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Join Sixties and Forty20 live on The Tip Sheet as they react to the Eels’ fourth straight loss of the 2025. Parramatta couldn’t challenge a frankly decent but far from outstanding Manly outfit and it allowed the Sea Eagles to coast to victory in a game where they were there to be beaten.
This might be a broken record but the microscope needs to be turned on our R&R team (been saying this since mid 2020). How do we not have any edge forwards capable playing first grade? How do we only have 1 hooker capable of playing first grade, and he’s only played 4 games? I’d be embarrassed if I was a part of our list management team. Lose juniors, sign reserve graders. The only time they’ve had a good, first grade quality signing, is when a player is released from another club.
Well said mate totally agree
Agreed – and no accountability for the shit show either. Whether it’s fault of previous coach of not, MON, Jim sarantions and Sean mcedleuff should have all been held accountable for overseeing such a mess and being so negligent is their roster construction
Matthew Beach needs to do everything he can to get Bernie Gurr back as CEO. All of the success between 2020-2022 was built on his back. It’s no wonder our T30 and D6 started getting worse the further away we got from his influence. MON, Sarantinos, McElduff and Rogers have made us a bottom 4 club
A quartet of incompetence. Bent over by player managers at every turn and dished up a disgracefully unbalanced top 30 year on year.
Here’s one to think about. What are we doing with the money freed up by releasing Gutho, RCG, and Sivo early? Even if we paid half of their salaries to the other clubs that would still be close to a million dollars not being used. Half of Walker’s salary has already been paid by the warriors so would be on 250-300k or so with us. What’s doing with all of that money?
Apparently we have saved $1.4 million from the early releases.
Presumably they’ll pay certain contracts forward and have $2.5 million+ for 2026, but there is hardly anyone off contract to get excited about.
Ryles has learnt a ridiculously dumb lesson, don’t throw babies out with bathwater
To be honest we have 3 issues
1recruitment
2 recruitment
3 recruitment
Seriously we look to have about 9/10 NRL prayers and the rest are mostly reserve graders standard. Since 2021 we have signed dreadfully after losing 6/7 from the team that made the GF, resigned and extended poorly and made questionable inclusions in contracts.
Junior reps are providing hope and have signed players from everywhere and our own district.
Since Gurr moved on, we have had little to cheer about in recruiting, not sure the current R&R team is anywhere near those at other clubs.
Until that issue is brought to a head, then how can we improve. It’s the elephant in the room and it’s not something that seems to be on the drawing board at levels above them.
Agreed – I saw today dogs are trying to move on tom amone (who they just signed this year) and have payed out Sutton. They are ruthless and effective in player market – refusing to let players simply coast along for a payment each week. We are the opposite – we have known lane, Lussick, matto etc needed to be culled since at least year but somehow they are still here
Matto is still with the Eels because he had an option in his favour.
However by my reckoning there are no more options in the system?
I get that but my example of dogs is contracts don’t matter. You push players out when it’s time like dogs and other clubs do. We aren’t ruthless enough
💯 Ron. The dogs have shown over the Gus era that a contract for that club means nothing if your crap. He is the king of churning out the shit, regardless of pay packet etc like TPJ on 900k for the good of the Dogs roster.
I hate that we run our contracts out even though we know our guys are hopeless and we are stuck with them. Don’t give us bullshit excuses about player options, spending 95% of cap etc. if your shit your shit and need to be moved asap to allow for a quicker rebuild
Sutton must have had the Chinese meal but phoned a lawyer on the way home.
You understand that Brad Arthur had to rubber stamp any recruitment right?
I’m not saying the football manager is not accountable, but anyone can see this was a Brad arthur team and he left us with a bunch of old overrated forwards
Ohhh Chief, here you go again. What’s your qualifications with the club to say that BA had the overarching control over all the signings? Are you honestly stupid enough to suggest that BA wanted Harper and Tuilagi as his 2 only signings for 2024? You bagged the crap.out of BA and his family and said anyone would do a better job, the players were there and just needed a real coach. You got your wish and you’re now still trying to blame BA because of the corner you backed yourself into – you have to back Ryles due to your own stupidity. Its hilarious how stupid and hypocritical you are.
