NRL Team List
Round 9 vs New Zealand Warriors, Saturday 5:30PM, CommBank Stadium
It is a modest set of changes this week for the Parramatta Eels as they host the New Zealand Warriors on Saturday evening. Jason Ryles has officially ratified the pregame swap of the last two weeks of Dylan Walker and Jack De Belin. As of publishing this article we are still awaiting the official injury report (and NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg team sheets) but Walker seems set to go on Saturday following concerns over a potential fractured arm.
Tallyn Da Silva was confirmed right to play on Monday when the Match Review Committee looked relatively favourably on the tackle that saw him sent to the bin against the Sea Eagles with a Grade 1 Dangerous Throw charge only attracting a fine.
Otherwise, as per the information from Ryles in the post-match presser, Jordan Samrani returns from injury. Samrani is attached to the extended bench but is not immediately part of the optional 6-man bench inside the top 19.
That is the limit of the changes available to the Eels in Round 9 as they look to bounce back at home following their 15-point loss to the Sea Eagles on Sunday. The Warriors come into this weekend on the back of a tough 2-point win over the Dolphins that kept them anchored firmly in 2nd place on the ladder. They have been one of the form teams of the competition over the first two months and now loom large as a heck of a challenge for the battered Blue & Gold.
| Parramatta Eels | New Zealand Warriors | |
| Joash Papalii | 1 | Taine Tuaupuki |
| Brian Kelly | 2 | Dallin Watene-Zelezniak |
| Will Penisini | 3 | Roger Tuivasa-Sheck |
| Sean Russell | 4 | Adam Pompey |
| Josh Addo-Carr | 5 | Alofiana Khan-Pereira |
| Ronald Volkman | 6 | Chanel Harris-Tavita |
| Mitchell Moses | 7 | Tanah Boyd |
| Luca Moretti | 8 | James Fisher-Harris |
| Ryley Smith | 9 | Wayde Egan |
| Junior Paulo | 10 | Jackson Ford |
| Charlie Guymer | 11 | Leka Halasima |
| Jack Williams | 12 | Kurt Capewell |
| Jack De Belin | 13 | Erin Clark |
| Interchange | ||
| Tallyn Da Silva | 14 | Sam Healey |
| Saxon Pryke | 15 | Tanner Stowers-Smith |
| Toni Mataele | 16 | Demitric Vaimauga |
| Dylan Walker | 17 | Jacob Laban |
| Kelma Tuilagi | 18 | Eddie Ieremia-Toeava |
| Lorenzo Talataina | 19 | Luke Metcalf |
| Reserves | ||
| Jordan Samrani | 20 | Kayliss Fatialofa |
| Teancum Brown | 21 | Te Maire Martin |
| Araz Nanva | 22 | Makaia Tafua |
Injury Report
| Lincoln Fletcher | Hamstring | Rd 12 |
| Jonah Pezet | Hamstring | Rd 13 |
| Isaiah Iongi | Syndesmosis | Rd 13 |
| Kitione Kautgoa | MCL | Rd 13 |
| Sam Tuivaiti | Shoulder | Rd 13 |
| Apa Twidle | AC Sprain (Grade 3) | Rd 13 |
| J’maine Hopgood | ACL Tear | Season |
| Matt Doorey | ACL Tear | Season |
| Bailey Simonsson | Ankle | Season |
| Ryan Matterson | Concussion | Indefinite |
NSW Cup Team List
Round 9 vs New Zealand Warriors, Saturday 1:00PM, James Hardie Centre of Excellence
Holy radical changes Batman! New look Cup line-up incoming!
Jonah Pezet is returning from his hamstring strain via reserve grade as he partners Lorenzo Talataina in the halves. Likewise for Jordan Samrani as he takes over Devonte Vaivela in the centres after an admirable shift in reggies from the young centre.
It gets real spicy from there though. Zack Visconti’s strong form in the last two weeks has seen him win a startign front row berth while Trace Beattie has been called on to start for the injured Will Latu.
Have a gander at that bench! Jack Hudson, Christopher Petrus and Ryda Talagi all promoted from Jersey Flegg. This is Ryda’s return to reserve grade after a length run there late last year but well done to Hudson and Petrus for also winning spots on the interchange. Very exciting times.
