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Sixties and Forty20 react as the Eels are embarrassed in their home opener by the Wests Tigers in Round 2.
The Tip Sheet – 2025 Ep 20: Instant Reaction – Stumbling, Bumbling Eels End Up Humbled
- TCT Live In Parra Leagues – With Special Guest Dean Widders
- The Spotlight – March 17, 2025: Time For Tough Calls?
Ta NAH! Let me introduce the new red hot favourites
For the wooden spoon
No doubt. We are currently wooden spoon favourites
Errors, and errors and some bad defence; we looked worse than last week in a few areas. Its going to take Ryles time…..and recruitment is key. Round 10 will be interesting to see how we are going
I am a long time eels fan, almost 50 years. I have so many fond memories, including being a shy teenage fan of Sterling and getting his autograph when he sat in the stadium at Belmore nursing a broken leg.
The 80s felt like the start of something, a golden era that would last for decades.
But since Cronin and Price retired that era has never been replicated…
But, here I am, and will always be, an eel for life.
Today, I just feel sad, usually I get angry when we lose, but usually we are in the fight. Now we aren’t even in the fight.
This is a rebuild, a rebuild from the ground up.
Players will buy in to Ryles plan, but not these ones, and that makes me sad.
Favourites for wooden spoon 2025.
The only positive thing is?
Our new recruits and younger plsyers are looking like the only shining lights and at least they aren’t worse than the players we had – it’s successful recruitment
It’s at least one thing showing that’s proven effective (recruiting externally) + giving a few younger players a chance.
A few examples: Jack Williams is possibly our best forward now and looks like the only one that makes line breaks each week. Samrani the same thing. He is better than Tago and possibly Sean Russel. He made line breaks and did his job well for a depth player with 0 nrl games under his belt.
The negative?
It looks like parramatta’s old forwards have largely all regressed. Joffa looked amazing last year and now doesn’t look right. Jnr is (as ba & baz discovered) more of a bench impact middle now and we already saw was evident the last few seasons.
The cup team also looked average against wests and that was with a string of NRL players in it VS a less experienced wests, we should of belted them I thought with Matto, Carty, Kelma, Greg.
What’s really worrying is brads & baz’s old players all look worse so far. Where’s all the new recruits look to be in better from at parra than at their old clubs.
If you look at parra shining lights, best players every week including the trials games, it’s Ryles new recruits who look like our best players now.
Is this a sign the old roster needs a proper clean out? Is this a sign new coach hasn’t really had a positive impact on the older players?
The other thing is the errors. This parra team looks like it’s lost its lost all of its flare and isn’t even confident in passing the ball around without making an error. I think they said it’s the worst defensive start to a season in 20 years.
Whilst I think we need to man our proper starting 17 and to give them a few weeks to gel, we must also consider this team for years hasn’t ever been able to win games without Mitchel Moses or Clint gutherson, this might be partly a mental thing as much as a physical thing.
I have no doubts some of these blokes will come back to life like a bear finishing hibernation, but it might take Mitchel Moses to wake them back up again. I think our players lack belief and I’m 100% certain a lot of them are aware they’ve never won a game playing for parra if Moses or gutho were not there, our “experienced” eels especially the forwards only lift into full form if Mitchel is out there screaming at them (lol),
All fair observations Muz.
Lacking a bit of leadership at the moment. and I can’t see where it is going to come from either.
Maybe Jack Williams could be the answer. There is NO Gutho to rely upon…..
Missing Mitchell Moses ….but not as much as Dylan and Zac are….Ronny V is trying, but he isn’t the answer.
Keep the faith…..things will turn…don’t ever give up….
We won’t be giving up here Pete. But the ineptitude and directionless play was at an all time high yesterday. Right up there with 2018 for poor starts to the season. Potentially worse.
I know that Sixties. I get frustrated watching the games, but I am used to it and take it in stride. Nothing I can do about it.
The kids playing can’t just ‘get experience’. Need to put some more around them. The return of Bailey, JAC, Matterson, Lane, Carty will do wonders to the structure.
Confidence is at an all time low. But one good performance can turn the season around….
DON’T QUIT
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low but the debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is strange with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many failures turn about
When we might have won had we stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow –
You may succeed with another blow.
Success is failure turned inside out –
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
You can never tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –
It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.
2 big things
1 Recruitment, recruitment, recruitment has been a massive failure since 2021 when 6 players advised that they were leaving at the end of 2022. Since then, apart from some signing late last year the recruitment has been poor. The CEO and HOF need to have a good hard look from the board and a decision made on their future.
2. The Roosters had very similar of more inexpensive, but their senior players stood up. Tedesco, Tupou, Townsend, Crichton and Watson led the way and the young guys responded. Our 2 starting experienced props would not have put a dent in a rice pudding with one of them on serious money even for 2026, forwards were poor and the halves provided no service at all. The back 5 did a good job given what was in front of them , answer- nothing today
Pretty much need an alpha male like Gould or even a Shane Richardson running the place, currently we appear poorly led in the front office
Never have I been more disappointed to a start to a season than this year. So far I’ve switched off after 20 mins of the Storm game and yesterday at 22-0 when it looked highly unlikely we’d score any points. I still don’t know the final score. But the biggest disappointment of all is the performance (or lack of it) from the senior players. There is a distinct smell about the place and it has BA written all over it. I’m not suggesting BA has any direct involvement but are the senior players revolting, either subconsciously or otherwise, because BA was sacked? Did BA give them love when all they’re getting from Ryles is tough love? All I can say is that the club needs a good cleanout starting with the senior players.
