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The player market is officially open for business and the Parramatta Eels are flush with funds…so who are the priority targets for 2026? Sixties and Forty20 evaluate the pool of available talent and while there might be a lack of superstar talent at the top of the market, there are plenty of quality players available in the midfield.
What is the latest on Josh Addo-Carr and Ezra Mam and what is happening around the code? The NRL news hones in on disciplinary action and some player transactions as clubs begin to stir past the November 1 deadline.
Australia punched their ticket through to the final of the Pacific Championships and now we await their rival. Will it be Tonga or New Zealand? The show continues its coverage of the international tournament with a full wrap of last week and a look towards the upcoming games on the weekend.
BONUS CONTENT
Sixties was out at the Kellyville headquarters for the Parramatta Eels recently and was able to capture the latest developments for the Centre of Excellence as construction ramps up in earnest and the new home of the Eels begins to come to life!
Hopefully they have a crack at Terrell May (and junior can use his samoan rep influence to land the big fella) also will be good under moa/ryles former props.
Leo Thompson
Mozer or Brailey
Briton Nikora
It would be elite business if we got one of Thompson/may, one of mozer/Brailey and one of nikora/stonestreet/mulitalo. Probably wishful thinking but it’s time the recruitment team righted past wrongs.
That it would Ron
Nikora locked up. Parra need to move efficiently to get deals done. Most teams are scurrying to lock up talent ahead of expansion teams and rivals poaching whereas we have option contracts for our best players – go figure….
I’m sure a couple of the players you referenced would be on a target list
Papenhuyzen,Terrell May,Leo Thompson,Kobe Hetherington,Taylan May,Blake Mozer,Xavier Willison will be my Wish list…Gutherson,Sivo,RCG,Matterson,Lane and Cartwright have left or should be moved on….PARRA4LIFE
I think Willison just extended
Thanks gents for providing the discussion and commentary. The November 1 all in for 2026 is a bit strange. A lot can change in a season and and what seems a need now may not be a need then.
JAC’s situation is interesting. If he joins a Sydney club I wonder if that will create an opportunity to snap up some more backing depth? I’m hoping for a few more surprise player moves over the next few weeks.
I’ve used the metaphor numerous times Shaun – it’s falling dominoes at times like these
There would have to be so much cap space available to sign a may , Brailey addo Carr type players but as a club we are always watching and do very little, I’m not sure if it’s mark O’Neill who drags the chain but with the players we have and a few more players with high level talent there is no reason we can’t make the top 4 next year , take out Penrith and the storm all the other sides are similar in ability and all have holes all through there roster
Interesting times because spots in our roster must be filled before round one
We have years of history of not being able to sign NRL experienced ready level backs who are strong defensively and have speed (besides getting Lomax). I wonder if our luck will change 🤞 The young blokes we signed are good but not enough to fix the worst edge defence in the NRL which we have got.
Recruitment has been disappointing for a few years, it’s now incumbent on the R&R team to make use of the funds available and make signings in time and an improvement to the roster There should be pressure on them to achieve what is expected and necessary.
Let’s see how they use the next few weeks to get the results needed and prove their worth .
Guys I’m gonna throw a rock at a window here potentially and ruffle a few feathers. We have literally the worst edge defence in the nrl. Ado car is a smaller risk than us sucking and not being able to defend tries out wide again. Him outside Say Lomax is a giant upgrade to our edge defence. We load his ass with strict clauses and use his services until our Jnrs continue to get better. 💪
Muz, keep your rock. JAC has a history of trouble with the police going back to covid days. Some people just cannot organize their life to stay trouble free. Let’s wait and see what unfolds – we get involved in a stampede and pay overs. We should be past that!!! If we build it up from the inside and the players we want will come. Sounds like a movie.
Mr Sixties, what is the quickest way to delete duplicate posts other than deleting each word backwards.
Hi mate,
If it’s an entire reply that’s been duplicated I usually delete it myself. Is there one you’re concerned about?
Zero I agree we are way better long term, not always going for the short term fix. But I just feel like coming from a point of weakness as in worst edge defence in comp. I feel like If we lack genuine depth and experience here, hopefully we can sign one more experienced winger so we aren’t skinny there for next season🤞 or I feel like we will be weak out wide again and lose too many games because of it.