Ryles got rid of 12 of the 2024 top 30 including some senior leaders, his call, nothing to do with BA, who gave him a parting gift of Lomax. He could have got rid of a few more but kept them. He’s had a full pre season and has taken the squad backwards – way, way backwards. The Eels are currently the laughing stock of the NRL and there’s not much hope in the foreseeable future. Ryles has proven nothing so far other than he’s another boom rookie that has failed spectacularly stepping into the head role. I actually have serious doubts about whether he’ll ever turn it around because it’s that bad at the moment. But yeah, you keep blaming BA. Hysterical stuff!!
Recruitment and retention was much better when it was left to Arthur and Gurr. Why did that fall off a cliff once we got 2 dedicated staffers to look after it? You’d think throwing more money and resources at an area it would increase in returns but it’s only gotten worse and we now have a squad that will be bottom 4 for the 2nd year in a row. Who knows, they might get lucky again and a club will release another first grade player?
Think you’ve answered the question, ONeil and Rogers don’t appear to have the necessary status or performance to get the job done. The 5 years ir so they have been gifted the job, it’s been basically hopeless.
The Canberra recruitment team with far less resources seem to get decent signings from everywhere, dont think anyone is aware what Rogers contributes and ONeil is ex Tigers as is Rogers, explains a lot.
Until that area is revamped, guess we will see continual struggles. If it ain’t good enough, it isn’t and hasn’t been. , for goodness change them. Nowhere I’ve worked has failure been rewarded with long tenure in the roles
100% Ham!
Another disappointment.
We have no backline.
Apparently Simmonsen played a full game today. He needs to replace Penisini next week.
The two early penalties against him gave Manly too much start. 5 missed tackles is too many.
Iongi ran well today but still hasn’t made a 1 on 1 tackle in the blue and gold.
Lomax may be the better fullback option?
Dylan Brown was much improved today. On that performance he is probably worth about $100k a season.
What’s with the battering ram forwards sucking up all the tackles inside the 22?
That’s easy for a defence to repel.
We are becoming second half specialists.
Maybe because we haven’t put in enough work in the first half to get tired?
Why did Ryley Smith only get 30 minutes. The team lifted as soon as he came on. It’s amazing what good ball from the ruck can do.
Hey mate not sure if you watched cup but Bailey wasn’t exactly a stand out..
Brown, Lane and Penisini are shyite ! The sooner we get rid of this the better for everyone…
DCE handles his situation with class and Brown ??
Lomax passes like a winger. Not as good this week. Back 5 and back rowers were rubbish.
Time for a cull.
There are some positives. Manly had a glut of ball in the first half and only scored two tries. Just like the Doggies they had a tough game. We can score tries with our back line spread. There were two tries disallowed. Our defense was good – we give them chances when we lose the ball in the wrong place and wrong time. Tries come from our mistakes. Hawkins drop out are pathetic. You kick short – kick high so there is chance the boys can get there otherwise kick long. It was a better effort – just the same even with there was fifty percent possession they can’t get across the line.. What next? Brown – he tried in the first half but died in the second half. Walker will make a difference – does JR drop Brown – he should. At the moment there is no easy fix.
Parramatta are a disgrace.
Penisini and Russell are utter garbage. Manly should have put a cricket score on us.
Please just cut Dylan Brown. I’d rather us lose no games and set a standard as opposed to having this faker playing for us.
As fans – we need to stick it to the club. Pure shithouse management at every level.
I continue to support Ryles. He inherited a terrible roster. Mark O’Neil you are a flop. Sarantinos get off the gravy train.
Lose “every” game
Josh, be careful. Your comments are real borderline to personal insults. Everybody is entitled to criticise performances, there are many such replies here, but these comments are pushing the boundaries.
What a mess.
However, this is not Ryles’ fault. Some people seriously have no brain to blame this on him.
It’s so depressing to watch us, and I can’t believe I still have hope and excitement every week lol.
I understand it’s going to take time but boy I get worried we are going to lose the few players that are guns in our team. Why would they want to be here in this shithole
Why is he absolved of any blame, Adrian? He cut 12 players, he signed off on new signings that haven’t worked out. He picked his assistants for attack and defence and currently the Eels have the worst of both. He’s had a full pre season to put some structures in place to give hope but I’ve seen nothing. I honestly think BA has the club winning 1 or 2 games so far, he was a man manager and it appears so far that Ryles is anything but. Early days but the signs are terrible so far. Moses is not going to make much difference to this rabble.
I’ve got to agree with you stubbyholder.
As someone who has done some coaching, I’ve got to agree with you.
