Last Thursday night at CommBank Stadium was a surreal experience, but not in a good way.
It was flat, so very flat and so unlike our normal home game experience. As much as the Eels tried to activate supporters, there was a tangible apprehension in the crowd.
I cannot speak for anyone else but let me explain the reason for my apprehension.
We are being asked to be patient.
For patience to be effective three factors need to be present, acceptance of the current predicament, a purposeful mind and finally an acknowledgement of a known process being followed.
My apprehension exists not because I doubt my team’s desire, or coach’s ability. The team, the coaches and the individual players continue to have my support. However, I cannot see or share in a vision for the future if the process we are going through is not clear and I cannot understand the type of team we are trying to build.
In essence, I’m being asked to be blindly patient.
Last round I didn’t submit a column about the loss to the Sharks because I was as equally frustrated as I was angry. Angry with the refereeing and frustrated as to me that game showed us what we miss the most.
Intimidation – it was spelt MA’U
What I would give for a Manu Ma’u type player in our pack right know. An intimidating, take no prisoners player. But Manu didn’t just bring the fear factor. He added genuine strike.
Watching that Shark’s game I could not help but think how dangerous our backline shifts would be with a player like Nikora running his lines off Mitch Moses.
I do not doubt the potential that our young boys have individually, particularly the young forwards in our team, but I am concerned about blooding so many at once. Will we be relying on this group, and this group alone, moving forward? Are we expected to be patient as they collectively build their experience? Again, I’m not concerned about the individual players and their talents, but rather it’s about the balance of the collective.
Are we rebuilding a young team with mobile forwards, or rebuilding a forward pack that fits in with the very best of Mitch Moses? We have a brilliant playmaker signed until 2029 and therefore the answer should be obvious but I am not sure that it is.
Mitch Moses
Then, there is the question of using inexperienced forwards compared to using rookie backs. For example, I can see Iongi and what a danger he could become and so I will be patient with his mistakes. However, there is a difference in blooding young forwards and young backs.
I remember back in 2018 Bernie Gurr gave a brilliant interview in which he spoke about the differences between a rookie outside back and forward.
In essence he said it was easier to debut a young outside back but a forward was harder until they have developed the physical attributes to match seasoned first graders.
The physical demands of being a young forward are tough. There have been many times this year that Junior has had to carry the load to try and get some forward momentum by himself and last Thursday followed this script.
Junior cannot do it alone. If I am honest, it is really testing my patience as a fan with all the young players, especially forwards being used. Individually they may be fine and may have a bright future but a forward pack operates together and to me it is obvious that it is not working.
Junior celebrating
I sat there last Thursday at times lamenting our inability to go forward. I know people criticised our shifts out wide early but I wonder why we did that? If I can see, as an average fan, the lack of grunt and physical intimidation of our pack, surely the opposing players can too.
So why am I writing this if I am also saying I remain committed behind our team, coach and club? Simple really!
Every Parramatta fan has levels of patience beyond that of supporters of other clubs. To expect further patience, in a season like this, we need to see the plan, the process.
And right now, the only plan that is evident moving forward is the departure of experience, with no replacements on the horizon other than emerging rookies. No doubt, there is talent in those ranks. Will that be enough to make the Eels a premiership threat in the foreseeable future? You know the answer.
Sam Tuivaiti is a talent
So, though fans might not disagree with the departures of particular individuals, how are we going to rebuild from here and with whom?
In 2025, all I can see is Mitch Moses being expected to play behind a small, inexperienced pack. Without the platform of genuine momentum or physical dominance being provided through the middle, his talents are going to waste. Without that changing, they will continue to go to waste.
Last year, there were concerns about an ageing roster. Those concerns have now been flipped on their head. Though just like before, it’s not a question about the talents of individuals, as stated earlier, it’s about whether there is a balance in the collective.
Without knowing how the current imbalance will change, the expectations of patience placed on Eels supporters will be unfair.
And the atmosphere in the stadium will continue to remain flat, with the patience of fans such as myself growing ever thinner.