Muz, I’d say Sam Moa is the person is fix the Eel’s defense out wide not JAC. As I’ve said elsewhere Ryles is building a culture and I don’t think a player that has shown himself to be above or apart from his team’s culture is a good fit for Parra regardless of ability.
Shaun Sam Moa evidently did a good job with his old team. Their defence went downhill once he left I believe I was reading. No doubt some defence specialists may assist our outside back defence. Just wondering if just sheer speed is what’s also missing. It can make up for a lot.
Muz, I just don’t see us signing JAC. Parra have had the opportunity before and didn’t do it.
How about Mulitalo?
You’d have a conversation about him for certain. If the coin is right, he’d be a good pick up.
Guys Mulitalo would be a great addition. Just wonder what his asking price would be? He would be obviously probably one of the best wingers available.
60’s I know we looked at him previously. But new coaches now? JR also used to coach him. Wonder if that connection could make a difference. I would much prefer a mulitalo or something like that. But even old JAC is miles above anything we offer in the winger department. Just believe We would lose less games with him on the team.
I think Terrell May should be an absolute PRIORITY SIGNING FOR US and LEO THOMPSON as well…..Taylan May could be a welcome addition in 2026 once he sorts out all his off field dramas…has publicly stated he does want to play with his brother….No brainer really…PARRA4LIFE
I’m hoping there’s at least some conversation around him.
I agree with the May brothers, provided Taylan cleans up his act. Terrell being let go is such a mystery, particularly after they just lost JWH and have oodles of cap space in theory. Maybe they are making a big play at a few key spine players soon? The chooks are in need of quality 9 and 6. I think cheese would be a better small ball playing middle. So could see them targeting Robson or Ben Hunt.
To make wise recruitment decisions you’d need to know who comes to market next year as well. So it’s a bit hard to say definitively in that context.
Priority otherwise needs to be a 9 and winger. So Stonestreet, Brailey and Mozer seem to be the other logical ones to chase based on what was said in the podcast.
I think that Brailey is a strong chance of happening.
Zerotackle is reporting similar
Letting Terrell May go was new Roosters GM Mitch Aubusson’s first act, and it was done without Trent Robinson’s input, per Michael Chammas.
Take what you will from that.
Without going over old ground too much.
At least we have a war chest coming into November 1st. Something we haven’t had for a long time.
Normally, we’ve just been like a sitting duck with our players going to market and then out bidding ourselves to retain players on top dollar on long contracts with ratchet clauses and player options.
For those that thought BA should have seen out the season. This is one reason why he shouldn’t have!
Dont get me wrong. We still need a few signings to improve our squad. But at least we are now in the running for elite signings. Not guaranteed and given our history. We would still be a harder sell.
I feel like some good news will soon follow.
Massive change at our club was needed. Jason starting early gage us an advantage to start making moves. We’ve finally starting signing young & fast backs. Was desperately needed.
Yeah Muz,
At least JR is fixing the huge depth issues that have plagued the club. The focus on speed and talent has also been a refreshing change.
Still work to be done. But the wheels are in motion.
Fixing junior pathways and getting quality depth options goes along way to helping club when it comes time to negotiate contracts or resign players. Gives club more leverage. It’s why melrboune are so good. They stockpile talent so the talent they do have knows they aren’t irreplaceable. Cam smith and Brandon smith and Harry grant under him. Paps had nicho hynes and now faalongo. Munster and Hughes have Pezet and now wishart behind them. Penrith have done same by relying on juniors ro fill spots instead of overpaying.
Spot on Ron, that quality depth is no fluke. They keep doing it. We have always been one injury away from disaster with no backups.
Yeah it will be interesting to see. Even if we have teething pains short term with loss of previous Snr players. No doubt long term it will benefit us.
Anyone want a wager on we won’t get any of the top line players off contract?
We’ve changed coaches, but R and R staff are the same are they not?
The best signing we have had in recent years is Lomax. From what I am hearing that was all BA’s doing.
Outside of Lomax our roster is no stronger than last year. I see Williams, Iongi and Papali’i as positive signings but the latter 2 are not NRL experienced yet.