I hope we are both, in 6 weeks time, eating humble pie. But I don’t think many if any supporters think we will be.
Hope we are all wrong!!!
1. Lomax
2. JAC
3. Simmonson
4. Samarani or Russell
5. AMS
6. Walker
7. Hawkins
8. Junior
9. Smith
10. Joe – was better this week
11. Kier
12. Kautoga – last chance
13. Hopgood
14. Papalii
15. Tuivaiti
16. Gymer
17. Moretti/ Mataele
Not ideal but some need a rest or a kick up the backside. Iongi was OK but needs to work on his tackling and attack. Penisini needs to work on his defence and attack. Brown…. Lane needs to be captain of reserve grade.
Give Lomax a try at fullback to fix our attack until Moses comes back. It won’t happen but that’s the type of change we need.
I think Iongi will be giving more games. He was nowhere near the worst in every game.
In a couple of matches he was in the top 3
And unfortunately top 3 in those results is saying bugger all. Imagine might turn out to be another player but he cannot tackle, cannot position himself in defence and takes poor options. I also have no idea if he’s communicating with the defensive line but it appears not.
Iongi, not imagine. Bloody spell check….
I think we have reached a point where Penisini is no longer an automatic pick. He’s awful defensively, can’t pass and offers zero in attack. To think that he has gone from one of the best young centres in the game to this is laughable.
The back row is another disaster. Zero attack and inept defence means our entire edge is not up to standard.
Ryles has certainly thrown himself in the deep end and I hope he has a plan to dig us out of this mess.
Orr players; Russell, Simonsson, Lane, Matto and Brown mysteriously are all playing like they are.
Very interesting observation
I think you are reaching deep into the conspiracy hat for that one pete. Occam’s razor simplifies all of these scenarios.
Firstly, Bailey is coming back from an ACL reconstruction and has done everything in his power to be on track and on time to return to first grade.
Secondly, Russell has been in and out of the team based on other factors and responded to getting dropped to NSW Cup with a strong performance against the Dogs. While far from perfect, his efforts in first grade have been just that – actual effort. Look at his cover defence attempts from the far side of the field against Melbourne and tell me that is a bloke sandbagging.
As for the others – well Dylan’s contract saga has been very publicly documented and he is clearly in a terrible headspace for the Eels. He is absolutely playing his worst footy as an Eel but I would be stunned if it is any deeper than that.
Lane has always been prone to streaky form and has always struggled mightily coming off injuries. Guess what happened to him in the preseason? He got injured. Now he is underdone and off the boil.
Matterson definitely stands out as the biggest omission and indeed it could come down to a philosophical clash between himself and a new coach. Even if that were true it wouldn’t be a manager plot though.
I think the simplest view is that we have persisted with these players at the expense of others. The reasons are self evident.
Agree with the comments on recruitment and retention – our 2019-22 squad was built by Bernie Gurr.
Since then O’Neill, Sarantinos and McElduff have overseen consistent regression. Outside of talent identification, the clear lack of planning around contract timing is amateur at best.
Case in point we sit here today with Sam Tuivaiti, a parra junior, NSW u/19 rep who has proven he has a long NRL career in front of him, unsigned and free for a rival club to sign for 2026. While our pack is in desperate need of an overhaul having Sam unsigned while we locked down Kelma, Kautoga et al tells you why we are in this mess.
Mind boggling that kelma got resigned in pre season. He has always been a defensive liability but ryles got fooled. Hopefully he puts a hold on any resignings until he works out who really wants to rip into defence and who doesn’t
Agree with all recent comments.
sterlo says – “be patient”. DO NOT TELL US THAT!!!! we know the club is f&$cked for the next 2 years. Clearly told to say that by Sarantinos and Mark O’Neill.
O’Neill and Sarantinos must leave now.get that big cheque book out and sign someone impressive to run the club.
Ryles – lift brother. We have your back.
Yes, the Eels were well beaten but I’ll be the odd one out here and say a few positive things.
The defence in the forwards was very brave. Manly had a lot of ball in our red zone and mostly our guys stood firm. In the first half Manly scored one long range try and the other one out very wide after a seven tackle set and a six again. Can’t remember the third and the fourth was a very slick effort through the centres.
Iongi for the most part was good and he will get better. One missed tackle, one bad kick, one dropped high ball but he will learn.
Ryley Smith was excellent.
Lomax never stopped trying.