Shelley
“Every Parramatta fan has levels of patience beyond that of supporters of other clubs”
Shelley there has never been a more appropriate description of a Parra fan.
Your article so eloquently expresses what Parra fans feel. We dont know what the plan is, we talk about the level of inexperience in our forward pack, meanwhile Im scratching my head wondering if we couldnt pepper that inexperience with some old heads running in the NSW Cup. Are they so toxic?
The mood at the game had a sense of dejavu, and we desperately need some hope to cling onto. Quite frankly I was angry last week with the situation a club like Parramatta is in. I dont give a stuff how we got into this situation I just want to know the plan to get us out of it, and then by sharing the plan we fans can keep you accountable.
Hi Shelley, the fact that we have to guess the plan is definitely a problem. And for Mitch it really is a wasted year, given there is no mongrel, strike or intimidation in the pack.
I can only speculate, but ryles is building quite a war chest, with savings on gutho, RCG, sivo, Ofa, Brown, potentially lane, Matto and junior. There is some serious talent coming available, so maybe ryles is getting ready for a serious play at Payne Haas and a couple of second rowers like Pierce-Paul. To me Ryles seems opportunistic, and has capitalised on some available talent in Fox and Walker and paid unders and had got them firing.
I’m not excusing the current rut, it’s disappointing as a fan to see our beloved team go 12 metres in a set of six. But with the amount of salary cap now made available, I would say our club is finally ready to go to market and go hard.
If you’ve watched Kai Pearce Paul you’d know he is basically lane 2.0. Lazy and ineffective in defence. Has a few offloads but isn’t worth the money at all. We need a good line runner who is defensively sound. Dylan Lucas is much better option from knights
A bloke that keeps catching my eye is Tallis Duncan, high work rate, energy, looks like he means it when he hits.
Shelley, these are really valid and honest concerns about the building and reshaping of a roster.
Silence is golden , but the concern is that our recruitment has been so slow and moribund over the last 4/5 years, that if it continues without some elite signings the future will remain somewhat empty.
The difference signing players like Crichton and Kikau at the Dogs has made, and similar where clubs were prepared to pay for those sort of players is in stark contrast to where we appear to shop. If the R&R team are unable to sign those sort of players with the apparent funds available for 2026 then surely there are big questions to be asked of their competence. The close to biggest club in Sydney with facilities, sponsorship and membership should not have fallen so far, and the club should be an attraction if sold properly to player managers and players.
An interesting next few months for the club and would like to be more confident, but CEO emails telling the story that we are progressing are not worth anything until we compete with the clubs that move and shake.
While I don’t necessarily disagree with the sentiment that our middle forwards aren’t delivering what we need from them, I do disagree with the ‘blame’ so to speak being focused on relying on the youth vs the senior players.
Paulo while at times has looked good, has been extremely inconsistent and has been consistently outpaced by Tuivati. Jack Williams and Hopgood have been insufficient outside of their defensive numbers, but even then have often been found lacking. More often than not, the impact has come through from guys like Moretti or Tuivati more so than those you’d expect to lead from the front.
Something also worth considering, the 2020 Penrith forward pack (+ bench middles) average age was 26. Our forward pack + bench middles against the sharks was 25. Age isn’t the issue, given its mainly those with the experience letting us down.
Paulo needs to be more consistent, Hopgood needs to provide more from his running and leave the ball playing to Walker, Williams needs to be better. The only young player I think that probably needs to be replaced is unfortunately Guymer who just hasn’t shown what he did last year – Samrani deserves starting 2nd row given the quality he’s shown, he’ll be an immediate improvement to our dire edges.
And not to get twisted, I believe we need to recruit some experience – but that experience has to be capable of delivering. Otherwise, we might as well give guys like Mataele and Latu a shot because you know they’ll bring the energy and effort to make the metres we do desperately need.
