The Battle of the West arrives in Round 4 as the Parramatta Eels look to topple the high flying Penrith Panthers. The Eels are still reeling from the dual losses of J’maine Hopgood and Jordan Samrani but have to find a way to refocus on dismantling the premiership powerhouse that is Penrith.
Sixties and Forty20 preview a trio of games against the Panthers on a Saturday slate that has some peculiar scheduling. The actions kicks off in the Jersey Flegg Cup at 4:45PM with both Western Sydney franchises sporting undefeated records. The NSW Cup will take place after the NRL in an unusual outcome but regardless of the time slot the Eels will need to be vastly improved from their last start against the Dragons.
How do the Eels attack Penrith in the NRL? The boys offer their insights with a dose of reality ahead of a massive game on Saturday.
Interesting as usual on all senior teams, given that the wingers in Flegg looked decent last week, there is ample opportunity for them to move up to Cup if they continue to improve, given the shortcomings above them.
The comment on recruitment is necessary, since 2022 our signings have at best been underwhelming given the level of players who moved on. We seem to have the administration side well covered by the front office, ie COE, pathways, education etc, but to be honest don’t t have the required vision and selling voice needed at the NRL level. Let’s not waste Miitch Moses and the talented juniors coming through, losing Sean Russell really underlines the need to sign relatively high profile backs to augment what we have coming through basically in the forwards. The constant phrase that we dont pay overs, asks the question why don’t we have the required space to pay elite players , perhaps the salary cap admin is questionable given most of our elite juniors are on development not NRL deals.
This weekend coming up is an ideal opportunity to show how competitive we are going to be this season, we should still have good crown support so let’s go.
Great comment. It is extremely concerning given the outside backs issues we currently have that there hasn’t been an immediate reaction to looking elsewhere at the present stage. That Ryles was quick to dismiss any interest in Bronson Xerri seems naive and amateurish.
Will Penisini mentioned last year he had re-signed until 2028 and we have yet to see any official mention of that. His brother appears to be made of glass and has yet to play a full season over the past three. Losing Russell on top of the Lomax fiasco is downright ridiculous. The next best options appear to be at least another season away at this stage.
According to Mark or Jim , the phone was ringing off the hook the moment Lomax left and the best we could do is sign Brian Kelly, a noted poor defender, from the Titans.
We are working towards the future in the forwards and the halves potentially but as far as outside backs go the cupboard looks bare for next season at least unless recruitment takes a big step forward.
Agreed – I said last week we have a bottom four group of centres and wingers (only better than dragons, titans and maybe, just maybe, warriors).
I think we need to sign 3 backline players (centres and wingers). This would allow us to cut tago, replace Russell, get another centre, get another winger for depth (eg jesse Arthurs)
40s mentions his admiration for averillo but averillo can’t tackle or defend to save his life. I wouldn’t go near him. We can’t keep getting seduced by attacking players with such clear defensive holes (especially when Kelma, Katonga, penisini are already defensive weak links)
In my opinion we need a defensive minded centre to replace Russell as well as a good young centre to challenge/replace will penisini (who the club should put on notice as he has plateaued for a while). Either get the best in Flegg or nsw cup or splash money on a centre like Purdue.
As for wingers, it is puzzling how bad we are at developing them. We have invested in mo alamaddine, Sam loziou etc but all are not up to it. What poor talent identification and a waste of a spot/money. It’s important we don’t overate our juniors for the sake of marketing a development club. We have good juniors in certain positions (especially forwards and halves) but we need good signings to augment the squad and fill gaps. Brian Kelly ain’t that…mo alamaddeine ain’t that… Jake tago ain’t that…both peninisins aint that
Beat Penrith on Saturday? In the immortal words of Tommy Raudonokis “Whenever you’ve got 13 blokes with boots you’re a show!” Goodness knows they owe us a couple – think trainer on the field when we had them down to eleven men in the preliminary final of 2022!
Matt Timoko is not getting a start at Canberra we should try get him now.
Penrith only team where we have zero chance of beating they another league m
There’s an ambush coming
🔵🟡
We need a left centre. Timoko can only play right.
If we can get Xerri with a good head space..
Hearing mentions of Purdue, Timoko, and Averillo, but all three are known for being very poor defenders.
Maybe Xerri could be an alright option, but Ryles talked that down immediately in this week’s presser.
Ryles has been known to talk truthfully since arriving, but maybe he’s changing his tune a bit since all the signings he’s mentioned that we’ve been interested in previously haven’t come to fruition
The Club should never ever express interest in an available player. All of our signings should come as a surprise. I realise that a lot of signing publicity comes from agents, but for us to express interest and then miss out looks like we’re a failing club, not an image we want. I note that we learn that Penrith was interested in someone after they’ve signed him
We just lack the will to apply ourselves under pressure. That has not improved under Ryles either. Theee re e is something inherently rotten in the DNA of our club.