Bearing in mind that we have lost RCG, Gutho, Blaize, Sanders and Arthur. Have I missed anyone?
Hopefully you are wrong on the Fox coming Sixties. It sounds as though it’s closer now that he has met with Ryles. Lomax inside of the Fox that becomes a dangerous left side!
Perhaps the reality of the situations suggests other targets have fallen over and beggars (parra) can’t be choosers. I wouldn’t mind fox. He needs to get his head on straight but I assume any contract is discounted and would have certain conditions and a termination clause re: off-field behaviour. Just a question of does ryles back himself/fox to keep fox on straight and narrow.
Yeah Tony,
JAC if signed will be on a 1 strike and he is out and not paid out.
JR knows him better than we do. The sticking point will be JAC wants $$$. Tigers will also make a play.
It could be a redemption story and you know how much the NRL love a narrative…
If we sign fox on two year deal, it also gives moey alamaddine, Richard penisni et. a year or two to develop fully.
Personally I’d go Tyrone Munro or stone street if possible but fox on the cheap also has appeal
You are right Ron,
It could be instant success with JAC taking Sivo’s spot.
Monroe and Stonestreet are both super fast young and talented.
JAC on a tight leash cheap dollars could be handled by JR I believe. It could allow time for others to develop.
Interesting times ahead.
For anyone thinking fox is a bad idea. Who else have we got or can get? We’ve got years worth of track record of not being able to sign backs. We’ve had Ron Massey cup wingers and Russel as our wingers who’s really a nsw cup player. It’s no coincidence we leak 4 tries a game having only 1 specialist NRL winger on the top 30 roster (lol).
Stonestreet, Tyrone Monroe, good & young. But both likely won’t sign for us. R Mulitalo, huge X factor, Ryan same.. big c factor + speed. Issue?
They probably won’t come to us and we could be stuck with Ron Massey cup wingers again, pounding our firsts into the table again in 25’ for every soft try our wide.
3 alternative solutions?
Instead of going after say Mulitalo for big bucks, go fox for likely a 60% + discount.
Instead of going after say Ryan paps? Who will want say 1 million.
We could go after Will Kennedy for probably 35-40% under what Ryan wants.
Will Kennedy offers superb fullback depth to our roster.
The Fox and will Kennedy offer not too far behind the value Ryan Pap & Mulitalo would offer, for way less $
It cost us 50% less overall – leaving us a war chest for more signings.
I understand we have iongi but that is only 1 nrl fullback (who’s a rookie) – and Papalii yet to make his NRL debut.
Keep in mind fullbacks & half backs get injured each season. We have Hawkins (back up half), but zero NRL standard experienced fullback or wingers.
Will Kennedy has legit speed, and can probably play wing too if needed at a far higher level than any current wingers on our roster at the moment.
Once again: I’m not suggesting Fox + will Kennedy are the best players on the market.
What these are is high value, low cost recruits. That offer high value but will not suck up all our cap space.
Plus easier for us to actually get. Ryan paps & mulitalo probably want to win the comp. For players, they don’t view us as a club where that happens because of our premiership drought.
Imagine Our backs depth with Fox + Kennedy + iongi + Lomax in the top 30. It would be a massive boost for us. We can’t only have 1 nrl fullback with 1 NRL game of experience. To paper thin again fullback depth wise.
We have Ron Massey cup wingers for depth. Russel is not even a nrl standard winger who would get a regular start at other nrl clubs. That’s our only winger. We are not in a position of power to be beggars and choosers. The fox is the only high quality nrl winger parra will have on the books. Lomax does not want to play wing. Russel is a good depth player (IMO). If we want to win the comp, we can’t have reserve grade & Ron Massey cup players out on the wings and expecting this premiership drought to end. I’m not a fan of the fox’s antics. But if we can’t get any elite wingers (we haven’t signed any for years), then why not? I hope Ryles gets him 💪
The Fox would be a great signing Muz, we’ve spent God knows how many seasons lamenting about our lack of speed. JAC is a legitimate flyer, imagine what Brown, Moses and Lomax can do with a ready made rocket waiting to be launched out wide.
We’ll miss Sivo’s strike close to the line but JAC gives up strike from anywhere on the field.
