NRL Team List
Round 1, Sunday 4:05PM, AAMI Park
Round 1 is finally upon us and we already have Team List Tuesday drama with Mitchell Moses ruled out of Sunday’s blockbuster season opener against the Melbourne Storm. It is a cruel blow for coach Jason Ryles as he looks to break Craig Bellamy’s formidable Round 1 streak in Melbourne this week. We knew the Eels were going to be without Josh Addo-Carr (Suspension) and Bailey Simonsson (ACL recovery) but the loss of Moses puts Parramatta at a huge disadvantage this week. Throw in the absences of Gideon Kautoga, Dean Hawkins and Luca Moretti and the Eels are suddenly very far from full-strength to start the season.
The task is now truly herculean but there are still reasons to be excited. Ronald Volkman will partner Dylan Brown in the halves as Parramatta’s investment in better halves depth gets an early test. Ryley Smith, off the back of a freshly minted new contract, will make his NRL debut from the bench as he works in tandem with Brendan Hands. It caps a meteroic rise for one of the standout performers in the preseason and it a deserved reward.
Jack Williams’ versatility is called upon as he switches to the backrow this week after impressing at prop against the Tigers in the final NRL trial. Jake Tago gets the first opportunity to fill in for Addo-Carr and will have the unenviable task of marking up against Xavier Coates.
Ryan Matterson, Matt Doorey and Charlie Guymer round out the bench rotation while a number of preseason movers and shakers feature in the extended team list as Joash Papalii, Jordan Samrani, Toni Mataele and Sam Tuivaiti keep themselves in the picture for a NRL debut down the line.
Melbourne are close enough to full strength so as not to matter. Ryan Papenhuyzen has overcome fitness concerns to don his customary #1 while star recruit Stefano Utoikamanu starts in the #8. The Storm were already considerable favourites coming into this contest and with Parramatta’s updated list of injured players they will now be damn near unbackable with the bookies. Even so, I am just keen to watch some footy and cling to the hope against hope that our boys could engineer an almighty upset on Sunday!
| Parramatta Eels | Melbourne Storm | |
| Isaiah Iongi | 1 | Ryan Papenhuyzen |
| Sean Russell | 2 | Will Warbrick |
| Will Penisini | 3 | Jack Howarth |
| Zac Lomax | 4 | Nick Meaney |
| Jake Tago | 5 | Xavier Coates |
| Dylan Brown | 6 | Cameron Munster |
| Ronald Volkman | 7 | Jahrome Hughes |
| Joe Ofahengaue | 8 | Stefano Utoikamanu |
| Brendan Hands | 9 | Harry Grant © |
| Junior Paulo © | 10 | Josh King |
| Jack Williams | 11 | Shawn Blore |
| Kelma Tuilagi | 12 | Eliesa Katoa |
| J’maine Hopgood | 13 | Trent Loiero |
| Interchange | ||
| Ryley Smith | 14 | Tyran Wishart |
| Matt Doorey | 15 | Alec MacDonald |
| Ryan Matterson | 16 | Tui Kamikamica |
| Charlie Guymer | 17 | Lazarus Vaalepu |
| Reserves | ||
| Joash Papalii | 18 | Grant Anderson |
| Jordan Samrani | 19 | Bronson Garlick |
| Toni Mataele | 20 | Joe Chan |
| Sam Tuivaiti | 21 | Sualauvi Faalogo |
| Joey Lussick | 22 | Kane Bradley |
Injury Report
TBA
Jersey Flegg Team List
Round 1, 1:00PM Saturday, Hammondville Oval
TBA
Well, JR has gone down in my estimation. Matt Doorey. That’ll do me.
Yes and Brett Allen knows more than a NRL head coach who’s been a defensive winning premiership coach. And coached under 2 grand final winning coaches and a Rugby World cup coaching team
Go brett Allan
wat a fatuous comment. you totally undermine the knowledge base of a lot of fans.
as an example , ive played footy including 1000s of hours of touch. most weeks
i wld watch 16 games thats 8 nrl games and then watch more carefully each one again, most weeks i wld watch 10 hrs of fox nrl commentary , read everything i can in the papers, read sixties 40 20 and all the others on this site. not to mention super league and rep footy and a lot of rugby. im 57 and this devotion began wen i was 7. although not untill i was in my teens did i do the reading and stuff. this has been augmented with having serious one on one discussions with nrl players coaches , media. i guess wat im saying is like many fans ive studied the game to an extent i could of earned 4 phds . im still not stupid enuff that i think i have the skills or knowledge base by a country mile to rival even an untested jason ryles. however to come down on brett allan for sharing an opinion on a player who after all has not set the world on fire, lets hope he does. if you run the rule that a fan cant express opinion of a coaches selection then you are undervaluing a fan after all its our opinions that are the life blood of the game. i also note that you yourself are very forthcoming with opinons. have a good day and get real lol
If anything this shows you need something else in your life I watch some footy all the eels games but the other games if I feel like it i coach kids on the weekend you can have to much footy.