Where is the leadership from Junior? Where is the mongrel and drive from our starting props, Opa and Junior? They’re providing absolutely no platform for the team. Has Junior even had an offload so far this year? Where is the performance from the other senior forwards? There were a few in the reserves and from all reports they were poor in a beaten team. Have the forwards continued to regress from 2022-23 into this year? And what is the solution?
Atm drastic heart surgery is required, and quickly, as this team appears incapable of winning any games. My thoughts are:
A player swap and offer Junior to St George and get Frank Molo in return. We might have to throw some money into the deal.
Hands is not showing much so go after Mozer from Broncos and try to get him this year. Volkman’s kicking game is poor so bring Hawkins into team at halfback.
Brown has been very disappointing. Offer him to Knights immediately and take one of their good juniors in exchange.
Iongi has shown glimpses of brilliance but generally not providing much punch. The poor performance from the forwards has probably contributed to this. Believe he has played 5/8 in the juniors. Move him to 5/8th and bring Papalii in at fullback.
More changes in the forwards is required. If our juniors are not up for it offer player exchanges to acquire promising forwards from other teams for this year.
Look at how the Raiders and Roosters are performing with generally a young team. Ryles, if he can’t motivate this team, has an experienced coach in Nathan Brown to fall back on. His experience at Storm should have given him clues on motivation. But maybe motivation is not the answer. Perhaps the BA factor is too ingrained to change the result. Maybe a good clean out of the rotting carcases is needed to stop the place stinking up!
The fans booing Dylan all game are deadset morons. What in the world does that achieve?
We had to score one of those first half tries to be any chance. Riley Smith going from dummy half and getting ruled to ruled to have lost the ball when he actually didn’t started the avalanche. They scored 2 tries in the next 5 minutes.
Starford Toa was made to look like Latrell Mitchell out there too. Not sure why he had so much time and space but he just toasted Penisini on half a dozen occasions.
And for the second week in a row (and all last year) every single half break went the way of our opposition.
the Tigers got some very fortunate bounces of the ball and calls too.
Don’t make excuses. Fortune favours the bold and we stink.
Dylan Brown was disgraceful should leave now – the NRL contract sagas destroy clubs and should only be at years end.
Adam, whilst I don’t disagree, we let them progress from stumbling and bumbling their way through the opening 20 minutes or so into a team that took chances and had the bounces and calls go their way. In other words, we gave them confidence on a platter. I dread what the outcome would have been against a competent outfit.
Well it started well.. I had an invite from some old footy mates to the corporate box so at least I saw the carnage in comfort !
Ladies and Gentlemen, what we have is a distinct lack of leadership and I’m glad that the boys touched on it.
The Eels have fallen into the old well worn trap of appointing a ‘good bloke’ as a captain. In fairness,it wasn’t meant that way as Moses was always the captain but we desperately need a forward leader.
Now I watched both Brown and Galvin intently.
Galvin would take a pass and then direct his forwards to double around and he would take the next play. He was in full motion all the time.
Brown would get passed the ball , he would either run it or he would just pass the ball.
This is the difference.. when he passed the ball he would just stop and walk to the next play!
There was no attempt to support the player, no organisation of the next play, no attempt to direct the next ruck.. nothing.
He was always 10 metres behind the play in motion, walking.
I know Sixties that it was like pulling teeth to get you to criticise Brown but he was absolutely rubbish. Lazy and uninterested.
Brown was the hot topic of most of the people in my corporate box and there was some heavy hitters in and around the beers afterwards.
Most agreed that if Hawkins can get on the field, Ryles would be very very tempted to drop Brown to Cup.
And really , would we really be worse off if we sent Brown down and put Hawkins there ?
Sure we may struggle with structures but it’s just not working with Brown who is either unwilling or unable to steer this team around the field.
Poor Newcastle fans must have had a heart attack watching him today.
Newcastle did us a favour. He has been crap since 2022. If management don’t go all out for Galvin they are either blind or stupid.
spark lets be honest from a non eels point of view in theory – not one footy fan I’ve spoken to that knows the game well things Dylan Brown is playing even remotely close to Galvins standard at present
To be fair, if Galvin keeps this up progression wise, he will be one of the games best players inside 4 seasons
Whilst this season might be tough to watch at times, if parra can snag that kid and clean out our roster like bulldogs did
The eels would be in much better hands (long term) I think than if they stayed on brown and didn’t chase Galvin
It looks like all of ba & baz’s old players have regressed, not one of them I can identity has improved, not in any trial match or nrl game yet
Where’s the new recruits and young players all look better this year or at least showing good signs
The fact rookies and new recruits who were not even the top players at their old clubs are showing up all of our experienced NRL players is a big red flag the club needs a big clean out
That? Or they just simply don’t know how to play without Mitchel Moses there to tell them what to do – which isn’t Jason Ryles fault
The teams never really been trained and prepared long term to operate in Mitchel Moses or Guthos absence, so this may be a long learning process for them
As the fellas said we need leadership but also I think we need to stop changing the side around so much or they’ll never settle
The coach may need to shuttle Carty and Matto straight back into this starting 17 to add some experience and stability as a starting point
It’s true that we can’t just keep changing players but on the flip side, there has to be some accountability.