| 1 | Brad Avery |
| 2 | Jake Tago |
| 3 | Jordan Samrani |
| 4 | Araz Nanva |
| 5 | Richie Penisini |
| 6 | Lorenzo Talataina |
| 7 | Jonah Pezet |
| 8 | Teancum Brown |
| 9 | Kruz Niutili-Schmidt |
| 10 | Zack Visconti |
| 11 | Trace Beattie |
| 12 | Jezaiah Funa-Iuta |
| 13 | Tyrese Lokeni |
| Interchange | |
| 14 | Jack Hudson |
| 15 | Christoper Petrus |
| 16 | Ryda Talagi |
| 17 | Jospeh Nohra |
Jersey Flegg Cup Team List
Round 9 vs New Zealand Warriors, Saturday 11:00AM, James Hardie Centre of Excellence
Congratulations to Stirling Faumui and Billy Fanene as they become the latest SG Ball graduates into the Jersey Flegg Cup this season. Beau Lucien also returns this week to restock the starting front-row after Ryda Talagi was promoted to the NSW Cup. Spare a thought for Devonte Vaivela who did an excellent job in an injury crisis in reserve grade for the Eels but now finds himself on the extended bench for the red-hot Flegg side.
| 1 | Corey Leigh |
| 2 | Mohamed Alameddine |
| 3 | Siamani Leulaui |
| 4 | Harley Walker |
| 5 | Druzel Taula |
| 6 | Cameron Bamblett |
| 7 | Kade Moujalli |
| 8 | Beau Lucien |
| 9 | Lachlan Coinakis |
| 19 | Jordan Miller |
| 11 | Stirling Faumui |
| 12 | Callum McMenemy |
| 13 | Jackson Koina |
| Interchange | |
| 14 | Wesley Tongamoa |
| 15 | Steven Nunn |
| 16 | Billy Fanene |
| 17 | Lennox Risati |
| 18
21 |
Markkuz Ofanoa
Devonte Vaivela |
Mixed feelings with this team list. The team selection is the right one imo despite the fact it is underwhelming with all the injured outs + overall lack of top end quality in the squad. I’m hoping for a competitive performance with no injuries but warriors are the real deal.
More broadly, This season and off season is make or break for the front office after losing two international players (brown and lomax) and adding much worse players to the squad.
I think will penisini isn’t worth investing in long term (slow, poor hands, poor defence, no vertical leap) so we need two centres – one to fill in Russell spot and one young gun to put real pressure on will. The reserve grade backline options aren’t great either – nanva has top 30 and r penisini should be on a second tier or development deal as a last chance. Jonathan sua from dogs is good winger but apparently bears signed him. Tigers produce backline players regularly with so much more upside than the eels (as does almost every club). Get something done to help improve this putrid backline.
Of course, we also need more athleticism/punch in middle – too manly toilers (hopgood, jdb, Guymer, pryke etc) who struggle to get forward if they don’t have momentum or backline support. Tuivati has punch but needs more time and mataele might kick on this year (and interesting watch as should be cut if doesn’t show real value in grade for rest of the year). ATA mariota is still available. Francis Molo on 2 year deal. Junior to be resigned for 1 year on a low grade deal.
Anyway, food for thought. Exciting for the cup debutants – Chris Petrus may be a first grader by next year. Ryda and Koina should be in cup for this year. Unfortunately this season was dead in round 1 when the club hot exposed for its arrogance re: patting itself on the back for a few good games at end of last year and pre season challenge form. The defence needs serious work – some of which is systemic and some of which is personnel (thankfully no tualagi on edge).
Couldn’t agree more.
The areas of improvement for our roster both in terms of immediate positional need and overall strategy are obvious, but the track record of our GM of Football doesn’t fill me with confidence these will be addressed.
We will miss finals again this year, our 4th year in a row.
Our roster has been steadily declining each year since 2022 with key departures replaced primarily by discarded players from other clubs.
We will not compete for premierships with our current roster strategy.
I am personally of the opinion our GM of Football has had his chance and it’s time for the club to go in another direction.
Any serious club would have turfed him but we aren’t serious. We do the same shit year in year out re: losing good players and buying average ones to replace them. It hasn’t worked for 4+ years.
I doubt the front office gets it done. They are already playing tuivati who is off contract soon, pryke who is off contract soon, Guymer who is off contract soon, mataele who is off contract soon, Walker who is off contract soon. I don’t know how many other clubs play such youngsters without having them on longer deals to avoid losing them to Perth or another rival. Maybe Ryles doesn’t want them all but tuivati and Walker are a must re sign in my opinion
It’s unbelievable he has survived this long given the same errors occur year after year.
Agree re Tuivaiti and Walker. Tuivati should already been signed up for another 3 years at least, he’s a 10 year+ NRL prop.
No other club puts their talent in the shop window un-signed like our front office does, and then has to rummage through the bargain bin to replace them when they get caught off guard that another club has signed them.
Amateurs.
Indeed, and I don’t understand how they haven’t learnt from their stuff ups. It’s mind boggling and simply not acceptable.
Will has arguably his two strongest showings the last two weeks and is delivering massively across both sides of the ball, but isn’t worth investing in? He has huge rucking and tackle breaking talent + fantastic kick chase/line speed. Defensively also has been much improved this year comparatively to his slump last year – but hard to build consistently when you have a revolving door of wingers beside you.
