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Sixties and Forty20 react to Parramatta’s 20-16 loss to the Dolphins in Round 10. The Blue & Gold ended up going down by just 4-points in a game where they failed to capitalise on several key scoring opportunities including a last gasp effort down the left sideline.
The post-game show will go live at roughly 10:00PM, allowing for a bit of time for travel and set-up.
First off so much to love and HATE about that game…
If we had continued playing in the same way that lead to all the line breaks and tries we would have more than likely won the game.
We went into one out running in the second half for a long period and dolphins compressed their defences and completely stopped us getting anywhere / stuck in our own half.
I’ll put that down to the coaching. Jason Ryles probably told them “playing too sideways, go up the middle” more than likely, which was somewhat true.
But we didn’t do any offloads or ask questions. We did stupid hit ups up the middle with no ball movement for too many sets.
I had a feeling we would lose this game. I think we need continuity in our game playing style. We go away from what works. We play a different style each week it looks like, but every time we go back to “what worked previously” points or line breaks seem to follow.
Jnr paulo didn’t really offload, we didn’t try to lay a platform up the middle with our forwards either. We also stopped slowing the ruck down. We did it good earlier in season, but tonight was like a BA team where you let the player up quickly and you are immediately on the back foot as they get a near guaranteed play the ball.
Maybe the poor refereeing from last week spooked them off slowing down the ruck? Maybe we didn’t attack that game earlier in 2nd half because coaches plan was to stop playing as sideways?
Either way I’m disappointed in our performance here. We also need another kicker besides Sean russel. I’m not bagging him but we look like amateurs without Lomax kicking.
I’ll stand by my first comment comment days ago about this team list that is was too light and not enough punch in the middle from the bench.
The dolphins forwards barely looked fatigued I thought. We could barely gain meters up the middle of the field.
We (parra) have never once in my memory as a club been dominant in any games when we’ve had no middle dominance. As a parra fan I just can’t remember any time where we’ve only had 1 big prop in the 17 and we’ve gone out there and dominated teams, it just never happens.
Big Sam Tuivaiti was missed for us today. I’ll stand on my personal belief here that parra not having continuity in our game style week to week, and having too light of a middle rotation, is what cost us that game today, I trust we will get it right. But man that was frustrating (the second half 1 out running and getting nowhere)…
Agree spreading the ball looked like it was the go… which is pretty much what every team did to us last year!?
Lack of size/ impact up the middle.
Lots of 1 up, die with the ball. Although freed up towards the end of the second half, can’t rely on that
Dave we definitely don’t have the forwards in the team list today to play that style of game
Hence we only looked dangerous when moving the ball around
The issue is for our team that often leads to a high error rate game of footy
The other issue is we’ve stopped defending physically, our soft tackling and low physicality helped dophins complete something like 35/37 sets
That’s a clear sign that we did not physically bother the dophins, the light middle rotation obviously plays a big factor in that
Teams who are attacked by the defenders will cough up the ball or make stupid passes out of fear of the hit from the tackle
I’m not a fan of this light middle rotation, the only bloke who can fold blokes is Jnr paulo
100% on the lack of physicality.
When you don’t force a single error with your defence, you have to be embarrassed. The Dolphins usually complete at about 75% – bottom quarter of the league, and we couldn’t / wouldn’t go after them.
I hoped when Katoa embarrassed Jnr with a strip he would fire up and maybe they would spark them all Didn’t happen.