We’ll finally have pace to turn and chase in defence, It won’t be left to just Brown and Moses as our only hopes of shutting down a long range break, JAC and Lomax are more than capable.
Teams like Manly and Canberra will think twice before trying to run around us.
I know JAC can be a tool but he’s liked by most, he won’t create issues with his teammates which is all that matters to me.
As long as he leaves women alone and doesn’t break the law again off the field, then I’m good.
He reminds of Blake Ferguson, he was out there but his teammates loved him.
We need speed, the fastest player in the game is unsigned and ready to play in 2025, what the hell are we waiting for? Get it done Parra.
Would be awesome to see next year, I think if he comes it would be a great addition to the team. It would like you said also save us extra tries. Currently we only have brown & moses who are fast enough to chase down line breaks effectively. Iongi & fox would reduce long range tries scored.
I hope it happens Muz, I’d be over the moon.
Players with JAC’s speed can’t be left with space, his impact will be felt when he’s not touching the ball. Teams were compressing their defence against us very well knowing they had us covered out wide.
Our forwards will greatly benefit, the likes of Cartwright, Tuilagi, Matterson and to an extent, Lane and Hopgood can all run lines and create with the ball.
Damn we’d have a potent back line, the thought of Moses, Brown, Lomax, Iongi and JAC in our backline makes me twitch where I shouldn’t.
Jo our team so far for next year is still severely lacking in the back line. We absolutely need another proper winger signed, or a versatile and experienced back who can actually defend at high levels unlike what we have had at parra for years. Ado car is a proper speed / proper NRL wing option & isnt a reserve grader. We need a proper dummy half. Brailey Is apparently on radar. No NRL clubs would have our dummy halves as their first choice hookers. This is how you gauge the positional depth on your team without being blinded by biases. Same as for backs, will p & Sean would also struggle to solidify positions at other nrl clubs if they play next season like they did this one. Hands is a good hooker combo partner, we saw that when he partnered Hodgson. Will P’ might become a good centre with better team moral & confidence in 2025. Jason Ryles wants to win a premiership as his big chief objective, apparently (and we can see it), has stated he will make any tough decision to get there. This means any players on our roster who cannot defend sufficiently to make us a competitive NRL team will be on the chopping block or shopped off next season. He won’t be given a 10 year stint like BA unless he absolutely delivers, he will get a pass only in 2025. If the eels are not a force to be reckoned with (or improve dramatically) by end of 2026 season with the elite halves combo & roster we have Jason Ryles job will be put under extreme pressure. He (like his two mentors at chooks & melb) won’t tolerate the BS we have for years. If players can’t defend or can’t improve they shop them off early while the asset (player) still holds some value. We’ve seen this with gutho & RCG already as examples. Jason’s mentors may have even advised him in these decisions, and you watch where gutho & RCG likely are in 2 seasons (age & potentially injury wise). It may end up looking like a blessing in disguise. Although the new coach is a rookie, he is a former rep player and worked for a decade under the two coaches who have won the most comps, and constantly make the best roster decisions. Where’s we constantly lose, and make shocking roster decisions, due to favouritism, loyalty, or plain lack of specialised knowledge or experienced compared to these elite clubs coaches & committees who constantly outperform us.
Jason in my view will not even need to be a better coach in most ways, what we needed at parra is smart footy brains who can develop rosters better, make the hard decisions sooner & faster. Ba could coach. What we have always lacked is the footy IQ & recruiting abilities & speed in decision making, in this aspect we always held a disadvantage. Hopefully if Jason can bring 1 thing it’s that he is good at hiring & firing people at the right times. So we do not ever get stuck with 3 + players around 30 on 600k to 1M per season and wondering why we look old & slow, nearly getting wooden spoons. Roster mismanagement is unfortunately a historically reoccurring phenomenon that happens at parramatta. Let’s hope this helps us move into a new direction in regards to long term roster management.
Fellas you got me with the King’s rendition of My Way and the heartfelt comments towards our mate Joe Briffa in this one, shed a few tears in the car on the way home.
With the footy, I still think we need another first grade quality back for next year, in particular a winger. We’ve done well to address the depth issue but if we have an injury in first grade and lose Lomax to origin we will once again be calling upon players that may not be ready. Another first grade quality winger will help us massively.