The current NRL ladder does not paint an encouraging picture for our beloved Eels.
Sitting last on the table, the Eels position is reflective of a team which has struggled across both sides of the game.
Across the first four rounds of this season, the Eels have conceded 130 points, or approximately 32 points per game. That won’t win you any football games.
Just as problematic is the Eels attack, which has only produced 44 points, an average of exactly 11 points per game.
In a code which places rightful importance on getting the defence right and building from there, it would appear that the Eels problems start and end with their defensive woes.
Whilst there remains much work to be done with Parra’s defence, I’m prepared to argue that at this point, the struggles with ball in hand are what the Eels must get right in order to start winning football games.
The defence cracking
Over the last two rounds, the cracks in defence have mostly resulted from individual errors. Against the Bulldogs and Manly, it’s been possible to identify instances where a single player has missed a tackle, made a poor read, or fallen out of the system.
In fact, there have been significant periods in each of the past two rounds where the Eels have started to win the physical contest, only to be incapable of converting opportunities and momentum into points.
Asking no questions in attack isn’t just problematic for points on the board, or scoreboard pressure. It also means that the Eels opponents aren’t fatigued by their own defensive effort, where they are mostly facing lateral ball movement without shape. With more energy for their attack, this in turn places extra pressure on the Eels defence.
Cue the vicious cycle.
So what is going wrong in attack?
I’ll try to examine this from different perspectives.
The Coaches
Realists understand that significant change can take time, and Ryles has talked about seeing “green shoots” in match performances.
However, it’s obvious that he is also perplexed at the significant difference between what the team is producing on game day compared to what happens on the training track.
Consider his comment in Sunday’s presser.
“The last five minutes, I actually asked the boys, why did we attack like that because that’s what we look like when we train.” (Sic)
What he was referring to was the period at the end of the game when the Eels finally threw some shapes at the Manly defence and had one try disallowed and finally a try scored by Shaun Lane.
Critics will readily suggest that there’s a vast difference between the training track and an NRL contest.
However, every attacking shape, every defensive system that you see from every team, across each round, is the result of their training track preparations.
Ryles has both a recent and extensive coaching background at both the Storm and the Roosters. Throw in his own experiences as an NRL player, and he fully understands what it takes to transfer preparations into performance.
So why would he make that reference? Mind you, it was a comment that I was pleased to hear.
For the majority of the clash against the Sea Eagles, we witnessed far too much of the Eels players taking one out hit ups without support, or lateral ball movement without bodies in motion.
You might expect those hit ups in yardage, but the rest of the Eels work in possession, and in decent attacking territory threw zero questions at the defence. For the defending teams, it was completely predictable and any shift of the ball was covered by the most basic slide.
This is not how the Eels prepared. It is not what they developed over the preseason, which as anybody who watched a training session or the trials would attest, involved up tempo footy, bodies in motion and new attacking shapes.
The coaches must keep the faith in their processes and the type of football that they want the team to play. They can’t unpack all of their preparations because some players are struggling to execute.
Hence we are seeing some tweaks to the team list each week as Ryles looks for the combinations that will go closer to delivering the match plans.
From my observations at training, the field sessions remain positive and constructive. In fact, this week’s main session was, in my opinion, the best I’ve seen this season.
Whether that results in an improved performance, who knows?
The Players
Aside from spot 30 being filled, the 2025 roster will not change. The hand has been dealt.
It might be that Ryles does not have a squad capable of playing the type of football that is in his vision for the Eels. Whether certain players will be kept or moved on at season’s end is the subject for another post.
Obviously, missing Mitch Moses is a key factor. But Moses didn’t play in the trials, which also saw other players rested or interchanged throughout, and the Eels executed far more in attack than they are now.
Premiership matches are very different to trials because the opponents are fielding their best available players and more is at stake. The pressure is on.
Which leads me to thinking that there is as much of a psychological issue at play.
The Foxx brings some self belief
Putting aside any debate about the talent of individuals, there is no debate that there is a collection of players performing way below their best.
You can point the finger at out of form individuals being detrimental to those around them, but I reckon a negative mindset is contributing to poor execution.
Call it a lack of confidence, maybe even a lack of faith in the new systems, but if the team isn’t even attempting to attack the way that they train to attack, then that is a decision made on the field.
It’s not even a matter of getting the execution wrong, it’s a case of almost no evidence of the planned attack.
Maybe the answer will be found in Ryles swapping out players who should be instrumental in delivering his match plans.
However, with the mindset being a major factor, the solution might be as simple as jagging that first win.
And the greatest opportunity for that win comes today against the Dragons.
Eels forever!
Sixties
Mr Sixties, it is attitude with some players. Brown is way out of form and Moses is just too valuable sitting in the stands. This is not helping. Ryles is right why don’t they try a spread with shape they look good when they do. Mr Sixties take away the first game and it is only two converted tries the difference. It’s still not pretty but not so awful. The boys get their confidence things will turn around. So confidence and attitude. What will help if they play Walker at seven – he is an attacking player who will create. Let’s not give up on hope. Let’s hope it starts today.
The much needed win has arrived and we saw the difference Walker made. I reckon it will do the world of good for their confidence.
Ryles must be following social media with the comment about the difference from training
fans have been going on about the coach and the defensive efforts and disjointed attack. have been blaming the coach and started with Arthur. coaches not to blame for the poor attitude and lack of leadership on the field, that’s solely on the players. all most fans ask for is a bit of pride in the jersey and so their job and make an effort
Coach can’t do a lot once they’re on the field
You could see the difference yesterday when they went closer to delivering preps to the match day.