a bit hard for jnr to do that when he’s the only power forward in the 17
I also think our offload game didn’t open up because we did not lay down any platform up the middle
We don’t have a forward pack who can lay a platform though if we are being honest with ourselves
The attack also looks absolutely horrible without Walker on the field
Hopgood is either too badly out of form or not suitable for the playing style we are trying to execute
I don’t want to attack him, but i personally believe every week mistakes or poor decisions from Hopgood has costed us every week
His poor pass to Walker was a good example for that today, and his off side kick chase & penalty’s in last weeks game also lead to our loss from memory
He is not playing the same since that back surgery / injury
Muz, I watched that Hopgood kick chase penalty v Sharks and I have no idea why Gough blew his whistle, Hopgood stops running approx 10mtrs from Kennedy, you can judge it by the field lines, who runs only 2/3 mtrs and is tackled by 2 onside Eels. Hopgood played no part in trapping, challenging or tackling Kennedy. I can only surmise that Gough thought Hopgood was much closer than 10 mtrs (he absolutely wasn’t) or he got players mixed up. If there was a breach, it was highly technical with no impact on the play.
Bdon fair enough to be honest mate I could not tell that when watching the game or replay but probably didn’t notice
I went back and checked it and he was in front of Moses but I thought it was a tough call
Zero, if he stays out of the 10 mtr zone around the ball catcher(Kennedy) and takes no part in the play I don’t think he has infringed although I think they tinkered with the rules when the offside chase is deemed deliberate (downtown). He was in front of Moses but it just didn’t look like a downtown strategy where he takes off early with intent. Usually the downtown strategy involves 2,3 or 4 early starters.
I think as soon as Sam was injured Ryles should of named someone of equal size.
Greig. He seems to lift when promoted.
Not sure what he’s done.
Eg Bailey Simmonson wasn’t setting the world on fire in reserve grade but lifted once selected in first grade
We were far too light in the forwards to be running one out as often as we did tonight. Looked ok shifting the ball wide but even with that there’s serious work to do in building a strong pack.
It’s been a tough season to watch so far and while we’ll win more games we simply don’t have the roster, confidence or footy in us to challenge each week.
Long road ahead.
I have never seen a team get away with so many forward passes from dummy half.
I’ll just put this out there.
We could have a backline of Addo Carr, Lomax, Samrani and Dominic Young.
That would win us games.
The current centre pair just doesn’t move the ball.
When was the last time Penisini passed the ball? 2022?
I would even take Simmonsen in the centres, he was OK there but he isn’t a winger.
The forwards can keep us in games if we score points.
We had that game. Plenty of times.
Anyway, we look better in most ways every week, even though the Dolphins on current form will play us in the spoon bowl.
“ When was the last time Penisini passed the ball? 2022?”
lol. See below. I literally wrote the exact same thing in the run of the game!
Yes Peninisi cost us a try by not passing to an unmarked winger and by his body language I could tell he never was going to. Can we play for the full 80 like we did for the last 10 mins please from now on?
If only Penisini was as good as he thinks he is.
Well said. Ego too big and class not to match it. Must be stood down.
Live notes:
2 good grabs Solid start from Iongi.
Half break by Dolphins. I was worried about Russell and Katonga against an edge that does a lot of angle changes. This is a concern.
First few kicks from Moses a bit average under pressure
First try Dolphins – Early doors Katoa involvement way higher than Mitch.
Kick chase is better but Dolphins are just walking the ball up field and getting attacking kicks every set.
Dolphins seem to be offside a lot – especially on last tackles.
Voss is wrong (again), Gilbert acts intentionally, it’s an escort (though it doesn’t excuse the bad kick).
Both teams kicking games have left a little to be desired.
HT: Back in the day when I would record games on the VCR, I wouldn’t bother keeping that half. Not terrible, but not impressive. Giving up too many yards up the middle leading to loads of Dolphins attacking kicks. Fortunately Iongi is handling it and they have only gone to Simmonson once.
Dylan Walker! It’s like Isaiah Yeo … without the tackle flops and ‘roll ball’ play the balls
I reckon Samrani is taking to his agent trying to find out which positions commands more dough – backrow or centre?
2nd half kicking game has got … worse… somehow.
If this 8-1 penalty count evens up, we’re not winning.
Wow! I get the Eels have let in some soft tries through the front door this year, but have they seen our backrow/centres?!
Thursday night football is the NRL in the 2020’s in a nutshell. If the game cared about quality, you wouldn’t play Thursday. But it is about money.
