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Dylan Walker makes his Eels debut, Luca Moretti is back and Ryley Smith gets his first career start. Team List Tuesday delivers some big hits and The Tip Sheet is all over it as Craig, John and Chris bring you the hot news for the Eels and the NRL live at 7:30PM on Tuesday night.
There’s no doubt that Matterson isn’t the type of person that Ryles wants qmat the club. It has nothing to do with injuries or gaining fitness through the lower grades,. If that was the case, Luca Moretti wouldn’t be in the 17 after not even playing one game.
Matterson will gladly take the coin and play reserve grade. He showed his true colours after taking a month off for f all reason – that wouldn’t have gone down well with the playing group.
Ryles needs to find a way to offload him quickly, even if we pay a quarter of his wages
But what i don’t understand is, Matterson looked really revved up when I saw him at the Fairfield open training. He and Penasini smashed each other in the last pair standing in scrimmage. I really thought he’d turned the corner and was very engaging with the fans
Even if Matto has a bad reputation for some of the things mentioned, I think this team needs him. He was good towards end of last season Matto I thought.
This club can’t afford another spoon. Signings will become harder, good players will want overs, best Jnrs will want to exit the join a better club.
Matto and Carty when healthy offer us more than Lane & Giddy. I hope we see them back soon. We have almost no attack. These men have attack and will run more then 30 meters.
I know we have to respect the new coach’s decisions but I feel like our team is too weak to ignore so many experienced players.
St George’s back rowers, actually their centres too, are big, powerful and tries always come from around them.
I can’t see how Matto for example or Kelma doesn’t offer us more in attack than lane & Giddy at the moment.
We obviously don’t know what’s going on and why. But I just feel like we can’t “defend” ourselves to victory, especially because we’ve got virtually no attack – even when numerous opportunity’s arise.
You throw one or two of those players mentioned into our back row and we’ve got ball runners who can either break tackles and off load which leads to Try’s. Obviously Kelma Lets in too many though.
I can’t see how two back rowers who run for like 30 meters and lack the confidence to run the ball at full flight offer enough for us to beat St George, who will do this to us relentlessly.
The defence first mindset is obviously a great long term focus. But I still think parramatta needs a few more attack first strength players. Because even if we compete well in the physical battle – we lose because our back rowers and team overall offer virtually no threat in attack.
Teams must love not having to worry about back rowers running at their halves all game. Hope I’m wrong tho and we see our back rowers stand up and run straight at St George’s halves, both of St George’s halves are not players who play well when they get targeted. Especially L Ilias who hates any kick pressure from a big forward.
We desperately need to sign back rowers. No doubt this will be on the agenda for 2026. No team in the comp is performing good without gun back rowers is what I’ve noticed.
Gus always says that when rebuilding a team, find a way to score points, then worry about defence. He maintains that if you can’t score points it puts more pressure on your defence which probably isn’t very good anyway. If you can score points then you can always feel confident that you’re in the game. Against Manly, even at 14-6 we were not in the game, it was only a matter of time before the defence gave way. I know he’s flawed, but I maintain there are points in Kelma Tuilagi. He’s gotta be there.
Why are you listening to Gus who’s the boss of the opposition?? Fair dinkum
Gis also said Brown would be crazy to knock back the Newcastle deal – of course he would because it hurts both clubs, and his Canterbury can take advantage
I say fuck phil Gould
Brett you made a good point.
Even at 14-6 we don’t look like we can win.
Ive never seen parra attack look this bad – admittedly my memory only goes back to the 90’s.
Hard to know what the correct answer is as an arm chair spectator…
But my gut feeling has been for weeks and still remains, we must trial Papalii at 14 to inject a real running threat into the side so we can tear open defences and score points.
Jason’s two former employers do exactly this and my only guess is what’s holding him back is none of our dummy halves being 80 min players.
Walker should help attack, but if you watched the trials games, our most dangerous ball runner was joash. Our nsw cup teams best player (even with 4-5 NRL players in it) is joash.