We simply arnt using the pace and aerial skills we recruited, utilise Lomax, Jac and Iongi more and that will open the Dragons defence then Smith and Brown can exploit the space in the middle
How good was it to see the spine, and I include Walker in that, get the shapes happening. A much needed victory
I think a lot of it is just plain inertia. After 11 years of not throwing a lot of shape at teams and relying on hit & spin and generating 2nd phase play, and a roster built accordingly, ie Junior, Lane, Hopgood, Matterson, Carty, Ryles is trying to transform us to a systems based team with predictable results. It’s going to take thousands and thousands of reps, and the appropriate types of player, to become the team Ryies wants us to be. This is a massive shift in what has been the Eels historic style of play, not just under BA, but right back to the mid 70’s. The last coach who tried to transform us in this manner was Stephen Kearney. The odds are not in Ryles’ favour tbh.
Jason will likely need to clean out the roster for it to possibly work – so far the only players adapting the most are young players or new recruits
The game has changed over the past two seasons. We came close to taking the title in 22, and only a generational Panthers team stopped us. Any other way at looking at it defies the facts. Players were on long term deals. Roster changes will take time but we saw encouraging signs yesterday.
Agreed
Stating the obvious here, but at least it’s an article and not another Tip Sheet..
Forget structure, systems and all these overused terms, our number 6 and 7 merely need to play eyes up, high tempo footy and those around them will follow. It’s not that difficult.
Forget the bollocks at training for one game and get out there and put some points on like any junior league team can do. Brown needs to bend his neck and stop staring at his shoelaces…eyes up Dylbro.
He’s not just lacking confidence, he’s lacking heart and has been for years.
Grunta, are you really still throwing podcast shots! We pump out written articles, live blogs (which are an entire day at the keyboard for junior reps), write posts for the Eels official sites, and now deliver extra content, not instead of content, via podcasts. And it’s all for free. I have no problem with people throwing shots at me for my opinions, but damn if you want to throw shots at TCT for our free content I will fire up. We aren’t a forum which relies on readers being content creators. There’s no shortage of private creators out there who put their work behind pay walls. We have dedicated ten years of free content so I will be thin skinned in this regard.
I think you need to lie down. Whether it’s a spotlight article or Tip Sheet, there is plenty there and it’s free. It’s also free to be nice.
People here and online elsewhere have attacked Jason or our lack of attack blaming different things.
Here’s the facts: Brad Arthur also was unable to get victory’s for the most part in Clint guthersons absence. This mental hurdle might be ended today. I think this is part of our team teams mental obstacle.
From my understanding and if anyone can find the exact stats – The parramatta eels have not won a NRL game since 2017 without Clint gutherson playing. If anyone can clarify the exact last NRL game we won wogohr gutherson please post it as I’m having issues finding it.
So we’ve got two factors at play:
We desperately miss Guthos creativity and experience. Not many have mentioned this. His creativity has single handily won dragons games this year from what I’ve seen.
The other thing is belief / mindset – there’s probably not one parramatta eel in this team who’s ever won an NRL game without Clint gutherson behind them telling them all what to do. This game is 90% psychological like all other sports.
I feel with a won over St George it will take the monkey of our back for some of the players. Imagine being an experienced Snr NRL player and never winning a game in your career if Clint gutherson wasn’t there.
I’m not suggesting gutho leaving was a bad long term move. But it’s going to take this team some time to adapt to not having him. We are severally lacking creativity, there’s very little eyes up footy, and almost no leadership in attack.
I feel like Walker will help us in both creativity and a better voice in attack if we use him correctly. I’m concerned the new coach and walkers lack of combinations only see us use Walker to 50% of his abilities, as we’ve seen with other star players in our team.
Let’s hope the coach or whoever is making on field decisions lets us play some eyes up footy and flow some creativity in this game, throw those shapes and play what’s in front of you. Parramatta is by DNA not a team who can out structure & out “pretty” other sides by being too robotic. I think this is why Clint gutherson thrived at parra, him being a creative player and inserting himself into eyes up footy situations.
Dylan brown is also a eyes up footy person and maybe whatever we are telling him to do is part of the reason he has stopped playing eyes up footy and running the ball at random periods of the game.
I think Walker is pretty experienced and understands the middle of the field well. If I was Jason I give him the keys to the field here somewhat when he plays some lock. Because our current players look answerless in regards to attacking when the game is still on the line. We only seem to play free flowing once the game is lost & 5 mins to go. 😅
I meant winning an “NRL game as an eel” not including games some won playing for other clubs.
Muz, I reckon Walker made all of the difference.
Let’s see how busy and involved our edge second rowers are today. It’s hard to fathom that you can go on to the park and come off with stats that indicate so little input. Lane for example has shown he can be far busier, and he can actually make good ground even when doing basic hit ups because of his body shape. The back 5 are doing more ruck work but maybe the lack of an experienced organiser/voice and our debilitating error habit then causes fluidity problems. It’s probably safe to say that without the bumbling, we will encourage energy and confidence, and performance will improve.
A crucial component in all of this discussion revolves around poor recruitment. Compare the Eels to a team that is said to suffer from difficulty in getting good players due to location and resources, the Raiders in the last few years have recruited very well. Tapine, Young, Strange, Starling , Tamale etc , all spotted at other NRL clubs and then look at the Eels signings.
ONeil was appointed and has learnt on the job, with no
previous experience in the role sand paired possibly with a very focused coach . Also assisted by Rogers as NRL scout, thought I knew people in the game, and really had never heard of him.
The next 2/3 years is so important strategically to get the roster needed for how the game is played, the options etc have seemingly played into making it more difficult as there doesn’t seem to be real talent available for 20/6 currently.
If we have the coaching staff to play what’s needed, then the restructure of the roster is vital to future success. Get recruitment at the level of our competitors, and things will move in the right direction.
Do we risk it and offer Talyan May the final top 30 spot?