An embarrassing inability to complete a multitude of premium attacking opportunities has cost the Eels dearly in Magic Round. While the Melbourne Storm eventually ran out easy winners on the scoreboard, Parramatta squandered an infuriating amount of chances to seize both the initiative and the momentum on Saturday night. Sixties and Forty20 debrief on the incredibly frustrating loss as the Eels now move into a bye and look to reset with some key players hopefully back in the fold in Round 13.
Ryles needs to commit to the rebuild. This half arsed rebuild is not going to work when new teams are coming in and existing teams are already ahead of us.
In my opinion doorey, moretti, volkman, Richard penisini, Jake Tago, matto, Kelma, jdb should all be cut. Guymer and will penisini are expendable. Whether pryke and mataele are worth resigning is a wait and see.
The cows look revitalised with young, fast, skillful centres and backrowers. Manly has strike at backrow and backline with one alpha prop (paseka). We have no alpha prop, the softest forwards and the slowest backs. Historically bad defensive team and inconsistent attacking team
Ryles needs to be better as he is responsible for the roster at the end if the day (O’Neil and co shouldn’t be in their positions but the club seems incapable of change in that regard and do not seek to recruit better head of football or recruitment team)
I don’t see us being competitive till 2028 at earliest. We’d need half our roster to change for 2027, and even then the excuses next year will be “oh well there’s a lot of new combinations that need time”, along with “we still have a lot of young blokes who are learning the demands of NRL”.
The pod talked about fan patience on the 40 year drought. It’s more than that. We have also collected more spoons than any other NRL era club (and by some margin) and even in the c.2017-2022 run where we were perennial top 8, the squad was woefully inconsistent week in week out.
Who remembers 2022 when we got hammered by > 30 by the Cows, Bunnies, Broncos and Dogs (the latter two teams didn’t even play finals!) Don’t get me wrong, on the whole it was a good season – we finished 4th won twice as many games as we lost and got to a GF. But even that year fans were left scratching their heads wondering which team would run onto the park each week.
There’s something in the DNA of this team that triggers these school-boy quality performances too easily and too often. And that’s what tests patience of the fans more than anything. We either get nail biting wins or hand in face capitulations.
Agree he needs to commit to the rebuild as it needs to happen asap. But how can he when he can’t have any confidence in MON and Rogers and Jim to get the players he needs?
Last Sunday I watched Panthers v Raiders. 1st try – Blaze.
2nd try – Sanders
3rd try – Blaze (set up up by Papali’i)
It is mind blowing that all that talent isn’t still at the club, but the people who let them all walk are.
We have crazy, inconsistent scores in the NRL with large blow outs in part because of the six again but mainly because of the 17 teams and the increasing disparity in ability of players. It’s only going to get worse so not having any strategic structure to our squad with established stars is going to make it so hard to climb back up for years and years. I saw someone comment we won’t be competitive till 2028. I think even that is optimistic at best, and more likely unrealistic given we seem unlikely to see any management change.
Ryles? What about o’neill, what’s he doing? So Ryles has to do everyone’s job.
I agree that Ryles is the last one to poor point finger at. Of course the buck should stick with Jim and then O’Neil and others in recruitment. But I’ve lost hope in that lot. 40 says that time is running out for them, I say time ran out years ago and now they are simply pressing snooze on the alarm of how bad we are. Ryles is the head coach so I hoped he would have enough conviction to demand better from O’Neil and co if need be.
Moretti Volman Doorey are all ok still learning and progressing. Matto is like that employee you really want to fire, but he keeps leaving unfair dismissal forms on his desk and always talks about his lawyer dad.
Respectfully Disagree – moretti doorey and volkman don’t have any long term potential worth persisting with. The juniors have higher potential and upside. And there are immediate players in other teams who are so much better that we should waste roster spots/salary on those 3 players
Sorry meant Shouldn’t* not should
Id have to see the other junior that replace them. I think its important to remember that not all players are instantly elite. And then theres pros and cons of having too many elite players every one comes knocking. Also… theres different roles now in the game, and you cant have a team of heavys and expect to do well, look at the Dragons. Moretti for me has come of age this season, he’s an upgraded version of Nathan Brown imo. I agree about the others you have mentioned. I actually dont think we are as far off as people might think, Sua next year is good and will do Kelma’s job maybe another 1-2 Elite players and we are good.
