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Join Sixties and Forty20 as they run their eyes over a critical win for the Eels that was built on a strong defensive effort. With the Eels securing their 3rd win of the season The Tip Sheet looks at what it means for the season with Origin looming around the corner.
The instant reaction show will go live around 8:10PM!
How are Hopgood and Peninsi keeping their spots locked down every week fellas? Ba copped flak for doing exactly this sticking with out of form Snr players who were costing us games or making too many silly mistakes every game.
Who else can we put at centre over Will? What else can we do with Hopgood while he is so out of form alongside Will?
Im convinced both of them are too out of form to be locked in starters for the eels NRL team in 2025. We can’t keep going on with them like this.
Good win against the hapless knights. Agreed – Penisini needs to be dropped at some stage when backline is healthy. Also we should be actively looking for centres as penisini and Russell are slow reserve graders. Even the first try to lomax, penisini threw a awful pass to lomax which he managed to wrangle for the try. He’s been grade for years and still can’t pass under pressure nor hold the ball.
Jack Williams needs to remain at backrow for a while until we get a decent backrower. Was good today.
Ron Jack played amazing tonight
He is a much better player when used out side
Coach Ryles saw the same as us last week and opted for a bigger middle this week
We were able to lay a platform and hold our own in the middle, i believe this helped us a lot
Newcastle were absolutely terrible, I felt sorry for Gagai on his 300th game
Ron Will and Hopgood will be under pressure, if their form doesn’t improve this season you can bet talks will be had wether to keep them or not
Jason’s already shown he will make the hard decisions if he has too
The Hopgood hate is unwarranted.
I thought he was decent tonight. Mistakes, but plenty of players made mistakes.
Effort is there Grunta but the errors need to be reduced. I suspect he is still carrying the back injury.
I’m led to believe we have a very quickish outside back coming next year from a Sydney club which may end penisinis time in first grade , also jack Hudson has extended as the club appears to rate him
I’d even take dom young from roosters on a subsidised deal for two years.
Quickish is interesting…can you name the club? Is the bloke currently in first grade?
I’m done with Hopgood. Done. Never want to see his name on our team sheet ever again.
You will continue to see it Brett.
I’m sure I will. But it’s clear that Ryles is losing faith in him, his minutes have been getting shorter every week, although this week they were back up to 50. He just doesn’t fit our style of play now. I fully expect him to sign with the Bears if BA gets the gig.
BA won’t get the gig Brett.
The Lobby for Meninga is huge
PS Hopgood is ok, he is doing an enormous amount of defensive work, he can’t fit himself into the forwards attacking structure, no plays are happening off his ball skills.
Brett I think he is a great player just down on form, and / or line sixties touched on it could be still due to his back
I’m a fan of hopgoods, but we desperately need to see the knock ons from him and will P
You can’t play first grade and drop the ball multiple times per game
I totally agree. Penisini is friggin hopeless!!! Worst Centre in NRL!!! Absolute garbage. 5 errors?? He’s a joke. Everyone else did well except hopgood but understandable noting high shot on him.
I don’t get the Hopgood hate…well, as much as others. He wasn’t great but he did some good things and his worst wasn’t bad bad.
Penisini however 🙄
He reminds me of Furgo only not as brilliant. Every good thing he does is brought undone by mistakes and stupid play. It’s time for Will to fix his shortcomings in Reggie’s.
I looked at our team list on Tuesday and thought that the only massive problem with the team was our centres. Penisini and Russell 🙄😳
Shocking
You need to qualify Garbage Josh, why do our supporter’s need to refer to players as garbage…..yeh he is doing it tough, I’m sure the coaching staff are working on it.
When fans are as insulting as that I automatically wonder how many levels below NRL they have ever played.
Muz, they are both doing it tough but it’s a matter of options. Will won’t be replaced as he remains the best option there.
How close is Richie ? With Lomax likely to be unavailable next week, no Bailey now, he must be getting close. Surely he’s in front of Tago & Dunster now ?
My understanding is he is struggling. I think you will find there are alternative’s if it comes to that.
Good effort all round for me fellas. Defence was v good for me.
Good win and glad to see Lomax back.
Well done. Dust off Parra and get ready for Manly
Excluding the errors what was their big issues? Lomax had 3 errors do you think we should drop him? Hopgood had one of his best for the season I reckon, played 50 minutes with 35 tackles and 0 misses, Penisini had 17 tackles and 1 miss which is the better then every other centre that game and ran for 180 metres in the centres as well. Enjoy the win for a minute instead of complaining so much.
Seb, if you held a poll 90% of eels fans who’ve watched every game hold close to the same opinion i mentioned.
You can’t make silly errors consistently while holding the ball every game and keep your spot.
Lomax etc errors are mostly from contending high balls, that’s not a good comparison that any person would use as a measure.