In my opinion our current era peaked in 2021 when we were knocked out by Penrith in the preliminary final in very dubious circumstances. I believe that when we met them in the grand final the following year a couple of our key figures were slightly past their prime. We then had the creation of the Dolphins a year earlier than originally predicted and we were caught with a lot of quality forwards available for recruitment in an inflated market. Two elite performers we managed to keep, Ryan Matterson and Sean Lane lost credibility to us through personal decision and a devastating fun of injuries. Since then the only established forward we have recruited, Jack Williams, has himself had his season disrupted by injury and, in fairness, probably has failed to establish the authority we had hoped for. Certainly no-one has replaced the impact of Regan Campbell-Gillard, released to free up funds to develop depth, which has certainly happened. Of all those lost probably Ray Stone and Matata Nikore have cost is most in authority in the centre of the field.
If we’re not in for a depressing run of performances ranging from poor to mediocre we need to recruit, and that’s going to be hard to do with Perth Bears arriving year after next, and we face the very significant loss of Dylan Brown at season’s end. In my view the future of Lachie Galvin is far from certain and, in any case he probably won’t be available until 2027. There are rumours of Junior finishing up, which really is a frightening thought – things could get worse.
The type of experienced player we need who might be available for me includes Billy Walters to play six next year and maybe take up a utility role after that, Jack Hetherington who. clearly enjoys the tough stuff and brings authority and Ethan Bullemore who has real impact carrying the ball. Players of that sort of experience could be mixed with our current emerging talent.
As we talk of our current group improving what are we aiming for? Fourteenth?
The issue is quality of cattle.
Root cause of that? Largely the past roster mismanagement.
We’ve got to $1.5m of our cap in 3 senior forwards who (2 of them) should have been moved on two seasons ago.
You could even look at it like the parramatta eels have a $1.5 million dollar handicap.
Imagine how the eels would look with that $1.5 (approx) cap space invested into Tyrell May and say Briton Nikora or somebody like Stephen Crichton?
I have a feeling once that other million plus of cap space is being correctly utilised our first grade team will look a lot different.
My only concern is that the coach is being too long term thinking, with a half back who only has 2-3 seasons of his prime left.
This is the best half back we’ve had since sterlo. The window to win a premiership is asap, not “later” as there’s only ever about 3 elite halves ever at one time and it’s hard to sign them. Now is our time. Not in 5 years when Moses is retired.
Great write up Agree heavily with the article I can not really fault any of the current players efforts in games and understand that rookies take time and will make the errors it’s all part of learning the process. In saying that that line of we need to be patient will just become a throw away line as time goes on. There are some positives happening in the squad no doubt the form of ado carr has been great and Riley, Iongi and Sam have been refreshing and our overall structure in defence has significantly improved but we can’t also can’t gloss over some areas that have been poor. Our first up contact in defence has been shocking at times with players continually being left on the ground. The on/off form of our experienced players has not improved at all it’s the exact problem Brad Arthur had with some of these players. One week there at the races the next week they miss the jump and struggle to get back. How do you fix this in certain players it seems like it’s just ingrained in them. I’m all for supporting ryles and desperately want him to succeed but a wooden spoon would be catastrophic for him and 2026 the pressure would be immense internally and externally. This week is massive Newcastle are about to completely self destruct and a loss would be hard to cop.
Say what we like about form, we sit last and currently are in a battle with the Titans for the spoon. Last year we were on a battle with Tigers and Souths for the spoon
A NRL playing field is a place for the strongest, hardest men in the world. They are not playing for their clubs; they are playing to maintain the favoured life styles of their wives and children. It’s pointless putting players out there on the basis of potential. With the arrival of an eighteenth team competition for talent will increase
Now is the time for intelligent recruitment
There is no better example of this than Will Penisini.
Does plenty of solid tackling when the structure is there but leaves holes under pressure.
Hasn’t passed the ball since 2022.
He could be a good centre.
Why isn’t he?
The big issue has been cleaning up the mess Brad Arthur left in the joint.
Like honestly what are the Perth Bears thinking giving him the job.
Most fans just thought a change of coach would do the trick but underestimated the soft culture that was allowed to develop across the playing ranks with a lack of accountability and toughness in the group.