I’ve been parramatta through and through for just on 60 years seen the good and the bad.was a big Brad Arthur fan and remember being excited when he and gutho announced we were going in the market to get an xfactor player that was several years ago and still nothing has been addressed. What I’m trying to say and I said at the time of ba’s sacking that no matter replaced him would be on the same hiding to nothing because of continued preference of journeymen and bargain buys.i like ryles but you can’t keep trying to turn rocks into diamonds. Watching last night just seemed like groundhog day I know he tries hard and runs hard but it’s just a matter of time before Kelly drops the ball tuiliagi missed tackles. That’s just 2 that I’m singling out just sheer frustration as bad as finished we should of gone close to winning the game but for elementary 1st tackle mistakes I know I’m rambling but I’m just writing as I think of it. The final one for me is missed tackles ours are continuously in the 40s sometimes over 50 can’t win games like that might somehow jag on here and there which has happened
The Storm made 15 or so errors. Unheard of.
AND still lapped us.
We have had some insipid performances over the years and considering how bad the Storm played, that might just have been the worst of them all.
Perhaps it’s time to look in the mirror and realise that some of the players , no matter how much we pump up their tyres, are just not NRL quality.
Why did both Moses and lomax stop bringing able to goal kick under ryles & co?
Is it over coaching, goal kicking coaches? Why not let Volkman or Papalii goal kick both are better than Moses?
That was honestly one of the worst performances I’ve seen in attack from a parra side. Endless opportunities against a weak storm team who’s below us on the ladder.
I’m going to go full on doomer here unfortunately because I predicted how this game would go in the last post regarding grant crying to Gough to milk 6 agains and all the rest of the garbage like them being able to slow down the ruck but we can’t.. and I won’t bother to say the rest because we all saw it happen in the game.
I predicted when Brad Arthur left that winning starts at the front office, and that I didn’t think we would see huge changes until that happens. I thought ryles alone might be enough, but unfortunately my initial instinct was correct. I now predict if Jason ryles can’t get roster – cattle for 27’ our club will have him under high pressure or on the chopping block in 2027.
Because the people above JR & are also above BA at our club themselves will be under pressure if this current roster and coaching staff cannot deliver by next season. My guess is Jason ryles might end up being another one used as a scapegoat for our shortcomings.
I hope I’m wrong here – but I have a feeling that Jason doesn’t and will not have the cattle at parra to succeed. Only about 3-5 of our NRL players would get a starting role any other NRL clubs (and that’s being generous)
You can’t expect to compete in the NRL with a weak roster – about 50% of our team even at full strength could play reserve grade and not look like huge stand outs. Not bad players.. just very inexperienced, or past 30 years of age. We don’t have 1 single gun player who is in his prime.
A wise man once said you need about 3-4 top players close to their prime to compete for the comp in the NRL then they can drag the young and old players along.
I can’t even see 1 player in the Eels top 30 that comes to mind who’s in their prime or is in good form at a personal level for their own standards.
The squad is just a bottom three squad, plain and simple, even with the players that are due back, our recruitment and retention team needs to be blown up, every player signed in the last few years will be retired or gone on performance apart from iongi and samrani you feel, or we are going to be bottom three side for the next decade unless something changes
100%
That’s easily the worst performance Melbourne have had against us in 5+ years and we still got beaten comfortably.
Many in the squad are just not up to NRL standard. We are a long way from being a finals team let alone a premiership threat, yet I see no signs of us genuinely reshaping our roster.
You could argue the Dragons have spent a lot of cap on a few guys in recent weeks but they are showing conviction to land players and change their situation. We are not.
The Dragons have resigned an elite talent, brought in Kelomatagi, Drinkwater and now Metcalf, while releasing over paid dead wood in Cook. It won’t fix all their problems, but they’re trying. How bad is it that we look at Dragons fans right now and wish we were them?!
Sixties is completely right here.
We need to just go out and make some marquee signings.
If we don’t we will forever be just making up the numbers and arnt we here trying to win the premiership????
The younger blokes coming in will have no chance when they are playing with chumps and being soundly beaten every week.
Did I read we re signed Guymer recently??? Why ???
These are the sorts of players that we are stuck on and need to let go.
Will Moretti and Guymer suddenly find levels that we dont know about ?
We desperately require some top level talent.
I have to say with all the greatest of respect I’m not sure why we would re sign Guymer based on the evidence of the collection of games he has played in first grade so far. Yes he toils hard in defence and he made some nice tackles tonight too but gee whiz he lacks any sort of punch when he runs the footy. We’ve all had a bit of a chuckle at Jurbo over the years for a lack of offensive output but I tell you what at the same age he had a lot more offensive productivity than Guymer does
Found it funny when you guys said we have a recruitment plan. Is not recruiting NRL quality players considered to be a plan? It must be a top secret plan because it looks like no one has heard of it.