They’ll be both gone if their form doesn’t improve this year. I’m a fan of both but their form is far below their best all year.
Muz, I posted elsewhere that Hopgood can be mishap prone but tonight he copped a decent head butt and a crap high tackle call for errors. The high tackle one was bizarre.He and Penisini break our momentum too often, but both have strengths we can leverage. They just need to stay calm, don’t rush, concentrate on ball security and build confidence.
Bdon that Hopgood head clash thing was bizarre I thought too
To be fair I’m a fan of both Will and Hopgood, but their form in terms of handling is Career worst you have to think
We won’t climb the ladder making so many errors
Sebastian. I’m with you. I understand the criticism of a couple of players but I’m not sure whether it should be the focus after a good win. Let’s enjoy it.
The advice from the centre of the Cumberland Throw operation was don’t back us, we’re too short. My father had a great position on that proposition – any price is a good price on a winner. Given the relative strengths of the two squads no way we’re we going to lose – we picked nearly our best available squad, maybe for the first time this year.
A couple of comments ,and questions:
How good is Smith; it strikes me that he is an outstanding defensive player; a great pick up;
Matterson adds to the maturity of the operation when he’s on;
How is it that Moretti hasn’t started until to-night.
It was great to see the respect shown by Dane Gagai for Sean Russell at the end of the game.
And Jack Williams had easily his best game for the club.
A very good win. Hopefully the start of something.
Noel, my take was just that I don’t like short odds on the punt. If I was tipping for big stakes, even money is good. My tips are for the $10 or $20 punters. 😁
Given I got the try scorer tip wrong I should have taken the shorter odds on the win.
How well controlled was that !!!!
How good was that!
Lets be honest, the Knights are toothless. Yeah our defence was good and getting better, but the Knights are comfortably the worst attacking team in the league. They threw nothing at us tonight. I’ll take the win, but we are still a long way off.
No illusions about how bad the Knights are. But let’s enjoy the win.
I agree. I’m not a negative Nelly, but let’s keep things clear. That being said, I’d rather be in our position that the Knights. They are in a world of hurt right now. I don’t know who’d be more depressed, Knights fans about the prospect of relying on Dylan Brown to be their game manager, or Dylan joining that rabble and living in that fishbowl.
It’s great to win but the Knights were abysmal.
Just how long can we continue with Will Penisini ???
It’s not just his dropped balls and defensive errors which are amongst the worst in the NRL.
I haven’t looked at the stats but I reckon he would give more 6 agains than any other player in the game.
He is frequently left on the ground at the ruck.
I’ve never seen a rugby player possessing such a terrible passing game.
He actually passed the ball to Lomax for his first try but it almost landed in row.10!
Is his brother Richard at a sufficient level to take his place ?
Do we have someone else ??
Will is damned lucky that Simonson is injured because there is no way he stays in that side.
Great to win but we left 30 points out there.
With a decent centre, we may have grabbed half of that.
I guess we were watching different games.
Penisini made a couple of bad errors but he had a pretty good game: rucked well; made nearly 200 metres; was hard to tackle. Scrub out those few errors and it was a solid B game. Our much maligned centres did pretty well. Russell was also a solid B.
No idea. He is crap.
Hey Josh, we are all fans here!
Feel free to articulate why you don’t agree, but ‘he is crap’ and abusing a fellow fan is just the easy, lazy way for a cheap thrill.
Sure they make mistakes (who doesn’t). I think if there was a better option, then they’d be playing.
Well said mate
Well said Hiroshima. Josh hasn’t quite crossed the line but your reply gives a timely reminder about standards here.
I agree. The mistakes need to be cut out, but he’s a powerful ball runner, doesn’t shirk the yardage work, earns a lot of penalties. Is there an upgrade to be made ? Probably. But the nonsense that he and Russell are reserve graders is just that, nonsense.
It’s similar to when Dogs moved on averillo for Xerri. Everyone lambasted dogs for losing a decent player in averillo but averillo has clear limitations defensively and offensively. Parra need to make the tough call dogs did and move penisni if no real improvement by end of year/start of next. We need proper centres and we have some of the worst in the comp.
Forwards and a 6 are more of a priority atm but ryles needs to get some fast juniors in a centre. Will p has been surpassed by almost very young centre in the game: Purdue, kaloua, kayal iro, Timoko, seb kris, Bradman best, Rob tioa, billy smith, Ali leautiua etc etc. he’s had long enough to develop and there’s not much development of fundamentals like draw and pass etc
I like Russell because despite the fact that he will never be more than a stop gap NRL / Cup player, he seems to give everything he has.
I’ve never seen a player regress so much as Will Penisini.
Maybe a stint in Cup would do him the world of good.