Doory has jumped a head of Cartwright and is getting his chance due to options being limited
Lane and Kautoga are probably higher up the chain then Doory Lucas would possibly make the bench with Williams on a edge but this is how it is
now that you raise it , then maybe i need other things . but the point i tryed to make was that a lot of fans have a lot of knowledge and we shld be able to share opinion without someone saying that your ideas dont matter. wayne bennett wouldnt agree with me because he once said to his players if they listened to the fans to much then they would end up sitting with them in the stands, lol
Coming from the man who attacked BA relentlessly that’s hilarious. BA had the same level of experience. You’re nothing but a sad miserable excuse of a human chief
Am I looking at this wrongly? I believed Volkman, and Samrani, were on T & T contracts and therefore not able to play until round 11.
Maybe Samrani is able to be “named”, and as such, gain the Melbourne experience.
I believe we must have used our 2nd last top 30 spot here somehow.
Can anyone shed any light on this please?
Dean Hawkins would be the direct T30 replacement for either Moses or Brown and I believe he is also unavailable this week. This paved the way for an exemption to play Volkman.
Thanks mate. It does sound reasonable now you have explained it.
Hi mate, just a comment on Mitch, foot injuries are horrible to heal because of blood circulation issues. I had stress fractures in my feet that would not properly heal, after 18 months of pain so bad that i could hardly walk let alone run i was was given a tip to take ginko biloba for periferal circulation, blood flow is essential for healing. I was advised liquid suppliment drops was best, desperate for relief i tried it and in a relatively short time my fractures healed and i never had that issue again, can you send Mitch this tip.
While there are several disappointments through injury we are incredibly fortunate to have Ronald Volkmann as third. choice Number Seven. Will he be upgraded or is he still Train and Trial.? How long will Mitch be out, having played, what, eight games last year?
is moretti injured. i thought doorey was good in last trial if you take out a mistake or two
Oh come on Footy Gods, give us an effing break!
Foot soreness, what even is that? Mitch sustained that injury almost a year ago. He’s since won an Origin series and the Pacific Nations. He’s has a whole offseason to rehab and he out round 1. I know it’s not his fault, l need to vent somewhere.
And Melbourne are near full strength, just great.
Free shot at the stumps, yeah right, suddenly the stumps have turned into toothpicks 100 meters away.
Haha, fair call Joseph.
Joseph Moses rehabed a biceps injury. The foot came on in training
I feel like Cody Rhodes right now!
Cody rhodes should have gave his soul to the the final boss. It was his only chance to become the greatest of all time. Now Cena is going to whip his ….
Happy with the selection of Ryley-Smith. Not much else to be excited about.
The Storm reserves 18-21, who won’t play in all likelihood, would all start for the Eels… That might be a marker of where we are at.
Well they are nearly full strength and we have about 7 out.
Chan, Garlic and Anderson are not getting anywhere near our best starting 13.
I acknowledge we have a few outs but Anderson is better than Tago and Russell combined.
Many non -eels fans would argue Garlic better than Hands and Joe Chan I would take over Tuilagi in a heart beat. Faalogo obviously is better at this stage than Iongi. And if we wanted to stretch it out to the starting 17, give me Sweeney over Doorey every day and twice on Sunday.
We can hope for the best, look forward to hopefully getting back to full strength and dream for the youngest era with potential that we have left, come through, but at the end of the day the squad has been decimated by mis management that is going to take years to rebuild.
should i be putting some polish on the old boots, i wish , my dream to play a game for parra
Gee that is an ordinary looking team. Could be a soul destroying start to the season with 50+ looking possible.
If Moses foot is not good now I can’t see him playing many games this season. Such a pity was feeling hopeful but sadly now I feel like it’s going to be a long season. So many sides have improved their roster it will be a very tough year.
But at least we have the Parramatta motto to rely on. ‘There’s always next year.’ God I hope I”m wrong.
i wonder if Mitch rushing back to play kangeroos etc last year played a factor in this foot seemingly being compromised or if it’s just ongoing inflammation due to the metal or whatever they put into his foot in the operation.
I count at least 7 players not available, seems crazy for round 1. What’s wrong with Moretti? And why is Ryles off Cartwright? He was probably our second best forward behind Joffa last year, but got the impression from your preseason training reports he wasn’t in Ryles’ plans and that’s turned out to be the case. Why?
Time for the upset of the season!
What’s with all the doom and gloom.
We are equal 3rd in the comp and haven’t lost a game!
Go Parra!
I think the latest Mitch injury will help Dyl stay. The Eels will probably realise they have to offer him more now as Mitch is such a liability at club level with injuries they can’t afford to have no Dyl and no Mitch in 2026
So if Dylbro doesn’t step up and goes missing like he did in Moses’ absence last year, do we offer him less?
He has never earn his current salary.
Brown was not crap at all when Moses was out the eels as a whole were crap.