Penisini was rubbish today and Samrani was excellent. perhaps that’s a change that has to happen ?
Penisini can certainly bring a shit game or two to the table but he’s never been dropped by the previous administration. He was dreadful today.
Perhaps Ryles just has to keep punting the senior players and using the kids until he gets a response ?
Brown just has to go mate.. he’s just a passenger out there but we don’t have anyone to come in and take his place and it would be a huge call to drop him.
The team is crying out for an experienced player to show the kids the way and Brown just refuses or is incapable of being that player.
I don’t think Dylan knows how to, he used to make up for it with his defensive scrambles and effort on effort plays, and occasional lien break
It doesn’t look like we will be getting any of that now unless something changes
Jason Ryles has a biiiiiig job ahead, lol
Wests won’t allow Galvin to leave I feel – he will have this season to gel with Luai.
Parra need to think abt options I feel and forwards particularly.
Our bench prop out played our two main stayers
Spark, I have always believed that the harsh criticism of Brown in past seasons was unwarranted. Last week he was very poor. This week, he looked lost and like a rookie out of his depth. I have never seen him play like this. I had to be critical because it was deserved.
Yes, it was good to see that you both called it, althought you were restrained in your criticism.
What I saw was a complete lack of effort from Brown. It was like his reaction was that it was someone else’s job to organise the plays or run the team not his.
I had a quick look at the replay and he seemed to be talking but it looked more like he was talking to himself.
At the ground he certainly was not directing any plays whatsoever.
A complete contrast to the tigers halves who were organising everything.
Poor Volkman looked lost and rightly so, it’s a huge call to ask him to run the side.
Ryles talked about ‘things happening around ‘ Brown as an excuse but he must he talking about things off the field because he’s a complete shadow on the field.
Mr Sixties, contract negotiations are a real distractions and this has affected Brown’s game. Dylan is not a leader, he is a follower that’s why he plays so well with Mitchell.
What Ryles needs to do is express his faith in a new set of halves. Josh Lynn. APA Twiddle or maybe Dean Hawkins. Some might say they are too young well, if they are good enough as Galvin showed us who is only nineteen then they too can play. Our halves, Brown and Volkman are not giving the team direction. Why wonder – it cannnot be any worse. Look we see with young Ryley Smith who is leading the way. Maybe they should make him the seven – he is everywhere on the field and can tackle.
Zero Ryley smith is leading the team while he is on it looks like.
In just two games, we’ve plummeted from hopeful optimism to utter despair. It’s still so early in the season, yet it already feels completely futile. Has a season ever felt worse than this? Mark O’Neill and Jim Sarantonis must take responsibility. I genuinely can’t see us winning a game anytime soon—this level of incompetence in relation to proper succession planning since 2022 is on them.
Agree – the roster management from O’Neill and Sarantinos has been abysmal. The nucleus of our 2022 team was built by Bernie Gurr and since then O’Neill and Sarantinos have overseen massive regression year on year. Outside hitting on Papalii in 2021 O’Neill has missed on almost every signing: Greig, Momoisea, Murchie, Hodgson, Harper, Tuilagi to name a few, while in that time we’ve lost: Sanders, Talagi, Mahoney, Niukore, Stone, Kaufusi, Utoikamanu under his watch.
Another terrible performance, absolutely disgraceful and not of a first grade standard. We need a major roster overhaul, particularly in the pack where outside of Williams and Tuivaiti there were no good performances.
Dylan was a passenger and looks like we have already seen the best games he will ever player in an eels jumper. He provided no direction and the limited times we were in the red zone we looked atrocious. He also had the opportunity to show some urgency and dive on the Luai kick that led to the first try of the second half, instead he jogged to the side and watched the play unfold after Iongi spilled it. As the senior member of the backline he needed to step up and instead he checked out.
We will improve eventually and build ourselves back up but this is a multi season rebuild, lots of problems to fix and the players to solve them are either not yet in the building or several years away in our pathways.
I’m a Newcastle local but parra supporter and the vibe around town is not great on brown. Every week he fails the heat gets turned up and The media are going to have a field day on this. One thing I could never really call brown out on in the past is effort and attitude But 2025 so far he is just going thru the motions. If he plays like this all year he is going to be under immense pressure to start 2026. The locals already think ponga is a waste of money and he does change games hate to see what reception browns going to get.
This season definitely has all the makings of a wooden spoon season.