Seriously we are wasting Mitch Moses talent with the sheer amount of reserve grade standard players we have put around him. He should ask for a release he deserves better than playing with these plods.
How are we even close to spending the salary cap on this squad ? This is the scariest part that we are spending the same amount of money and this is what we came up with? Incompetence beyond belief.
Forget the top ten in their positions most of these players would not be in the top 25. It is absolute rubbish.
You talk about youngsters coming through. That’s great to have talented youngsters but why would they want to stay and play at a club where they have no one to help them to transition into the NRL? If I am them I would want to go to a club where there talented and established NRL players to learn from. Wha twould you learn from this squad?
We don’t need to recruit the big money superstars but we need to recruit genuine NRL players not bargain bin buys no one else wants.
You are critical of the dragons recruitment. The dragons have a better squad than us apart from their spine which is rubbish. At least they are doing something active to try and improve their squad. We on the other hand are sitting on our hands, yet again waiting for a miracle. Moronic strategy.
Winning starts in the front office and that is where change needs to come.
I actually think if you put good halves into th dragons side it is a way better roster than ours
You place a Cleary or even Luai and Duihi into that dragons side an I reckon they would beat us 7/10
I’m of the belief our roster is extremely weak, way weaker than I originally realised, and unless we make major signings
The dragons will over take us next season like the tigers did unless we do something roster wise
My live match notes. If you are an optimist type fan, you won’t want to read it.
Fox Legaue/ Ennis sound like Luca’s mgmt have given them some coin to talk him up… he promptly drops the ball and they’re still trying to talk him up.
Grant kicks for Faalogo. Gough didn’t need to go upstairs but he chose to, to see if there was a penalty for Parra. There was. Maybe that will get people on this forum off his back…
Eels get another penalty coming out our own end. Do I think any Eels fans on this site are rethinking their opinion of Gough.. ? probably not.
Good move by Russel after a good tackle by him earlier. 4-0 to the good guys.
We’re making no yards in Attack.
6 again Storm. This “bend don’t break” defence we appear to be applying doesn’t work in the 6 again era.
6 again Storm.
Try Storm. I will need someone to explain to me what the heck Kelly was doing there…
Storm walk up the field again. If they don’t make errors they will slaughter us.
Another penalty in our own 20m… Gough loves us!
Try Storm. F’Me. We get slaughtered in the ruck again. Guymer is a hard worker. But he and Moretti together in a tackle is bad news. 4-10.
I didn’t know what to expect tonight. We won last week but it took 82mins despite a +14 error differential, and the Storm haven’t been the Storm (despite beating the hapless Tigers last week), but my goodness we are getting killed in the metres game.
Now we put a kick up and both Kelly and Samrani over run it and the ball goes 60m the other way. I might be pleasantly surprised in 62 mins that we have won. But I will be pleasantly surprised if we haven’t been rissoled by 40 at this rate.
We’re flat out making 5 yards on a hit up… But just got ANOTHER penalty from Gough coming out of our own 20m….
The wave has started. I don’t get Magic Rd. I get it appeals to some, and the atmosphere outside the ground in the local bars would be good. But a stadium with 2/3 of the crowd don’t care about the game in progress, doesn’t make for atmosphere. – IMO.
Oop! Who had Brian Kelly dropping the ball in his own half on their bingo card…. ?
Chance here. TDS kicks from dummy half when there is literally not a football width of space to get the kick through. Dumb.
ANOTHER error by the Storm. Could we get his lucky 2 weeks in a row?!
Half time. Not a great half from either team. Really sloppy attack across the board. Whoever gets their attack in order will win. Unfortunately, the likelihood is it will be the Storm given the raw talent they have compared to Parra. 4-10.
2nd half.
Error Storm. Chance for the Eels…. Forward pass Parra…. At this stage there will be less than 5,000 people in the crowd in the 80th minute.
Try. Storm just had to hold the ball. Looked like Walker caught in the ruck, not for the first time this year… Storm too much class. 4-16.
Maybe TDS will be a first grade number 9 on a consistent basis one day … but it’s not going to be on this day…
6 Again?! Kelly was offside/in touch…. ?! Gough loves us. !!
Honestly. We scored a try from a one-on-one miss. Outside that, when have we looked like scoring? That might be the only tackle bust we have had all night?!
