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Fittingly, episode 100 of season 2024 is of the special variety as Sixties and Forty20 are joined by former Eels CEO Bernie Gurr to debrief a singularly difficult season for the club and look at what lies ahead with a new era being ushered in.
Bernie discusses the review process every club undertakes every year and the obvious factors that played into Parramatta’s struggles this year. From there the boys look at which players we should be expecting to turn it around in 2025 and what can the team salvage from their spirited end to the difficult campaign.
The departure of Reagan Campbell-Gillard leaves a monstrous hole in the roster and Gurr isn’t so sure it can be filled in the short term – so how do the Eels handle it? What does new coach Jason Ryles bring to the team and how does he make it so the Eels undergo a retool as opposed to a rebuild?
Gurr finishes the show with his overview of the NRL this year, a quick look at the finals series as well as some administrative insight into what looms ahead for established clubs with big time expansion coming to the code.
Great pod, always good to hear from Bernie. I dont think we would get the same level of interview from Jim
Unforrtunately, you’ll have to change your intro of Voss saying what a shot Campbell- Gillard.
Injury- happens every year to every club. The difference is we didn’t think we needed depth last two years. Other clubs have depth and win without key players. Coaches get the best out of their players.
Cap – was mis-managed and is hard to rectify the mess.
Junior- was lazy. Stop with the worlds biggest first receiver. We need 20 hit ups 20-30 tackles. At 110kg. 10 hit ups is a joke and won’t wash.
Reg a family favourite. Bye Reg.
Lane our new captain of reserve grade 2025 or released.
Matto a colossus and needs to play like one. Mobile middle
Carty was good and needs keep it up. Tackle tackle tackle.
Sivo – not sure. He’s been playing well below his potential last few years.
Gutho- hope he blitzes next year. But I can see the reasons for change in position and captaincy. I really applaud Ryles for not being held to ransom or being rushed into a premature decision. He’s giving Gutho the chance to prove himself. If Gutho just wants a pay day he’ll test his value. If he loves the club he’ll stay. All reports say he’ll do whatever for the team.
Need to bring back Bernie we need this footy IQ.
Pete I think one of the larger issues parra fans often don’t mention is along the lines of what you said. Just replacing some players isn’t easy, as we we have seen. The issue is we don’t get enough out of certain players and THAT should be the focus.
Since we aren’t able to move some players on the ground rules need to be set on players like Junior for next season. Ryles & co need to set him a benchmark standard, clubs like melb etc push players to make so many runs & meters. If you don’t make them, they drop you to reserve grade or shop you off. We can’t have this mindset where we allow high paid player’s on field standards to drop and think it won’t effect the rest of our team, because laziness & mediocrity spreads thru the team like a cancer.
Like you said Ryles needs to tell junior. Mate.. you need to make 15+ hit ups per game. I’m not going to leave you out there exhausted. Just give me that, tackle hard and hurt people with your body. Then I’ll throw Joe in there once your target metrics.
Another issue is Ba used to leave Jnr used to leave him on SO long. I think this has shortened his football career prematurely. He would often hold back because he would conserve his energy. Paulo needs to be trained now long an old prop. Short stints, high impact. Like roosters JWH. NO first receiver BS. Throw your body at them. Exhaust yourself for 10-15 mins. Then Joe O’ or matto will take your place and grind out big mins.
Paulo has been allowed to play lazy, like a big half back. Hit ups often minimal. Often it’s like he has been trying to hold back to save energy, or avoid pain by playing physical. He is one of our highest PAID players. Somebody needs to tell him “mate, you are a top 2 paid player at parra.. if you do not play like this, our teams simply going to suffer, your pay takes up 2 prop forwards salary’s” and legit- that’s how highly he is paid. It’s up close to 900k to 1m apparently.
I know gutho cops the focus, moses, even brown. While I’m pretty sure paulo is on more than all of them besides moses.
I know this sounds highly critical of him or mean. But the new coaches need to get former on him. Show paulo a film of JWH last night throwing his big body into manly players. He took out two of Manley best players in the first two tackles.
TWO players in two runs im pretty sure were sent off for HIA’s, he took out manlys best X factor back like player FIRST hit up and took him out of the game. I feel like JWH won them the game right there and then. In the first two runs of the game.
I know this sounds radical but paulos just as big as JWH in weight I think. Show him in the off season old videos. Bring up old tapes of paulo smashing people running over them like ants. Show Jnr what he used to do for us and why he gets paid so much,
If we can get even 1/2 of what we used to get out of paulo. Then I think we can pick up some slack from us losing RCG.. if paulo comes back catching & passing, and doing under 10 hit ups per game. We need to tell him he either needs to meet certain metrics or leave the club. You cannot have your highest paid players on a roster who’s delivering less than blokes who are fringe first graders.
Charlie Guymer for example I’m 100% convinced would deliver more meters and impact for us in the middle than how paulo was playing. And he is on probably 10% of the salary. This would not fly at other clubs. If jnrs lost his hunger or physicality, we need to make moves fast. It’s my opinion Jnrs salary could buy is 2 young forwards and one good young back for the same amount. We need a physical advantage like Bernie is saying. Paulo needs to provide that for us. Or shop him off, pay part of his salary even. We need more aggressive roster management. Players can’t think you can sign up here I’m big bucks and drag your tail. Or it will continuously happen every time we upgrade or extent contracts.
P.s pete lane I agree has declined but I still think he is a decent middle. I feel like as a bench middle he can still maybe offer us something? I
I don’t want discussions to go down the path of comparing Bernie and Jim. Jim is the Eels CEO and will be in that critical role moving forward. Bernie still follows the club closely and Parra will remain part of who he is. That means we can get informative opinions from Bernie as he’s now on the outside looking in.
As for the other points you made, yes Bernie points to getting the best out of Junior, the virtual impossibility of trying to find another Reg, the classy players that remain and the recruitment priorities as he sees them. What was interesting was his views on the wider impacts of expansion – how up to three more clubs will not only be finding players but also experienced staff and administrators.
We need to get our moneys worth out of jnr especially now with RCG going or we will struggle immensely. I’m really hoping jnr can thrive under some new voices and a refresh in mindset for him hopefully. I know parra fans all blast our team when we lose. But people don’t realise how much cap is tied up in jnr. It’s apparently close to a million. We cannot afford to have any player on that amount playing at 1/2 of his capacity. Or out injured all season. If we can get more out of him it would massively boost us. Like Bernie is saying, we need our big physical bodies working hard for us. Without RCG there we will need a huge lift from our other forwards on the roster. Hopefully paulo takes the lead again and winds back the clock. We will desperately need that from him.
Thanks fellas,
Without a doubt the most enjoyable podcast of the year for me! It reminded me how much we lost when he left the Eels. It was so good to get a macro view of how a club needs to operate and how all the pieces, and people, need to be able to work as an integrated whole.
Bernie is able to explained in simple terms, for simpletons like me, how to do it. I really enjoyed listening to his perspective on how the coach, HOF, CEO will look at recruitment issues differently and how that is important for a club. Also enjoyed listen to his thoughts on AFL in western Sydney and how other NRL clubs are performing.
Thanks again, really appreciated.