I thought Russell was whole-hearted and got over the line twice. He can’t be blamed for the forward passes.
Mistakes are the killer. We dropped the ball too often coming out of our half. The six agains were diabolical and not making the time for the dropout was keystone cops farcical.
Yes, we shouldn’t rely on one player but how well are the Rif and the Storm going without their number 1 halfback. Moses makes everyone look better. Papalii looked a world beater when Moses was passing to him. Not too flash since.
Brown? I’ve said this before. The Knights paid crazy overs for him. He’s another who is great with Moses as an organiser so Brown is free to run and has a bit more space.
Lussick is tough but he is only there because the Eels don’t think Smith is an 80 minute player yet and don’t want to burn him at this important stage.
Overall, a loss is always disappointing but our boys tried their hearts out and as a supporter of 60 years, I take consolation in that. Things will get better. Next week a win against the Dragons is definitely possible.
Go Eels.
Agreed mate, I’m with you here.
Yes we didn’t bloody win but I see more positives with Iongi, Smith, Big Sam and Kautongi the Fijian than I did with some from last year.
I’m being patient tbh and we also have a halfback who’s injured and a 5/8 who is out of form and seems elsewhere.
Some defence today looked better.
Manly were there to be beaten.
I trust Walker helps next week and Bira Moretti too
Some people forget the frustration with BA here….
We seem to allowing the kids to get a run and we need the right experience around them.
I ask this would Matterson have been in Reggie’s last yr? No bloody way.
Good points and True Mcfersie
Tks McF…saved me thinking and posting. I thought our day was typified by Ryley Smith running 50 mtrs through the Manly forwards and the Ch9 voices were talking about something unrelated to the game and refused to interrupt themselves.
I respect your optimism McFersie and I don’t want to disregard it, but I can’t accept Sean Russell getting any sort of rap. The disallowed try he scored – to me, the pass was ok. But it looked forward because Russell had to reach for it. He had to reach for it because he is never, and I mean ever, keeping up with the play. He has probably played literally hundreds of games on the wing and every game looks like his first.
Sensational work, McFersie.
How many first grade games in tototall?
I’ve been holding off writing this for a few weeks …. And I hate attacking coaches, but is Jason Ryles actually capable of getting a side up and ready to start a game?
We can’t keep saying that the players are young. And that it’s a new system. I can’t see any titanic change and we have lost players who could have held us in better sted.
Has anyone told these guys that equal possession will help you get a win? Errors need to be eliminated.
Has anyone told them that getting people in space, like JAC will yield points. This was formerly a very good attacking side. It is not now.
Dylan Brown was somewhat better. And Mitch’s return when he breaks the rust off, will assist in some of these thigs. And maybe Dylan Walker will make a difference, but the coach will need to let this happen.
My question remains, has he got it in him or will he always be the bridesmaid?
I will lead off by clarifying that I do think it is well too early to give too much consideration to deep thoughts about assessing Ryles either way. It is simply too volatile and short-sighted a metric and by that lens Cameron Ciraldo was jettisoned from the Bulldogs very early on while Todd Payten has lifetime tenure in North Queensland (which I guess he might have in any case).
However, I do think it is perfectly reasonable to wonder if our coach is having some struggles as a rookie. That is perfectly natural from both the fan side and the rigours that come with such a difficult and demanding role on the coaching side.
Anyone have any updates on extending Sam Tuivati?
He’ll probably sign with Storm…we just keep letting it happen
Nothing I can provide there Rocky but there is surely an array of microscopes on the club in this matter. If the Eels fumbles the retention of their best front-row prospect since Stefano Utoikmanu then fans have every right to be outraged.
I can’t see where our first win will come from to be honest.
I don’t know what else we should be expecting. Clearly our roster isn’t in a good place. There are changes happening under Ryles. It seems the younger guys are taking it on, but it’s gonna take time. The experienced players are the ones causing us greif. There’ll be wins here and there throughout the season, but sadly, it’s gonna be a season where we’re fighting to avoid the spoon. It’ll turn around. Once these young guys get 30-40 games under their belt, we’ll see a massive difference. It sucks, but we’re gonna have to be patient.
There isn’t much to say they hasn’t been said for a month.
We don’t have an NRL calibre backrower. I really hope Cartwright has something to offer at some point.
