Rarely has a losing season sparked such hope but the growth and development of the Parramatta Eels under Jason Ryles has been so compelling in 2025 that their sign-off victory over the Newcastle Knights on Sunday has left fans desperate for more.
The 66-10 triumph was a high watermark on multiple levels. Obviously it was a season high for the Blue & Gold, eclipsing the 38-point victory over the Tigers in Round 7, but unsurprisingly it also now stands as the club record in the head-to-head match up with the Knights (previously held by the ’05 Eels who won 50-0 in Round 14).
In a vacuum it seems odd to label a result in which you never had a chance to make the finals a statement win but that is exactly what the Eels achieved in Round 27. More on the win just shortly though!
The weekend produced mixed results coincidentally filtered by gender with the NRLW finally rousing from their month long slumber to obliterate the Tigers while the HNWP battled their way to an 8th straight victory and 2nd place on the ladder. Alas the Jersey Flegg Cup bowed out of the finals on the back of a disappointing effort against the Panthers while the NSW Cup invoked their second chance after a narrow loss to the Dragons on Saturday night.
It is the final five-game Weekend Wrap of 2025, so let’s tuck in and break it all down!
NRL
Parramatta Eels 66 defeat the Newcastle Knights 10
In front of perhaps the most electric home crowd since the 2019 final against the Broncos, the Parramatta Eels delivered a thunderous curtain call on their 2025 season. The 66-10 victory marked the Eels’ 10th win of the year and a season best 3-game win streak and served as a wonderful platform to celebrate Will Penisini’s 100th NRL game and send off Dylan Brown as a winner.
Mitchell Moses notched his first ever career hat-trick and was joined in the scoring treble by Josh Addo-Carr who lifted himself a share of 3rd on the try-scorers list (alongside Daniel Tupou and Xavier Coates) as he notched his 17th, 18th and 19th tries of the year. Moses was in rare form on Sunday, even by his own incredible standards, and subjected the Novocastrians to his full repertoire including another career highlight reel run that left Fletcher Hunt grasping at thin air.
It already felt like a fait accompli that Moses would be booked in for a trip to England on the Ashes tour but if there was any lingering doubt in the mind of Kevin Walters then surely Sunday’s performance ensures that Moses needs to check if his passport is in date.
Ryley Smith, Junior Paulo and Tallyn Da Silva completed one of the more improbable three-leg feats you will see in a season finale each of them nabbed their first tries of the year and thus freed themselves of the shackles of a looming nudie run.
Arguably, ‘Junez’ owes young Charlie Guymer a steak dinner for the room-service try assist but after seeing the images of Parramatta’s fearsome prop forward toting a sledge hammer in the dressing rooms post-game I am beginning to wonder if Junior is the one waiting to collect on some debts! I jest of course!
The only real frustration to come out of Sunday lies in the fact that fans are left wanting more! While the Eels ultimately find themselves 3-wins adrift of the 8th placed Roosters, the energy and momentum they carry through the conclusion of the 2025 regular season would have made a fascinating wild card in the finals.
Now we could easily go back and circle half a dozen winnable fixtures that Parramatta bottled earlier this year. For mine though, the important message to derive from our recent form line is that Ryles and the team look to have the makings of a methodology that has the Eels ready to peak at the right time of the year.
A tortuous wait for the 2025/26 preseason now looms heavy upon us all but we can take solace in knowing that the reason it will be so painful because of the unbridled optimism surrounding the club’s prospects. Sixties and myself will hopefully have plenty of content lined up to help fill that void and ensure the off-season is more of a solstice than a proper passage of time.
NRLW
Parramatta Eels 38 defeat the Wests Tigers 4
Mayhaps they harnessed the insane energy of the game that proceeded theirs on Sunday, perhaps they made some adjustments through the week. Whatever it was, the Eels produced their best performance in well over a month as they picked apart the Wests Tigers in Round 10 of the NRLW.
Martha Mataele sealed a memorable night with a cracking hat-trick that featured a brilliant intercept try but her work terrorising the Tigers through the middle of the field was every bit as impressive. She was perfectly in-sync with Abbi Church throughout the contest and the duo tore the Tigers’ kick chase to shreds on multiple occasions.
Speaking of Church, Abbi produced her best Parramatta-related effort of the season (she was awesome in Origin after all!) in a sparkling all-round performance from the back. She was much better integrated into attacking structures, which alongside a return to form for Rachael Pearson, facilitated Parramatta’s most fluent offensive showing of the season.
The Takairangi family created an incredibly cool slice of NRL/W when Louis, Brad and Kiana Takairangi became the first father, son and daughter trio to represent a club in first grade. Elevating the coolness of that achievement is the fact that they are also the first father, son and daughter to all score for the same NRL/W club!
