eye eels site where ba is still attacked regularly for chasing the collision, lol. Chief / avenger would have had seizure. 🤣
Muz, he’s still there attacking BA as well as Sixties and Forty regularly lately (along with a few other special friends). The boys must have a giggle knowing that not only they, but BA, live rent free in his head. Then again, plenty of space to live there, there’s zero brains!!! And then there’s Frank, what a special idiot he is in his attacks on BA, JA and MA. They seem to forget the consecutive spoons before BA took over, the salary cap dramas he faced, lack of support off the field and every other obstacle he faced – BA was solely responsible for everything at the Eels and even if the urinal cakes weren’t replaced it was his fault. All in all it’s a great place to go and have a laugh, I’m often unsure if some of those blokes actually believe what they write – they can’t be that dumb!!
haha. I know what you mean. Maybe next time I get a feed at parra leagues, if they under cook the food I should go to that site to put in a complaint about Ba for not cooking the food properly, lol.
I don’t know who that person is that you reckon would attack my opinions Muz but he’s probably a very reasonable person.
I was quite impressed with Ryles. I wasn’t sure what to expect but he seems thoughtful, intelligent, well spoken and he certainly has a plan.
I still can’t work out how we fill our 30 man squad. We were short on troops this year and we are releasing 11 more. Considering it’s the end of the season and most of the quality players are already tied up I’m really not sure who is going to fill out the roster?
I also really hope Ryles and Brown overhaul the Pathway system. When you compare the talent that has debuted for Penrith in the last 5 years to us it’s farcical.
Clive, Parra has averaged just over two local junior debuts per year since 2019. I haven’t included NRL debuts of young players the club recruited from elsewhere. Also I haven’t dived into how many strictly local players the Riff have debuted in that time. Can you list them?
The club would want to produce more NRL players out of the juniors and can do so, but the question for me is whether any club can emulate Penrith during this golden period in their history, because I’m not sure that their system is going to repeat what they’ve just achieved. Case in point, their external recruits for next year ahead of promoting pathways and their lower grades and pathways teams not taking titles recently.
Just wait until Perth and Port Moresby come into the NRL. That will drain the talent and we could find ourselves having to use juniors ion the NRL before they are fully ready – a bit like Talagi this year.
I like what I heard. Sure some of it was what was expected a new coach will say but his talk on building culture are intriguing. Also his goal to have the team play a style of footy that suits the team rather than copying the Storm or Roosters (though I’m sure he will steal some ideas).
I’m looking forward to 2025. Of course if Ryles has not won the premiership by say, round 6 I’ll be off him as coach.
That’s more generous than some fans Shaun. Compromise with them and put the line at Round 4.
I suppose the main topic that should be discussed is the captaincy.
The captaincy has to be sorted out early in the pre season and is one of the pillars of the rebuild.
If Gutho is looked at as a 14 then he can’t remain as captain.
If it’s undecided where he will play then we need to reset and appoint someone new.
I’m not a fan of co captains.
I’ll look in my crystal ball and I reckon that come Round 1, Hopgood will be the Parramatta Captain.
Spark this is probably why moses is rumoured captain. I’m not against moses being main or a co captain if gutho is possibly playing his last year next year if it ends up being the case.
I’ve said it since his first games with us, I felt hopgood could be a future captain at the eels.
Hopgood and Moses as captains post gutho era would give me pride as an eels fan. No offence to him but paulo being a captain now is nonsense. I’m hoping Ryles changes this quick fast.
You look at cowboys. They got the two hardest working, in form, origin level committed players as captains. Deaden and Cotter. Penrith it’s the two best players (+ origin level players) in Cleary & Yeo.
Then you look at parra we’ve got a forward who’s not even been good enough to be a starting prop the last two seasons (paulo), and gutho who’s career looks like it’s nearly over. I’m still not against gutho as a co captain. But happy too if they move on from him for the future in 25’.
Then we’ve got the nsw star half back & best eels player probably since Hayne in moses. And the only origin level forward (and hardest working forward probably) in hopgood who aren’t even captains.
Give Moses and hopgood the captaincy for a new future. Or moses gutho. We need a shake up, and I also don’t think gutho does very good with the ref’s. Just a thought 💭
Yeah mate you are probably right about Moses but I just have a sneaky feeling that Ryles may want to free Moses from the responsibility.
Gutho may still retain it but I doubt it.
The captaincy is the last issue we need to worry about. It ranks below goal kicking.
Oh Brett , I don’t know if you are just being a contrarian or we just see EVERYTHING in different shades ?
If you are establishing a reset of the club by introducing new coaches, new techniques and new attitudes you need to establish very early on who the captain of the club is.
The captain will be responsible for driving the coaches message.
It won’t be made up on the day.
Brett fair call you could argue that, as we have many more important issues to tackle at parra.. but I tend to disagree.
Like in any work place environment, handing leadership responsibilities to some employees not only can effect other employees to work differently (often harder), but the individual themselves holding the leadership position often elevate themselves to a new level of competence and accountability.
The amount of people I’ve known who sucked as employees, then got their own contract jobs or responsibilities then all the sudden lifted themselves to new heights not only in performance but also passion, and discovered a whole new element of themselves that was previously less evident.
The same in sports, soccer and football in which growing up I was lucky enough to play in representative teams in the districts for both. When you played under a captain who you preferred (more or less), it definitely effected your on field moral. There’s countless examples in both sports and work environments where nothing changes except a captain, a coach, or even just a new voice in the team and it often sparks a new sense of motivation or sense of belief in people.
Captaincy in the nrl is also important. You want to reward your best players with a sense of ownership. If it didn’t matter, teams would not shuffle around who the captains were.
Gutho has been caught out taking dives, constantly throwing his arms up possibly more than any other player in nrl. Moses does this too admittedly,
This can affect how much a ref trusts / respects your captains opinion. If refs dislike captains they simply dismiss them and do not listen. Remember cam smith? He has refs under his influence. Yeo also seems to have the respect of them.
Something isn’t working at parramatta. Teams who are failing generally change captains, coaches, roster. I think it’s not a bad idea. But I do support gutho if he is our captain, just open to new leadership if the new coaches believe guthos antics with ref’s could be negatively effecting our team’s rub of the green. Our new coaches are going to consider this and possibly make a call on it if they think it will help. Every 1% matters.
Overall I thought it was a good interview. Just the fact that it even happened. Would be great to get more dialogue where it’s meaningful.
My takeaway was he’s all in on culture. I presume what that means is we will have a low / zero tolerance for people who don’t buy into the culture and standards Ryles wants to set. It makes me wonder if parting ways with RCG is part something about cultural fit.
I wasn’t sold on my memory of what he said about Gutho. As a many-steps removed fan, I’d find it hard to see how the biggest effort player in the comp isn’t good for culture. That being said, I thought Ryles qualified his response about Gutho by saying he had “immediate” plans for him being in the squad which suggested to me he might not be part of medium/long term plans. I get he needs to look at the squad in totality, but any plans going forward should feature the King in my view.