We definitely have nothing at cup level and from what I have seen there is nothing at Flegg in the centres that scream ‘pick me’ for next season.
Maybe Apa Twiddle but the cupboard seems pretty bare.
Time to sign some fast young centres. There’s plenty in juniors for other teams it seams.
Ron every centre you mentioned has surpassed him. I don’t think big run meters from will make up for multiple knock ons and giving easy penalties every game, and poor defensive reads
If Jason Ryles wants to win a premiership at parra – Will needs to be a 2nd in line centre, not our first choice centre
Will and Sean are good depth players, I just can’t see them being good enough for parra to win premierships with them
And to be fair that’s our goal – we haven’t won it for near 40 years
You never seen clubs win premierships with bottom 4 centres in the game, Will is young though and may turn a corner in regards to his form & progression
He’s a good rucking player so perhaps his future, like that of Jordan Samrani , lies as an edge forward?
He doesnt have the speed or creative ability to stay in the backline of an Eels side that will be flush with funds next year.
paul momirovski won a comp? I’d say he is very average and if we played in our team would look similar to or worse than Russell.
Eels 95 to be fair, Paul was playing decent at that point, the chooks even signed him
There was a play in the first half where Russell picked up a loose ball and couldn’t position JAC in open field play.. Ball then got shifted right immediately and Penisini didn’t use Lomax, took the tackle and knocked on… It was 25 seconds of play that perfectly encapsulated the state of our centres.
You’ve obviously got your mind made up on our centres and you’re not going to change it. Fair enough Penisini shouldn’t have dropped it, but to blame Russell on that play is laughable. The fox couldn’t get around Schiller and position himself. There was nothing else Russell could have done in that situation. He didn’t panic either and try pass it to Iongi. Unless you wanted Russell to throw an intercept, that ball was never getting to the fox because he was blocked in.
Your’re right I probably am being too harsh on Russell. I shouldn’t expect him to sum up the situation in a split second because he can’t. I shouldn’t expect to angle his run and draw a legs tackle from the opposing winger so he can pass, because he can’t,or to bring JAC underneath him, and possibly gain more territory, because he can’t, or push off a defender, or turn them around or draw and pass or pass around the corner or kick to the fastest guy on the fields advantage – because the can’t. So yes, running 30m and taking the tackle was probably the best case scenario once he picked up the ball.
I have made up my mind on Russell. We have seen wnat 50 games from Russell? His injuries have made him a below average speed, he is not a tackle breaker, no speed off the mark, his football iq would seem to be in the very very bottom of the league. Could he improve? Maybe. But it would seem unlikely that even an improvement wouldn’t make him an average NRL player.
Honestly the only redeeming quality I can see (and I am open to other opinions on what I am missing), is that he is marginally better than Morgan Harper.
Just my opinion.
Don’t really know how to feel about that one but given our struggles you’d take that win everyday of the week. Those games you just have to win because Newcastle are completely broken.
Yes you gotta enjoy the win. Makes me sick thinking about our club and its failures compared to a club like the dogs. Mark oneill has a lot to answer for.
UP THE FUCKN EELS 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
Jack Williams… best game as en Eel by far. I’m liking the idea of him and Samrani as starting edge.
It was a terrific game.
Mr Sixties, I am somewhat surprised you haven’t deleted that F word comment. That’s disappointing.
Did we win today by 22 or lose?? I seriously don’t know what people will do life if they don’t complain about something.
Yes Penisini and Hopgood had a night to forget with the ball in hand.
No we aren’t popping the champagne and buying gf tickets but we’ve won 2 games up until now. I thought maybe the return of Lomax, the great form of Fox, the awesome game by Williams, the improvement from Kautoga, the potential shown by Sammrani, Ryley’s kick pressure, Juniors offloads, the near shut out of a team were probably things that should be discussed before ripping a few players heads off.
Anyway that is just me but we are all entitled to our opinions. Hopefully they continue to improve and move up the ladder slightly.
Well done Russell on 50 games. He cops a lot of criticism but his defence has become rock solid next to the fox and he is getting better at supplying the Fox with good ball.
Eels95, agree with everything you said.
There was a lot of positive things I agree from a lot of players
The questions fans have regarding Will and Hopgood are from the dropped balls every week, it’s different if they just had a bad game
Our club is coming dead last, fans are obviously entitled to identify what players are out of form if it’s a weekly affair
It’s the first time I’ve commented about will & Hopgood Negatively, I’ve waited until rd 11 to see if the errors, penalties and poor passes went away
11 rounds is a fair amount of time to give players before asking questions around their form
I get that. I just think maybe on team list Tuesday or the post game grades is a better place to vent about certain players. After a much needed id rather focus on the positives and worry about the negatives in a day or 2. Especially since the positives outweigh the negatives in this instance.