Comical that you complain about toilers but then want to sign a bloke like Molo for 2 years? Whose averaging not even 70m this year and is for all intents and purposes, a tackle bot. He’s more of a toiler than a guy like Pryke is. The fact you then talk about how Mataele might kick on? He hasn’t kicked on for years and continues to only effectively deliver in defence, while having low output with ball in hand.
We have a crop of young middles in Teancum, Lokeni, Visconti and eventually Ryda and Petrus that have shown potential moving forward. We’d be far better suited progressing them through in lieu of a bunch of our current first graders than buying known plodders Francis Molo and continuing a contract with Junior who has played one good game in first grade.
Our recruitment deserves criticism, but I find it diabolical when those that what to complain about them offer up absolutely dense POVs on who we should be signing.
Will is very polarising amongst eels fans because some are too emotional about juniors and overrate them. His has to run hard in attack because he is a one trick pony with no agility nor speed. His has hands like feet. Everything is about his physicality but other centres can get around him with relative ease. He might chase a kick but he can’t jump. Don’t rely on stats, watch how often teams target him to get a bad read or simply to outpace him on the outside in defence. He is still crap in defence and not much has improved for a 100+ gamer. Must be hard to defend outside him for Kelly and any other winger.
Molo has athleticism and power that works well for short bursts – eg 35 mins and 9 for 97 metres. He isn’t required to do high workloads as that’s not his role in a stacked dolphins forward pack – he hits hard and runs hard (he is no superstar but is better than moretti, doorey etc).
Toilers are good for work rate (pryke Guymer etc ) but struggle when we don’t have punch in middle for them to work off with their leg speed. They are good complimentary pieces in need of momentum. As for mataele, I agree he has had his chance and not done much but he has the next few weeks to show he deserves a contract – happy to cut him if not up to it but he has some oomph we desperately lack at the moment.
Your comments about good juniors in forwards might be right but you don’t chuck them in and not resign junior to help teach them. That’s naive. ATA mariota and Molo (in a lean market for props) would help in my opinion to take pressure off your extraordinary hope these juniors are somehow ready soon.
I’ll keep an eye on Penisini for the things you mention, I’ve seen some clumsy games from him but I’ve seen some more than acceptable efforts. I noticed last week that Foran had obviously done video of the Dogs game, and had his blokes cutting down Will’s runway, the collisions and post contact were mitigated, Will never shirked it but maybe over to Ryles/Moses for some variation when the opposition are pre-judging and committing 3 tacklers.
I have always suspected that Will is better suited to wing than centre
Given the current state of our roster we are very lucky to have him; he would not claim to be a master at positioning his winger. Once he’s run back into match fitness I’d be curious to see Samrani at right centre with Will on that wing
While I’m writing I’ll mention how surprised I am at current criticism of Toni Mataele. He is 23 and played his football, until mid last year in the second row
Eye sight and statistics tell us that, if Williams is a second rower, while he is on the field Toni is easily our most effective pro in defence. I hope we tie him up for the next few years before another suitor comes calling; of all the current roster not signed beyond this year he would be my top priority to retain
We have bugger all footwork across the park.
The reason Volkman surprised the dogs defence was when clubs do video of the opposition it shows only Addo-Carr with any semblance of footwork .
Moses uses his speed while Kautoga and Tuilagi run hard lines.
No forwards with late footwork or backs and it’s the main reason we lack yardage and can’t win the tackle.
I’d love to see the stats across all teams on percentages of ball carriers finding their belly in attack and the percentage of times teams put the opposition ball carrier on their backs.
The eye test says we’re a distant last in both categories.
Our only hope this year to remain in games is to utilise Moses kicking game while having the fastest linespeed of any of the 17 clubs.
We’re no where near that either , we should be kicking on the 3/4 tackle to start games chasing hard and dictating field position with long kicks and linespeed it’s our only asset of influence yet we refuse to .
Our end of sets in an attacking position are disgraceful, Moses has been awful for a few years now with attacking kicks probably why Pezet took over.
We for some reason persist with long balls early in the attacking set that just destroys any chance of a quick shift off a fast play the ball which is our strength, short interchange passing should be our go , getting to our feet quickly and then shift quickly off a fast play the ball.
Dont start me on recruitment, there seems to be no plan to fix our deficiencies at all.
The idea is to go hard at your main recruit , pay overs if you have to while using the players stature to encourage other players to come to the club creating momentum and a sense of imminent success.
The Eels continue to fiddle with themselves with a smile on their face .
It’s infuriating.
It’s a big smile too.We all bitch and argue about it but who is the actual person who realizes it and changes it. Scary to accept the hierarchy may all be as clueless as each other. Bennett was our man , but they even managed to f**k that up.
