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Ladies and gentlemen, the Captain has turned on the seatbelt sign due to expected turbulence; please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened. Just when things were going so well for the Parramatta Eels ahead of Round 1, the footy gods have deigned to do a cheeky little bit of smiting and put the Eels through a pocket of rather turbulent and stormy air. Forty20 flies solo this week with Sixties attending the PLC AGM and looks to navigate the tricky news that has suddenly besieged the Eels out of nowhere.
How long is Josh Addo-Carr out for? Who replaces him? What is Isaiah Iongi accused of and what can he and the club expect in terms of a potential punishment? There are a lot of moving parts here for players, club and fans and as always The Tip Sheet looks to deliver a measured response.
Believe it or not, there was footy on the weekend. Forty20 recaps the trial and junior representative results before taking a peek at a representative forward that has been linked to the Parramatta Eels over the course of today.
Ivan Cleary successfully represented his son Nathan at the judiciary resulting in a 2-game suspension been downgraded to a fine. Opinions have been split over the decision – who is in the right? In non-Lomax litigation news, Jackson Topine has dropped his court case against the Bulldogs but has also picked up a contract with South Sydney while the Perth Bears tack on another acquisition with Scott Sorenson adding premiership experience to the expansion franchise.
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NRL will now say to Parra “give the storm lomax and we’ll let Iongi off with a small fine”
You’d hope those sort of conversations don’t happen…you’d hope.
I doubt the eels land Barnett and I’m not entirely bothered either, don’t get me wrong he’s an absolute gun but I’d rather focus on trying to keep Guymer and Tuivaiti long term, 2 players I think are very close to being capable starters week in and out at NRL level.
Apparently wants to be able to be close to family in taree, if Newcastle don’t move heaven and earth to sign him they’ve lost the plot. Not even the money which with them having a few young forwards I’d assume aren’t on much they should be able to match most offers even with the likes of ponga and brown taking up half the cap but actually working out a plan to support his family getting too and front taree/ a post career coaching role.
On the iongi stuff I’d expect a 2-3match ban for ‘bringing the game into distepute’. I’m not too fussed with it to be honest, I think the thing he’s being accused of isn’t really any worse than the amount of alcohol spread and advertised through out the game and just about everyone would be doing it. Just gotta watch who his mates are I guess.
Sebastian, I’m going to steer clear about commenting on Iongi till more is known. Like you, I’m focussed on some key retentions. Don’t get me wrong, Barnett would probably fill a leadership role where we have a couple of older middles. But are they finishing at years end? Not that I’m aware of.
Would be a big shock if Barnett comes to Parra, his manager also managers the Arthurs x 3, Matterson, Brown, Russell, Greig, Lane and finally Simonsson, last one left, he has no love for Parra once Arthur left,
Where would RL be without rumours?
Iongi – facts will be the key here as others have said….and as for the NRL, well consistency is not their priority. The images look old tbh so we will see, and didn’t L Mitchell get a week for an illegal substance….?
I would be happy to have Barnett if one of our main props retired; he has the style that would suit us but time will tell and another rumour.
I think we can be ok to cover Fox injured thumb, and my concern will be if Moses goes down for a time, but Pezet is a v good deputy here.
I think calling him an idiot for putting himself in a ‘stupid situation’ by having picture evidence is very disingenuous.
All the other people mentioned are clearly out partying snorting coke up to their eye balls, often posing for the camera and in some instances even uploading it to their own social media. That is absolute stupidity.
If Iongi played for any other nrl club I’d be saying the same thing. He is relaxing in his own home trying to stay out of trouble and at worst smoked a joint to chill out. The pictures look like they have been taken by someone close to him. So the ex story does have legs.
Also, he isn’t looking at the camera in any of the photos I’ve seen. He seems busy doing other things. Its very easy for someone to take a picture of someone without their consent. It easily could just look like texting/ scrolling.
Finally, is he supposed to only ever do things like this in complete privacy? I’d say that most of us would be very trusting or our partner. If you don’t trust them then who can you trust?
All in all I think it’s a storm in a tea cup. I don’t do drugs, but honestly smoking a joint is so low on the list of bad things you can do. We all look up to rock stars like the Beatles etc because of how good their music is, knowing that they created it all while high as a kite. People literally go on the JRE and smoke it and no one cares. If the nrl and media want to say its a bad look for kids then there is one simple solution. Don’t post it all over the front page of the paper and most the population wouldn’t know about it.
Well said. As usual, I’ve listened to Forty, read the comments and have a whole lot better take on this incident. You get the feeling we just need a little more info on the context…the who, when, why stuff. One thing I don’t need any info on, social media can be a sewer.
Thanks Forty,
Starting the season with no major injuries or scandals made me feel a little unsettled, it just wasn’t a Parra thing. I’m relaxed now, things are back to Parra normal.
Storm now playing the poor Lomax card, worried that he’s getting a pile on from Sydney media and it’s affecting him mentally and physically. How strange when he was the one that signed a contract to play union and not play NRL for at least 3 years , the term of the contract originally lodged with the NRL
If the NRL give ground to this sob story then we should really understand how the hierarchy have a different set of rules and support for certain clubs. How can they not see the ongoing actions from a player who has walked out on 2 contracts in less than 12 months, sob story my rear end.
Moses isn’t stupid. He’s well aware that there is a heap of evidence in the NRL communications otherwise why would you pick a fight with the NRL knowing that the NRL is definately going to punish the Eels ?
The NRL will fight tooth and nail to keep those communications private.
If they are allowed and show any dodgy deals, there is going to be blood at NRL HQ.
Massive kahunas from the Eels but as the cornfield said …. Go the distance.
If PVL or Abdo survive this we are in for a hell of a hard time.
My spies tell me that certain storm players HAVE been approached by the Storm management to facilitate this deal but the simple fact is that they don’t want to go and that’s that, even though the Storm deny it.
There will be massive talks in the lead up trying to get this done.
To me the saddest out ome of the Lomax saga has been the fate of Matterson. He is now virtually a pariah whose removal from a club is seen as a bonus. In 2017 he was captain, number 6 and goal kicker of a Parramatta under 20s side that lost the gf on a clear referring error . The side produced.Ray Stone, Oregon Kaufusi, Dylan Brown, several others who have had significant NRL careers;; Matterson’s time has always featured controversy and criticism. It will be good when his time at Parra is up and he can pursue other goals.