Step up to the Eels supporter bar.
How would you like your metaphor served? Glass half full or empty?
So, you’re looking at the half empty glass as a starter…
There were obviously things that disappointed you last Saturday. Let’s consider how Penrith dealt with Parra.
The Panthers are so well drilled, almost robotic – but that’s meant in a highly complimentary way. They identify a weakness and are ruthless in repetitively targeting it.
With regard to any weaknesses in our Eels, the Panthers did not teach you anything new. It simply highlighted known areas that Parra must improve. And the greatest weakness, is the current state of the roster.
Therein lies the conundrum. In some positions Parra has depth and some exciting juniors coming through. However, there remains some positions where the club continues to lack genuine first grade ready depth, like outside backs and this has arguably been a problem for a number of years.
From your perspective, it is probably imperative for those with the capacity to address those holes in our roster to do so now. Supporters understand that the club isn’t going to divulge who they might be talking with on the recruitment front, but the club also needs to understand that there will always be frustration in not knowing how a problem area is being addressed.
The lack of genuine first grade depth in particular positions was acknowledged by the club before the season started, and injuries have seen the concerns come home to roost. Furthermore, even the recruits that were added in those positions, De Belin and Kelly, are taking time to acclimatise themselves to the club and its systems.
Greater depth in the middle would allow Ryles to start Walker on the bench. His introduction to the action mid way through the first half is a real positive point of difference for the Eels. Starting him, through roster necessity, is weakening a real strength. The Eels miss that energy that Walker provides, targeting tired middles.
As Sixties wrote, there are times when the situation demands that prior plans are changed. Somehow, recruitment must navigate this challenging time.
What about your mate there, looking into the glass half full.
He’s probably pointing to last year’s mid season signings as validation for keeping roster spots open at the start of the season. Who knew that when Ryles wanted to turn Gutherson into a Dylan Walker type of interchange player, that the Eels would soon enough sign the real Dylan Walker! And then there’s Tallyn Da Silva.
Arriving mid season in 2025 was no doubt a challenge for the former Tiger. A dummy half handles the ball more than any other player and yet Da Silva was expected to do this whilst having minimal knowledge of his team mates and Ryles’ systems.
However, the past few weeks have been significant steps forward for the Portuguese international. He has started to show his talent and the positive point of difference he can make to the Eels team. How will he develop over the entirety of the season?
Both Walker and Da Silva weren’t bought to solve a positional shortfall for the 2025 season. And their recruitment mid season in 2025 had to fit in with Eels plans for 2026 and beyond. Few mid season recruits jump ship for half a season. They are usually looking to secure a deal that goes beyond their current contract.
Da Silva celebrates
Your mate is admiring his glass half full, and despite any concerns about Parra’s immediate roster needs, he will also acknowledge that fixing those immediate needs has the potential to impact 2027 plans, especially if the mid season recruit sits outside the club’s previous targets or if the contract money eats into the amount that the club had planned to be available for others.
Perhaps, in his opinion, the club should simply do its best to steer its way through the current injury crisis rather than looking for immediate recruitment solutions that might alter longer term plans?
Parra’s results should sit in the glass half full category. The Eels are 2/4 after playing the three top teams. Before the season started, you would have taken that. Every competition point earned now takes pressure off the games later in the season. No team wants to be working out their mathematical chances or relying on other results when they get to the pointy end of the year.
Now that you and your friend have sampled what’s been on offer over the first four rounds, what will your order be?
I’m going to recommend the glass half full mindset.
The next two games are crucial to Parra’s season. If they can win the next two, it would leave the quarter season mark at four from six. That sets up the Eels season very nicely.
Both of Parra’s opponents have genuine weaknesses that can be exploited. The Eels must hold the ball early and establish control in the ruck. If they do that, they can and probably should win.
Mitch Moses traditionally turns it on against the Tigers but Parra’s forwards need to go forward, hold the ball and let Moses do his best. That should be enough. Iongi will be missed but the Tigers are missing Luai. There are no excuses. There is still enough talent in the named team to win.