It’s fair comment Eels95 but end of the day we played an ordinary team missing two of their better players, that had Tyson Gamble as halfback and their big attacking threat (Sharpe) ran the ball 3 or 4 times all night.
So you have to take it with a huge grain of salt. Yes you can only play what is infront of you.
I would say we did well with ball control in general (outside Will and Hopgood). But I thought we were too focused on our right side and didn’t challenge their right enough.
And 12 points were scored against 12 men.
But JAC is looking way better than I thought he would.
Williams had his best game by far, but up against who?
Everyone else, at best, pretty much did their job and nothing much more.
In addition to our struggle in the centres I actually thought Ryley Smith service was pretty poor. Lots of passes high and on back shoulders. Great effort as always, but not clinical.
Good to get a win, but if we had lost to that rabble…
Well said. People are entitled to their opinions. I don’t give a rats if people want to smother the team and the players with love – matter for them. My opinion is that penisini is not playing at first grade standard. Everyone talks yardage – great! But can you also see that he consistently drops the ball each game?? Even Ryles hit the glass last night when he made his second error.
I guess I’m just old school, but the penisini I see is in love with himself and his image (he spends half the night looking at himself on camera). Perhaps he should be looking at the ball closer so he doesn’t drop it so much.
Just my opinion. Sorry if I offended anyone.
Totally agree 95. Why not enjoy the win. It was our best defensive effort for a long time. And I mean years.
Live match notes (had to watch it on delay)
Penisini first touch into touch… sigh
Great catch by Hunt – Marzhew would never have caught that. sigh
Great start. Penisini almost blew that second try (that’s why he never passes – he can’t!). There looks like plenty of points on that Knights left edge.
We need a lead. I’m nervous what our forward rotation is going to look like.
Knights attack.. You can’t even call it attack, they offer nothing.
Kick chase is a good straight line. Williams looks troubled by Ponga speed though.
Vossy has mentioned Newcastle debutant Fletcher Hunt 50 times. Mataele has made multiple hit ups and tackles and not had his name mentioned. Par for the course..
Half time. As long as we keep Ponga and Sharpe apart, we’ll be fine. Probably need one more try. 16 or 18 points should be enough
Crossland offers nothing. Slow passes, or creative. How is Arthur not starting or on the bench with Brailey?
Ordinary first 10 in the second half. Williams with a nice step but Ryley Smith services is unusually ordinary.
A lot of 4 second play the balls for both teams
I’m worried we need more than 10. Knights jag 1 try I can see them flunking a second.
Try! Vossy trying to say Penisini fumbled it picking up for the try after earlier saying “Newcastle going back sadly”, and all the Hunt focus. It’s pretty lobsided commentary
18-0. We’re home.
24-0. Can’t imagine AOB has a job on Monday.
Good on you Samrani. Nice line.
28-0 AOB may not have a job by 10pm!
Great to get a win. But it was a team with Tyson Gamble as halfback…We’ve played better and lost. The Knights at full strength might be the worst team and worst coached team in the competition, so missing Best and Thompson helped. Williams best game by a mile. Probably Kautonga best game too (against sub par opponents). I like the lineup (based on our roster) If we can get something from Matterson as a bench middle, it would be great.
Always enjoy your live match notes mate !
You were pretty kind on the one everyone is talking about but that’s ok.
The Knights were a rabble.
Now that Mal is odds on to coach the Bears, BA will be in Newcastle probably before the year is out.
Ryles stated we played better but lost in the previous two rounds. But we have to enjoy the win.
Josh ado car has easily been one of the best players we have signed in years
Josh ado car is probably the best winger I’ve seen play for parra for as long as I can remember
Obviously Lomax is a gun but his a meter eater and plays a different role
Josh ado car is back looking something like he did when he was at the Melbourne Storm, absolutely hats off to Jason Ryles and the coaching staff
I feel like if our centres can improve at setting Ado-car and Lomax up we could end up putting on huge scores on teams
100%
You don’t remember Semi ?
True Brett.
Sami was truly elite.
Lomax, the Fox, Semi, best Eels Wingers from my own memory
Eric grothe snr would lead the pack semi a great 2nd then in no particular order lomax, addo car, grothe jnr,glover,Jimmy porter Archie brown Dave Irvine there would be others I can’t recall. Pretty sure hayne debut on the wing
I wasn’t around back then Tanky mate
But my dad told me about how good Growth Snr was
To be fair Jnr was also a quality player for us
Yeah mate showing my age. Just thinking now now the lead up to 76 it was bedlam all good natured but those crazy times chanting parra parra outside the scg after the game with 50 to 100 people so many stories
You need to qualify Garbage Josh, why do our supporter’s need to refer to players as garbage…..yeh he is doing it tough, I’m sure the coaching staff are working on it.