Not really a matter of being overly emotionally about Will – it’s the fact he’s 23 years old and while he has 100+ games he’s still young. He’s the player that people overly criticise now and then bemoan when he puts it all together at another club at 25. The eye test tells me there is a valuable player in Will, he fits more into the Staggs mould – what he’s showcased the last two weeks is a blueprint for the impact player he can be. It’s also laughable that you’re blaming him entirely for the right edge defence, yes, he makes mistakes and poor reads but to say it’s always his fault is ridiculous.
Man out here talking about Molo’s 97m stint against the Warriors when almost half those metres were of kick returns, and his ‘best’ game this season. His avg. statlines almost mirror the blokes you’ve said he’s better than. We need an actual enforcer in our middle, the only guy we have for that who has first grade experience is Tuivati. While I wouldn’t be upset about extending Junior, I simply don’t think his performances (bar the Dogs game) are warranting his continued selection to start – keep him around to coach the young boys as they come up, but unless he starts replicated that Dogs performance we should be seeing what options we have.
I’m not suggesting we don’t sign anyone, but Molo just sits along the same trendline as Jack De Belin, older ‘role player’ that you could likely get similar output from someone younger. Heck, Pryke has offered better defensive rates and similar PCMs in his first two first grade games and the guys a lock.
It’s not naive to suggest our juniors should be given the opportunity in lieu of Junior. I genuinely believe that Junior either goes around one more year or retires into our coaching staff. But beyond that, it’s not extraordinary hope when we have multiple young middles already delivering strong performances in cup. It’s not like my hopes are settled on only Ryda or Petrus, fresh out of SG ball. I’m talking Teancum and Lokeni who both would be ready for short stints off the bench – they have that line bending capability and the youth for the pace of the game.
We need to start sunsetting high minutes on our aging middles – I honestly think Paulo 25-30 minutes off the bench would do what we would get from Molo, if not more.
Will has his limitations at centre but, as things are, we’re very lucky to have him. Pryke is a gifted defensive player who has a real go with the ball; I’d lock him down now and support his development of ability to move the ball; I think he has the potential to be a one hundred plus game player for us.
Someone like Talagai is maybe three seasons away from being a hardened NRL player.
What a disgraceful take, with fans like you im surprised the eels even bother turning up… All of those forwards you mentioned signing are absolute plodders, Paulo is better then all of them (dudes playing heavily injured and outplaying all of the ones you mentioned signing)
Mark O’Neil does a brilliant job, do you remember what our recruitment was like before him?
I think it will be interesting to see who actually lines up on the weekend – personally hard to see Walker playing with that arm in a cast. But who knows.
I’ll say this – we had better lock up some players and add some depth otherwise we could be like the bloke who’s left with no one to dance with at Kicks Parra Leagues ($1 drinks) back in the days…and it wasn’t me!
Warriors very hard to beat and I was more confident against Manly tbh.
A very interesting back line in Cup; you’d think that Pezet would dominate and the three quarters are huge
It will be fascinating to learn how they go
Is it on Fox?
We obviously need a roster strengthening, but right now we can only field what is available and look to maximise that. Whilst Manly’s 84% possession/ 11sets to 2 in first 20 minutes of second half, and why that occurred , had a huge bearing on the result, I thought we did much, much better in the first half than previously, albeit late in the half we were holding together but losing field position, we seemed to make reduced ground, offset by Moses kicking. This is where strong ball runners are missed. We’ve just got to stop squandering possession, reduce pressure on ourselves to have even half a chance of competing for 80. Back in the days when we couldn’t defend sharp attack out wide in our 20, we still beat or lost on the bell to Storm and Panthers solely because our high completions and low errors were gold standard. It works.
Whats the go with Kelma? Seems very strange that Williams and Guymer are being used on the edges when Kelma could replace one of them, allowing one of them to strengthen the middle
Really hard to get excited or have much faith about this game
But I also felt the same way about the bulldogs game and we won
Just when you think parra are cooked, often they jag a good performance
Origin coming up maybe Moses might lift
Why are eels players getting injured so often and so barely this season?
What has happened?
Has anyone got any ideas of theories – it’s bizarre
So badly*
Muz,
Your puzzlement shows the question is not a simple one. There would need to be an enormous amount of qualitative/quantitative questions and data to be asked, analysed and assessed.
For example, how are the Eels and other teams injuries compared to previous seasons, the type of injury, timing in games, foul play v bad luck etc.?
Last year we seemed to have a raft of syndesmosis injuries with Ryles saying he’d heard more than he ever needed to know. This year is different.
Is it the change of rules, is it the change of high performance staff, is it bad luck?
Hopefully the club is doing some analysis to identify any causes that can be addressed in the future to minimise the risk.
Doesn’t really answer your question sorry. But theories are really useless until there is some research and analysis around them to either support or refute them.