Parramatta Eels 12
Manly Sea Eagles26
Well, it could’ve been worse. While saying the Eels bombed chances implies they created them to begin with, there were opportunities there for a comeback had the attack been good enough. Considering how close many would’ve been to flicking the channel after 20 minutes, to get back in and compete was encouraging.
Boffins are going to be reaching for the record books soon to describe the Parramatta attack. This is a team that just can’t score points, offering no threat in the mid-range, unable to execute an attacking kicking game to take advantage of weapons like Lomax or Addo-Carr, and is completely devoid of ideas, plays and strategies when parked in good ball. The Bulldogs looked like they were on a training run shutting down the Parramatta attack last week, and the Sea Eagles didn’t need to exert much more effort to contain us this week.
Not one man in a Blue and Gold jersey stands out in my mind as deserving an individual accolade after this one. Given we’ve already broken the rules this year, MVP is from now only being given out when somebody deserves it. Given how we’ve played so far this year, the sponsorship rate for the MVP section has just bottomed out.
Isaiah Iongi
1 – Fullback
Four games into his Eels career and I can already copy and paste his grades. Looks good, want to see us use him properly, just get him in space. That miss on Saab was amateur hour, fullbacks just have to make that cover tackle, but that looked like an athlete toying with an opponent in a pick-up game.
Josh Addo-Carr
5 – Left Wing
Rumour has it Josh Addo-Carr gets to training early just so he can run up and down the field at full sprint, to remember what it feels like to be in open space.
Will Penisini
3 – Left Centre
Maybe it is the shift to the other side of the field, but Will Penisini has not looked his usual self in defence this year. Given the lack of opportunities in attack as well, it doesn’t add up to a great start to 2025 for the man of unspeakable nicknames.
Zac Lomax
4 – Right Centre
The error count was just way too high for Lomax today, with several coming from his struggles to feed the winger quick ball under pressure. No wonder he likes a flick pass so much. Great yardage work, can’t tap a ball on, excellent under the high ball, all signs point to his being a winger. Ryles needs to bite the bullet and make it official.
Sean Russell
2 – Right Wing
Wasn’t much of a day for Russell, who isn’t going to get much clean ball until Zac Lomax can catch and pass. Didn’t do a lot wrong, didn’t get many chances.
Dylan Brown
6 – Five Eighth
An ever so slight improvement from Dylan Brown, who still went missing for most of the second half. Let’s say this game was worth a lukewarm meat pie from the Brookvale hill canteen that you think, but cannot be 100% sure, is the cause of your stomach discomfort that evening.
Dean Hawkins
7 – Halfback
Poor old Dean Hawkins was left on his lonesome by his inside men a couple of times when defending the line, but he needs to be moving up and making more aggressive contact rather than sliding across and then unfortunately off the runner. With the ball he is trying and his kicking game is a big improvement on those first two weeks, but his lack of cohesion with the side is showing.
Joe Ofahengaue
16 – Front Row
Nice try for the big man in his 200th game, but even more impressive was the complete lack of self awareness to spike the ball and celebrate when we haven’t led a minute of football so far this year. The Sea Eagles responded like a big brother who just let his sibling score a charity try then was subjected to a lap of honour and put the Eels in their place very quickly.
Joey Lussick
9 – Hooker
He’s not doing much wrong Joey, but like Josh Hodgson a few years ago, things just don’t happen when he is on the field, then points start to flow once he is replaced.
Junior Paulo
10 – Front Row
It wasn’t the sequel to last week I was hoping for, but the soft hands to Joe for his try were nice, and statistically the two posted eerily similar lines. His minutes are ramping up again, but I’d love to see him as a high impact weapon at this stage of his career.
Gideon Kautoga
12 – Second Row
Kautoga ran the ball a bit more this week and continues to rack up the numbers defensively, but he sets his feet and locks in to a tackle far too early when defending the line and leaves his outside men scrambling. It’s no coincidence that the times when Hawkins was left to make tackles one-on-one that eventually led to Manly tries, Kautoga had bit down hard on a runner on the inside.
Shaun Lane
11 – Second Row
Nice try Shaun, but that was your fifth touch of the ball in 66 minutes of football. His defence hasn’t seemed to be an issue which is nice, but if it is going to come at the expense of any attacking football whatsoever, I’m sure there are better options for guys who can just tackle all day, and they probably don’t rack up as many combined penalties and six agains as they did runs.
J’maine Hopgood
13 – Lock
The Panthers are lucky that winning can make even the most boring football watchable, because I can’t say I’m a fan of this “backs take the runs, forwards do the tackling” style as a spectacle. The entire back row combined for one more run than Isaiah Iongi on his lonesome. J’maine made 43 tackles and missed 1, but it came at the cost of any attacking impact whatsoever.