When fans are as insulting as that I automatically wonder how many levels below NRL they have ever played.
The highlights for me were about 7 minutes in and 5 minutes from half time when Russell, Lomax and possibly Brown executed a perfect sliding defence instead of giving up a try.
The bad
In the first half while we were stuck on 10 points I wondered how many points Melbourne would have put on Newcastle.
Far too many one out forward rushes at the try line. We need some well drilled set pieces near the line.
Likewise, too many hit ups from backs out of our 20.
Penisini had another rough night. His defence work is huge but he’s struggling in attack. Maybe he’s trying too hard.
The good
We have the best wing combination in the league. Russell did a much better job of getting the ball to JAC than he has previously.
The forwards are solid workers. Williams had a great game.
We continue to improve.
That was the performance of a top 8 capable side.
Our wingers are elite 57. We’ve come a long way in this department.
That was the performance of a top 8 capable side….against a bottom 2 side. Sorry 57 (shouldn’t that be 58 or 59 now?) but our performance still has too many deficiencies to be top 8. A couple of better forwards and 2 decent centres would help. Tylan? May is available (I know, a dickhead but maybe matured a bit by now) but was/is a decent centre and an improvement on what we have at present.
I don’t understand why the club hasn’t grabbed Taylan May. The bloke CAN play and would instantly make our side so much better.
Obviously the club has decided that his negatives out weigh the potential positives that he could bring.
We are going nowhere with Penisini/Russell in the centres.
We don’t need choirboys out there and a contract with strict conditions would be welcome.
I trust Ryles and the team have others lined up.
Haha.
My dad took me to Cumberland Oval for the first time in 68 when I was 8.
Not much later I used to run through the stormwater drains alongside Ringrose Park from Greystanes to make Sunday afternoon games.
Capable is different to actually doing it.
I think we could beat Manly, Wests and the Broncos.
I think the Storm & Hroncis might disagree; the Roosters too. But they are the best we’ve had since Semi.
I’ll take any win, very happy this morning.
We’re rocketing up the ladder, the win puts us a little less last and only two points out of the 8.
Hopefully Canberra touch up the Titans so we move off the bottom.
Green shoots, I hope Jason stops saying that. Green shoots to me mean we are years away from a forest. I don’t have years worth of patience left in me.
good points, and that was a much needed win mate 🤝
I’m viewing this win and the Eels progression in an entirely positive light. The last four games have been pretty good. Won two, lost two in competitive games. Last night was an excellent result for a road trip to Newcastle and a game played in wet conditions. Our boys left a few points out there but they showed they are a MUCH better team than the Knights. Moses controlled the game in a fabulous way, the backs ran well and the whole team defended stoutly. Super hard draw coming up: Bullies, Storm, Riff (twice). The team has improved so much since the beginning of the year and the Storm game will show us just how much. I’m not going to knock them. I’m congratulating them for this performance and hoping for the very best in future games.
Well said McFersie.
Lots of comments here and for the most part they surprise me.
It’s obvious that as fans we have forgotten how to enjoy the win. I think you can do so even with understanding that the Knights are the likely spoon winners. Ryles stated we played better in the previous two games and lost. He’s not oblivious to the Eels having issues to work through. And a couple of key players are struggling.
However, after it’s appeared that the team had forgotten how to win, it’s good to see the team get some things right and be deserved winners.
Remember the first two rounds, when the Eels not only lost badly, they looked like complete strangers who had just met each other in the sheds before the game? They are growing as a team and have a long way to go. But the growth is nonetheless there.
What struck me particularly about the performance was that, clearly the blokes loved being out there. This year several have looked in some matches like they had the weight of the world on their shoulders.
Obviously, at this stage this is a long way from the best team we have ever had. Go back seventy years and they are also far from the worst. The three players drawing most criticism on these exchanges, Hopgood, Penisini and Russell will never feature in “best team ever” discussions but they are all brave young men who give us absolutely all they’ve got every time they take the field. I think it’s sad that from some they get criticism that almost amounts to abuse.
We,’re a very long way from where we want to be; in the first few matches of the year you could legitimately knock the effort; not these last few games.
You’d have to say that that’s progress.
I dont know about abuse Noel. I do think the observations regarding Will Penisini are warranted.
We are all positive about last night but the glaring obvious is .. glaringly obvious !
It just hasnt been this game or the last, Did I read that he has a tackle efficiency of only 84% ?? Which is amongst the poorest in the game.
He has consistently been poor in handling and decision making for a couple of seasons now.
I think we all just lament the fact that Will was a schoolboy star, signed by the Eels at the age of 14 and destined for the stratosphere who is now described correctly by you as never able to feature in the best team we have ever had.
Where did it all go wrong with Will ???
Lack of coaching ? Lack of application ? or did we just see gold when there just wasnt any ?
