There is plenty happening in Parradise this week as the Eels get a pair of reinforcements in Sean Russell and Kelma Tuilagi. The Eels are set to met their sister club and long time rivals in the Manly Sea Eagles in Round 8 – ANZAC Round – as Sixties and Forty20 break down a Team List Tuesday that features plenty of movement across the NRL, NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg.
Jaydn Su’A is officially an Eel in 2027 as the St George forward joins the club for 3-years. It marks the first important domino to fall for the Eels in recruitment and the boys discuss what he brings to the club and what role he could play on the field.
Shane Flanagan is officially out as the head coach of St George Illawarra as Dean Young takes over from him. Young has immediately make a series of ruthless calls as the show looks at first 24 hours of handiwork.
Other NRL news this includes a move to restrict contact work at training, even more major injuries across the code and a short term extension for Selywn Cobbo.
I really hope that kelma is not put back in the backrow barring injury’s.
There was a key difference around the little things in defence without him there. Kelma is a great ball runner you can’t doubt that but both him and Gideon are both incredibly poor defenders. There massive targets for teams and I think they actually create issues around them.
They both have massive amounts of work to do all around the defence side of the game before rushing them back into a starting role
Agreed – I don’t understand why 40 minimised kelmas deficiency as getting up slow from tackles and not working to marker. His deficiencies are much more than that…it is why storm, tigers and manly all were happy to let him go
The eye test says Williams and Guymer are way better defensively than Kelma and kautoga (who are spots). IMO we should Let Kelma go and put kautoga in reserve grade to learn to defend. He is a liability and no amount of attacking brilliance can hide that in my opinion. Sua and Guymer or Williams for backrow next year
Ron, you call a spade a shovel,and that’s an observation not a criticism, I always remember how hard the game was when you crossed the white line so I usually wimp out on the spade/shovel thing, but having said that, I couldn’t agree more here. I’ve hidden behind the comment that certain blokes shouldn’t be on the field together, Rugby League has a way of maximising weaknesses. I reckon we’ve seen some really flawed combinations in the forwards which is no place for weak links. Our 5 year inability to defend smart attack in our red zone was in the same category, and I could never understand why it just went on and on. I recall one of your comments on it, that it was pissweak out wide, but equally started from the inside. We should persist with what we saw last week, attitude and aptitude worked.
Ryles needs to go back to and stick to how he was originally and stick by getting rid of poor performers
Kelma is on the way out and that’s a good thing he’s exploring other options – he is a good ball runner (thats it) and Kelma is only a good bench impact back rower imo. Not a starter. We don’t wanna see Kelma pushed into the side this week when we looked far better without him there.
Most NRL teams open and create opportunities around your edges, and if your back rowers are bad defensively, or are slow to get back into marker, opposing halves have quite literally a field day attacking you there
If watch Williams and Guymer they are both defensively superior to Kautoga and Kelma, both of them have better footy IQ and capacity. We know Kelma and Kautoga were weak defensively & major targets.
The eels also DO NOT rely on Kelma to score points there is PLENTY of points in the eels from multiple different ball runners and set play options. The EELS issue is largely defence and effort areas – which Guymer and Williams have in droves.
I’m of the belief that Ryles (and the eels) got too offensively gun happy after tearing up teams to finish last year and in pre season. Our defence had been too poor to play that footy this year. Because at times one dropped ball = guaranteed try for the opposition in the next set.
You’ve seen this at the panthers you don’t need star attacking forwards all over the park to be successful – but what you DO need is a few players who will make their tackles, do the dirty work, and have big motors.
Parramatta has really good attack now when we get near the red zone and not even the panthers could hold us off, Dogs had 3rd best defence and they could not hold us off either.
Our game plan needs to be something like last week. Strong edge defenders like Guymer & Williams limiting Manly’s sweeping plays and line breaks.
If Kelma was to start I’m afraid manly would score too many points to beat them. Manly is also very very strong attacking wise when they play at home. Manlys defence can be very weak though if you contain their attack, their confidence & spirit quickly reduces once you can hold the line against them.
Anyone going to the game? I might head down there.
Parra by 12+ 💛 💙
I think that’s a very good point re getting too attack focused and I have to admit I also as a fan got a bit sucked into that and wanted Kelma and Kautoga on the edges to add from a purely attacking perspective. In hindsight it’s better that we shore up our defence on those edges and also our middle defence and pick players who are going to put in an 80 minute defensive effort. We have a lot of strike in our halves and spine players but if we can’t defend they are out of the game immediately.
I would be continuing to pick Williams and Guymer on those edges. Kelma I think we should let go but I think Kautoga is someone we may consider persisting and working with.
I see thatA Apa is moving on next season. Obviously he has several young players ahead of him in the pecking order and you can’t really tell how a young player is going to go in the weekly NRL grind until they’re in it but I’m disappointed that he didn’t get more chances. I thought that there might be more future in him than in Pezet; he has a remarkable passing skill.