People wrapped the back 5 last week. They were ordinary today. JAC turned up with 8 minutes to go, Russell is Ron Massey standard and Penisini is Penisini. Iongi and Lomax try hard but with no help around them, what can they do.
Speaking of trying hard, how about Brown quitting on chasing on the Saab try? The Eels get the game back to 14-6 and still he refuses to lead or even run.. just once!
Forwards all try, but this isn’t u/10’s 3rd division soccer, we need to see skill. And there is none. No fast feet, no sleight of hand or creativity. And there is nothing in sight.
It’s all been said, management need to be dissolved and replaced immediately. Roster building needs to start now.
We are a mess
The development of players like Penisini and Russell where some serious questions have to be asked.
Russell looks out of his depth
Penisini has become Waqa Blake horrible.
Dylan doesn’t care anymore not sure what Ryles actually does here.
You get the feeling if he drops him there is no return for Dylan that will be it.
Hopgood looks a bit underdone I’ll give him an out due to lack of pre-season but he isnt the same player that got him a QLD jersey.
Didn’t our CEO and chairman say at a press conference last year when Arthur was punted we had a roster capable of playing finals and competing for premierships.
We are as far away from a premiership now then any of the 16 other teams.
Ryles is going to need every bit of these 4 years to survive this early mess.
I still think we need Papalii in the 14 or something to spark out attack
Wish Smith could play 80 already, then put Papalii at 14
His acceleration and footwork is exactly parra needs to spark up the attack, his passing game is good too.
Although Walker should help organise our attack and offer some more creativity in the middle probably at lock to give Hopgood a rest.
Forget papalii at 14. He is not the answer to a team who can’t win middle to get momentum and can’t make its reads on the edges. Another small rookie on bench or in backline makes it even worse.
Ron the teams not able to score points. There’s zero spark in attack. If one dummy half can cover 80 mins (if) then this could help us lift tempo and break through. Papalii might not be ready yet. Agree. But we can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting different outcomes. Dylan brown has essentially stopped playing like we know he can. You CANNOT win games without a running threat somewhere in the back 7.
We got enough opportunities yesterday and against the bulldogs to win the game – there’s pow creativity & zero running threats from the halves which makes opposition defenders jobs simply too easy.
If Jason keeps using the same set up so far it looks like our attack will not change.
Yes Walker should and will start next week but if you really want to maximise his effectiveness, he just has to be at 6.
How long do we have to wait for Dylan Brown ?
Walker at 6 ticks so many questions.
If ever there was a player that is literally stealing a wage, then it’s Dylan Brown.
I dont know if he’s upset about leaving or hates Ryles or whatever the reason but we just cannot continue having this empty jersey in the team !
Agree Spark
Throw in Lane he’s like a scare Crow in defence (and attack). Penisini is a turnstile.
It feels like Walker’s best days at five-eighth are behind him but there is no arguing that the Eels desperately need the footballing equivalent of a defibrillator at #6 in any kind of form.
It’s hard to believe that we’re pinning our hopes on a guy (Walker) who had just happened to fall into our lap. His inclusion will certainly help but I really don’t know what Ryles does with Brown. As for Penisini there’s a couple of real concerns and he needs to be dropped. His general play isn’t at first grade standard and his hands are more regularly letting him down, but it’s his lack of pace which is the real concern. You can’t coach that and you’ve only got to think back to the tigers game to how he was owned by his opposite. I’m pretty sure it was in the dogs game that he got shown the sideline and that played out as expected. Lane and Russell can join him. Out with the old in with the new.
Put Brown in the centres for Penisini.
At least he can tackle.
Another disappointing display, and against Manly of all teams.
Iongi should have made the tackle on Saab, which would have embarrassed him for the dummy and run effort.
Kautogi, according to Kayo/Fox commentary, made his fourth run with 18 minutes to go. If true he needs to be more involved in attack. He did one good offload.
The more experienced players should be embarrassed that Ryley Smith was the one trying to rev the team up in the dying minutes of the game.
Dylan Brown, obviously too much money in his saddlebags is weighing him down and affecting his ability to run. I have no idea how we get the best out of him for the rest of the year. Maybe Ryles tells him to go camping or something for a week to just try and clear his head and sort himself out. Or is he playing with some sort of injury we’re not being told about.
Tuivaiti was reasonably good. I’ve previously suggested he was starting to fall into tackles. Yesterday he seemed to run hard into them.
I fear we are going to be like Canterbury in 2023.