Ryley Smith in what, his 3rd start?, might have over played his hand a few times tonight. 12-18
Katonga reels out of the tackle. Please fake injury and go off for an HIA! If Katonga was a workhorse they would send him to a glue factory, but he isn’t even that.
Farnsworth is fine (shocker) Penalty goal and ball game. Thats probably the fewest errors we’ve made in 70 mins and to be honest even though we had the lead, we rarely looked likely.
Oh crap! Katonga just ran the ball.. and offloaded. Try. Russell misses the goal. What is Lomax worth per game over Russell? 6-10 points.
When is the last time Penisini passed a football? 2022?
FT. Don’t know what happened to Moretti, looked good when he came on then seemed to disappear. Ordinary game. Got close at the end, but too late to start playing. We didn’t really threaten much in attack and couldn’t force errors
I think we are only stating the obvious.
Penisini has the most selfish playing style I’ve ever seen in a centre.
Lomax and Addo-Carr have been great buys, but they will rust on the wings.
In a team who used to call their greatest ever centre “the Beetson of the backs” you would think the penny would drop.
A centre’s job is to turn half breaks into tries for his winger.
so many ways we could of iced that.
We look good when Walker has Moretti, Doorey, and Iongi on his hips for inside and outside balls. We do not play this way when Hopgood, Junior, and Williams are on. Hopgood has the capability to play similar to Walker but for whatever reason when Walker is not on the field it’s like they aren’t allowed to do anything but 1 out runs and with our small forward pack we just can’t make ground.
Samrani looks good as an edge player and should be on the right for 80 minutes next week. There is some hope there. But we need to do something about that left edge. Maybe we need to move Williams over to the left and then bring in Mataele? This will add a bit of size and speed into the middle and give us another player who can run off the hip of the ball-players in the middle.
Past 2 games we have been close. We need to lift our floor whilst Lomax raises our ceiling.
I was there. Penisini is one of the worst centres in the nrl. Doesn’t know how to pass and is littered with errors. He is a schoolboy standard player.
Dylan Brown is also a flop. Newcastle have made a significant error in signing him.
Overall, we just don’t have the quality roster to be competitive. I feel for Ryles. You can see how much he cares, as does Moses. The bunker is a disgrace and should be bunkered forever.
Dylan is so poor at times. Zigs when he should zag. Zags when he should zig. Always standing deep the play after a linebreak when he should be on advantaged line. Hangs back too deep at times and takes time away from outside men on some sweeping plays. Kicks so shallow. Katoa is already much better than dylan.
Anyway, the bigger problem is the middles (or lack thereof). No punch and Williams and hopgood are terrible in middle. Edges are putrid with no real attacking or defensive punch. Spoon incoming.
By edges I mean the starting backrowers. But Russell and penisini are also reserve graders.
I didn’t realise Herbie Farnworth was a dairy farmer. Very ordinary.
Our performance was ordinary at best. Moses did not have his best game and, for me, Dylan Brown was average as well until near the end. Too little too late.
Goalkicking – ahhh.
The Dolphins completed at a high rate and always seemed to make a lot of metres every set.
The number of forward passes. – honestly, I thought I was watching rugby union. There really needs to be some work done by the officials on this.
Overall, disappointing and I get while both Forty and Sixties are so flat.
We have $2m invested in the halves which should mean almost every week one of them has a good game, and sometimes both. The issue is it all seems to hang on Mitch. If he’s off at all (and I don’t think he had a bad game, it just wasn’t great), the whole team is just a bit off. And clearly when he’s missing we are 20-30 points worse.
Penisini needs time in reserve grade. Just too many things on both sides of the ball for him to work on. Hopgood must have something niggling him to be this far off where he was last year.
I thought it was an ok game to watch insofar as it ebbed and flowed, and both teams were always in it. Plus the ref didn’t leave a giant stain on the game. There were also some great attacking moments, they just lacked polish and finish.