1. Best player out injured to start the season (with 8 others in our top 30 players)
2. Cop a massive flogging in round one
3. Second best player announcers he’s leaving.
4. Some first graders getting dropped to reserve grade
5. Cop a flogging from one of the bottom sides
Yep Wooden spoon written all over it
Can’t dispute your points.
Iron good points but I’d dispute our second best player….
On paper anyway.
Sitting behind the post, Lomax kept switching sides to get involved and our spine kept making poor choices cutting him out or doing a block play. I think Lomax tried really hard.
Dylan is not a halfback, never will be a halfback and today it looked like we played with 3 running 5/8ths and a 2 game dummy halves. We ran sideways. We have 2 young spine players and no halfback- we are not being set up to have a chance.I don’t think that is smart coaching by Ryles.
We had no kicking game. We had zero direction and then they started to panic and reverted back to miracle passes.
Lomaz was excellent. He must be thinking what the hell he has got himself into…
Fortunately we have astute CEO who plays supercoach and a football board with vast knowledge of the game who have the situation well in hand , well something in thier hand .
A certain kitchen implement in their hand…
I can’t agree about the Eels being worse than this. The Tigers were poor.
This was the worst game I have ever seen from Parramatta, and I remember the dark ages of the 1970s.
Let me call it here, Ryles is a failed experiment.
What a stupid strategy to get rid of three of your best players, and put a bunch of kids up.
The backline defence was 2 on 4 all afternoon.
2 weeks in a row Iongi hasn’t made a single 1 on 1 tackle.
Surely someone in the coaching staff can teach him how to tackle.
Williams, Hopgood and to some extent Lomax were the only players that didn’t disgrace themselves.
No set plays from scrums or penalties.
The kick chase, apart from Lomax was absent, no wonder Bula cut it to shreds.
Paulo used to break the line and tackle, now he treats the ball like a hot potato.
I might have to watch AFL to hide the embarrassment.
So they train for attack with bodies in motion. They train with the halves straightening the attack, digging into the line with runner options. They train with kicks that Lomax and others compete for as last tackle options. Game day – zero in evidence. They look incapable of transferring preparation to the contest. Does that point to players or staff? All players or some?
It looks like Brown and maybe even Joffa have checked out
All Snr eels players are playing worse
The only shining lights and leaders I see on the field each week including in the trials matches are rookies or new recruits
Jack Williams and Samrani deserve strong support they did themselves proud I thought
Sorry Zac Lomax and Hopgood played their hearts out too
Hopgood is terrible.
After 25 minutes I thought we were doing not too bad in 70 mtrs of the field but absolutely incompetent in the last 30 (at Tigers end) and mumbled to my wife ‘we’re about to pay for this’, then the curse struck. As Forty and Sixties said it’s like we played the Tigers right into the game. Another observation…in 2 games we’ve allowed some really random tries that have come from low effort, lack of attention to detail, poor options and poor scramble. Not healthy.
I don’t see any emotion within the snr players, no on field mentoring, no cohesion. Hopgood has come off the boil. We need a 60 plus minute prop.
No set play moves , no line speed , it’s all fucked up. We shld of got bennet at any cost. The gr8 coaches are invaluable.
I like browny as a bloke , I’m sure he has high footy iq but he’s been an abject failure wherever he’s been. Ryles another nice guy and sure even a monkey wld of learned a lot from sitting next to bellamy , robbo and eddie Jones but that doesn’t amount to a row of beans, parra deserved more than what a rookie coach may or may not deliver.
In the space of 8 days, I have gone from so much optimism about this team. Maybe playing finals football. To now – just wanting the season to be over. I hope I’m wrong, but I can’t see us getting out of this hole. No leadership. Maybe we win a few games when Moses comes back. Ughhh!
In all honesty we looked like a side that has been scrambled together in the last minute of pre season with no idea of who the person is beside them is.
I read these training reports every year but they make you hard working blokes on here look like fools in all honesty.
No cohesion in offence and defence. I reckon ron Massey cup sides would beat us right now.
Will Penisini has worse hands then Waqa Blake.
Dylan Brown well honestly what are we going to achieve in the next 22 games with him waltzing around at his own leisure.
We look in a bigger mess then what we were in 2013 when stuart took over.
The only positive one can take is if they backed us to win the fewest games this year.
Let’s hope Ryles has learnt a lesson from the first two decisions he made as a head coach – ie getting rid of Gutherson and RCG – leadership matters.
Someone mentioned it earlier, I watched Brown this week and last. He passes the ball and thinks his job is done. Even the tries last week, you can see him just walking after he passes. He played for 10 minutes today and then it got too hard because it was too hot.
They made yards today when they held the ball but never really threatened .. against the Tigers… who averaged 7 line breaks against last year, gave up 7 line breaks to the Knights last week, and whose coach…. Not exactly known for his focus on defence as a player.
Enough with Russell. Enough with Lane. Enough with Paulo (as a starter anyway).. The only saving grace about this year will be some young guys like Iongi and Ryley Smith getting NRL reps in games they don’t matter.So Leave now Dylan if you are not going to try. Give someone else a chance to play, no matter how unqualified they are, if they are willing to at least try.