I know he loves the Eels but on his current trajectory, he may be the victim of a purge that Ryles will continue and no doubt his esteemed manager will be agitating that he be released to a more deserving team.
Between 88% and 84% is where most centres in the comp sit. The best defensive centre in the game sits at 90%. Will sits at 85% this year.
Centres below him on % Gagai, Best, Staggs, Holmes, Shibasaki, Averillo, Kris.
I didn’t look up every team but a lot of these guys are rep quality centres and they have a worse tackle efficiency to Penisini. So fair enough bag him for his mistakes but don’t make up stats.
Mate that’s right. I withdraw my comment about his tackle efficiency.
I was under the mistaken belief that it was one of the poorest.
I have real concerns about the skills coaching in our pathways. How many kids have come through our grades and look good early, but their skills deficiencies get exposed once they’ve been in the league for a couple of years. Other than JLH, can anyone name a single pure Eels junior whose skill set was truly elite ? Junior maybe.
A good win by our team so lets enjoy it when they come around. I know there are a lot of fans having a go at Will, Hopgood and Russell and fair enough cause I said the same about Hopgood and Will after the game but hopefully they will improve. You can use Russell here as an example of improvement, before JAC came and at the beginning of the year he couldn’t pass the ball or set up his winger. He defensive reads weren’t great as well. At round 11, I see a much better player in that he can now set his winger up most of the time and his passing game has improved 100%. The defensive work he does with JAC has improved greatly as well and the 3 of them (Brown) form a very good defensive side.
Improvement is there as we can all see in the team so lets look forward to that continuing.
JAC has been an absolute god send to Russell. Improved his game out of sight.
JAC has been the best signing we have done for a number of years, Id actually be giving him a 3 or 4 year deal. Could easily play for another 4 years.
Two with an option in our favour would be sweet spot
Green shoots Sixties 😀
Mr Sixties, it’s a funny game rugby league. You can play your best and lose. You play below your best and win. That’s what we have observed of late. Handling errors and poor goal kicks have hurt us. It is always good to have a win. When they spread the ball they look good but one off is so predictable. As for Hopgood if he is not fit then leave him out. And as for Will P two years ago he was an elite centre who always got the better of Olam at his peak. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, he is certainly better than what he is currently doing. Seven handling errors between two players who really can be regarded as seasoned players is not a good look. And it seems always at the wrong time. Newcastle are clearly down on confidence but they did not stop trying. What most have missed for the first time this year we did not concede a try just before halftime. When was the last time we kept a team under 10 points.
Mr Sixties, when think back to the first four games up to and including the Raiders we have to think about the Dylan effect. The sports commentators are using DCE as the reason for Manly’s drop in form but when it came to Parra and Brown we were just a horrible team. We should not underestimate the damage Brown caused with his announcement and of course missing our best players through injury. Now we have origin coming up and again we may be missing them. Parra can turn the corner and will but we need our best out there.
Any news on Ryley Smith – he went off injured. And, I Sean Russell is holding position because of JAC – he is doing well.
Ryley will be sweet for Friday
WOW the negative comments on here is astounding do you think for one second these Players are not feeling the guilt of making errors in games but missing 13 tackles all game is unheard of from our Eels this Season so that proves we are starting to defend our errors much more as Ryles has said many times we are learning on the run enjoy the wins whoever they are against
The defence on the wings has improved beyond recognition with our much-maligned centres making a strong contribution. Another plus was the very successful debit of Toni Mataele, who clearly belongs at this level.
Interesting question – Zac gets picked for Origin; who takes over on the wing? Obvious answer, Jordan Samrani, though perhaps it’s a chance to give Will a run there – his natural position, on my opinion, and see if Jordan has skills on using a winger which Will doesn’t have.
Perhaps when next we play in a grand final our three quarters will be Lomax, Samrani, Simonssen and Ado-Carr
Not as good as Grothe, Ella, Cronin and Hunt, but not too shabby.
I don’t think you will ever seen Jordan Samrani return to the centres. He will be an edge forward who gives us room to fill a gap if one of our centres goes down mid game but don’t think he has the lateral ability or speed to continue in the centres.
Id like to see Jordan hit the Gym in the off season. he has all the markings of an elite ball runner.
I’m all for Will to get a run as a winger. he doesn’t have to pass so that’s a plus.
I would have thought that Dunster may have been promoted but his body appears to be permanently broken.
I think you will just see Tago on the wing to replace Lomax.
Agreed Lynn. It was a performance where the positives outweighed the negatives. Even if we only won by two points, I’d be celebrating. The goal is winning and getting the two premiership points. Done ✅
You can only play what is in front of you so happy with the win. The Knights are a team really at rock. bottom while the Eels are showing some good signs.
The Rylesolution is becoming evident and while the execution is not perfect I’m liking what I’m seeing.