I thought it would be the Knights or Cows that would collect the spoon this year. We unfortunately have an absolute strangle hold on it. Going to be a long 2025 and a long time before we have much to celebrate.
I thought there was a lot to like. We blew a couple of tries that would have won us the game but the movement was there. Back three looked dangerous in attack. The centres defended well. The halves I thought were pretty good. Walker was creative.
Both teams scored three tries. Against the vaunted Dolphins back line, that was commendable.
As for the one-out running, we were rucking the ball deep off our line. Hard to move the ball there.
Worst aspect? Their forwards rucked the ball very easily. Ours struggled. They got into attacking positions on many sets.
Overall, another improved performance. Remember the first four rounds and measure then.
One other thing is they didn’t give up. I liked that. It showed some spirit.
I must’ve watched a different game to everyone else. There are things to work on obviously, but if that game goes for another 5 minutes we win it no question. The Dolphins had nothing left and we were running downhill. That was our best performance of the season yet.
I said the exact same thing last night re us winning if we have another 5 mins. The Dolphins were gone and we were cutting them up. Just couldn’t quite get the job done.
I thought too they went well but, gee whiz, dropping balls at the wrong time continue to hurt as with goal kicks. Surely Moses can do the harder ones. Sean Russell is a shocker at goal kicks. I think he thinks it too easy and therefore a little lax in ensuring his accuracy. Williams is not very good with red zone defense. He ran out of the line like Dybags last week and opened up a big gap. He is a disappointment.
The goalkicking is a curious one. Most true goal kickers would never give up the job, it’s part of the rhythm of their game. It suggests that Mitch has been a reluctant kicker till Lomax arrived.
Protecting his foot, surely.
Maybe Moses is reluctant because of his foot was my thinking
Except it was his left foot, and he’s still doing the general play kicking. Curious.
Ok mate didn’t know that any way lomax should be back next week
A good effort by the Eels considering how comparatively puny our forwards are
We need to play to our strengths which is um well it’s not goal kicking or running it straight or offloading or applying pressure at the ruck
What are our strengths apart from keeping me in the lower half of my tipping comp?
It’s not so bad to lose by our own doing rather than the bunker, so that’s refreshing and welcomed. Silver linings and all.
Buy some mongrel forwards Riles, we are the nice guys of the comp that get beaten up and cop it sweet. Time to bulk up.
The tale of the game seemed to be high completions by the Dolphins balanced by high penalties to the Eels. The Dolphins dominated territory for good periods of time. Almost winning the game, in hindsight, was probably not such a bad effort, we squandered enough chances to suggest winning was entirely possible (including goal kicking).
Despite high penalties the Dolphins pushed hard on line speed and were rewarded for their persistence. Defending their own line within 10 mtrs you could see in the TV shot they were risking penalties all night.
We failed to ice that game, fully accepted, some observations..Moses probably overplayed his escort call but Gilbert didn’t run in the same direction or watch the ball and catcher, he clearly watches Moses and makes a beeline for Moses’ line then only changes towards the ball very late. 95% of Gilbert’s intention was to interfere with Moses but the bunker says nothing wrong here.
Did anybody notice the Lemuelu try, the bal was grounded short but did momentum or second movement reach the line? His elbow is clearly visible as advancing the ball separate to body momentum. Moses and Brown make a desperate preventing tackle so it’s not to say the try would have been scored anyway. I was fully expecting the ref to signal review.
We didn’t get enough angles but the one we saw suggests that Hopgood’s crusher was a very poor call. Farnworth virtually admitted he was acting (in a full time interview), 100 times more obvious but 100 times more convincing than the Moses escort.
A lot of forward passes (both teams) but The Dolphins threw one where the receiving player was just standing there in front of the ball carrier.
There’s probably a Dolphins supporter somewhere listing the dud call against them.
BDon, Inhonestly thought Hopgood had killed Farnworth as he lay prostrate on his back with eyes closed. Then he was up before we knew it – someone should have told him the resurrection story was a couple of weeks ago!