Mitch Moses
Games are not won on paper, last round showed that with some seriously weakened teams overcoming big injury tolls to win. They are won by the team that plays the smartest footy, team footy that relentlessly attacks the opposition weakness and is committed in defence.
Parra’s players will be committed and therefore I will do the same.
My family will be there cheering in the stands over the next two weeks. I understand the disappointment from last week and the frustration with depth in some positions within our squad but that does not remove me from the impact we as fans can make.
As fans we can lament Iongi’s loss or we can have Joash’s back and support him as he undertakes the custodian position. Parra fans are tough and we don’t roll over and give up. Let’s do our best to make the next two weeks successful.
The roster is what it is this week. There were only twenty fit top 30 players available for selection. But for this week, and probably the next month, let’s get behind the talent that is still taking the field, and leave the roster headaches to others.
Bring your voices, colours and flags this weekend Parra fans and let the team, our team, know that we have they have our total support.
Parra Proud
Shelley
I respect the glass half full fan, I wish after 40 years of routine failures and under achievement I could look at my glass like that.
I don’t see myself as a glass half empty fan, I am just a visual person and need to see improvement, the progress, the wins, the signed contracts, to believe it is real. If I see a team averaging a near unheard of 40 points against, the reality to me is we have huge issues.
I would suggest if the Eels get run over this weekend anyone looking at their empty glass as half full isn’t an optimist, they just have blind faith.
My hope is we give young talent a chance through the year to get some NRL experience and get a look at who has potential. …and then of course we have to retain them.
I also hope we don’t get Admin and glass half full fans alike using injuries as an excuse. They might cost us a couple of wins, but if your goal was finals and you end up bottom 3 or 4, injuries isn’t the problem.
Great read Shelley. I find the glass half full mindset pretty effective in every aspect of my life even if sometimes it can be challenging, it makes you value the good bits more and not take things for granted.
Yes I am also thankful we lost two international players and our recruitment team managed to sign JDB the oldest player in the competition who was unwanted his club and another unwanted elder statesman in Kelly and transit lounge Pezet.
We are truly lucky to have these skilled negotiators in our corner.
You couldn’t help but watch the Panthers v Storm game and admire Stefano, Blaize and Isaiah and think how well our front office has done…….
I have and continue to have questions about our recruitment team but I feel there are a few things that need to be considered. I am not always glass half full but it is not as simple as fans tend to make it.
1. I was/am a huge Dylan Brown fan and hate him playing at Newcastle but are you saying we should have given him 1.3 million a year for 10 years or even 8 years because unless we matched or got close to matching the length he was going.
2. We could not offer Blaize his position, the one he is playing and always wanted to play for a number of years as we had Mitch/ Dylan under contract. Dylan himself said he never thought he would leave so Blaize certainly would have thought this as well. His position was not available for the foreseeable future.
3. No big name forward or centre moved over the offseason. As we saw with the Lomax saga you cannot demand a club to release players. We signed JDB for one year, hardly a massive mistake and the fact we only committed for one year probably says we knew there was risk and were smart enough to protect us from that risk.
4. Since the season started three good to absolute best in Hass mid forwards have moved; Hass shocked everyone by leaving the Broncos and not going to market, I think we all know in hindsight that he was always going R360 and once that failed to eventuate he signed with Souths with crazy get out clauses and no one else had a chance.
Keon got ridiculous money and length, we would have been stupid to match that and the same goes with Barnett.
Look at the Storm, they are seriously depleted in the middle and even the Storm, with a coach like Bellamy cannot find adequate replacements. It is not as easy as people think otherwise the Storm with money available and the high profile coach would have nailed that high profile forward already.
Now we could criticise the club for not going all in and splashing big money + length of contract for Keon and Mitch Barnett but if you do that you cannot criticise the club for Blaize going to the Panthers because you need both available spots + money to secure your blue chip players juniors.