Like here we had a clean slate under a new coach and senior players like Matto and Cartwright turned there toes up and Shaun Lane is currently on a mental health break lacking desire to play the game.
Improvements are being made but Thursday night was a step back. Its a game we should won and Moses should be kicking himself when he reviews the game.
Those 2 sets attacking the tryline when up 12-6 he got tackled on the 5th tackle were inexcusable.
Last tackle options by Smith and Walker were poor and even if Moses isn’t 100% he shouldn’t be in a situation like that being tackled twice on the last tackle within the space of 5 mins.
I will say this though looking at the Broncos atm and already rumblings the players are off Madge after 10 weeks.
Our young group seem invested and happy with the foundation being built atm under Ryles.
A win in Newcastle is so important to get some confidence in what we are actually building.
You can only cop honourable losses for so long before the trust in the system starts to wane
Rookies do look invested absolutely which is the thing that keeps our heads above water. Our roster is in such a state when you really dive into it. Matterson,lane and Cartwright seem virtually unselectable by ryles so every week we start with three players practically out injured
Patience Grass Hopper.
It was never going to be easy fixing the problems with our roster. Yes, we lost Campbell-Gillard and Gutherson because they were looking to secure their futures on longer term deals. I havent exactly seem Campbell-Gillard setting the world on fire at the Titans, and, Gutherson is only one tackle away from another injury and retirement.
As for the rest of the cattle that went, and those that remain? Wasn”t it only last year, perhaps even earlier this year, that we were complaining about their attitude and lack of effort. Nothing has changed in that regard. As others have mentioned, Matterson, Cartwright etc, should have been moved on at the end of their last contracts.
Yes, we are lacking experience in our forward pack, who is out their on the market worth buying? And to be honest, we don’t know what is going on behind the scenes as, far as recruitment for next year is concerned. We can only keep our fingers crossed.
I promise you, at 75 years of age, I have been following Parramatta and Rugby League for a long long time. Every week, I see the improvement in the attacking and defensive structure of the team. I like where Ryles is taking us, but, to a large extent his hands are tired and he can only use the players available to him. Unfortunately, the only way a young player gains experience in the NRL, is by playing in that arena. It takes time, or, as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Patience Grass Hopper.
Agreed
Interesting read Shelley.
The team has been in free fall for three years. The loss of those 6-7 players from the 2022 GF side has had a huge impact in that equal quality replacements weren’t recruited.
It’s a long time ago but Cronin & Price finished after the 1986 GF and a team containing names like Sterling, Kenny, Ella and Grothe etc. couldn’t make the finals after that. The balance of the team had been disrupted and it took the super league war and the Canterbury 4 amongst others before finals football was again played.
Our team in the last 3 years has been unbalanced. The team still contains some quality but the range between best and worse really does bring the average quality down, particularly when some of the established players are well down on form.
I think most would agree that our forward pack is nothing like what we’d have expected. No Matto, JoeO, Cartwright, Hands even Greig and to think that our starting rake was on a T&T deal (?) says plenty about the R&R of this team.
Nothing against our rookie recruits but our best two week on week have probably been JAC and DWalker, both of whom were fell into the arms of the R&R team.
It’s just not good enough and there needs to be some quality recruits for 2026 as the patience of the fan base is wearing very thin and going to live games is also a commitment/habit that once broken is hard to mend.