The coaches will know what’s best and may not want to rush him, or still not know how to use him properly in the context of the team.
we have zero offence and besides Dylan brown this is the only other player who’s fast accelerating, quick, and can create chances from nothing – if we can’t score I think we test him. We are losing anyway. 😂 why not trial our clubs most dangerous attacking ball runner.?
My first thought was Rusell trying to defend Tuipulatu with his speed and strength and how much he enjoys a try… And that is before Russell has to try and read Gutherson on the inside.
By and large i don’t disagree – although i can’t stomach Kelma and his lack of lateral movement. If and when Cartwright is available he has to come in.
On the attack stuff, i mean, what does the opposition tip sheet look like at the moment? They could print it on the back of a business card and it would pretty much be all on Lomax, who this week’s opponent knows pretty well.
I agree we desperately need back rowers. I don’t think we have an NRL level starting back rower on the roster (which coupled with us arguably not having a starting NRL level centre, is extra troublesome). That we are sending Guymer back to NSW Cup to practice there, tells you Ryles thinks this could be our only option, and while i don’t hate it for the short term, i don’t think that is his long term landing spot. But you can’t trust Mgmt to do anything strategic about it, so he needs to try and create something there I guess.
Are there any Edge backrowers coming off contract?
Surely there will be money available for next season.
I think we also need to look at the tries we’ve left out on the field aswell with a misguided pass, a drop ball or just taking the wrong option. We bombed three certain tries against manly and two of them were at crucial periods of the games that would have swung the game. We are not going to be an attacking juggernaut without our key playmaker in Moses he is a 12-18 point player swing. We need to starting icing those little opportunities that we do get. Ryles is really trying to nail down on his defence and getting that in order.
Constantly changing the squad for players that “may”spark us isn’t always the best. Kelmas efforts in the first game and trial were so bad I’m happy to not see him in first grade for a long time. He needs to be breaking down the door in nsw cup to warrant reselection. It Makes his resigning in the off season seam very odd. Matterson definately seems on the outer he is on way to much money and his attitude has always been in question his whole nrl career. Moses and our 1.3 million dollar 5/8 are the only ones that can really turn us into a 15-20 point better side in the immediate future but they are both MIA currently.
Ohhh the Bunker. Niukore got suspended for a Tedesco gone wrong tackle. Anyone could see that he went for a ball smother hit but Teddy ducked forward late and bingo.
Totally consistent with Marata’s normal tackling style, so what are coaches to do to avoid this? Adjust the hit zone and allow freedom to off load? If the NRL want an evidence trail for future challenges the Bunker should rule if intentional or not with dismissal or sin bin, then put anything else on report for review and potential charge with the player/club able to put forward a full defence. Don’t spoil games by knee jerk calls.
Don’t worry they’ll spoil a lot of games . It seems to me common sense is not a strong point for the officials. They all seem hell bent on doing what they’re told.
Hey Bdon, you must have noticed that Teddy drops just before the point of impact in tackles far before the Niukore tackle? He’s been dragging penalties doing this for years and he did it against us a few years ago and whoever it was got suspended and a crucial penalty against us at the time was given.
I still can’t believe that an investigation hasn’t been done at the Roosters regarding concussions over the past decade. Have a think about how many medical retirements there have been and even those still playing like Tedesco and co
Whilst we are all eels fans, perhaps it between to watch this weekend’s round with a nonchalance and unattached demeanour?
You can absolutely bet someone will get tackled and hold their head.
The referee will deem that a small portion of the defenders arm has come into contact with the head, probably accidentally causing absolutely no harm.
The referee will place that defender on report and a mandatory sin bin will follow.
God knows how many players will be left on the field.
Perhaps we will end up a 7 a side game ?
Please tell me Kasey Badger isn’t the video referee in our game !!!!
Annesley and his over zealous interpretations will ruin the game.
You can almost see the Bulldogs or Raiders losing players and the match and Sticky and Gus blowing their top.
It will last a few weeks and then go back to normal.
I’m all for protecting the players but when you lose common sense, you will lose the game.