The Tip Sheet is also available on Spotify and iTunes!
The Eels played some of the worst football in months in Round 24 as they fell shy of the South Sydney Rabbitohs by 4-points. Sixties and Forty20 debrief the frustrating result with Parramatta straying from the style of footy that has seen them win plenty of admirers in 2025. The Tip Sheet also breaks down the other results from Saturday that featured wins for the HNWP, Jersey Flegg Cup and NSW Cup as well as a rough loss for the NRLW.
Iongi staring at the loose footy whilst Duncan dives on it summed up the difference between two sides tonight. That’s down to coaching and leadership.
We are heading into an absolutely massive off season for the club. Mark O’Neil needs to recruit 3-4 first graders to bolster the roster for next year
As presently constructed we are destined for another bottom 4 stoush for 2026.
It was a pathetic performance. A lot of inflated egos out there. Iongi no desperation. Tualagi remains the laziest back rower in the game. Penisini is defensively deficient. Moses was quiet too. Overall – a depressing performance. A lot to do for Ryles.
At some point we need to drop Will penisini, kelma and a few others. It may not be next week. It may not be done this year but those players are not going to take us to top 8 or top 4 for future. And we can’t keep giving them chances in first grade. Same mistakes year on year. And Both are soft as butter in defence.
Our forwards are weak as piss weak aswell other than junior. No linespeed, no real errors forced and largely matched by reserve graders from souths.
Joash has no grubber, no willingness or ability to dig into line and take a shot to create space. Our whole left side was inept and dyl brown…well the less said the better. That’s in ryles because dyl is so lost out there and defences know he can’t do much so slide off him.
Roosters next week. Big test
Realistically doorey and moretti are also reserve graders who need to be dropped and uprgrades found in the market if we are to push for 8 next year. Doorey can’t defend at all and gasses out quickly. Moretti is just limited and would be good depth
Early on I was thinking Hawkins would have been better.
The question is, why was the whole team so flat.
Why was Moses running on the fourth tackle?
Penisini leaves Addo-Carr no space.
The thing is, without the Jye Gray blinder we win by a couple of tries and everyone is happy.
We need two centres and a replacement for senior Junior.
There’s a bit of money coming back but we need to have enough to keep Smith and Iongi from the poachers.
Souths more hungry than the eels
2 Jye Gray try savers the difference
I wish Ry Smith the hooker could be used for 80 minutes
Moses slightly off tonight
Just saw the presser.
Definitely the most disappointed I have seen Ryles.
When asked for the positives, he said he couldn’t find any.
Well done Jason, turn that shop around. He’s definitely the right man for the job.
Overall a very flat display. Why do we persist with bombing to Lomax? Low percentage play everytime and too predictable. Maybe try Iongi at 5/8 and Papili at FB? Souths wanted it more and deserved the win.
Why does Melbourne persist with kicking to Coates ?
Wayne Bennetts game plan against Parramatta is always “boys just put your jersey on and wait for Parramatta to beat themselves. “
How good are roll ball penalties!!
Too right Luke!
The rolled ball penalty will be the new 6 again next year. Whenever the lesser team is getting ahead a “rolled ball” will be called to destroy momentum. Back in the close to even money favourites! The house must not loose…
Errors errors errors it’s why we’ve lost so many games. I don’t think our game stacks up for a top 4 team while playing like this. We’ve got a lot of elements that we do well but while we are making these errors we’ll stay where we are. The teams who are at the top dominate possesion and you can’t do that completing at 70-75% consistently. Every game we look good we kick to corners play simple and our line speed it’s just all the basics. We look terrible when we try and razzle dazzle teams
I call it as I see it. Don’t expect everyone to agree.
Another pretty disjointed performance. You half expect it when we are trying different players in different positions. None the less, going down to that team in that way is unacceptable.
Now I will say – I watched 5 of the first 6 games this weekend and apparently across 1,520 play the balls, Tulagi was the only one who rolled a ball… and Souths scored from the ensuing possession. But to what we can control…
Mitch is a great player and he had a bad night. We looked disjointed, last tackle options were poor and his execution was off in attack and defence.its great that we have Lomax for his aerial ability – but we have to have other options. We went in the air to Lomax on at least 6 occasions and none looked close to scoring.
Iongi. First game back in a month but lacked desperation on both sides of the ball several times.
Jnr seems to have checked out. If we get grades from Gol and any forward other than Hopgood gets higher than a ‘C’, ie a pass, it would be disappointing. A couple had some moments, but nothing that makes you feel good about next year.