As an aside, my wife is a Dolphins supporter, having grown up on the peninsula. Herbie had been her favourite player until last night. She told me she lost a lot of respect for him after that acting. She hates that sort of thing. Then again, my son reminded me Herbie spent some time at the Manchester United Academy, so that sort of thing has probably be drilled into him and has just become second nature.
To be fair, Moses was trying to milk the escort Gilbert half ran. It was never going to affect the play and while Moses probably technically should have got the penalty, common sense prevailed. Unfortunately common sense was a foreign concept last week against the Sharks as it related to officiating.
All of the higher IQ players milk penalties. Not saying I like it, but they all do it. If your team doesn’t, they are missing out on levelling the playing field.
Too true and I agree with what you write about Moses. All teams do it because all the other teams do it.
I personally hate the milking and feel there should be some sort of penalty/action taken against those that do it. What form that takes and is fair at the same time I don’t know.
Then there are the silly situations like one game last year where Harry Grant was standing, staring at the ref and refusing to play the ball. This was despite the ref telling him several times to play the ball. Eventually he did, but the whole thing was somewhat unedifying.
Such a poor game all round our forwards were practically non existent and looked gassed after 5 minutes. When paulo rocks up to a game thinking his a second halfback we never are a chance. It’s not surprising that Paulos two best games we have won you can’t win games if you don’t win the middle.
We seem to be playing 2-3 players a week were it’s confusing what there role actually is.
Guymer- has played limited minutes two weeks in a row has started hasn’t really made any impact and then benched till backend of the game
Doorey- deadset wouldn’t know he even played unless he scored other then that wasn’t really sighted
Hopgood- has started all our games and looked to be an impact at the start has failed to do so in all the games then is benched till the backend. These three players have practically played the same role every game they have played to no real success why are we persisting with it we are in rd 10 now. Players like papalii are braining it in reserve grade and I know his not a forward but he could have possibly broken that game open off the bench last night. Selections were confusing at best last night the game was there to be one won thru the middle so we replaced a big middle with a light middle and it really showed
Can we add one positive comment??
Josh ado car has been sensational.
I don’t care what anybody says, he would slip straight into origin on current form.
Imagine how he would look with elite centres and back rowers inside of him?
Josh has almost single handedly almost won us the last two games when it was on the line.
We need to active our clauses with him and solidify him as our Snr winger moving forwards. Not only for his ability, but clear leadership & experience he provides to younger backs around him.
Josh ado car is our best signing this season so far.
Josh looks like the only elite back we have in the back 5. Obviously you throw Lomax too but he has been out.
fox, lomax, Walker and Moses are the only elite players we have. Dylan is good at certain things. The rest hover between terrible and good moments. Keeping fox is a must as he is also loud in communication/energy.
Those are definitely our best players mate, and also throw in Paulo on his good weeks
Muz,
Interestingly enough the Foxx was brought up at the Magic Round Members function. Sarantinos said there had been no discussion yet between the club and JAC about the future. Maybe Sarantinos is waiting to find out why half the team won’t pass the ball to him before entering into negotiations.
Parramatta’s recruitment and retention committee acting slowly on matters they believe to be easy wins? Is anyone shocked or surprised at this point?
Good point Hams. Trust our club to not be all over possibly our best back 5 player this seasons extension 😅
Hopefully they are though and Jim is doing what he usually does, keep his lips tight until the decision is finalised
Re Foxx. The club has until round 10 to make a decision on picking his option. So expect the call this week or next.
Namrebo, I don’t feel good about that if I’m being honest mate
Our clubs got a poor, long standing, aweful track record of taking good players for granted, or shafting the wrong players when there’s cap space issues
Jim also may not have wanted to say much on it – as he knows all of us passionate fans go online and comment on social media, or blogs like TCT
One thing we have been good at up until this year is keeping inter club rumours quiet
Ba (say what you want about him) kept a tight lipped ship
I’ve noticed under the new coaching staff, new players, etc..