Jack Williams really showed something last night. MOMAX was finally unleashed. The speed of The Fox makes that side of the field so dangerous and the young players are really making the most of their elevation to first grade.
I’m not going to jump on Penisini as he has work to do. But when he held the ball, he was a handful. Cut out the errors and help a pass and he will be alright.
I still say bunches of the season, the team will be fully into what Ryles is brining to Parra. A few good signings leading into 2026 will have the team well placed.
Yes Shaun. If we’re playing the long game, this is all part of laying the platform.
A win is a win. An ugly win is worth just aa much as a good win. This wasn’t ugly. This was enjoyable.
Such an improvement in defence. They said Ryles had them working on it last few weeks. Still a work in progress.
A few errors. But only 25 missed tackles?
I feel for Hopgood he had a ball rolling backwards called a knock on – joke! He had a headclash which have been penalised “under duty of care for the ball carrier” called a knock on – unlucky.
Penisini also received a few errors got a bad pass from Moses for 1 error. But needs to be improving or he’ll be shown to Rugby.
There were far more positive plays than negative plays. This is a rebuild and I think next year we will be in a very good position.
Just sign JAC!! That Brown try is an illustration of why. But the reason why is because he’s an onfield coach especially to Russell.
Momax 100% winning rate!
Pete the effect of JAC is huge. Especially on his men inside.
How goods the defence been around him?
I like your point: Momax: 100% win rate 🤣🔥
Mate I wasn’t meaning to be negative I just mean we can’t keep going with all the stupid errors from those players, tidy those up and I feel like we can start to beat some top 8 sides.
We also looked a lot better with more size in the forward rotation I thought.
Muz, the players gave Ryles food for thought. Williams was very good on an edge. Samrani showing promise as an edge player. Kautoga improving. Mataele solid debut. Matto contributed. When Kelma returns, how will he juggle those players? Not to forget that Guymer and Keir were stand outs in Cup yesterday.
Jack Williams was amazing yesterday mate, i love his versatility but looked deadly on the edge.
As you said all of those players are doing really well. We honestly can’t ask for much more from those young men with only a little bit of nrl experience.
Our forwards overall did a pretty good job yesterday. I felt like that played a big part in Newcastle not scoring a lot. They are a team who does well once their forwards get on a roll normally.
Is Kautoga more an edge player or a prop?
Agree Muz, I think we are all frustrated by the errors as we ride every play hoping for the win lol.
Will had a few and he was feeling it at full time. He just needs to catch the ball and then act because he’s too often thinking about what hell do with it before catching the ball. It’s a focus issue not a ‘skill’ issue.
JAC was always touted as a great hype man especially for the young guys. Something we really lacked in recent times.
Pete I also wonder if the new playing style has influence on the errors.
Under the old regime backs did not do as much of the yardage work, where’s now the back 5 all push big meters and get through a lot of work.
It’s Will’s first year playing like this. Hopgoods first year also playing under a new system. Not every single player can adapt the same.
Kautoga and Samrani came from the dogs whose club has the best defensive team in the comp this year.
Jack Williams’s old team also is a top 4 defensive club.
It could be just form and things like the back injury to guys like Hopgood…
But there’s also a chance here that some players are more familiar with the way Jason Ryles wants them to play, as their previous clubs may have had some similar systems.
Hopgood is more your offloading type lock, Will is also more your power centre who’s deadly close to the try line.
Jason’s new playing style might be more suited to a ball playing lock like Walker, and a speedy centre like Farnworth who’s also ultra fit, than a power centre who’s better in short stints of running the ball closer to the try line.
Not suggesting this is 100% the case. But some of the players strengths may not be suited for this playing style Jason’s implementing.
We will know by next season. If any of them are unable to execute Jason’s game plans to his desired standards..
You can bet he will be loading up on more options with his 2026 war chest of cash.
From my understanding there’s limited middle forwards coming the market, but if there’s some good versatile forwards and outside backs becoming available?
You can bet Jason is going to swoop on them. We should have a lot of cash to spare with Joffa, D Brown, Carty, Grieg, and maybe even Sean lane off the books.
If we can offload Matto as well? We could have the cash to upgrade both Will and Sean. Keep them as depth.
If the forward markets are limited, Jason will have to invest a good amount of that cash into versatile backs you can imagine.
Once example is fullbacks depth. We currently have only 1 fullback with NRL experience. If we could sign another back who can cover several backline positions + has NRL experience at fullback (like Cobbo) for example…
Suddenly we have a very strong, top 8 looking backline. If we could Snag Galvin + Cobbo? I think we could be near guaranteed top 8 in 2026.
Obviously forwards a will probably our biggest focus when we go to market, but if there’s not much available you can expect Jason to sign at least 1-2 marquee backs as well with the cap space available you would think.