Anyway, good luck to him; maybe in the future he’ll be one of those we regret ha ing lost.
Kelma should never be anywhere near our top side again.
How many chances does this bloke need?
He has one foot outside the club now with his manager stating that he’s looking around.
I doubt there would be too many clubs breaking the bank to grab him to be honest.
Not a bad offensive player but a very poor defender.
I truly hope that Ryles doesn’t put Kelma back on the edge and move Williams back to the middle.
Williams has his best game for the year last week and it’s very very clear that he’s an edge forward.
To do so would be absolutely ridiculous.
I’m also expecting Walker to return to the bench against Manly.
I just don’t understand why Ryles just didn’t pick him there.
Why play silly buggers ????
There is some suggestion that Sua will be moving to the middle when he comes here as well….FMD if ever there was a good edge forward, running wide, it’s Sua !!!!!!!!
Hopefully Sua replaces Kelma and that’s it.
Other good teams know you need one strike backrower (preferable left side) and one gun defensive backrower (preferably right side). Penrith had that with Kikau and Martin. Dogs have that with Preston and kikau. Sharks had that with Nikora and teig Wilton. Storm with Eli katoa and blore (or Kenny Bromwich and Felipe kafusi). Roosters with Boyd coroner and sbw. The list goes on.
All of that is to say it made no sense for us to have two back rowers with high attacking skills but terrible defence starting (as we have with kautoga. Sua will be once backrower and jack Williams should’ve other. Guymer, pryke etc can be middles who fill in on edge if required (with Petrus, will latu etc coming through)
I wonder how Apa would have performed in the 5/8 role if he’d been given the 12 months that the proven champion Jonah Pezet was given. They say the secret is to identify and retain the best of your pathways players. I’m not sure if our present R&R team could identify between a cat and a dog.
I think the r&r team have identified Lorenzo as the long and possibly short term 6.
To be fair in my opinion as an all round 6 Lorenzo compared to API is a no comparison.
Lorenzo has it over him in attack, he is electric on his feet, passing game, kicking game and Lorenzo for a small bloke can whack in defence and when at fullback Api does not look comfortable putting his body on the line in tackles.
Lorenzo has looked better as the nsw cup season has gone on I’m now excited for when he gets an opportunity.
That’s all fair enough, but my point is, why did we import Pezet when we could have given Twiddle, Volkman or some one already here a go. Basically Pezet was a whim who’s failed to deliver what was already here. Waste of money, that’s not good recruitment.
I agree Pezet has not been great so far except in the broncos game.
His defence needs work.
After playing very well for the Storm in a finals game last year I did not mind his recruitment but he has some work to do form wise when he returns from injury.
Thanks fellas,
A much better week for me as I could wear my Eels cap with pride on my afternoon walks around the burbs and not divert my eyes if someone looked at it!
Manly will be on a high this week. Three wins and old boys celebrating the 1976 premiership after defeating the Eels in that years grand final. The Eels winning this weekend, with a winger scoring the match winning try in the last few moments would be a poignant way to finish given Nifty Glovers recent passing. Fingers crossed.
A lot of talk on here of recent times about Kelma and KitKat. I find it hard to disagree with any of it. However, I do recall Muggo on one of your game day chats saying a lot of positive things about KitKat and that our collective criticism of him was a bit harsh. Muggo knows a lot more about footy than I ever will so maybe it is worthwhile persisting with Kautoga, even if it means a little stint with the Reggie’s to work on defence.
Disappointing to be reading that Apa is leaving for the Western Perth Himalayan Bears. However, if true, it is hard to begrudge him. Three year NRL contract, likely more first grade opportunity to show his wares and a young family means for him, at least, it appears a sensible decision.
Thanks again for all the content, you guys have stepped it up a notch this year and I appreciate it.
On recruitment, I’m sure we’ll all agree how pleased we are to see that Araz Nanva has signed onto the NRL squad for next year. With Will Penisini, Jordan Samrani and Brian Kelly he leaves us in a strong position centres. Assuming that Tago may be let go, one of two of them may need to fill in on the wing from time to time. Talataina (who, I must confess, I’ve never seen play) is on a development contract for next year. So far signed in the NRL list we have one full back – Ioni, and two halves, Papilii and Moses, and two hookers – Smith and xda Silva.
I think that, assuming that Talataina is not yet ready for week by week NRL we are still very short in the spine and still would be even if we did the sensible thing and re-signed Ron Volkman – oulx we be so short sighted as to let him go? If we take u the option on de Belin,, Walker and Paulo we will be going very close to full up. I personally believe that the heaviness of Toni Matsele’s defence entitled him to another contract; I’ll be interested to see if the club ,agreed. If they do that will fill us j for forwards – maybe Saxon Pryke would settle for a year’s development contract and NRL in 2028; that still would leave us awfully exposed in the spine; if my calculations is right and all that would leave one NRL spot I would hope that we’d check the plans of Chanel Tevita-Harris
That’s great news for the Eels! It will be interesting to see how the new players fit in against the Sea Eagles.