Disappointed certainly, dejected not really. Its game 2 in a long season. We as Parra supporters are so bi-polar in our moods we are either sky high or rock bottom. Did we think Ryles would fix all our defensive and attacking inefficiencies in1 off season. We are a work in progress, we will get better but it’ll take time. I was surprised by our lack of cohesion and effort by some, no enthusiasm ,. Leadership needs to be addressed, but that’s footy, heads up eels fans,
There’s nothing I can add that hasn’t already been said by TCT and some very astute contributors.
Thank you for the podcast guys, the hurt and frustration you both showed was raw and honest. We all share the same pain, you guys front up rain, hail or shine. You guys most of all deserve better.
I posted this in the pod with Deano as I needed to get thoughts off my chest but it seems more appropriate to post it here, I’ll add a little bit more to it too.
Very tough week again for us. Last week there could be a reason vs storm. This week we were somehow worse despite playing a much worse opposition. Brown looks like he didn’t want to be out there, I thought he was made of tougher stuff than that and with the contract announced he’d be able to get on with the job. I hated when fans booed him, just as I hated when fans have booed other players in the past but dylan didn’t give them any reason to change their minds yesterday. I was of the belief after last week he should not be dropped or moved on, for the sake of the season I feel he may have to, that is the worst performance I have seen from him slightly nudging below his worst performance the week beforee.
Some of the senior forwards didn’t want to be out there either. Williams and Tuivaiti were the best out there yesterday, we better get onto re-signing Tuivaiti quick because the more he plays the more other clubs are going to offer him (I thought we had learned our lesson with having young forwards off-contract, maybe not?)
Ryles had better hope he can pull something off soon because he got rid of 2 very good, experienced, players which we seem to be missing right about now. And yes I know Moses is out injured but a team shouldn’t be so reliant on 1 player.
Credit where it is due, I thought Samrani did okay in his debut and our back 5 seem to be willing to ruck the ball out. What I can’t understand though is we had 2 of the tallest players out on the right edge and only once very early in the game did we put a kick up for them to contest. There were a few other opportunities to kick high and instead we’d put in a grubber or nothing kick.
Good post hams with some valid points
I also commented on this Dylan situation after last weeks game and my gut feeling which is usually spot on is that this Dylan situation might get ugly and it looks like he doesn’t want to play for the eels wholeheartedly anymore
You are right on Tuivaiti and he makes more impact running the ball than our Snr props (NO DOUBT other clubs are already looking at him), and Williams is our best forward, line breaks in last two games and actually offers intensity in attack & defence
Samrani made line breaks and ran for I think about 200 meters on his debut
What’s worrying and forty & 60’s touched on in the podcast but I’ll put it out there again
Majority of long term eels “leaders” and “experienced” eels have not shown they’ll fight for coach Jason Ryles
Basically the only players fighting for Jason Ryles and the parra eels jersey are Jason’s new recruits or young players he has given opportunity’s too
This can’t be a coincidence and something is going on
The question is:
Why are almost the only players giving 100% Jason’s new recruits or young players?
Has majority of the Snr / long term experienced Eels not gelled to Jason Ryles ?
Something is going on here – because the recruits all look just as good as they did at their former clubs or even better – so we can’t just blame the new coaching staff
It looks like we are going to start this season 0-6. I reckon it will take a week or 2 for Moses to hit full gear, so realistically 0-7 or 0-8. It is what it is. By then we have Bailey and Addo-Carr in the squad, plus hopefully a few more middles with some fitness under their belts. Probably another spoon heading our way though. I thought the Cows or Knights would collect it this year, but this current team would struggle in NSW Cup.
The thing I’m hoping to see is once we are at or close to full strength, how does the team perform. That will at least give an indicator of what Ryles and his style of play has to offer. I’m hoping then we will see some light at the end of the tunnel, or otherwise I’ll be worried about 2026 as well.
How the biggest club in Sydney serves up abject failure so regularly is really beyond comprehension.
Our senior players in the forwards need to be held accountable- it’s as simple as that. I said it previously that we lacked a forward leader and while Williams and Hopgood can be this we need a dominant prop who leads. Someone that stands tall and takes on the opposition. We don’t have this it would seem and Ryles and co would surely see it – one older head type and another one on the yo is what we need. Then move on a couple for next season. This was the same issue when BA was here I’m afraid – we lack consistent good forward leaders.
Hate to say it but Canberra play the brand of footy 🏉 we should be playing.
The forward leader we need is coming off the bench and apparently unwanted at Newcastle. His name is Jack Hetherington.
Before a ball was kicked I wrote that I thought realistically a finish of 8-12th would be the best that could be expected from the Eels. Now I think they better start praying that the Cowboys maintain their terrible form so they can avoid a wooden spoon. My reasoning was that nearly every rookie coach struggles (bar Stuart winning a GF at the Roosters with a team that Graham Murray assembled and could have been coached by some random from Group 6 country RL).
Despite what I’m reading elsewhere, this is absolutely NOT on BA. This squad has JR’s fingerprints all over it. He made some big calls releasing several quality players and leaders and replacing them with more rookies or journeymen. His call, nothing to do with BA. JR has had quite a bit of time since he was appointed to change the roster or leave it mostly intact, he chose the former and it’s coming back to bite him – so far anyway. Not sure on the actual numbers, but I imagine it was probably a third or more of the 2024 squad was tapped on the shoulder including some big names.