Rumours have been coming out since last year, many have proven true
The rumours regarding Dylan brown, Carty, Joffa, Matto, not gelling with the new culture in some ways
Turned out exactly true – they are either gone or going soon
These rumours should not be coming out, especially if they all turned out to be somewhat true
So I’m glad Jim held his tongue – Jason & co might be not saying much to Josh to keep him on his toes and performing, not make him feel comfortable
I Could be wrong but it’s hard to imagine our club will not extend him – if he remains healthy, he still could have 2-3 NRL seasons in him it appears mate
Agree with all of that.
Why am I not surprised that Sarrantinos said that? Is he waiting for someone to show him how to do it? Or do we only know how to activate player options?? Like Matterson, Lane and Penisini?
Wally there’s a chance Jim didn’t say anything knowing it would end up posted online
Ultimately if we don’t take up our option on him we would be complete idiots, I think he will be here for a good while yet
Agreed. It was a public forum. So anything said is public knowledge and Jim would be aware of that. I don’t feel guilty for sharing what was said because of the forum it was said in.
As an aside Sarantinos gave what I thought was an excellent overview, from the Eels perspective, of how the Gutho situation had played out. This was after he was questioned as to why “we got rid of Gutho?” followed by a loud bellow from the crowd.
As per the previous games, while some obvious weaknesses there are some really good signs for Parra. Some of the long raids were spectacular. The ball from Kautoga to Iongi was fantastic. They had a red hot go and if not for goal kicking and that tackle by the Hammer a Parra victory.
But, like a few others, I’m interested to know does Penisini even know he has a winger and that it is ok to pass to them on occasion. I’m pretty sure that was a play where you could see how frustrated Simonson was in the background as he had some space and even then Penisini would not pass.
Yeah, saw that. Think it may have been Samrani. Either way there were arms swinging up through the air in utter frustration. Wouldn’t have scored a try but we would have been 20 or so metres further up the field.
Penisini is a strange case. The rookie Will Penisini would’ve thrown that pass, in fact in his first couple of years he was probably too eager to pass the ball. But somewhere along the way he’s gotten gun shy. I think he’s badly down on confidence.
I’m a big believer in Penisini’s abilities, his first year gave a glimpse of elite level possibility , his second year he seemed to settle into a ‘get some Kms on the meter’ type year but then the whole roster started to go wayward and we are only in the early throes of recovery. So what brings out good Will again ? As you suggest it may just be confidence and I’m sure Ryles would not have missed his decision making in setting up his winger. Where’s his mate Gasnier or that bloke from Gerringong? Hopgood has a simllar performance profile, looked the goods but hasn’t regained his growth trajectory.
He’s not first grade standard.
Ryles had the option to play it safe in his rookie year, We would not be running last after 10 rounds if Gutho, Matterson, Cartwright, RGC, Lane, Sivo and Joe O were in the team. Almost certainly we would not be playing finals either.
Ryles could have turned up with a dust pan in hand but showed up with a street sweeper instead.
It’s been said that Ryles has a vision, history will tell us how that pans out but reading fellow supporters opinions, almost all agree that we were going nowhere fast with our aging squad.
I’m pleasantly surprised at how accepting fans have been considering the horrendous season we are having.
Ryles has succeeded in bringing a new type of hope, the old hope that our aging squad will find its former glory of 2022 is dead.
Ryles has turned any hope from the past into hopes for the future.
I’m still gutted after every loss but it’s a different type of gutted. I do get joy watching our rookies and younger players develop as they make their way in grade.
As clunky and as horrible the team has looked at times, there is freshness and energy I haven’t seen since 2022.
I like Ryles because he’s happy to have his pants pulled down in the short term, our ladder position doesn’t reflect his achievements, he’s quickly changed our team from have a past to having a future. Our roster is obviously missing quality in positions but we can’t over look the depth Ryles has created in the squad.