All fair and valid points.
Thanks for your podcast. I thank you for being measured. I reckon it would have been understanable if you were way harsher.
Especially in relation to certain players. I was shocked at Lane’s game. It was lifeless. I couldn’t understand it. Just so lo in any energy, urgency nor speed. It was hard watching him just jogging around, when we have all seen what he can contribute. I am heart broken. One of my favourite players when he is on fire. Then I read his game statistics online. Holy cow. Yes, may be he needs a stint away from top grade to get some spark back
Cheers for that. Lane was indeed very, very poor and I echo your thoughts about how frustrating it is knowing how dominant he can be at his best and the shell of that player we are seeing currently.
I can’t say i was shocked at Lane’s game. He had 3/4 of a good season in 2022 and has done very little else in his career. Plodding up half hearted hit ups and arm grabbing tackles. There has been far more of that than good line runs and quality offloads. There was a play yesterday on the goal line where he horribly missed a tackle. 2 of the Eels made the tackle, he then came and flopped his arms back over the top and gave away a 6-again. So not only did he miss his assignment, he hurt the team further by giving away the penalty. So he has basically gone from half hearted efforts to no effort at all. I was shocked they bothered bringing him back on after he passed his HIA. There is no point in Shaun Lane playing first grade at the moment.
Good call ba
Ok people. Now we have all had a big whinge, me included, it’s time to bring the big boy pants out.
1. BA is gone. Let’s get over it.
2. JA is gone. He ain’t coming back.
3. Reed Mahoney is gone.. ditto.ditto and ditto…
4. The management is the management. Yes they have made mistakes.
5. Was BA responsible for the recruiting decisions ? Perhaps? Who knows? Maybe? It’s gone..let it go.
6. We have a new coaching team, let’s get behind them.
Importantly…
Yes, we haven’t won this season but let’s have a look at who we have played this year…
Melbourne Storm – Fully staffed with no injuries in Melbourne.
Tigers – Full of Penrith players missing only API. Tigers are playing well at the moment and are in the top half of the table.
Bulldogs – On the up. Sit at the top of the table undefeated.
Manly at Brookie
Now in the cold light of day if you really have a look at our opposition we have played perhaps the three best teams in the competition and two at their home ground.
Our only really blimp was the Tigers and they will surprise a lot of teams this year.
Also take into account, we lost Moses and Brown is playing like a zombie.
So in conclusion, before we start calling for JRs head, let’s have a real good look at the current state of play here.
Our team will look a lot different next year. There is a lot of dead wood that needs to be shifted.
Importantly however, let’s have a look at the team after they have played a few of the lesser sides in the competition.
Yes, we won’t win the premiership this year and realistically won’t make the 8 but it IS a work in progress.
I’m 100% behind Jason Ryles and his team.
Spark, do me a favor and ask Ryles why he keeps picking Shaun Lane and DB in firsts despite their obvious sub standard effort. And please don’t say its because we have no one else.
Good points Spark.
Tigers are a different team with Taruva and May
Spark, I’m not so much looking at who they played but HOW they played. I expected a big loss against Melbourne but that was abysmal. I have seen enough in 6 weeks (including trials) to show me this team has gone backwards fast. Fundamentals of the game are being disregarded. At times there’s effort there, but there needs to be effort on effort for 80 minutes to win NRL games and there’s nothing there to suggest they are close to that. As I pointed out in an earlier comment, I don’t accept for a minute the “this is BA’s squad” theory. Ryles has had ample input to call it his team. He has a whole new coaching staff and so far they’ve been a massive failure. Defensive structures seem consistent with maybe an U13’s team, attacking structures are worse. That’s all on Ryles and his assistants. It seems nearly every other club can bring in new players and have success in winning games, not the Eels. There were calls about missing the way the game changed over the last couple of years with 6 agains etc and not having more mobile forwards. Ryles got more mobile forwards and now the same people are saying the forwards are too small. RCG still looks pretty handy at doing those hard yards. Broncos have Haas and there’s plenty of other big boys that do the tough stuff.
There’s also the “well we don’t have Moses” to fall back on. Well Moses missed a lot of time last year and that apparently wasn’t an excuse at the time for going close to the spoon, it was BA for not having a quality back up 7. Well Volkman was getting rave reviews after trial 1 and then the knives came out after round 1. Hawkins is average at best, Bennett knew what he was doing releasing him and keeping the right 7 at the Bunnies. Iongi has looked OK in small doses but he cannot tackle and cannot read a game – right at the moment he’s probably bottom 3 of the fullbacks in the comp yet he’s the one Eels fans are talking up, wow, that’s pretty sad if you ask me.