Kiana locked that feat in the annals of history in just the 5th minute when she dotted down in the left corner and played out a rock solid club debut for the Blue & Gold.
Also debuting in Round 10 was Fontayne Tufuga – a blog favourite from the Tarsha Gale Cup. Like Ryvvr-Lee Alo and Tess McWilliams, Fontayne is a prodigiously talented young forward and did a sterling job on debut helping cover the titanic absence of Elsie Albert.
The win keeps Parramatta’s slim hopes of sneaking into the finals alive as they head into the final regular round of the season where they will face the Bulldogs. However, they will require an assist from the Canberra Raiders. The Eels need the Canberrans to knock over the Titans while the Blue & Gold take care of business against the Bulldogs. It falls in the category of unlikely, but not impossible so send a prayer or two to the footy gods this week.
NSW Cup
St George Illawarra Dragons 24 defeat the Parramatta Eels 18
The Eels were not at their best on Saturday night by any means as they fell to the Dragons by 6-points. A 67% completion rate greatly hindered their attempts to settle into rhythm and while they showed sparks of enterprising play – particularly in the final quarter of the contest – their efforts were undermined by untimely errors.
Ronald Volkman and Lorenzo Talataina had some wonderful exchanges of play including a gorgeous set piece from a scrum that put Parramatta’s electric five-eighth over in the 74th minute. Even so, they were out-pointed on the night by Jonah Glover and Lachlan Illias with the Dragons duo finding soft spots in the Eels’ defence at crucial moments. Ably assisting them was Cody Ramsay who was a menace at fullback.
I had concerns that Parramatta entered this contest a bit light-on in the pack. It didn’t help that Wiremu Greig served the first leg of a 2-game suspension but it left Toni Mataele to toil hard (141m from 15 carries) without a great deal of support through the middle. Injuries and departed personnel have certainly hampered the Eels in this regard and I don’t really know what they can do ahead of their sudden death clash with the Canberra Raiders. I believe Jordan Samrani should qualify for the finals but that bolsters either centre or edge while Parramatta need some serious beef in the ruck.
Solving that conundrum looms as the major quandary for coach Nathan Cayless ahead of Sunday’s sudden death battle with the Raiders.
Harvey Normans Women’s Premiership
Parramatta Eels 22 defeat St George Dragons 4
Parramatta didn’t dominate the winless Dragons in Round 10 of the HNWP but they did enough to secure an 18-point victory and in doing so climb to 2nd place on the ladder and claim an impressive 8th straight victory.
It was the Eels’ spine who guided them home on Sunday. Ella Carlisle laid on a lovely try assist for Tamerah Leati to start the scoring in the 5h minute before Aaliyah Soufan did the same for Zali Fay just 10 minutes later. Aaliyah nabbed a try of her own next before Kyliah Gray put her captain Jessica Kennedy over with some svelte hands through the ruck. Chelsea Makira book-ended the work of the spine with a solo try in the final minutes of the contest.
Unbelievably, the Eels are NOT home safe for the finals despite sporting a wonderful 8-2 record heading into the last regular round game of the season. The top heavy nature of the competition means that Parramatta need to win to ensure they will play in the Top 4 finals but they also make it with other results falling their way involving Mounties, Cronulla and Illawarra.
Jersey Flegg Cup
Penrith Panthers 32 defeat the Parramatta Eels 12
I will do a proper debrief on the Jersey Flegg Cup with Sixties in the near future but suffice to say, our fears that they may very well beat themselves fully manifested on Saturday. Penrith, to their credit, played very competent footy but the Eels handed them a veritable feast of scoring opportunities on the back of glut of unforced errors.
There was little positive to salvage from this loss. Perhaps the small glimmer of hope the Eels generated after half time with tries to Javahn Stevenson-Hala and Matthew Hunter warrants a mention but otherwise the Blue & Gold produced one of their weakest efforts in what has been a largely outstanding season.
We are all left to wonder what could have been but the future still burns plenty bright for a host of players in this group who should be aspiring to push well past an Under 21s premiership.
As far as Cup goes I’d start with Rida Talagai and Isaac Jim as props – if they’re good enough they’re old enough, move Toni Mataelle to left second row and bring in Jordan to right second row. If nothing else the boys would get invaluable experience.
Does anyone know, is the game going to be on t.v.?
I kept on watching the games and the team seemed to have a reluctance to move up quickly and aggressively, opposition were putting big mtrs and breaks with space on them. They can tackle, they can hit, but will not convert to dominance when opponents are constantly allowed space,pace and momentum. Unfortunately I couldn’t watch this game to see how this turned around. Onwards and upwards!
NRLW.