We have exciting kids developing and we have elite experienced players. We also have gaping holes in our roster but unlike other miserable seasons, we have a war chest waiting to be spent.
Sixties did say we need to strike while Moses is in his prime and he’s 100% correct. Ryles is not planning on building our team over several years, his actions to date suggested that. He’s cleared the decks, introduced youth and will go all out to fill the missing pieces for season 2026.
John and Craig, you may as well go into pre-season mode now because that’s what 2025 is, one long 2026 pre-season.
“A team has had a past to a team that has a future” – well put. But the future depends on crucial recruitment, retention and junior promotions over the next 12-24 months.
And roosters rebuild has already surpassed us notwithstanding the crazy amount of talent they lost over offseason. Their young forwards look better, their young centres are better, they’ve signed Robson and dce to augment squad. They are ruthlessly moving players on to be very competitive next year.
Ron as much as we all dislike them, chooks run that organisation like Wild fire. They’ve realised just buying all good older players won’t win them a comp.
They’ve cleaned decks and now these young players honestly look really good, Mark N (wallabies convert) included.
We obviously don’t have off field deals and clout they have to snag players…
But we could honestly take a few pages out of their books in regards to making hard decisions.
There’s several players holding up cap space our team on big coin, around 30, etc..
Who east’s would have cleaned out 1-3 seasons ago the moment their age or form indicated a decline.
That organisation makes tough decisions and fast. Very long standing track record of winning premierships.
We haven’t won it since the 80’s.
Our slow & “nice” way of doing things isn’t ruthless enough to win premierships.
Jason Ryles holding some NRL players in nsw cup could be his way of pushing them out since he doesn’t want to pay them out to leave you could speculate.
So far apparently it’s causes Matto to ask for permission to look elsewhere..
Jason looks like he will make those harder decisions. Players won’t be his “mates” and all of that.
His two mentors in Bellamy and Trent Robinson are absolutely ruthless, Jason has already shown he won’t let players standards drop and keep them in the 17.
I believe Jason (with time) will build out our roster to be very solid within about 2 seasons. Just my opinion. But Market will get harder as bears enter.
Tend to agree that Ryles understands what needs to e done. However the movers and shakers in recruitment at the clubs he’s been with previously have had success in that area, our lot not so much.
Understandably we have a fair amount available for 2026, with Perth coming in it’s imperative that they act swiftly and decisively to get decent players of rep level on board , acting in that way has not been a hallmark of the last 4/5 seasons .
The next few months will really tell the tale of the ability of the recruitment team, in identifying players, negotiating successfully and making the Eels competitive agin, fingers crossed it’s acheivable as if we don’t get on top of signings, winning and finals move further away
Agreed B$G, Ryles has done the best he can with what he can control.
The Bears are going to be a problem for us however they will face the same challenges as us. Marquee players will want overs to join their club.
As Muz said, being conservative will not win a premiership. Money is almost always the loudest voice in the room. Yes there are players who join clubs for premiership success or a life style near the beach. We are not that club, our main weapon is cap money, we are dead last and we are not short stroll from the beach.
We’ve been down the path of being conservative with relative success. BA got us out of pits to being competitive. Yet another decade past and the only trophy we have to show is a relic from the 80’s
Ryles said he doesn’t have the runs on the board to criticise officiating, our club is in the same boat, we don’t have the runs on the board to be conservative.
It’s so frustrating to see Mitch being wasted.
It’s easier to find a good musician than it is to find a quality conductor. All the money in world is not going to to buy a marquee half when there are only three on the market.
We’re not looking for the Loch Ness monster, the players we need are out there. Is our club brave or savvy enough to sign the players we need? Time will tell but like you, I don’t have the optimism of a Roosters fan.
It’s impressive mate
This is a very good post. I agree with all that is said, however just can’t believe that Mark O’Neill has a job at the club. This club bleeds complacency subject to Ryles engagement.