Joash. I know there are 3 games and an entire off season before 2026 starts, but as of today, the Eels can’t have 2026 finals aspirations and put all their eggs in the Joash basket. He is making poor decisions, poor positional choices and he isn’t threatening with the ball in hand. Maybe it will click, maybe he is just one of those guys who can dominate at NSW Cup and doesn’t make the transition to the NRL – and there were plenty of NSW Cup players out there for Souths tonight and he rarely troubled them.
Our defence for the second week in a row – against ordinary opposition- failed to force an error. I know there are people who have faith in the existing squad but we have multiple huge holes they need filling. Backrow, front row, backline and 5/8, all need upgrading and with limited talent available on the market for next year, it looks like we will be looking for players for 2027… a year when a new club with a full cap to fill are looking to fill their books. .. and we still have MON doing the negotiating… Worrying times
I thought riley deserved more than a c
Ryley can have a ‘C+’
Have to agree BA. Joash isn’t an NRL-standard 5/8 – and to think we were interested in signing Sandon Smith but pulled out of the race to go “in house” instead! I was at Allianz on ANZAC day this year when Smith destroyed St George and got MOTM. Joash’s decisions in attack were ineffectual although he had plenty of friends in that department tonight. Ryles may know something about some big signings for next year that he’s keeping under wraps but I don’t see any quality free agents out there at the moment.
Agree with Joash, has speed and a step, but just doesn’t threaten the defence. Jury still out on him but a fail from me atm. Can’t put my finger on it but something just wrong with Parra overall. Need a few dominant forwards that’s for sure and decent defence would be handy. A lot of work to do for Ryles in the offseason and maybe some of out juniors may come to the fore next year. We can only hope otherwise another disappointing year likely.
Lomax definitely buggered from a heavy workload. Also agree re the bomb to him – it’s not working and it doesn’t look close to working. Regardless of why, stop doing it …..
Losing to a Souths reserve grade quality outfit is a very Parra thing to do, when we’ve supposedly been running a good form line.
It’s not a case of wholesale change required, but the off season can’t come soon enough. I’m done with 2025. Hopefully it can end quickly and neither the Dogs or Panthers lift the trophy.
Agree on Lomax Mick. The effort is there but the impact and execution isn’t the same. From catching high balls to goal kicking to leg drive. He is showing signs of wear after a big season.
I hope they are monitoring him closely as I would hate to see him get an overuse injury now that impacted his prep for next year.
Or Storm!
Disappointing result.
The errors are just killing our results week in week out.
Lomax is a great effort and meter eater! But low percentage plays when the team is needing points becomes very frustrating. He’s clearly had a big season and a post origin hasn’t been his best.
Moses kicking was off. He needs to re-evaluate the kick to Lomax strategy. Work it through the hands. The kick is too predictable now and unless the kick is perfect it leads to an error. It is now a low percentage play.
Jye Gray is a dynamo. Saving tries and setting them up. I hope Iongi or Joash will be like that next year. Gray and Trai Fuller are the prototype these guys need to learn from.
Line break by Williams pass to Brown who runs away from JAC goes infield pass to Iongi who’s tackled by Gray. Why run away from JAC? All those years as a 6 was a waste ??
As I said errors are killing us. The rolled ball penalty was a momentum killer and certainly seen a lot worse let go. So why then ? Souths home game…
Duncan dived in that ball like his life depending on it. That summed it up Souths wanted it more..
Tks guys, plenty to talk about but unfortunately a bit disappointing. You just got the feel that after 20 minutes and 12-4 we morphed into a backyard football state of mind and the Bunnies maintained an energetic, percentage football attitude which was conveniently fed and watered by our errors. There were so many moments that spoke for the mood of the game,just a left field one…Iongi looked certain to score under the black dot, but he just didn’t account for Gray’s anticipation, reflex, speed and intent, everything said a flying Iongi would swerve an almost stationery, no-mans land,short reaching Gray and I even thought he was around him, but no such luck.
We have had incremental small steps forward this year but last night game was a big step backwards in so many areas.
I personally would say that although we have had losses this year, last night was the worst and by a fair margin.
Having regards to the opposition, which by and large was a group of Cup and Flegg level players, we should have won easily and by a large margin.
Even if we come out and compete or win against the Roosters, our efforts last night would be even harder to digest as it would illustrate our ability and acceptance to completely turn off when we are expected to win.
How Jye Grey, a player who would be on a minimal bare bones contract, missed the MOM award is yet another mystery.
