Jason Ryles has landed a n ew signing and it comes in the form of Jack Williams as the Cronulla backrower joins the Blue & Gold for the next three seasons. The Tip Sheet dives into Parramatta’s latest acquisition and the pickup of Dean Hawkins as well as the rumours that a young Bulldog is also on the radar.
Sixties, Forty20 and Clint recap the Dally Ms on a night where Abbi Church well and truly arrived at the highest levels of the game. Church was narrowly pipped for the game’s highest individual accolade by the outstanding Olivia Kernick but did capture the title of Fullback Of The Year. Rory Owen was ineligible for Rookie Of The Year honours but cleaned up at the RLPA and Parramatta awards.
The boys discuss the grand final qualifiers as the Storm and Panthers book a rematch of the 2020 decider in the NRL while the Sharks stunned the Broncos in the NRLW and will meet the Roosters to decide who claims glory.
Naturally, previews of those games follow as the boys tackle the big issues. Will Nathan Cleary be right? How do the Storm cover the loss of Nelson Asofa-Solomona? Which two teams prevail when all is said and done across the two grand finals?
Boys any news on a hooker? Brailey from the
Knights was spoken of for awhile
Still no news on that. Hopefully soon
My mail is he isn’t coming. Neither is Blake Wilson or JAC.
Thanks for the show gents. I usually hate this time of the year but it couldn’t come soon enough after the season from hell. I couldn’t wait for our season to end.
The slate is wiped clean, our new coach can start doing his thing and the club has made some astute signings with more to hopefully come.
I’m hearing the club is interested in JAC, boy, that would make one lethal backline. Pipe dream for now but could come true.
I’m sensing good times ahead.
Like 60’s, I can’t bring myself to cheer for another club but I do hate some clubs more than others. This grand final has me torn, I absolutely hate Melbourne but I can just tolerate Penrith, I don’t want Penrith to better our three premierships and I can’t stand Melbourne winning another comp.
The best I can hope for is Melbourne winning and then being stripped of the title for cheating. Long shot I know.
Go Parra 2025!
Cheers Joseph. Like that long shot. To be honest I don’t see JAC happening
I like the signing of Williams. We lacked mobility and defensive toughness through the middle this year. Jack is a smaller forward who can move up quickly in defence with good hit and stick. In 2024 he averaged 0.61 tackles per minute with an efficiency of around 93%. I believe this will help with our extreme edge defence too as the middle defenders will be able to move across quickly.
I can’t wait to see him and Hopgood going around next year. 1 elite defender and 1 very good defender, will help us massively and hopefully both can play 25+ games.
Great stat Ham. Per second!!! Yeah, he was on BA’s radar too. Glad the club has secured him. But we mustn’t forget that Charlie will be back and pushing for first grade too. It adds to the depth and mobility
Yes, young Guymer is another one who loves to get off the line and put a hit on. In NSW cup he was averaging just .41 tackles per minute at 90% but in first grade he averaged .62 tackles per minute at 85%, for a 20 year old in his first year of reserve and first grade it’s a great start. Another I can’t wait to see under this smaller, more mobile pack we seem to be heading towards.
All the talk and stats kept are about post contact metres but I’d be more interested in the other PCM, pre-contact metres. And what’s most important is how many pre-contact metres a team gives up, you need to stop teams before they get going.
Good point Ham. Pre-contact metres stat is indicative of poor line speed and would be informative.
Those thoughts are too good for me to say ‘ was thinking that myself’, but in all modesty, I was in that ballpark. Any time I’ve seen Williams operating, he’s caught my attention with energy, power and technique. Hopgood got caught with some lazy efforts around him this year and his game got impacted. Put some mobile, competent,high energy defenders around him and his total game will be SOO level, obviously Slater thinks he’s that good. Williams is a very good signing. I reckon Matterson will also benefit. Paulo, Lane, Tuilagi and Cartwright all need to adopt another Slater fetish ‘keep your feet moving’. If these four don’t work on their weaknesses, their valuable strengths aren’t worth what they should be.