Ryley Smith
14 – Interchange
Good things start to happen around Ryley Smith, who plays with an energy that frankly looks out of place in this otherwise pedestrian Eels side. Sign him up, lock him in, and give him more minutes, he’s the real deal.
Dan Keir
17 – Interchange
Textbook Dan Keir game that one; lot of tackling, not a lot of running, doing a job. I’d be lying if I said I could name a notable moment from Keir in this match.
Charlie Guymer
19 – Interchange
Didn’t do much wrong in his return to grade, but I’m not sure 3 runs in 26 minutes is going to have Jason Ryles laying awake at night trying to find a permanent spot for him, either.
Sam Tuivaiti
18 – Interchange
Big Sam got more minutes here after initially being demoted from the side, and while he kept up the runs and looked the goods early on, he started to fall off tackles and eventually led the team with five misses. He’s good, but he is still a rookie.
I’m not here for noble efforts and gradual improvements, not when we started at the bottom of the barrel this year. In a round where plenty of other teams turned things around dramatically and pulled off upsets, the Eels continued creeping along the long, slow path to mediocrity.
This week is a winnable game against the Dragons, who loved to find a way to lose the first few weeks before springing their own big upset against Melbourne. They probably won’t beat themselves, so let’s hope the Blue and Gold put their foot down and find more than just a modest improvement. Maybe we can even score more than 12 points! It’s nice to dream.
Until next time, stay slippery, Eels fans.
Gol
Stats and images provided by NRL / Eels media
Thanks, Gol. Fair and accurate grades.
Hopefully Walker is our starting hooker this week and Smith off the Bench. Lussick is serviceable at best and is a Cup hooker. His service from dummy half is slow and disrupts any chance of decent attack. I did not understand the use of Smith on Sunday. Why wait until it was too late for him to make a difference.
Living in hope as per usual. Go Parra!
Those grade a a pretty sad reflection of where we are at the moment. It’s hard to see a way out of this actually, and this season could very well be up there with the worst the club has ever dished out.
I fear that Gutho will be really up for this week’s game, and will have a point to prove. We can only hope that he tries too hard and starts making errors. All we can hope for is that we score a couple of tries, but this won’t be nearly enough to win the game. How long again until Moses is back? SOO1?
Joey Lussick appears to hurt in defence, looks for the contest and apparently enjoys it. He is not a dummy half at NRL standard. I”d play him at lock and give him big minutes.
It’s an interesting idea, kind of like Cam McInness. Worth a try.
What are the forwards doing? Where is the urgency, the offloads, the linking up? They’re like a wind up clock, so over the years they’re slowing down until this year they’ve needing a rewind.
Nothing is working so about time Ryles bit the bullet. Bring in more rookies and revamp the team. Joash to fullback, Lomax to wing, Simonsson to centre, Walker to 5/8th and somehow get the forwards firing. Not sure what to do there but we’re hamstrung by some of the better rookie forwards not being eligible to be picked. Without decent effort from the forwards we’re going nowhere.
“I can’t say I’m a fan of this “backs take the runs, forwards do the tackling” style as a spectacle.”
I said the same thing on Sunday.
There’s a long way to go strategically with this team just to get back to where they were in last year’s contest for last.
There’s a place for a winger to take a hit up on the first while the forwards get back onside, but if they are still running one out on the fourth tackle, something has gone terribly wrong.
If we weren’t so desperate to find some attack, I would be calling for 8 hour sessions of tackling for the backs all week.
Instead it seems that the forwards have to find their way over.
Even to the point of taking pointless one out runs at the tryline on the last tackle.
I’d like to see Ryley Smith have a shot while we are still in the game. Things are much better with him on the field. Let him start and take him off when he needs to come off.
I agree that we are currently behind our level of performance in the last game of last season. In fact our best efforts since the start of the 2024 season came while Trent Barrett had the side.
Current best options – move Zac to fullback, Dylan Brown to centre, Dylan Walker to 6, Lussick to 13, Luca into the back row as soon as he’s fit, J’Maine to starting prop, Joffa off the bench, Smith to start. That would leave us with lane, Masterson and Cartwright on Cup, far from an ideal situation.
Actually, I don’t think that’s a bad idea. Lussick to lock, Brown to centre and Walker slots in. I can’t agree to dropping Longi, it may destroy his confidence. Smith should start and persevere with our young forwards along the experienced ones. We can’t really drop Paulo or Joe but certainly Lane. It is hard to fathom what JR is thinking but we hope it is with some clarity. How long can a coach put up with players clearly out of form. As for the grades pretty much right. I thought Paulo went okay – the thing is he is a monster of a forward but he doesn’t come off the back fence style in the sets. That’s a worry and why not put him out a little wider and run at the backs when deep in the red zone. Some things are so logical but are lost either at training or on the park. Whether we agree or not I believe the defense is getting better. Some say the opposition drops off but teams want to run up big scores – the last two games while we lost did hold itself together in defence, they did not turn it up . That’s a positive.