Now if we go on to not resign someone like Tuivati after missing out on someone like Keon I will be with you in heavily criticising the club. No glass half full then.
My main thoughts about recruitment/ retention when comparing us to Penrith is this. Winning gives you an advantage with recruitment and until we win we won’t get that advantage. Additionally the Panthers have let top players they have developed go. Luai, Burton, fisher Harris, Kikau and the list goes on but they obviously know they are a chance to loose them and have juniors ready to step up. They don’t often win the junior comps but they seem to be able to know when and in what position they need a junior to be first grade ready. I think this is what we must do better with. We always seem to be in a position of being told we need to wait a few years for the juniors to be ready but the Panthers juniors are ready when they need them. I feel that is a somewhat overlooked problem that impacts recruitment/ retention.
As always I respect diverse opinions, I just do not think it is as easy and simple to get top players to move. For example Mitch M would be in huge demand and obviously wants to win but he loves Parra and it would take enormous money to make him move. It is hard to recruit an international/ origin type player.
1. I”m not saying we should have signed Dylan for 10 years for 1.3 million a season but when we signed him on his contract which our club loved boasting about in the media at the time they shouldn’t have signed him with so many player options so that the big contract they were bragging about turned out to be useless.
2. If they hadn’t signed Brown on what appeared to be a long term contract but turned out to be useless maybe we wouldn’t have lost Blaize.
3.You don’t need to sign big name forwards but some middles of significance who did change clubs this year includes Leo Thompson, Kobe Hetherington, Trey Mooney, Fletcher Baker, Kurtis Morrin, Morgan Knowles, Josh Kerr and Bunty Afoa.
4. I am glad we didn’t sign either Keon and in particular Barnett to such over inflated contracts but the fact we felt the need to advertise we were chasing them and the offers we were making reeked of desperation by the club, which knows it is failing in the recruitment department.
We are in the box seat with Sam T and should be offering to upgrade his contract for this year and next year in conjunction with something like a 3 year extension at 600k per year. That would be a smart move but…….
At the end no matter how you look at it our recruitment has been poor for years. Big name signings are not always needed but recruitment each year should be strengthening the club not weakening it which is what has happened this year.
I will turn up to the games as you will Shelley, a time I always share with my partner and mum. But I am neither glass half full or empty. I am a realist, and see things for as they are. Which is a recruitment team that is ineffective and have been given too many opportunities to get it right. And a coach that doesn’t have a game plan to target the other side’s weaknesses. The Broncos and Dragons wins were more luck than plan, as both teams basically handed Parra the wins with their own hapless plays and errors. I will be in the stands Shelley, and will delighted in a win, but not surprised in a loss.
Nice read Shelley, like B A said, I really admire glass half full fans. I meet glass half full fans daily due to my travels and areas I work in. It’s always a pleasant conversation, they hope for the best but remain content even when the club throws them a pineapple or ten.
But I do believe you can be a glass half empty fan and still love your club, show up to games and give the boys and gals wearing our jersey our full support.
I can fully understand why the Craig and John don’t go to town on our mighty front office, I’m not saying they don’t highlight our issues but they’re not is a position to be scathing.
I’m not the first to point out the debacle that led to losing an international half, the best young prospect we’ve had in years and a junior now playing first grade somewhere else. I’m not going to mention the multiple failures prior and since, my post would just become a rant.
No one has been held accountable and no significant changes have been made.
The likes of Politis, Gould, Cameron George, Bennett, Crowe, Bellamy ect are not recruitment officers but they are a big reason their clubs jag the big fish while our front office goes to Aldi looking for a discounted can of nearly expired sardines.
I’ve got more chance of landing on the moon than our club has of signing someone like Farnsworth.
I had a good chuckle at this Joseph and totally agree with the sentiment.
The saying a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush comes to mind. We’d be better off recruiting and filling our top 30, rather than leaving spots open to opportunistically capitalise mid season. Between our constant lack of depth, mounting injury toll, and the likeliness of the “right” player becoming available, we can ill afford to roll the dice, banking on hope. And that’s before you consider how well the recruit might gel into our team having not participated in pre season.