Agreed Bdon, Hopegood will only benefit by having other high energy high tempo forwards around him. The moral & energy of a forward pack is often contagious by whoever is surrounding them. Jack fits the mould of what we need defensively, temp and mobility wise at parra where our forward pack is largely ageing and was in their prime 2-3 seasons ago (some we won’t name who are still on huge money). Hopegood & Guymer, Jo O’. These are high energy players that will in my opinion set the foundation for Ryles style of play moving forward. He apparently is a defensive first type coach and a former forward, his own focus & expertise is with forwards. These men will be his huge assets to him. Can’t wait to see it all in action. Young Guymer coming off the bench and Jack Williams would be a HUGE energy spark that the parra eels have been desperately missing. Can’t wait for 25’.
We might finally have a team and coaching style (& playing style) that allows parra to actually place decent without Clint gutherson or Mitch moses on the team. The really good coaches sides whos systems are spot on and with depth obviously too can win even without their best players, I would really love to see the parramatta eels become a club like this. Because for years we’ve been a house of cards which relies too heavily on gutherson or Mitch moses playing or we look like headless chooks. The fact Ryles have gotten TWO too young fullbacks (Iongi, J papali’i apparently), and Hawkins a legit back up half, shows Jason is trying to form our side into a team who CAN actually win games without Clint gutherson or Mitch moses on the field. It’s not coincidence that our two key players have suddenly gotten sufficient backups as his first signings. He knows our weakness and it’s always been lack of depth in fullback and half back positions. Very impressive decisions by him so far. These young backs he has poached are very high quality young players. Let’s hope the Eels can become a top team again within a few seasons 💪👏
I think everyone has recognised that we needed more balance to our pack. If had become top heavy with running attacking forwards, at the expense of high work rate grafters.
True Brett..
That and also Brett, arguably the two most important positions half back (who organises the team and kicking), and fullback (who organises the defence… for many years we have not had close to sufficient back ups and had miserable win % whenever Gutho especially was not playing.
I don’t think people realised how poorly our roster had been managed, no other serious clubs leave themselves so spread thin without a back up specialist halfback and a specialist fullback.
In no other top 4 or even top 8 NRL club do they have only 1 NRL level half back and fullback and just sit and hope. That’s a losers strategy we’ve been using for years. Ryles hasn’t even coached 1 game for us yet, we’ve got NSW cup halfback of the year as a back up #7, and two gun NSW cup fullbacks (I believe NSW cup fullback of the year) in Iongi.
I’m not saying this to lay blame to the former coaching staff or MON, but just as a general rule of thumb. We evidently have not had enough football smarts at our club. Top heavy as you said, the weakest backs depth in the comp. But also we just built our roster like a house of cards.
Don’t quote me Incase I’m incorrect because I haven’t read the stat for a long time…
I think we have a 90% + lose % whenever Clint gutherson isn’t playing?
And our record I believe is shocking without moses over the years.
We’ve never addressed this properly like every other team does who’s competitive. It’s been seriously frustrating as a parra fan to see this. All the fans could see it but make excuses for the old coaching admin. Ryles took 2 months and fixed up our depth in those positions.
Joash Papali’i (if he comes) and Iongi can both play fullback and gun players, then the comp winning young half back Hawkins. This is proof the clubs been mismanaged and Ryles took under 3 months to fix it.
It’s a two edged sword. I’m greatfull our club is fixing depth issues in key positions. But I’m disappointed this issue has gone on for many many years and the club + fans only made up excuses as to why it happened.
It’s clear now that it was never a case of “couldn’t get the players” and more along the lines of the rosters balance had been mismanaged and we also do not have enough smart football brains up at the front office. Good footballs brains at any club would not allows this to happen like it has happened to us.
My son and grandson were junior rep back rowers and it’s a position they keep a close eye on during games. Both were so pleased with the signing of Williams , with comments like “ been watching and he’s been a standout for effort and speed” and “ just what is needed even as a bench rotation”.
Got to be happy when we move quickly on players in positions of need, hopefully it continues
I didn’t know much about Jack Williams but I’m glad astute posters enlighten me.
Our “reset” appears to be coming along nicely.
With respect to our 2024 squad, it started looking like a five day old dounut that still looks delicious enough but you know is stale.
I’m so looking forward to watching our freshened 2025 squad.
Bring on the pre season, I never thought I’d be saying that.
My optimism meter is starting to read uncomfortably high but I do own an official Eels parachute just in case my meter is poorly calibrated again, a lesson learnt after our 2023 showing.
