Yesterday I titled my training report “The Learning Curve”. It wasn’t an attention grabbing, “clickbait” headline, but on reflection it perfectly described these early days of the preseason.
Here’s why.
For the players it’s self-explanatory as they are a very young group and mostly Eels pathways fellas.
The coaches are also learning. On a lighter note, I reported on what Sam Moa (defence coach) told me that he has quickly discovered about Eels fans. If you haven’t read the post as yet, you can catch up here.
Most importantly, the coaching staff are getting a long look at these young players away from the established stars. They’ve probably looked at the videos, or spoken to pathways staff about them. Nathan Brown would also be familiar with many of them. But this is the ideal time to see what skills they possess or if they have any deficiencies that might need to be addressed. Please note, I’m continuing to add Eels media photos of the players in this group so that readers can become more familiar with them.
Dom Farrugia
And here’s something else that I’m reporting for the first time. All of the Eels pathways coaches have been in attendance this week.
Harold Matts coach Josh Hodgson, SG Ball coach Mitchell Lewis, and Flegg coach Jordan Rankin have spent time watching Ryles and his staff put the players through their paces and listened to the messaging that’s been delivered.
This not only assists their professional development as coaches, but it also builds the links through the Eels grades and carries the goals, philosophies and culture too. The pathways coaches can ensure that there are players emerging from their teams who have been exposed to the brand of footy that Ryles wants his NRL team to play.
Brock Parker
Linking NRL coaches to pathways teams isn’t something that’s new at Parramatta. The JETS program has long done that, and Arthur and his staff were involved in pathways preseasons. However, it’s terrific to see the pathways coaches involved from day one with Jason Ryles.
It was a big Friday at Kellyville to wrap up the week and the focus was on defence.
After the warm ups and some work on ball movement, it was all about stopping the opponent.
Beginning with a drill that had the players practising A and B defender positioning and movement, they then moved to other stations where the emphasis continued to be the movement into defence line position along with decision making.
Jezaiah Funa-Iuta
For the first time this week, extended games of modified touch footy were then played.
Whilst there was plenty of entertainment value watching the attack in the games (there are players blessed with pace in this group), the demands and focus seemed to be placed on the defending team.
In one of the games, defenders were taken out early in the count in a way that simulated a kick chase. In another game, an element was introduced that made the entire line work harder.
I’ve watched countless versions of touch footy games that are modified to make the work of the defence harder, but these games today had minor variations that I hadn’t seen before.
What caught my eye was the pace of the ball movement, which of course added even more demand on the defence.
Friday done! Week one done!
So you’re possibly thinking that this touch footy stuff does nothing to improve the defence of a team that struggled to make their tackles in 2024.
Firstly, the speed of the defence line movement, the positioning of individual defenders, and importantly their decision making, are all critical foundations that the coaches are immediately addressing.
And the defence work today wasn’t limited to touch.
Part way through the session the squad left the field to don jerseys. It was time for tackle technique.
It was during this part of the morning that a visitor dropped in to watch the young fellas train. There might be some Eels media around this so I’ll say no more for now.
Through a scaffolded sequence of drills the players moved from the hit component, to the stick component, to the hit and stick, to the hit, stick and drive.
Will Latu
The drill became physically demanding as individual players were asked to repeat tackle after tackle on attackers that came from different angles. The task really hyped up as the squad gathered around their team mates yelling encouragement.
From there the players paired up to battle it out in a contest to win dominance on the ground. You could call it the wrestle but I’m not fond of that term. What I saw was players learning to be “legally dominant” in winning a tackle.
Finally, the formalised part of the session wrapped up with a variation of what I’ve previously referred to as Malcolms. It’s a conditioning drill to assist defence demands by getting players to run, then drop to the ground, before running again.
After the session, a number of the Eels Development Contract players were due to head to the NRL rookie camp.
Held every year, it’s an induction camp that typically involves former players and experts who deliver presentations or workshops designed to assist off-field decision-making, behaviour and performance.
It also covers social responsibility around things like alcohol, drugs, gambling, respectful relationships, cultural awareness, mental health, social media, finance and concussion awareness.
Week one done.
Eels forever!
Sixties
It would have to help development having the pathways coaches watching the training. Building consistency across the coaching and approaches. All great development of culture. Thanks for the updates.
Brock Parker looks a fair sized lump. Like a young Mark Carroll. Let’s hope he’s half as hard. Consistent effort in your defence, that’s where the dominance comes from.
Brock has been a very consistent performer throughout the grades. A full preseason will be highly beneficial.
Yes it does Martin and thanks for reading the posts.
Love the emphasis on defence finally. Massively excited for change and the year ahead. Can’t wait. Get the D right and everything follows.
Thanks for the updates.
Go Parra!
Spike, defence has never been ignored but there’s aspects of it that are under the microscope. Btw, the downtown rule really hit the Eels hard in our game plans. The Eels played off Moses long kick with our big forwards getting a bit of a head start on the chase and setting a good line to keep the opposition in their own end. Downtown stopped that.
Very good post thanks a lot sixties. Do you think R Penisini or any other cup players look potentially developed enough to make nrl debuts this year if there’s injuries? I can remember AMS’s debut. I wonder if the others will be close to the level Arty was at when B.a gave him his club debut. I recall you mentioning he is possibly the fastest player at the eels.
Artie is very fast. I’d prefer to see the young players in action at training against the NRL boys to even start to make judgement calls on where they’re at. Remember Richie and Artie just missed an entire season
Thanks Sixties, with a change in coaching staff and player personnel, these updates are much more appreciated.
Thanks Charlo. Appreciate you reading them
Your notes on training have been fascinating and invaluable. I’d never heard of some of these young men. The most exciting time for a club is when new talent is forcing its way into the NRL. Good luck to them!
Any sign of Nathan Cayless at training? He’ll have most of these young blokes at his disposal so he’s key to our developmet process. It seems to me that Cup sides these last cpuple of years have got zway to poor starts only to come rattling home when the season was gone. That wpuld be a very good habit to break.
That visitor to training – very fast dark bloke, was he?
I believe Cayless is with the NZ camp for the pac championships play off either the Kumuls.
Might be wrong, though.
Yeah, hasn’t been at Kellyville as yet.
Cheers Noel. No it wasn’t who you think
Thanks Sixties. As well as the Informative reports, truly appreciate the photos of the young players.
Thanks Noel. Eels media has good photos so I think naming the players with the photos here can be helpful
Great content as always and thank you very much for the names on the photos! The Eels FB page doesn’t even do that, don’t know why they don’t, it helps build player profiles and recognition with fans I feel.
Keep up the great work and the content team.
You’re welcome Mike
Sixties, are there any glaring differences in how Ryles is running preseason so far compared to what you’ve experienced during the BA years?
Grunta, I don’t think that there’s any basis for that type of comparison as yet, because it’s only been this group of younger players so far. That’s happened before but it’s not really something easy to compare. Maybe the only comparison is that this younger group with Ryles focussed solely on skills work in their first week on the field and had five days of that on the field. The conditioning has been left for when the senior players join.