Reading the training reports, which the guys here spend so much time on, may have given a false hope. But training and playing are so far apart, it’s simply not comparable. So whilst it’s great (and muchly appreciated) I think it’s fair to say the reports are not a preview of how the actual season will go.
There are 2 major concerns for me 1. some players have regressed very badly under JR. Say what you want about BA, but he nearly always made players better. Some have gone from where BA raised them to, back to where they started under JR. Now I’m not naming names and it could be age as one factor, but there’s been plenty of older NRL players getting on in their careers that have adapted and played smarter and just not dropped off like we are seeing at the Eels. 2. The defensive structure was always criticised under BA for the space allowed out wide. Now, not only are the edges being exposed easily, but there’s so much space up the middle of the park it’s alarming. I can understand it with the Storm, but when a team like the Tigers exposes you all over the park the alarm bells should be ringing at full tilt. I think the communication factor from Gutho is sadly lacking. I honestly don’t know how well Iongi communicates, but whatever he’s doing it has to lift ten fold. Regardless of that, it’s basic Under 13’s stuff to get your spacing right from the A defender out and it just is not happening. I understand this is a very small sample size of only 2 games, but you can actually go back to the trials as a well when there were some alarming signs. Any coach should be able to implement their defensive structures in a single off-season, in fact some of sixties reports alluded to some changes. Whatever JR has done with his assistants is either just plain wrong or inadequate. For me, this is the 1st thing that should have been fixed and it appears in the 2 games so far to be the one that had the least attention to detail.
It’s worrying times for Eels fans because I just can’t see how they are going to turn this around, even Moses back won’t fix these basic issues.
Stubby what’s really interesting
Ba’s old players all look worse more or less and have regressed so far from what we’ve seen
And the best players are the new recruits and young players getting opportunities
The new recruits especially are playing better than they did at former clubs or to a similar standard
Whilst our old / long term eels look to have gone backwards
As you mentioned ba did get the most out of a lot of our forwards
Makes you wonder if this is a coaching issue or a problem with some of the long term eels players not gelling with the new coaches
The fallout from ba sacking is possibly why so many of them either left or look disheartened at parra, we have major issues
It looks to me partly mental, I’ve never seen rookies and new recruits come in and be the best performers at a new team in almost every game we’ve seen from the pre season to the 2 nrl games
If you see rookies and external recruits join a new team, usually they are the ones who lag behind for a while they adapt to the new team’s systems & form new combinations
The long standing experienced parra eels players have not looked the same, I haven’t compared the stats but just going off what we can see
Muz, when you say the rookies have been the best players you are correct. The big problem is, even though they’ve been amongst the best, they are still a looonggg way off NRL standards as far as consistency over 80 minutes. A few flashes of ability here and glimpses of potential there just isn’t going to cut it in the NRL.
It should be way too early to question JR, it absolutely should, but there’s definitely a lot of unwanted noise around him after those 2 performances. Yes, nobody expected them to beat Melbourne in Melbourne Rd 1 but the performance in that 1st 40 minutes was diabolical. After an effort like that and a couple of blokes being put on notice and dropped, you’d expect them to really muscle up and put in at the 1st home game but they were even worse.
There is no reason, none at all, for a team to not do the basics properly. There wasn’t a single aspect of their performance that you can give a pass mark to. Handling, passing, line speed, first contact, kicking game, kick chase, support play – every single aspect of the game was worse than you see some U16 teams do of a weekend. And that right there is a huge worry over JR because those things just have to be on point in the NRL. I hope he doesn’t turn out to be Kearney 2.0 but when you have the worst defensive record over 2 rounds in 20 years you need to be asking some serious questions.
Maybe it is too early to question JR but he was questioned letting go of Gutho and RCG, when there were more obvious misfits in the puzzle.
I agree with you 100% on the structures. II know it was hot, but Gutho used to follow the ball carrier. This outfit see him as an excuse to rest.
He has three big problems.
#1 Tackling technique. Above all the man has to end up on the ground.
#2 A sliding structure in defence. Leaving gaps outside and holes inside shows the players (or maybe he) don’t understand what he wants.
#3 Backing up in attack. No player should run on his own. Ever.
Making assessment of our performance worse is this simple fact – for the first twenty five minutes The Tigers were terrible. A competent side would have put on three or more tried in that period.
Stubbs, I take your point about BA and he did make average players look great – Wicks, Gutherson, Ice Papa and a few others but some these players including some with us now peaked in 2022 and declined 2023 into 2024. What contributed to that was some of BA’s coaching methods and what he demanded on the field. It is true to say his bench rotations contributed to their decline in overworking some of our good forwards. Paulo is tired, RCG was tired and someone let go and signed the wrong players. JR inherited a bit of a mess, you cannot deny that and so he wants to make changes but had no leeway with the cap. Personally I would have got rid of Paulo and kept RCG and he wanted Gutherson to stay but Gutherson wanted another three years. It is not in him to last three years. True we miss their experience but changes had to start somewhere. Those two left for greener pastures and those greener pastures turned out to be the dollar. I had high hopes for this year but if Moses continues to miss games with injuries then we are in for 2018.