Hey Joseph. As one of our most regular contributors to replies I want to thank you for what you provide to the TCT community.
I just want to reply about perceptions about John and myself. Our first goal is to provide an information service for supporters and we do so by covering as much total club news as possible. In one sense we are like the “supporter branch of the club”, but because we are independent we can be critical. And so we are. But we are also “on the ground” at all levels of Eels football and so we do get to see and hear football operations in action that many supporters don’t get the time or opportunity to access. Regardless, having a reply section to our content means that your opinions are also there as part of our content and are read. We also have our team of writers who express their feelings as supporters. And I wouldn’t say that Gol’s grades are written through rose coloured glasses.
But let me take the time to quickly address my own content. I view myself as a supporter, and acknowledge that the greater percentage of my work is supportive of the club. But that said there are many instances of being critical. My post about the roster last week was hardly complimentary, but because I didn’t lash out it was probably seen as not being anywhere critical enough.
I can rattle off many other instances in which I have been publicly critical. If you’ve watched any instant reaction after a bad loss you’ll see plenty of negative response from John and myself, but there other examples of very strong stances that have been taken on TCT that were very public.
A number of years back my Junior Pathways criticism was one of the most read posts in the history of TCT. On the subject of Pathways, I also wrote about (exposed) the number of juniors aligned to one agent. If you read about it elsewhere too I can guarantee it started with me.
I campaigned to end the merger between Wenty and Parra at NSW Cup level. That didn’t happen overnight. It required many critical posts and conversations.
I despised the Darwin deal and was relentless about that. I was also filthy about losing Ice and Stefano.
I am currently on the Eels Supporter Group. Before agreeing to join, I clarified with the club about my stance on retaining the ability to be critical of decisions. I used the NT Sponsorship as an example and said if the club had extended the deal rather than ending it, that I would have continued to criticise it.
But aside from that, I continue to voice my concerns directly to club management. I consider such conversations to be confidential, so I don’t write about them.
But what I hope all readers accept, is that provided they don’t cross the line into being personal, criticisms from readers are never deleted and are there for the club to read. And I guarantee that the club reads TCT.
So your opinions are read. Be they positive or negative. We appreciate them because they add to the content and they add to the supporter voice.
For what it’s worth 60s, I didn’t read Joseph’s comments as being critical or otherwise of you or any of the TCT team. It’s not lost on any of us (or at least I hope it isn’t), the countless hours of high quality, thoughtful content you guys produce. You are balanced, albeit leaning towards optimistic. Who can blame you for all the effort you put in.
Hi Mick, for sure, it could’ve been further from my mind. My comments were meant to be complementary, my point was TCT are not in a position to be overly critical of the front office. Saying that, their opinions are balanced and walk the fine line. That’s a skill and a discipline I could never achieve.
You can’t have your cake and eat too however TCT do eat a slice while maintaining a relationship necessary to for us fans to hear from the likes of Sarantinos and O’Neil. Not to mention broadcasting from the League’s club. Their professionalism and credibility has earnt the trust of the club while dancing the fine line.
Hi Sixties, I can promise you my intentions were not to be critical of yourself or John.
I appreciate the effort, time and the quality of the content. TCT is my favourite Parra sight.
I trust the content and more so, I have the highest regard for both you and John.
As I said, TCT do point out shortfalls, I can never forget your fight to stop the Darwin experiment.
Not particularly related, but it is abundantly clear already that fatigue is the games new “X Factor”, a term I hate with passion of a thousand suns, but nevertheless true. Right now the Panthers are simply two or three levels above everyone else this season, and it’s not a good thing for the game. The league has overdone the fatigue aspect of the game, and once a quality team gets on top it’s virtual impossible to stop them, no matter how good your defensive systems are. There used to be a time when there were multiple ways to win a game of footy, now there’s only one, break neck speed. And the teams that are built to play at that speed seemingly endlessly will always win. There’s just no way to slow teams down now, and that’s not good thing for the game.
