The Tip Sheet is also available on Spotify and iTunes!
The calendar has rolled over to December but it has proven to be a relatively quiet week in the NRL. Still, the Eels have shored up their roster by way of a 1-year extension for Kelma Tuilagi so Sixties, Forty20 and Clint dive into the retention as Jason Ryles reinvests in the current roster once again.
The Tip Sheet looks at the latest from training, including a hugely successful open session at Fairfield. Mitchell Moses has returned early from his representative run with the Kangaroos as the Eels near full strength in the preseason.
Tamika Upton’s return to the Broncos has changed the landscape in the NRLW. Newcastle are looking at battler status while the Broncos now look like premiership favourites. Shane Flanagan makes another move in the player market with the nifty pickup of Daniel Atkinson for 2026 while the Titans face losing a talented young prop over missed bonuses.
Another great episode, thank you gents.
Brailey would be the icing on the cake and would just about complete possibly one of best roster turn arounds I’ve seen in the salary cap era from the Eels.
Our NSW cup team will be hard to beat with most players capable of playing in the top grade. Our cup squad will be a nice mix of players with some NRL experience and youngsters on the rise.
Super happy to have Gasnier in our coaching squad, he was one of my favourite non Eels players. I too remember him being sympathetic towards the Eels during his commentary days.
Also agree with your thoughts on Daley, I’m suddenly less confident, a great player in his day but like Forty said, I can only think of him as the TAB man these days and too far removed from the game itself.
My book title if it was given to me by my wife would be “101 ways to avoid the in-laws” or “1000 ways to piss off your mother in-law”
Did he invent the SOO selection strategy that the 6 & 7 must come from the same club?
Maybe John
Agree. Great podcast fellas. And Dailey is a bit 😅. Let’s just say I’m not optimistic. Madge did an incredible job, slater will have learned many lessons and now battle hardened. Big shoes to fill as nsw coach but hopefully our nsw roster strength and 24’ series experience can benefit them
Thanks Muz. By the way, what’s the Muz book title?
It has been a very positive turn around in recruitment Joseph. Looking forward to an upcoming chat with Buckets.
That book title mate – classic!
I must admit Sixties, this time last year I wanted Buckets punted, now I want to hug him.
And yeah, I’m looking forward to hearing the podcast.
Ďo you guys think young will latu a chance off top grade this year,
Ken, he’s one of my players to watch in 2025. Not saying he’ll debut, just watch his progress.
Come on people – let’s see those book titles in the replies. Joseph’s was a classic.
Awesome to see Volkman has officially signed with us. We know have legit quality depth in both 5/8 and halfback positions. Asi was good at times last year, but I think with some eels NRL & cup game time experience they’ll be even better. Can anyone correct me if I’m wrong, but from games I saw in the past Volkman was one of the best 5/8’s in NSW cup I saw play a year or so ago. Him and Dean Hawkins are possibly the best NSW cup halves pairing we will have had in oud cup squad for many years? Exciting recruitment. Great long term thinking. This will truly pay off long term, but short term won’t be a “magic bullet” so to speak… so some fans will have to practice patience for the new coaching staff and recruits until it all gels.
Sixties you got into it on the podcast but I wanted you to drill further.. how good is the kid papali’i? As in raw young talent. You’ve seen him at training. My impression even before joining us is he is an elite talent but raw. Can you provide further detail to how talented or potentially ready he is to fill in some potential roles for 25’?
I know you don’t want to hype him. But I’m curious to hear what you say about just how he looks training with NRL players. We’ve all seen him tear it up at lower grades. Im interested to hear if you think it could possibly translate to him breaking ankles and making line breaks at NRL level or if he needs another year at cup before potentially offering that level of game breaking ability against snr players? I’ve Only seen him play against kids more or less.