Sign Paul Alomoti he’s still off contract
He played awesome in the grand final. He has transformed under the right coaching at panthers. See those defensive efforts on efforts by him and many other “nobodies” at Penrith who if at a lower teams nobody would look at as being being special? Just shows you how much the coaching, preparation and defensive strategies over there are miles ahead of us. We would have let in 4+ more tries that game against the storm probably even if we had a team as strong as we had a few years ago. The defence of that Penrith team showed us where we need to improve. That spine & backline of storm would have scored multiple tries against any other team that night. Super human Defence and fitness, just absolutely incredible. If Alomotti can defend like that at Penrith, it makes you wonder if Blaize will do the same there too? If he does. This highlights our poor defensive preparation at the eels. Interesting to see what happens. Paul Alomoti would be a huge pick up for us, his efforts were 2x Russels & Sivos imo.. 👍 he probably is relatively cheap too. I hope Ryles can offload sivo. If he does you would think he will make a play on a few more solid backs for us.
Good points Muz.
I just found out Alomoti just got an extension at Panthers. Hard to compete with Panthers premiership probably took less money to stay there.
Anyway some good talent available still. Hoping we can snag a few more. Ryles is not just sitting on his hands and is more hands on with signings or at least he’s proactive. Last two years were a disgrace and poorly handled.
Ryles isn’t afraid to make decisions.
Just on the GF – how fit are the Panthers. Whatever they are doing we need to copy it.
The reports of bellamy and Bennett been made of coaching options for me were never going to happen .tentative approach maybe but in both cases never going to happen especially bellamy
It’s been reported on another site that we’ve lost 3 of our 4 current Australian schoolboys to other clubs with Sangalang and Talagi going to Penrith and Coinakis signing with another club too.
Does anyone know if that’s right?
Last I heard the club was hopeful Ryda Talagi would stay on.
Looks like Gutho will be gone very soon.
Oh great – the player who is the heart and soul of the Parramatta team (and the most inspirational player since Ray Price) may be leaving us. Ryles has really raised the bar on himself – he’ll be a marked man if results don’t vindicate this potentially crazy decision
As you said mate the heart and soul of parra .I’d be very disappointed if they let him go.see what happens over the off-season hope Parramatta have the last negotiation
It’s a huge bold move for a rookie coach. he either succeeds and is a genius or falls short and looks like a fool.
It’s a huge risk to take a teams leader and arguably best player from this season put him on notice to leave early or “talk to other clubs” if he wants to.
If Moses and say Dylan brown got injured next season if gutho does leave us early?
We would be ripe for another wooden spoon. hope I’m wrong!
Is doing this with gutho a good move?
Is Ryles going to try make a play at Sua Fa’a logo if Papa extends at storm? Interesting times are ahead of us ! 🤔
It’s certainly a big call but a very logical one. We can’t offer him anything close to 800-900k and he may not want to cop our offer of 500-600k and a change of position (especially if a club such as dragons is gonna pay more and let him play a few more years of fullback)
Gutho and Mitch are the heart of this team but if gutho wants to chase cash so be it. I’d like parra to try sign Sloan as a swap with gutho if possible. Sloan seems to have a high ceiling then faalongo (bigger and faster). Seems like Sloan needs a new environment outside his comfort zone of Wollongong – he has so much talent but just struggles with focus/effort.
Ron I agree Sloan has a huge potential ahead of him if managed properly and continues to grow mate. I remember seeing him absolutely tear our NSW cup squad up a few years back… I thought geez this Sloan kid made all of our parra backs look simply ordinary. He just might be 2-3 seasons away from being a quality NRL level fullback who’s defensively sound. He WOULD thrive playing off Dylan brown and Moses. His speed and X factor playing around elite halves at parra would be devastating to opposition defences.
The issue I have with gutho and parra is we don’t know the full story but his negotiations always go public and get ugly. Don’t know if it’s his manager? Or what…
It’s a logical decision (as you mentioned) but also a big risk. My assumption / fear weeks ago I commented in here was “I hope Ryles doesn’t underestimate the importance of gutho to this team”
Our teams a house of cards without gutho there. A rookie Iongi would not fill this hole next season if he walks early. Ryles is coming from storm & chooks where the best player can be injured and the team still wins.
Parra is still like a wagon with 1 of its wheels missing without Clint gutherson. We have not had the premier coaching, systems, and roster that say storm has had. At parra if gutho goes, and say moses & brown got injured… our team would essentially collapse. Iongi & Joash papali’i (if he comes too), need MIN 1 season at eels before we can let gutho go.