We are a work in progress, our aggression in” hitting and sticking” is terrible, we aren’t hitting with intent. Our control of the ruck is better, most of our tackles are putting the attackers on their backs, and we are clearing the ruck slower, so some improvement. We don’t have the cattle in our back 5 as far as yardage goes, Lomax will improve that. Moses cannot do everything, Brown must step up, play 2 off the ruck to open spaces, we are so much better when Walker , comes on. Iongi is going well needs to work on his support play. Couple of hard nut forwards to damage the opposition in tackles, would help, we need to be harder
coach ryles is a rookie coach in his first year we can expect miracles for right or wrong reasons he is rebuilding the squad in the first month of footy i thought eeels were flat but with the arrival of the fox and dylan walkers they have put back the electricity and magic back in the eels as long as these guys are in the first 17 the eeels will be competitive i woyuldlike to see rylesy bring back hands matterson and cartwright who all have a lot of experience and can help an otherwise inexperienced to be honest i belive the brand of footy he has them playing is built on the roosters model of speed and power i dont think canterbury are playing much better but have been more consistent yet sit outright first
i agree the inclusion of jac and dylan walker who have played at the highest level and have a dearth of experienced has helped an otherwise inexperienced squad with 8 players with less than 10 first grade experience. its a a shame that king gutho did not stick around and dylan brown is leaving at years they were our no 1 and 2 best players in my opinion but things change and life goes on for better or worse look at the panthers they lost their talisiman jerome and fisher harris and are struggling to win games of football and sit second last to parra but they have 4 consecutive titles while for parra the drought it is approaching 40 years almost as old as this die hard fan and with the inclusion of two new teams in next few years the player talent is going to getting thinner lets give rylesy this year to mould the team into the force we know they can be if they are not in the mix for 8th next year than problems will emerge
with the return of mitch moses with dylan brown combination that took the eeels to a gf not long ago and the arrival of experience of jac dylan walker and Jan the zac attack lomax the eels i think the eels willl not surrender this year top 4 or a premiership are off the table this year but who knows in a few years time if they can build under coach jason who dont forget is in his first year as head coach i would like to see him bring some of the more experienced forward back in like matto and carty who have given great service to the club but its his call the buck stops with rylesy. You cant expect muuh of young forwards who have less than a handful of first grade games experience and a coach in his first year in charge but in the last month of footy i have seen the eels attitutde and committment turn the corner as brian smith used to speak of instilling parramatittude in the brand of football we played “a strong and mentally tough side who are never beaten
Thanks Shelley!
I really resonate with what you have written.
Suggesting that the plan is to have lighter, more mobile forwards and fleet footed elusive backs sounds good …. sorta …. but I want to know a lot more.
And I’m afraid I don’t yet see Jason Ryles as an NRL coach. He talks time and again of the inexperience of the squad …. and I sorta get that. But to have let so much experience go without much of an attempt to keep it is showing up. Let alone the experience in the Cup side that is just not being encouraged. …
At the moment, I think he is our root cause problem.
Lets hope Zac L is on the Park this week . And that no make gets selected for origin. And perhaps the good results of our lower grades might start regularly happening for us in the NRL
Thanks again Shelley! Poignantly written. I hope it is read in the right circles.
Interesting take Shelley,
I’m actually ok with how we’ve font this year. The coach needs at least 12 months to stamp his own team and more time. Look at C’bury and also Canberra since Stt has invested in youth.
Ryles seems like a calm and shrewd type for me and I back him for the reason he’s been there himself and worked in some ruthless clubs.
As some have said we need a few more guys with skin in the game to come into the roster. Ryles I’m sure will have a plan and to honest we’ve shifted the ball better at times than in previous years.
Our juniors seem to have improved in some ways too.
People forget 12 months ago…Ryles has done the right thing by moving on or not stopping some from leaving.
Iongi for me shows more promise now than his predecessor at the same age; and time will tell.
Lomax and Addo Carr will add the experience or backs need.
Just need a couple of key forward acquisitions.
Tks Shelley. We may all not have exactly the same response to our current situation but I must say that notion of viewing in a vacuum is something that rolls around in my mind each week. For me it’s been trying to build some confidence that we can be consistently competitive, establish that platform then work towards good wins rather than competitive losses. Right now I’m not convinced about stage 1, our forwards compete but don’t dominate and our backs are finding ways to show strike while execution still has big upside. I’m keen to see Lomax back and our best 17 on the park, but depth has to be developed. In all circumstances, the last couple of games have seen improvement and I live in hope rather than bathe in confidence.
Nothing to say, Shelley…
You’ve summed everything up perfectly.
The short term pain is fine with a solid long term goal, but is that goal even clear?
