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
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.
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 💪👏
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