Zero, I never got the criticism of BA for “overworking” the forwards because when you look at the stats they weren’t playing any more minutes than most other quality forwards, and in some cases actually less. I think that was just something else the BA bashing brigade threw out there to support their calls for his sacking – quite simply, a lot of the stuff was totally incorrect and just rubbishing the bloke for the sake of rubbishing him. I think JR has got the recruiting right and wrong. No arguments re keeping RCG and 3 years was too long for Gutho. The signing of some speedsters was needed, so he got that right, but the fact is he’s got it badly wrong in not getting some experienced, tough forwards in to balance things out. The forwards are being dominated, yet we heard how fit they were supposed to be. I said I thought there were some massive issues with the pack and I honestly can’t see them out-muscling any other pack this year.
Hey Zero, just to confirm, having a look at the 2022 GF season and over the first 10 games of the season played together Junior averaged 47 minutes per game and RCG 50. That’s not being overworked. I had a quick look for a comparison and JWH at the Roosters in 2024 who was being managed in his last year of NRL averaged 42 minutes over a similar sample size of 9 games. Anyone thinking RCG and Jnr were being overworked by playing 8 and 5 minutes more per game than an old warrior in JWH have dead set rocks in their head. Like I said, it was a total fallacy that they were overworked.
Then there’s the good old chestnuts of “chasing the collision”, “front loading your efforts” and the likes that some fans took great pride in bagging BA over. Again, that is exactly what you have to do to win NRL games. The Panthers have won the last 4 GF’s doing just that – bashing their opposition forwards. Hell, the Roosters pack did that against them on the weekend and beat them, the Eels did it to them regularly and beat them. The Eels haven’t looked remotely like doing it in 2 games so far and look at the scoreboard.
Sorry Stubbs, I can’t agree with you. It is all ancient history but it is true BA made limited use of his bench and most commentators on this site recognised this factor. Paulo and RCG was overworked as with Lane who was never really an 80 minute player. Just so you know I liked BA as coach – he saved Parra and did it in the face of adversity. His coaching didn’t adapt to the new game style of speed. That wasn’t entirely his fault. After the GF the Dolphins were on the horizon and fans were demanding we lock up certain players who were being scouted by the Dolphins. It is unfortunate that at that time we were caught between a rock and a hard place and signed players for a year or two too long. Matterson, Lane and Paulo, even RCG fall into that category. In 2022 they were at their peak and why wouldn’t the fans demand we sign them. Anyway nice discussion – I appreciate and acknowledge your comments.
All good Zero, no issues fine having differing opinions. I too was critical of BA with his bench rotations, but more so probably in the make up of the starting side and bench. As I pointed out, the stats show that based on minutes played BA wasn’t overworking RCG and Jnr. I think one of the issues was the lack of quality off the bench – Makatoa and the likes meant a massive drop off when the 2 main guys were off. I think BA actually missed a beat by not starting Jnr off the bench and bringing him on when RCG came off. On the odd occasion it happened it kept the momentum flowing. RCG seemed one that didn’t talk much but his actions spoke volumes and what he did running it fearlessly off the back fence demanded that the others followed. Jnr was not that sort of player, he more often than not looked to offload rather than do the hard yards, so that was suited to after the initial softening up period was over and the opposition forwards started tiring.
You are 100% correct re the extensions of those players, their form at the time demanded it and many that are now tearing strips off them would have been giving it to the Club if they failed to extend them then. I think BA missed the boat badly with the rule changes and 6 again calls, that completely stifled the style of play (and player) he had. Added to that the loss of Ice and Niukora in particular hampered things and they were never replaced.
Such a disappointing display. There is not much to add to the comments/analysis already here. As others have noted I think Samrani can hold his head high. A solid debut and no lack of effort. Ryley, perhaps not as strong as last week but still solid. Tuivaiti ok also, although I thought he may have started falling into a few tackles rather than use his size to bust through or bruise the opposition.
It is sad that we have had so many debutants play in two overall poor performances. They deserve better.
Sixties,
I understand your comments regarding the booing of Eels players, in particular Brown on this occasions, however it is clear, he has no respect for the club. His horrendous 2025 performance thus far aside, he has never put the club first. We simply cannot forget, nor forgive the first bye of 2023, when the team were slowly building themselves back up and after a good couple of wins, the team made a pact, not to go out. Not only does he betray this pact, he gets himself caught up in a harassment case and out for 8 weeks, which derailed our season. He comes back and offers nothing. After all his talk about stepping up and we had to rely on a one legged Gutho to beat Penrith.
All of 2024 pre-season he talked about paying back the team and yet, people still saw him out drinking, clearly not learning any lessons. When he was asked to step up, he once again went missing. We had to put a rookie at 7 because our most experienced half didn’t stand up as usual.
