It’s hard to believe, but we’ve now entered the last week of training before the Christmas break. The good news is that Eels remain undefeated at the top of the ladder. (Yeah, we share that honour with 16 other teams but you take what you can).

Wearing the Tour De Parra shirts for the week are the following players:

Ryley Smith – Gold

Tallyn Da Silva – White

Jezaiah Funa-Iuta – Green

Apa Twidle – Spots

After writing about the standards that the two dummy halves are setting just over a week ago, it’s incredibly validating to have the coaches rate the efforts of Ryley and Tallyn just as highly.

Parra’s number nines might play in the same position, but they are incredibly different players.

Smith has the motor that is second to none and is the one to put up his hand for the ugly work – cleaning up mistakes, leading the line speed, applying pressure on kickers. He’s a future captain in the making.

Da Silva brings the flair. He’ll be the opportunist creating havoc, especially against tired defenders. And I’ll wager he’d be one of the fastest dummy halves in the NRL, especially over the first 15 metres.

This is Ryley’s second Gold shirt of the pre-season, whereas the White was Tallyn’s first training award.

As for the other recipients, it’s a measure of how well Twidle and Funa-Iuta are training, as both sit outside the top 30. Apa has built into his pre-season, and demonstrated confidence and a high level of involvement during last week’s opposed drills.

Jezaiah received a partial preseason last year, before returning to the SG Ball squad in January. He showed the value of that experience during 2025, and matches the experienced NRL players with his physicality.

After today’s warm ups and running mechanics, it was football, football and even more football. Some of it was 13 on 13, some was left side vs right side. There was also rapid play through the ruck and edges against defenders with bump pads and micro work of 4 vs 2 vs 2 (two pairs of staggered defenders) and eight on eight.

Eight on eight

My observations were as follows:

* Luca Moretti was out of rehab and showcasing his mobility and footwork. He featured in a line break running a great line off Hopgood

* After a few days away from the field work, Joash was back in action

* The left side combinations are building nicely with Pezet a key figure. I have no doubt that the one year recruit will play an influential role in the Eels fortunes this season. He’s confident, and talented, and watching his interactions with others in the squad, he won’t treat his stay at the Eels as just a stop over on his way to Brisbane.

* There’s a variety of different options with the shapes the Eels are running

* The Foxx was constant with his talk today to the extent that I found myself checking for any overlap in his time with Pezet in Melbourne. Pezet was playing Jersey Flegg and Queensland Cup during Addo-Carr’s final season at the Storm.

* Quick hands in passing was a feature of shifts on both sides of the field

* Moses and Penisini both timed their passes superbly in a shift that just got Russell outside his opposite

* Clever passing and positioning by Apa and Araz in the micro drills

* Terrific evasiveness of Volkman in tight spaces during the eight on eight

* Incredible pace from Da Silva running almost 50 metres untouched during the eight on eight

* Jordan Samrani continuing to step up at left centre. Our hybrid centre/back rower is showing his value to the squad.

Opposed work as Moses heads right

My final observation of the day relates to those in the squad more likely to play NSW Cup in 2025.

In past years, there have been times, particularly during season proper, when the standard of some opposed sessions has been less than ideal. This was due to the gulf in standard between the NRL and the NSW Cup players, and was especially true in 2023.

Thus far in this pre-season, there are genuine questions being asked by the Cup team in attack, and importantly, the individuals are putting their hands up in every drill. The number of players not in the top 30 who have achieved shirts is evidence of that.

I look forward to that standard continuing.

Eels forever!

Sixties

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