Where to from here? Recruitment? We state that we have a massive war chest but that’s immaterial when there is a dearth of quality available for 2026 Whist I congratulate Ryles on his bold approach , I hope now that the finals are out of reach we use the next few weeks as a blank canvas for bold experimentation.
We have seen Joash in 6, try Twiddle or Lorenzo T. Or put Iongi there. Use the time wisely and have a decent look.
Beating the Roosters with the same team next week proves little.
When will the team learn shooting yourself in the foot will really hurt you! Drop balls – stupid passes. And I am not going to talk about that dumb referee. The NRL.need to sort out what truly is a strip because with Parra no team does a strip even with three players in the tackle and hands all over the ball. If the game is not fixed why then does it look that way.
You would think Ryles has a recruit plan for five eight for next year at the forefront of his mind.
To go into 2026 with Joash and footy Dean as the only options next to Mitch who we pray has an injury free season is a massive risk.
We have not been interested in Doueihi or Sandon Smith so maybe the likes of Micky Lewis and Jayden Campbell (both contracted) become possibilities.
A very disappointing evening and result for me. I understand the frustration and concerns raised in the various posts and Forty/Sixties in the post game podcast.
My main concern was there seemed to be a real lack of commitment and intensity. Real commitment/intensity can often paper over a lack of skill or ability and help win a game against a more talented team. Perhaps that’s what I saw from the bunnies. The winger on JAC, Tallis, Gray at FB, Mamazoulos all had that intensity. Two try saving tackles displayed it.
For me the best thing of the night was seeing how peeved Ryles was.
Sad to say that Dylbags last season with us will probably go down as one of his worst. It will leave a sad asterisk on his Eels legacy.
For a team that made 17 errors were passive all night in defence kick chase was poor and the halfback in Moses played his worst game at 7 for parra in a longtime in terms of game management. A lot of talk seems to be directed at joash not being our long term 6 option. I totally agree his got a lot of work to do at 6 but his played 1 game with Moses and 3 games at 6 all together you do not become an elite 6 after 4 games. He was easily top 3 best players in the comp prior to making his first grade debut in cup. When you’ve got a bloke killing it reserve grade and an underperforming first grade side you can’t just park him in reserve grade what message does that send. I just would like to see him at least a fair go at it he was absolutely not the reason we lost.
Couldn’t agree more.
Joash needs to believe in himself and not just dish out predetermined passes because he thinks he has too. That takes time and confidence and he’s had a grade total of 4 games in the frontline in his entire senior career (NRL/NSW Cup). He’ll be just fine long term. Once he feels like he truly belongs in this grade, watch out.
Moses on the other hand wanted to kick to Lomax all night but hardly landed a single one in a spot where a catch would have led to a try. This has been an issue all year with Lomax, he’s catching has been terrible, but most of the time the ball is coming down somewhere between the 20 and goalline meaning he’s going to be tackled with the ball even if he does catch it. It’s been a truly ineffective play all season and I don’t know why we persist with it. Every club knows it’s coming. That loss is far more on Moses than Joash.
Having said that, we never looked like going left all night.
Two freakish try savers from Jye Gray were the difference. That and Souths incredible scramble. They deadset saved 7 try scoring opportunities in the first half alone. Incredible.
Parra 1990. I don’t know you to know your age, but i would caution the assumption that Joash will be a great NRL player based on NSW Cup form, by invoking the name “Steve Witt”.
Year after year, Steve Witt dominated. Under 21’s then Second grade. Fans would be irate with Brian Smith as Smith refused to bring him up – even playing Michael – the lesser Witt. Drove Eels fans nuts and finally Steve Witt left and Eels fans were fuming.
Steve Witt played the 2004 season with a Knights team that had almost all of the premiers from 2001 going around again and they missed the Finals for the first time since 1996. He came back for 2005, barely played a game and before the year was out, he was selling real estate on Sydney’s northern beaches.
A high level of Reserve grade performance does not automatically indicate they will be an NRL star
Mitch is like the rest of the team we play to the opposition
When we need to be on against better teams Mitch steps up some does the rest.
We play a ‘Easier’ Team we drop our intensity and get sloppy.
Thats the biggest and most persistent issue we have had for years.
Kelma does my head in he can hit the line as hard as anyone but his defence is terrible.
The kicking to Lomax has its place but not all the time and it would help if Lomax could actually catch them.
Were a bottom feeder club that’s where Jar is starting from where we go next is up to the recruitment people and JR.
Joe Gray was not onside when he tackled Walker preventing the try.