This contract situation is a joke. He refuses to admit it was a money decision. A decision no one blames him for taking and the club has to take some responsibility, particularly O’Neil, for allowing these stupid clauses. Brown says it was about “security”, which he had for 6 more years, as the options all favoured him. He couldn’t even be honest about why he’s leaving and therefore the fans have a right to boo. They’re not booing Dylan Brown, the Eels player, their booing Dylan Brown, the man who has never stood up when needed, has ridden the coattails of Mitch Moses to the richest deal in the game and has clearly shown no interest in playing for the club he supposedly “loves”.
All in all, the fans boo is justifiable when the context of the booing is laid out. This is not a JA situation (which was horrible from our fans), this the fans voicing their opinion and they deserve to be heard, after all the BS we’ve dealt with for far too long. It may be too early to declare, but we are heading for a couple of wooden spoons until we have a mass clean out of the front office.
Just my two cents.
I’m going to stand by my comments that the second half against storm may of had a better scoreboard outcome but we were still the same team, the storm just played in second or more third gear.
And that is what we showed yesterday more of how we played in the second half.
And I will also stand by Will P needs to go to five eight as he can’t make reads and defend in the centres anymore.
The game has got faster and he can keep up out wide.
Put Dyl to lock or the bench and see if Will can play five eight, he has the body type and can pass and run and defending in closer is what needs to happen for him.
He may also be struggling moving to left centre.
Dyl is doing nothing from a game management point anyway so why not try something different.
Hawkins to 7, Will to 6.
If it were me as head coach for Parra I would let Brown go now rather than later as he is playing worse than ever. I know they haven’t got anyone to replace him but surely anyone would be better than him at the moment. I have been a Parra supporter for over 50 years and to be honest over the last 20 odd years they have disappointing. 2001 would have been the last time they really showed anything worth watching. I know they have been there into the grand final a couple more times since 2001 but neither preformed as well as 2001 especially when they played Penrith. And as one of the previous subscriber said since Ray Price and Mick Cronin hang up there boots in 1986 I agree that was the end of the golden era. But I have stuck by as a Parra supporter and hopefully they will return to the glory days. But it’s sure going to take a lot of support from players and coach and club management for this to happen. Hopefully I will see Parra win another Premiership before I hang up my boots and call it a day. But I will be Parra to the end.
There would be problems dropping Brown to Cup and displacing a younger player. We should pay him up and release him, play Hands at six and promote Lussick who always has a go.
The most urgent thing to fix, and potentially easiest is the kicking game. That was the worst feature of yesterday,s game, goal kicking apart. There are several possible answers. One is giving kicking duties in play to Zac.
The way we’re going, by the way, Zac looks like finishing on the forwards.
Or with #6 on his back
Have we signed Tuivati beyond 2025 he needs to be a member of our pack for future years
In his wisdom, Mark O’Neill has let him debut while off contract (where have we seen this before???). He needs to be a priority re-signing or else he will be snapped up elsewhere.
Our Head of Football is beyond incompetent.
When the going got tough in the past, The Eels always looked toward Gutho, Moses, or RCG. They’ve shown internal fortitude. Can you teach somebody will to win? Or are we just born with it? God help me, we need a winner out there. Lomax and Tuivaiti are at least showing signs of it
The lack of leadership could be seen in the ingoal area post tigers opening try of the 2nd half. No one was talking and EVERY player was standing there watching Douhei set up for the kick. Everyone was stuck in their own heads rather than talking.
Dylan will stop being boo’d when he actually puts in the for the jersey, when he stands up and shows pride for the club that gave him his chance and made him the player he is.
He is showing nothing. His 2 games to start the season are probably his worst 2 games for our club. He needs to pull his head in or ask Ryles to send him to cup.
Been an Eel since 1978. Blame my dad.Old Granville High boy brought up in Auburn and an Eels tragic. I followed suit. Mums side of the ledger my brother included are all mad Dragons fans. Like what was mentioned before the 80’s were something like a mythical fairy tale for Parra fans. Won 4 and should have won 5 we were ripped off in 1984. That is so long ago now and it’s been a nightmare every footy season since 1986. Yeah, we made three GF’s but we’re beaten in all three and never at all looked like winning those three GF’s. Geez remember the early 90’s we were trash. Good old Dennis Fitzgerald ran the football operation on a shoe string so he could pump the clubs money into the leagues club upgrades. The on field results were putrid. Then we had the Brian Smith years. Successful they were but no premiership which included arguably the biggest choke in a GF in 2001 since the 1969 GF when Balmain beat the red hot bunnies. This year has been a bitter pill to swallow and we are only two weeks in. Playing like garbage from the Kearney era. One of our under performing stars signs with another club and we look pretty good for yet another wooden spoon. I don’t blame Riles…..yet. But the front office needs to be overhauled soon and by soon I mean in the next few weeks. Mark O’Neill especially needs to find alternate work possibly working the drive through at KFC.
Too early to be this tough but it is a very worrying start
Most concerning is the fact that any of us could pick a team of blokes still playing that would put forty on those we put on the field last Sunday, these being men who were in our system at one level or another and who were lost or let go.
Big outcome, next Sunday.