Book title “A life well lived, the rise and further rise of Hamsammich”
Great pod as always fellas. I wasn’t able to make the open training session but it’s really great to hear that the players took the time to interact with the fans. I hope this translates to post-game interaction with the whole team coming across to the fans and we don’t see a certain person going onto the field to remove the few players who do spend their time with the fans after the match.
On the training, I mentioned it in the training blog and after listening to the pod 40 brought it up too but I believe we’ll see Papali’i start the year in the backs. The talk has been he’s small but from what I’ve seen he’s a bit short but is quite stocky with great footwork. As we’ve seen with some of the modern wingers is that with the right attitude and late footwork before contact you can make more metres than a bigger/taller winger.
With the signing of Volkman this may be the best back-up spine we’ve had in a long time. With the other signings the club has made recently I expect better seasons from both reserve grade and by extension Jersey Flegg. Both grades should be aiming for and are capable of playing finals footy in 2025.
The one thing about daley being origin coach, I believe he was the coach who brought in the “club combination” ethos where we saw better players disregarded for these club combinations. I wonder how this affects Moses’ origin chances, despite being a much better rep player I believe they’ll go with cleary and build the team around him. This may help us as we get to keep Moses for regular season and we play the panthers post-Origin twice.
Finally on Fatty, after hearing of his official retirement I watched the highlights of the footy show up to 2004. Incredibly funny viewing. What was so great about it was that the panel weren’t afraid to be the butt of the joke. And they weren’t reliant on the same tired joke that the MJS suffers for.
Actual book title “Up himself: the self inflicted misadventures of a narcissist”
Hams the talk I heard is papali’i is very good but might just need time to deal with the defensive loads due to the huge step up in regards to the physicality of moving up to first grade.
Like you I personally would like to see him in there next year! The kid has slick foot work and legit X factor and agility to the likes I haven’t seen any parramatta player have in the nrl team in a very, very long time. Under ba he rated size & power. Even for wingers. We rarely got line breaks and relied on props bashing the middle because our backs always had a speed & talent disadvantage.
We won’t have the most deadly forward back of meter eating wingers in the comp. So we can’t rely solely on middle dominance to win games anymore – what I want to see is young players like Iongi & papali’i getting the chance to burn up opponents up the middle and from kick returns! This would be an exciting brand on footy from parramatta. We get lots of offloads, a few young speedsters could help turn those offloads into long range tries.
Ham – great bookending with your post. After reading the first suggestion I thought “that’s not the brief!”.
As for Papali’i, I see him as either fullback or 14. And 14 might not necessarily be a back up dummy half. It might just be that additional playmaker role that seems to have emerged in the game.
Awsome has he been training in fullback at times sixites? I like that more anyhow as he prefers fullback he has said before papali’i. He just might not be big enough & physical enough yet to defend on our wings or fullback. But hopefully he can continue to build his game at parra 👏
Great podcast as usual!
I thought the training session was fantastic and kudos to the players who spent the last part chatting and taking selfies with the crowd. I was late to the session so only got to see the defensive work and it is fair to say they were not holding back. There is a definite change in culture and the players seem to be relishing in it. I have only heard good things coming from the group.
There is a lot to be excited about in the 2025 season across all of our grades with the influx of new recruits in both male and female comps. My bold prediction is that we play finals footy in all grades including junior pathways.
Sixties, would you be able to provide an update on how the pathways teams are progressing?
Lastly, it is very sad news about Graham, the West Club isn’t going to be the same without him. My condolences go out to Vanda and the family.
Thanks Face – is that the book title?
As for junior reps, the first trials are Saturday week vs Canberra. There are usually two more trials in January. I’ve had plenty of positive comments about how the groups are training. I’ve been pretty busy tracking the NRL preseason so I can’t offer any first hand insights at the moment.
That certainly is my book title. Appreciate the updates.
Cheers!
Hi guys, still working my way through all of this year’s poddies, but I noticed that the current episode still has the same theme/intro.
Is there going to be an update to get new sounds bytes of players that are still at our club lol!