According to zerotackle – Brown is on $1.1M this year? Can anyone confirm that is true?
If true he needs to have a hard look at himself!
Wow. Thats a lot. When you think of that coin, you think of a DCE or even a prime Adam Reynolds, a Mitch Moses.
He’s probably on more than Jerome Hugh’s and Munster at the Storm.
💀😂😂😂
It would be funny if this wasn’t our club – but unfortunately it is.
I know some people have tried to blame Jason Ryles.
Jason Ryles didn’t sign Carty, Matto, brown, paulo, Lane, etc etc on long contracts which were often over AND way too long for their ages.
Jason Ryles isn’t even playing a lot of them. That’s how bad they are performing. Even before the injuries which some of them now have.
I saw stubby blame ryles and whilst it’s true NO COACH can ever avoid responsibility.
The only players other clubs actually wanted that were also old left because no clubs would take the other ones.
If he didn’t make any roster changes we would have had the same happen again as last year – AKA we got 3rd last and almost got the spoon with RCG & gutho.
Loads of people went after Benjie at tigers too but they now have (so far) one of the best defensive teams in the comp and sitting at 9th.
Bulldogs with ciro & Gus copped constant flak for a time there where stupid fans claimed nothing was happening and to blame the new coach or gus.
Now there’s parra fans who want immediate success and i obviously want that too – but realistically our club NEEDS a clean out.
There’s about 5-7 senior players we have that virtually no other NRL teams would use in their starting 17.
The worst performers aren’t “Jason Ryles new recruits” in fact it’s all the old long term recruits who look the worse.
Long road ahead for us, could get messy.
The way it was reported through the saga was that Dylan Brown’s activation of his next rolling 3-year player option would result in 1.1million dollar salary.
Mate no one is more frustrated by the performance of Brown and Lane than me but I would say that it’s just because they are seasoned first graders and we have enough kids in the team.
Brown won’t be here next year and I highly suspect that Lane, Matto and others will be gone too.
If you think we are angry with these players, you can imagine how Ryles feels!
Nobody wants to hear be patient lol but we have no choice.
Looking at Sharks and Bulldogs they are 4yrs into their rebuilding. Dragons two years.
We need to turn over the older players in the squad and are probably half way through
this painful process.
The focus on youth is essential and we have a mix of the old guard with our young guys.
Our forwards:
Joe O and Carty will finish this year – $900k
Lane, Matto, Junior are finishing next year – $2M
So we are not really getting our forwards massive coin freed up until 2027. That’s why rebuilding takes so long when the roster is screwed. The only hope is if players ask for a release this year and
someone is willing to pay the difference.
If Brown is on $1.1M? But that is huge money. But that also means $2M with Joe and Carty’s money for 2026 season. And then another 16 players off contract end of 2026 which means 2027 will see another big chunk of money freed up. It’s a slow painful process unless MON gets off his backside and makes some moves.
Pete, the problem is the R&R team and who they’ll spend the money on. In the past they lucked out on some unwanted players that turned into gems like Ice, but whether that had more to do with BA’s coaching is also a probability as he seemed to be able to squeeze the lemon pretty well with journeymen. And the real big issue is that there’s more franchises coming on line and they’ll be throwing massive coin at quality players. It seems there’s a perfect storm brewing and the Eels are sitting miles off the coast in a leaking dinghy with no oars.
Pete we are the only club with a hand full of their first choice forwards stuck in nsw cup or now our injured.
When ba could not get any more out of some of those players mentioned – and it’s only gotten worse since then seemingly for a few of those players.
A glaring issue is for example back rowers.
Where’s all our budget in those positions? It’s stuck to the tune of collectively around $1.5 – $2m in the nsw cup side (OR failing in FG)
Here’s our first grade back rowers. Carty, lane, Matto, Kelma, Giddy,
That’s our specialist back rowers. Williams, Guymer, are more versatile forwards currently.
Now there’s evidence NONE of our specialist back rowers look to be in form.
This issue was becoming evident last year.
Until Jason moves on 2-3 of the players mentioned and upgrades our edge forwards, we might suck.
I hope not. But it’s a possibility.