There’s a lot of sense in this.
I’m not sure what the kick chase will be without Lomax in the centres but at least he can tackle. It still leaves the out of form Penisini in place.
There’s even a case for Smith at #7 – he has an impeccable passing game, but he should be our long term hooker. The longer we wait, the more it will cost.
Iongi needs to work on his tackling. 50% missed tackles is not good enough.
The problem is that often poor defenders stay in a team and never improve.
Players like Waqa Blake and David Vaileki leave gaps in the defence that can cost premierships.
As to Zac at one- he is currently our greatest running threat by panels of fencing. No-one inside him is creating space and momentum for him and we’ve put him where he,’d easy for the defence to find. Every time he touches the ball he’s surrounded. At one he could look for spots where the defence is thin. He’s also our best catching high kicks.
Well the concern is now that our forwards know that the backs have to do all the work out of the back field and are just getting lazier. It works for the Panthers & Storm because their forwards use their energy to hurt the opposition in defence. They’re not doing that either.
I know some people will disagree but there’s improvements in this team compared to last year in some areas.
You can’t just beat us for numbers out wide anymore so easily unless will P or Russel makes poor choices falling back into their old system habits.
Give some attack to this team and the points against us will drop. As 60’s I think mentioned on the podcast teams are not gassed because we are not making their jobs hard defending our attack.
I still can’t see many points with this current team – maybe Walker helps us get 1 extra try.
If we are going to keep losing games because we can’t score points.
At least roll the dice and put Joash into the 14 jersey and use 1 hooker.
The only two players currently healthy at parra and going off form who can generate creativity and points from nothing are Walker and Joash Papalii.
We can debate this all we want, go back and look who looked the most dangerous in trials games except for when he was at 5/8, it was Joash.
Go look at this years best player in every NSW cup game. Joash.
Then go look at the most impactful player with attack & tempo at warriors: Walker.
If parra cannot score points Jason has to do something here or nothing will change.
We have nothing left to lose here.
Most of these ratings are spot on.
But there is not any game breaking spine players in this starting 17 unfortunately.
Walker and Papalii are those creative type players.
Dylan brown currently offers us nothing in attack – without Walker & Papalii being mixed into this team I can almost guarantee points will not come to us.
Obviously Walker will play next game. But he needs a running threat to help support the attack he can help manufacture.
Dylan brown unfortunately is not that guy anymore. The only guy with acceleration and game breaking ability like that in our club is Joash Papalii.
This isn’t an easy fix – but what I’m floating is the fact we can’t score and can’t win.
We have nothing to lose and our clubs current best ball running player needs to be tested at some stage if we simply cannot score tries.
Zero to lose. We are last. Worst attack in comp. Flip a coin. Don’t die wondering Jason Ryles. 🤞
Thanks Gol.
A bit generous with Penisini and Lane.
Massively generous with Brown.
GOOD times are ahead.
Ryley Smith has come from the clouds to become a bona fide NRL hooker.
I love his energy whilst Brown just mutters to himself.
Brown is well and truly leaving a lasting legacy at the Eels with his lack of commitment.
What a sad sad ending.
I’m curious as to what attacking plays we even have.
During the off-season 60s pointed out there are certain things he can not comment on. And rightly so, he shouldn’t give away set plays or tricks we might have.
But now I’m wondering if there are any.
The only set play I see is Shaun Lane putting his hands on his hips looking exhausted, Shaun Russell trying hard to be the 1st player to get to knock on any kick and one out hit ups followed by a mediocre kick
I think it’s time we moved Will Penisini to the wing. I think he has similar strengths to Brian To’o. I’d be tempted to swap him with JAC. I think we can see what Flanno saw in Lomax, as a centre he makes a great winger. I’m also seeing some early worrying signs with Ryles, he’s already showing signs of not being flexible in his selections.
My new team …
1) Iongi
2) Penisini
3) JAC
4) Simonsen
5) Lomax
6) Papali’i or Hands
7) Brown
8) Tuivaiti
9) Smith
10) Joffa
11) Carty
12) Kitonga
13) Hopgood
14) Junior
15) Guymer
16) Lane
17) Walker
18) Hands
A higher rating to Brown than Lomax ! This is why this club is stuffed. Because there’s people like you running it who have no idea about footy. He makes mistakes because he’s trying to be involved the other blokes dogging it. You are deadest kidding.
Sorry, how is Gol running the Club? Get a grip, mate. Lomax was terrible on the weekend with his handling, that’s a fact and he alone ballsed up at least 2 try scoring opportunities. 5 handling errors is way too much. A mistake is a mistake. Brown managed to take the game on a couple of times in the 1st half but his running went missing in the 2nd half. I saw it and apparently Gol did too. I can’t believe you’ve given this spray to Gol based on a D to a D+ which is probably a fair call based purely on the weekends game and he stats.