Brown actually played well he was always breaking the line and no one would support him. He is just not a game manager like Moses is but god help us if we do not have his running game and defensive game. If Volkman can organise things Brown can be very good, hopefully like the Newcastle trial.
I agree Tony
Agree, Dylan gets rough treatment I think.
Let’s remember where Mitch Moses was as a player at age 24.
Volkman went well with Brown on the park, but big step up in class here, and Moses’ kicking game is hard to replace. Winning can still occur with good defensive resolve and high completions. I read that article where coaches, supposedly, don’t sweat the completions stats, I reckon there’s a big footnote to that thinking as the stats being discussed were each team’s annual completion average, there was no mention of,say, the losing team’s completions stats for each game each week. Completions matter.
I’ll be at the game. With Moses out I don’t expect a win. What will make me walk away happy is strong defensive resolve and commitment to the team. The absence of Moses shouldn’t affect either of those. Looking forward to seeing the new boys in the mighty Parra colours. Last time I was in Melbourne for an Eels game there were a lot of Parra jerseys around Flinders St and Federation Square. “Hey bro” was the kind of greeting I got. Incidentally, we won that game. A win this time will rate like the 8th wonder of the modern world. Go Eels.
I think it will be close. Parra have a small advantage this time around. No Klien or Sutton. That brings us back thirteen each on the field. Enjoy the game!!
Thanks, Zero. It will be good, no matter what. Seeing an old pal etc.
Bit surprised by the team. I’d be interested to see how many of those that may have been considered were injured.
Doorey/Tuilagi defensive lapses worry me.
However, my main concern is Alfred hovering over my home suburb. Hopefully power will be on for Sunday so I can watch.
This is a side that looks a lot stronger than most of last years line ups.
Why is there so much doom and gloom online?
Jnr will give his all for us this game, Joffa has been a gun forward for us last year, Matto & Guymer will give 100% off the bench, Ryley S will inject intensity and uplift the tempo, Zac Lomax and will P are extremely dialled in and focused to prove themselves this season.
I think regardless of if we win or not, the boys are going to make us proud and if we play close to what we did in pre season game 1 it should be a very entertaining game.
People are sleeping on our forward pack and roster here. We’ve got speed l, fitness and agility. This is a much stronger side than last year, Volkman is also an upgrade from asi at half back.
Read my reply to McFersie. We are in with a big chance. Storm are fighting against the odds. They have to lose first up sometime.
Agree.
I’m still worried about the Lomax / Tago combination in defence, but our forwards are keen and fit and we have plenty of speed.
Moses greatest asset in general play is a long, reliable kicking game and he may be the fastest halfback in the competition.
You can’t replace that so Ryles will need a different game plan.
If we don’t get up, it’s better to lose with an under strength team, than to lose because Moses didn’t take the goal from 10 out, straight in front like 23.
The only bad result here is a game like Darwin last year.
As some have mentioned it’s not all doom and gloom- we have a back up half and he has to lead the troops with DB. Easier said than done I know but they can start by defending better and complete sets. Simple stuff and build combinations etc.
Our concern will be if MM is out long term. But for now it’s week to week.
I honestly still don’t mind the team list, it’s still pretty strong. It’s just bad luck we’re facing the storm of all teams which might not be enough.
I respect people want to be hopeful and glass half full.
For me. Iongi – Looks like he could be a real talent. But he has played more pre season games than NRL games, so obviously still has a long way to go. Our wingers (granted they are back ups), are poor. All three are relative light weights, so our start to sets are, in all likelihood, going to really struggle to make any yards against the Storm defence. It will be left to Lomax and Penisini to get back early and often to do a lot of the heavy lifting.
Brown has all the talent in the world, but we are 2 years removed from him showing us his best and doing it consistently. Volkman will try and is an upgrade on Asi as a back up, but he is a reserve grade half back at the end of the day. He looked good against the Knights… but it was the Knights in pre-season.
The pack. Hopgood might be short a run – hopefully he comes back well. Tuilagi was pretty ordinary in the pre season and can be a liability in defence (laterally). Williams. Certainly an upgrade on Lane in terms of tough runs and effort plays, but his strength is his strength, not his line running. Joe O was among our best last year, but that spoke as much to how poor the rest of the pack were (minus RCG), and Junior has moments, but his best is probably in the rearview mirror. Hands. He’s a fit guy, and better than Joey Lussick – but so are half the people at your local Anytime Fitness.
The bench. Guiymer is a real trier – here’s hoping he can stay on the field and develop. Ryler Smith, i like giving him game time. He looks like a potential long term answer to hooker, Doorey shouldn’t be in our top 30, much less our top 17 and Matto. Well, I think it is an optimist if one thinks we will see 2022 Matterson. Between attitude and injury, it might be done for Matto.
Chin up Sports it could be a lot worse, Shaun Lane could have declared himself available. I’m keen to see how Volkman and Brown go against top class opposition. There the two who will run our plays.