Ferguson regularly ran over 200 when he first started
Amen
Pete, I reported that from Day one JAC was a difference maker at training. He talks non stop. He coaches the young players. You can throw Lomax into that and of course the captain. That’s the value of senior players. Yes, JAC is a must extend. He seems to love being at Parra. His words to me during the preseason – “I love it here brother. It’s a really cool club.”
I love that mate. I really hope Josh remains healthy and happy at our club and remains long term. You can clearly tell Kautoga and Russel in my view are playing well with JAC there with them especially in defence. It’s like having another coach on the field. I think Sean Russel has been doing a very good job with his defensive work. JAC is also playing better than he was at the Bulldogs I feel like. Josh is playing similar to back in his Storm days under Jason’s old mentor. I wonder if Jason understands how to get the best out of Josh more than his previous club did.
I just mean I felt like the bulldogs didn’t get the most out of Josh. I understand he is playing for an extension possibly, but it’s not just his efforts. His form at the eels is elite.
Sixties you speak to these decision makers. Just tell them to get the lead out for once.
JAC was well known for his off field importance. We were lucky to get him let’s not blow it!
Finally a win, it’s a strange feeling
What isn’t is the nervousness I have whenever I see the ball going near Russell, Penisini or Kautoga(ok he wasn’t bad this time)
It’s not good enough to make so many handling errors, Carty isn’t that bad.
Having Lomax back shows what a difference someone with some size and attitude can bring, we really need a big mongrel forward that only exists to fold victims stat
I thought there was something about that performance which spelled out better times ahead, we did have to have our best/near best 17 on the park to build such hope, and we are left with the reminder that the Knights are fielding a poor spine and were without their Best. From 1 to 7 I never got that ‘here it comes’ feeling so often felt over many seasons as Latrell, Turbo and Munster eyed off the spaces out wide. And I’m not in the Penisini, Hopgood, Russell non admiration society, go back and look at our poorest days since 2022 you’ll see blokes who I would not name turning their toes up but never these 3, in fact they’re among our hardest triers. Penisini needs to keep his mind on what he is doing at the moment, I reckon he starts thinking about the next frame, or he is lamenting a stuffed up play, the guy has shown us top level capability, how does this vanish? And that high tackle penalty against Hopgood said it all for me, he takes the ball carrier legally, ball and all solid tackle, but his arm gets accidentally deflected onto another guy who is running the most bumbling, shitful line through the same gap and the ref can’t even explain to Moses what he saw(perhaps the bunker made it up?).
I heartily endorse the comment that, in the recent past when there were occasions of some pretty big names finding ways to avoid involvement, Russell, Penisini and Hopgood never did. Ryles obviously feels the same way; he’s stuck with them while having dismissed the claims of a great many of the old guard. A man can only play to the limit of his ability.
With JAC, I thought the club had to activate the extension by Round 10? Haven’t heard anything on that. Anyone got any news on that?
Also, to everyone’s comments about JAC, he mentioned something in his podcast with Josh Mansour saying that he would love to finish his career here which is a great sign
Watched the game with someone who has coached juniors at a decent level. His comment was that the structure in defence has changed considerably , and that is why we don’t leak so many points. Said it takes time to overcome the sort of muscle memory thats been there under previous structure, and that now they work differently inside their own half and don’t provide so much space out wide.
Thought Penisini is so aware of the strike outside him that he’s rushing his thoughts and he needs to focus on simplifying his passing , at junior rep level he was pretty good at setting up his outside, needs to calm down and use his strength in running with purpose and that should create enough room and time with the the defence looking to tackle that we will find the time to pass. Russell has calmed down in defence too and this has improved his overall game and solidified the left side with the support of Addo Carr.
We appear to have good prospects coming through and as long as we target rep level signings in positions of need, the future is looking promising.
Thanks for the instant reaction fellas,
An enjoyable listen. Didn’t get to watch the game until Saturday night. I continue to think there is improvement on show, inevitably there will be the one step back, but I enjoyed us just finishing off a game.
Last game against Manly Kautogi had three runs to his name around the 65 minute mark which I stated was not good enough. The last couple of weeks his work rate has picked up, he’s passed a few good balls and he’s made a few good hits. He is steadily improving and his confidence is growing. Still mistakes there but he reflects where the Eels appear to be under the new regime. Steady improvement, but a long way to go.
Ryley Smith remains my favourite of the new generation of players but Samrani is closing in, he puts in all the time. Ibis or Bin Chicken are interesting nicknames as you mentioned. While it may be based on appearance, if he displays some of the Ibis characteristics such as hanging around annoying everyone and picking up all the scraps then we have another decent player at the Eels.
Good to see so many comments post instant reaction – the site seemed strangely quiet during the week.