There’s some reports it means gutho may get an offer and might leave early so we have seen his last game, others say it’s only for talks for 26’ onwards.
Regardless storm & Penrith don’t treat their best players / legends like this. Even if gutho is busted it’s not a good look.
Either Ryles is right and will look like a genius or he is completely fucking up here and is taking huge risks that not only takes away our two best players of 24’ (RCG & gutho), but could cause major cultural rifts inside the team. This is all HUGE risk taking for a rookie coach…
I don’t mind gutho leaving in 26’ if it’s a money issue.. just don’t screw us over in the time being. We can’t risk him possibly asking to leave early and we are stuck with rookie fullbacks. Unless he has another plan up his sleeve. Interested to see what happens here..!
Sorry muz and Ron while I respect your options Sloan is a big no from me .Yes he’s fast but defense is shocking. I don’t watch much of other teams mainly reading. And I truly don’t get the negativity with gutho. The main thing I’m concerned about is gutho tests the market and say st George off big for 26 how do we make an offer if want to look for 25 .unless something has been mentioned. To be honest I’d be amazed if left. You see with roosters and Melbourne taking less surely 3rd party involved why not us ?
Agree tanky- The defence aspect is certainly a worry with Sloan. He was putrid at getting his body I frotn and cleaning up grabbers this year. I guess the question is whether ryles backs himself to improve that aspect while honing sloans natural speed and talent. It’s a big risk to let gutho go no doubt about it.
To be honest I wouldn’t let gutho go until 26 even if he signs with dragons tomorrow. We need him for next year and he will put in regardless of if he signs with another team for 26.
Fellas, if gutho gets the shits, gets a god offer for 25’ and early release. We are facing a huge risk. Jason is a rookie coach and my first gut feeling / observation was weeks ago that Jason might underestimate how crucial gutho is to our side. If Clint leaves us, it’s stupid. We have a rookie fullback coming and Zac Lomax who isn’t a seasoned fullback. To prove how important gutho is, even banged up, slow, with broken ribs and torn quad, he is still our best player, I’ll be very shocked to see if gutho leaves us because this could spell suicide for our 25’. The rookie won’t hold up at fullback all year, and the teams record WOTHOUT gutherson is near diabolical. Let’s hope Jason & co know something we don’t. Maybe Sua Fa’Alago because if paps extends he can leave?
Regardless Wayne Bennet or Bellemy would not remove the clubs best player and leader and think nothing will come with it. This is a huge risk here by Ryles, especially if gutho wants to leave early. 26’ I’m ok on.. but not 25’ in which dragoons apparently want him to leave early? 😪
Tanky I agree solana defence is shocking I mentioned I think he is 2-3 seasons away from being sufficient in D possibly.
And I do not think Sloan would be our best bet as fullback if ioingi can prove to better defensively. Just throwing it out there that kid has raw X factor, talent & speed. He tore the storm up down there a few months back, he is unbelievable when given good ball in space. But the kids a “work in progress” definitely mate lol.
Can we please stop talking about another wooden spoon.
We will be top eight 2025
Are you Marty Fagan who played with Pricey and Parra in the late 70’s ? Can only assume that Gutho’s attachment to Arthur is the reason he’s on the outer. Along with Hindmarsh and of course Pricey he’s one of our great effort players but don’t worry we’ve still got blokes like Shaun Lane to carry the load.
And came through Fairfield Pats/Fairfield City? The Fagan name was well known.
Sixties. Might be time for another Bumpers up. It was looming as a distinct possibility. But it hit me like a brick to the head when I read.
Big kahoonas JR.
To be totally honest we and most teams in the NRL are miles and miles away from challenging the Panthers, Storm and Roosters.
One of these teams will win the competition next year and the year after…
We have so much to catch up and I personally believe that our roster has been criminally neglected for years.
I have to give it to Ryles. He’s made a stand and decided to take a scalpel to the roster and I’m 100% behind him.
Gutho has been a wonderful servant to our club but his body is in pieces.
He’s a lot like Tedesco at the Roosters where his best days are truly behind him.
If Gutho was willing to stay for 500k I’m sure the Eels would be all over it but they are not going to pay 950k for a no 14.
If he can get big money at St George, he well and truly deserves it.
Agree spark we probably won’t win any time soon considering how far ahead the riff & storm are. And roosters may decline next year with teddy a year older, and losing several key players now after this season.