Good observation Brett.
Brett, you have perfectly expressed a point I have been banging on about on our podcasts all year. PVL has changed the very fabric of the game. All of the rests that were a natural part of the game – scrums, penalties, etc have been taken out. It has almost eliminated the big man from the game. It’s all about “ball in play” and no stoppages. The teams that can play at break neck speed are the winners. End of conversation.
I was in favour of the six again rule when it was brought in, because there was no doubt certain teams, the Roosters in particular, intentionally gave away penalties when defending their own line so as to a) set their line, and b) disrupt the flow of attacking teams, but as always, the law of unintended consequences applies and the six agains were applied far too broadly and now it’s just unsustainable. I hate to say it, but it’s only a matter of time before we see a cardiac event on a footy field due to extreme fatigue. We’ve seen a number of soccer players die from heart attacks on the field over the least ten years, if we keep putting more and more fatigue into the game hip drop tackles will be the least of the games concerns.
The Riff’s 40 point destruction of Storm just may put some perspective on our 28 point loss. Also, the four tries we scored exceeded any other side’s efforts against the Penny boys.
I guess that’s a half full perspective.
Let’s see how we go over the next four rounds. Given the injuries, this will give us real insight.
It’s clear the Panthers are just several levels above everyone else this season. I don’t see anyone beating them when it matters.
There’s honestly positives from last nights storm game + some things to consider RE Eels
1). Eels scored double what storm could do against panthers
2). Panthers are about 2 levels ahead of everyone and the eels hopefully take back some confidence after seeing Storm get absolutely hammered by them
3). Our attack is obviously significant, we just need to reduce errors & 6 agains etc, I believe this will improve our defences with less pressure on us in first halves of matches
4). Eels have played amongst the best teams in the comp and are 2-2, while having a poor for and against, there’s a CHANCE our stats only look so bad because of who we played
5). I don’t care if Moses “isn’t in form” or “isn’t running the ball” we need Moses most of the year & Jason ryles has him playing conservatively for this very reason – we can tick over wins just by keeping Mitch
We started very slow last season, I still believe our prime form will be as the season progresses, we are clearly not in our peak form you can see that but we are winning some games – some teams are performing not horribly yet only have 1 win (or even zero)
We must also consider Jason ryles is a former roosters coach, they notoriously start slow then finish strong – I believe Jason ryles uses a similar approach rather than make their form peak at the beginning of the season. You will see the eels players form lift significantly by round 8 and beyond
Every Eels fan acknowledges that we are understrength in our outside backs, and and we will only get weaker with Sean Russell leaving at the end of the year and Addo-Carr approaching his latter years.
I am bamboozled why Parramatta doesnt seem to have approached any number of first grade centres and wingers currently languishing in reserve grade – Bronson Xerri, Isaac Tago, Matthew Timiko or Khan-Pereira, Tyrell Sloane, Jesse Arthurs…
I’ve followed the Eels for longer than probably most here have lived.
Witnessed the GF wins in the 80s personally.
In just fatigued.
The club does my head in.
They want to be a development club but don’t play the kids and rely on older players.
Until another club comes in and suddenly we play the kid hoping that he will stay.. Stefano, Sanders, Blaize. Etc..
It’s like we are just caught in between two worlds.
The tigers have the right idea.
They buy the best young talent and they play them !!
They are going to go well in the future and it wouldnt surprise me if they absolutely towel us up on Monday.
Penrith are scary. They seem to be twice as fit as every side in the game and have suddenly moved away from their robotic style of play and embraced a free flowing helter skelter type of attack.
Their game is simple. They play their sets and then do the bomb but they ALWAYS contest the bomb.
We throw the bomb up and we rarely contest.
There is the difference.
Unfortunately we are here just for the numbers like every other year ….
Im always curious when the NRL get 3 or 4 coaches in at the end of the season to discuss the game etc.
Do the invited coaches get a heads up about what head office is considering RE: rule changes and interpretations!