Interpret what I said correctly. Your indignation shows your about as clueless as he is.
Maybe word your whingeing a little better? It can easily be read as Gol is one of the people running the club – not that difficult to understand is it? Your initial comment and response to me tells everyone who the clueless one is.
Excellent point Prometheus. Lomax was our best and the two rushed passes were exactly what you said, desperation in attempting to make something happen.
It’s good to say he should be on the wing, but tell me who is going to get the ball to him?
Brown is an F and has been in every game. I have never been so disappointed in a player I had so much time for. I still believe he is mentally burnt out, essentially carrying the side all last year.
60’s had some feed back preseason that implied Dyllan was fit and training the house down. Was there a particular time in the preparation that you noticed a change 60’s?
Lane is also an F and I can’t say in every game as I did not sight him in the first one. Why he continues to be selected is beyond me, what could have Matto done that has Lane being selected ahead of him.
Someone asked me is this the worst Parra side I have seen, my reply was no but they play like it.
I am not prepared to write Ryles off, I want to see him succeed. One excuse is that Ryles has never experienced what Parra is now showing, in his coaching career as an assistant. Why? because he has been in two clubs that would not let this standard exist…. recent times anyway. I do remember when Easts were totally hopeless, but I am not sure Ryles was born then.
I also note Brett Allen’s comment that there seems to be a consistent inconsistency in his selections.
There seems to be a number of unhappy players as I read the body language of the team, even in the warm ups!
What has happened in the last 6/8 weeks that has caused this whole debacle. I suppose that Moses injury and Brown’s demise maybe a cause.
One final question is there any feedback coming from any of the assistant coaches that is rumored as to what is going on? What’s their body language like at training?
Where do we go from here? I can only hope that the inexperience I perceive is the major reason for the dislocation.
Poppa, I don’t really agree with the error from trying too hard bit. The fact of the matter is he is a NSW and Australian rep. He is supposed to be one of the leaders of the backline. As such, he needs to know when to try and push a pass and when to take the safe option. That’s poor leadership to the youngsters.
By the way, how do you put up with your mates Mick and Frank on 1EE? One is clueless and goes around in circles and the other is just a disgrace of an excuse for a human with 100% of his comments being pretty much slander against BA and his family. How Super allows that crap just shows why that site is an embarrassment to Eels fans. It does make for some good belly laughs though.
LOL, where do I start…lets get IEE out of the way. I could do a SWOT exercise for you because there are “strengths and weaknesses” no doubt.
No opportunities no threats, I tried once!
With regard to Frankie and Mick, they are not my mates, as any reader of IEE will tell you. Read yesterday’s posts and you will see that.
So what you show in making your comments means “Stubby” that you do not understand that you don’t understand, by that statement alone.
Now back to what Prometheus said. (BTW we don’t always agree).
It is one thing to criticise mistakes, it’s another to correct them.
Lomax has shown specifically in his past 2 games he is Parra’s most talented player on the field. Would anyone doubt that?
When you’re playing in a game with basically inexperienced and untested players and opportunities are presented what happens. Yes mistakes!
If Lomax was playing for NSW, Australia or St George (for that matter) and you have good players around you, it’s my guess that he would not have thrown those 2 passes.
My further guess is that because of the “extremely limited opportunities in this current side, he rationalised on both occasions, that those opportunities are unlikely to present again….. this to me justifies his decisions and explains the poor execution. Execution in my opinion he would not have attempted in normal circumstances.
You see Stubby that Prometheus and me both saw that, but you didn’t. Is that a critique of you or your judgment.
The scenario arises from GOL in making his judgement as to the grades, I think GOL was totally wrong and Lomax deserved better than a D.
I think GOL makes numerous errors (DB not being an F along with Lane), now that is a criticism and when you are in his position he has to cop it, just like the rest of us.
I love reading the grades, I do not want to see them “not” there. Until someone does better, I happy with GOL.
There is an old saying, ” in the land of the blind, he with one eye is King, until someone with two eyes comes along”
Just saying Stubby, because you are in the land of the blind and Gol is still KIng.
Personally, I think these columns are more fun when we write about the football, not each other.
Agree NB, much prefer the football talk.But then I always think ‘it’s a high contact sport’,the concept of playing the ball not the man gets a little blurred, it takes a very controlled, confident, self-assured human to not like a bit of niggle off the park. I guess we can’t all be Mick Cronin.
I once saw .ick Cronin sent off for getting involved in a blue with Teddy Goodwin. Li noshed him about it when he passed me on his way to the leagues club. He didn’t seem to think my joke was very funny.