The Storm go 105m to score. I’ve been on Cooper Clarke to score a try the last few weeks, not this week and he scores. Don’t know what his contract situation is but try get him.. Please! On the flip side for the 29th time this year. Jack Williams is caught just being lazy/too tired in the ruck. Not a missed tackle because he doesn’t even make it to where he needs to be. Call me when that stops sounding familiar. 4-22. Game over.
Another 60m off the kick off by the Storm. I’d love to know the stat for “average yards a team concedes from a kick off”. Guarantee we would concede the worst.
Finally. Try from a turnover. Joash too much speed for a backrower playing centre. Moses goal kicking stinks… If only we had a goal kicker… oh right, we released him from his contract…. just because. 8-22.
Finally a set that goes more than 50m.
And we get a favourable bunker call… MUST SCORE NOW as the stupid “country road” song gets played to the 12,000 fans who are left.
6again – keep running at Chan!
FMD! TDS just gave the ball to JDB for a last tackle crash run?! Are you serious?! Are you freaking serious?!
Ennis still talking up Moretti.. he hasn’t been on the field for an hour, but you know, huge impact.
10 to go. Full set of six 10m out. We offer nothing until Moses creates space and Russell refuses to pass it to our best attacking weapon.
Trailing by 14, we go a total of 7m in an entire set.. just bad. Moses puts up a good kick, terrible kick chase, Faalogo almost goes the distance. Try Storm. They have been dreadful tonight and they are still going to win by 20.
8-28.
King walks through Moretti. Ennis conveniently doesn’t mention him by name as King crashes over for an embarrassingly soft try.
8-34.
All in all, just awful. The Storm played no better than the Cows last week. We’re in desperate need of reinforcements. But even then, they may change the score lines, but the players to comeback are not changing the score line by 20+ points.
Call em when we have a squad who can compete week in week out.… which won’t be anytime soon until we see some change.
I like your notes mate. Well done.
What was with Ennis and Moretti ????
Let’s call it as it is.. Moretti is a reserve grade plodder and that’s it.
Like Guymer and others.
We sure love to sign athletically challenged forwards.
Ennis must be popping pills up there.
Samrani was again strong but was laterally smoked a couple of times. Not his fault but the club just has to understand that he’s a backrower now but a least he has a go.
I advocated for the club to sign Kelly – I apologise.
Joash tried hard but I doubt he will ever be a regular NRL player in a top notch team. I noticed that all of a sudden last night he decided to run straight instead of dancing around – it was a good sign, I like it.
Volkman – yet another of the bargain buys we love who has a good game in him every now and then in amongst the absolute rubbish.
Last night was gutter ball for Volk.
I can put up with things not going your way but he gave up on his efforts far too many times.
Yet again.. the sort of player our R&R committee loves – cheap and no one wants him.
Kelma – Another of our bargain buy specials that no other team wants. Perfect for us !
TDS – The most confused player in the game. Mate just run and overcall Moses early in the count if you see something but late in the count – give it to Moses.
Easy.
Lastly .. Mr Gough the referee.
I’ve never seen a referee have so many captain challenges reversed.
I would think it’s a hard hard job being a NRL referee so I always give the on field official plenty of leeway.
I have no problem with Gough, he’s young and learning.
We have massive massive problems at the club without worrying about the officials.
What’s most disappointing about that performance?
The storm would have lost that game I believe to virtually every other NRL side, and the storm would have gotten beat by 30 or 40 by Penrith giving away that much possession and prime field position.
The eels are mentally weak when it comes to the storm. Our current side is mentally beaten before even playing them. Even though the storm look absolutely dreadful this season (besides a RD 1 flogging against us)…
I don’t think the storm beats any team besides the dragons last night. And they still flogged us.
Honestly shameful and embarrassing how bad our errors are – it just shows you how poor our roster is, this has been an issue since BA was still here, handling sucked under Trent barret too.
This is why the cope about “handling & skills” focus when Ryles came didn’t actually materialise anything.
The whole time we’ve had poor rosters and the eels won’t go anywhere until they can finally start signing numerous high quality players – IF that ever happens.
Bellamy knows they were lucky to run into worst team in the NRL last night. His presser last night said so.
He was more scathing about his team than Ryles was, if you were an outside observer, going on the presses you would be convinced the Storm were lapped not the other way around.
I feel sorry for Ryles and could understand if he was making quiet enquiries about the Storm job moving forward.
Had to laugh when Ryles was asked about reinforcements and he said Harrison Edwards, like he is going to make a massive difference!