He has made a stand.. will it be the right choice for 25’? I mean, if gutho seeks early release, and we get stuck with 1 rookie FB, we will have to wait & see. Gutho & RCG seemed unhappy after Ryles signed & rumours starting circulating. If he can honestly get big coin at St George for his family? Then I’ll support him, and good for him like you said. I’m a huge gutho fan, but it truly looks like this era is coming to an end. Ba didn’t make enough tough decisions earlier, he left us with a ageing roster, huge money locked up in older players. Ryles is forced now to make tough choices. I still think we suffer in 25’ with a rookie fullback taking his spot if Clint leaves us early.
Agree there Spark. Gutho has been a talisman for the club. Always tries hard. On occasions too hard. Gutho is a Parra great and will be remembered as such.
However, $950k is ridiculous for Gutho and Paulo on around that. The club was stitched up badly. BA and MON need to take ownership of that.
Gutho said he would do what the team needs. Sounds like that may no longer be the case. Ryles has been open and honest with Gutho and has met with Ayoub and himself twice.
Gutho/Ayoub have always dragged contracts into the media. Holding the club to ransom. Notice we never had backups in key positions come contract time….
Ryles- he’s been left with NO room in the cap. And has been forced to play Tetras to create
room to fit in some depth in key positions.
I applaud Ryles stance and honesty. He’s putting the club first. He wants to win.
Gutho also wants to win. I don’t think going to Dragons is any quicker to a title. Ayoub is milking this for all he can. Just like last time. He’s happy to besmirch Gutho for a few extra dollars. Gutho is happy to allow it just like last time. This is an example of why we haven’t won anything in years. When your captain on overs is content on throwing his toys out of the cot to get what he wants.
Gutho a great player but not the leader we need. If he goes he goes. Remember Wally got moved on from Broncos. Now might be the time for Gutho to realise the grass isn’t as green as Ayoub says it is..
True Pete.. gutho always let’s his manager do this in the media and causes a shit fight to get more $$
If he was against it he could tell his manager to keep quiet.
While I’m against gutho fully leaving for next season if it happens. Like you said him AND Paulo on nearly a million each is suicide for our club.
It’s absolutely shocking roster management from BA & co and to have players that old and past their best taking much cap space is absolutely shocking roster management.
It looks like we become a boys club. Unfortunately Jason’s taking over the mess and having to make the toughest decisions – next year might be messy as we rebuild EG if we are stuck with a rookie fullback and losing potentially our leader.
Yeah Muz, I still remember last Gutho contract and how badly it was handled. The fact we never had a back up fullback made sure Gutho could name his price and he did.
It was clear someone was playing favourites and rewarded loyalty with huge lengthy contracts at the expense of depth in key positions. A boys club for the inner circle.
Gutho said he’ll do whatever the team needs. If he goes against that he’ll be exposed.
A true leader or captain handles this in the quiet.
Pete dragons might be all bark little bite too with gutho. They couldn’t offer RCG what he wanted, and if they see eels don’t want gutho more or less they’ll try to low ball probably as you would expect. No clubs are going to offer him 950k. If we are begging honest – is he worth 650k a season for 25-27? It’s questionable. The tigers, Dragons, etc.. their X factor players are their fullbacks. I can’t see gutho being more valuable to those teams in terms of scoring tries for them. I’m willing to bet dragons do not offer him much, he will be a mentor to Sloan, he will not be the full time fullback and Sloan gets thrown to nsw cup full time. They’ll risk losing their clubs best fullback talent long term. While I’m nervous – this might be a good play here by the eels. Guthos aged, banged up, and he might not get offers from other clubs that his dirt bag manager will fish for. He is a ultra high risk for clubs at this age
I love Gutho. He has given his all for this club. Playing the last few weeks of the season injured. Getting needles just to take the field. He’ll always be one of my favourite Eels players. In saying that, his body isn’t what it used to be. He gets up grimacing in pain more often than not. I was all for the change in position for him in ‘25. But if he can get one final ‘earn’ before he calls it a day, I’d be happy for him to leave early. It’s clear the team under Ryles is going in a completely different direction. I’m excited to see what it brings. A few more signings in coming weeks, less injuries next year….. we’ll be ok. By the way, the podcast didn’t come up on my Apple Podcasts for some reason. I listened to it on sound cloud.