The league world is giving Ryles every opportunity and in general, have faith in what he’s doing and the long term. What he’s doing is a massive risk, scary and all Eels fans have recently had to build some faith and trust in what is happening at roster level. Are we headed in the right direction? Personally I think so, I hope so, but the players that will be signed and mixed with what we have will be interesting and who knows what the team will look like in twelve months, or how that team goes.
Oh to be an Eels fan 😳
What’s worrying about our recruitment?
The only good and I mean truly good players, always only ever seen to “fall into our hands” so fo speak.
Josh ado car unwarned at dogs due to off field issues, Lomax unhappy at dragons with new coach, Walker coming back to Aus for family related issues, etc.
You could easily make an argument those 3 are the parramatta eels best players this year if you are talking players outside of our captain.
What does that tell you?
I think we can all think of different conclusions. But here is the consensus amongst long time nrl fans, especially long term parra eels supporters.
We have a very poor recruitment system and poor record which easily supports that claim which most fans agree is a large part of our issue.
So you could argue we got lucky on all of those players. R & R “strategy” and good business played no part in it. Those signings were extremely lucky and good timing.
So if the 3 best players in your team besides your captain were arguably lucky signings that fell into our laps…
It indicates that either
A). Our club is either not desirable to quality players and they won’t consider us unless it’s for huge overs
Or…
B). The people in charge of R & R as well as the higher ups in our club are not as good at their jobs compared to majority of other clubs.
Like you, I can only get behind this “be patient it takes time” stuff, if we see them actually execute good, high level recruitment decisions moving forward.
If we see the club only able to sign young players with talent or a few over the hill mid tier players for 26’. Then you can nearly almost guarantee our club won’t be be much better off next year.
I think all of us want / need to see at least 2 two high level experienced forwards signed for 2026. We don’t need any more rookies that will take 3-4 years to develop.
What all of us parra fans want to see is finally some good signings that see us dramatically improve, kind of like the signings we saw under Bernie Gurr.
Myself and many others would argue that our r & r went downhill massively after he left us, many of the players we got under him were brilliant.
I trust in Jason Ryles. His recruitment and promotion so far has been admirable, not one bad signing or promotion internally.
What worries me is we need at the absolute bare minimum 2-3 more NRL experienced forwards, and this club has not shown us for years now it has the ability to sign quality experienced players unless they are unwanted or fall into our laps by more or less luck.
Look at the absolutely massive impact experienced quality players like Ado Carr, Lomax, Walker have made to our team. Clearly our best players behind Moses.
I also think we missed an absolutely huge opportunity in singing Terrell May as well. He is a walk up start to state of origin starting 17. In his first year as a leading prop at club level.
There’s other players who could have absolutely bolstered this club and made us finals contenders.
Guys like Stephen Crichton, Conor Tracey, Reed Mahoney, so many good players that just wanted more money. We could have given it to them and potentially signed them.
I’m afraid the bulldogs have essentially made more better recruitment decisions in the last 3 seasons than we have made in a decade.
The dogs are in the running to win the comp potentially this year. While we are running dead last. That’s the power of good football brains + good R & R in your organisation.
We don’t throw our hand at strong external players well enough. Stephen Crichton I’m convinced could win that bulldogs team a comp with his leadership.
You have to have winners in your team to actually win the comp. I just don’t see that we ever sign those highly competitive winning types, we refuse to pay them what they want. We then over pay our own inconsistent players who were old, let go of the younger ones, then wonder why we are dead last 3 years after a GF appearance?
I’m convinced if you tried to purposefully sabotage a club and turn it from a GF team to wooden spoon in 3 years you probably could not achieve it easily. Even purposefully trying to do that, it would be very hard.
Thats how bad I’m personally convinced we are being ran. The new coach gives me confidence we will improve. I think we shoot up the ladder next year.
But to fight for the title? I’m still not convinced this administration top to bottom at parra is capable enough to do that.
There’s too much evidence of poor decision making since Bernie Gurr left us for us to blindly “be patient” as they are asking from us.
I’m sure every parra fan feels roughly the same about this..