You are correct. Every other team would have lapped the Storm last night including the Saints. Damn Penrith would have beaten them by 60.
People rubbish the Dragons but they have a much much better roster than us.
If Metcalf can stay on the pitch next year, they will leave us in the dirt at the bottom of the table where we belong.
What do we have to look forward to next year ? Jaydyn Sua ? ..that’s great and who ????
Maybe next year is the year that the great hopes like Richard Penisini and all the other plodders in Cup get taken by aliens and suddenly develop the talent required to move the needle ?
Sixties talks about buying Herbie Farnworth. I agree but we need more than Herbie.
Why the hell would Farnworth ever come to the Eels ?
When Russell goes who replaces him ?? Maybe we can look at Super league – I reckon there must be a cheap ex NRL player who is about 35 and 25 kgs overweight that would be great for us !
We have to get rid of the absolute plodders that stink up our Cup side.
How the hell is Jake Tago in our top 30 ????????????
And please .. enough with the injury excuses !!!
The only players we are missing in the backline are Simmonson and Penisini.
Simonsson would be lucky to play regularly in another team and he’s cactus moving forward and Penisini has been on a downward spiral for years.
In the forwards, we are without internationals – Doorey and Hopgood.
PLEASE !!!!
We desperately desperately need a proven list manager that can take a scalpel to our roster. Sticky did the right thing when he did the famed overhead projector stunt.
Agree with much of this. Too much average and below average quality in the squad. Need to cut the fat as we are odds on for spoon next year
Agree Muz.
It’s a simple game. Every game this year where we have made fewer than 10 errors, we’ve won. When we make 10 errors – game over…. Even when the other team make 15!
The Storm ran for over 500m more than us despite only having it for a handful of tackles more.
Jnr ran for 91m. The next best forward was Luca with a bland 73m… That is horrendous.
I don’t know how much more we need to see from so many of these guys to know it is what it is and what it is will never be good enough without a huge overhaul.
Yeah I know it’s easy to get upset after a loss
But our roster is weak and it has been for 4 years in a row basically since the 22 GF year
We have a poor roster – simple as that
High errors in a NRL team spells losses an disaster, high error rate is a common fear of low quality and low confidence players
It’s unfortunate and harsh but it’s been 4 years of much of the same thing
The people in charge of the eels are not willing to pay what other clubs pay, and also don’t inspire any confidence in the players minds to join us
I’m a bull of the eels at times but unfortunately I’m just overly optimistic
The reality is our roster for 4 years has been very weak – we can not expect miracles with a poor roster tbh
BA got us doing well many years because he always made sure we HAD a strong forward pack
But We currently have the weakest forward pack in the league it looks like
This is the concerning part is done some of our juniors look worse then what they did last year. Our defence is nothing short of appalling and needs some serious questions to staff and players as to why we are falling down so badly in this area. Recruitment from 2025-2026 was lacklustre and has continued thru 2026. The club is trying to sell us this dream that we have so much talent coming thru and be patient. I’ve watched alot of our juniors coming thru and I’m telling you right now most of them have alot of work to do before becoming successful first graders.
Ryles job will be on the coaching scrap heap in 2027 not through all his doing if you don’t give him the tools for success.
I’ve said all along the same recruitment team should not be in charge of pulling out of this because there scared by there previous mistakes.
It’s clearly obvious what needs to happen in recruitment department but the players and staff need to address some alarming issues around the defence part of the game. The contact in tackles, line speed and kick chase is not even close to first grade standard at times ryles and co can’t hide from this one.
I believe if Kelly held that ball for walk over try it may well have inspired a different result. Why does Ryles persist with a bloke who best consistents is dropping the ball. Someone else would not do any worse. BA’s comments about Gough I don’t get. He pings Parra a number of times in the first half for infringements but still allows the Storm to.lay over the tackled player. They had no infringements the first half except some penalties. It’s true Parra is their worst enemy and they look like a bi-polar team. However, we are missing our best players but handling is amateur schoolboy stuff. And Moses well his kicking doesn’t help. No point blaming the coach but if this the best we have then dump them and play the reggies best.
It’s always easy from the lounge, but that was one of the more frustrating sessions. Haven’t got the energy to record repeat comments, so I’ll just try one that maybe hasn’t been mentioned for the actual game…how many times did we see passes thrown too hard over shorter distance, behind the recipient or at the recipients shoulder? This is about attention to detail, judgement and execution under pressure. Fundamentals, hit or miss.
Last week and this week summed up our situation. We don’t have the roster to play winning football when self- administered adversity strikes, let alone opponent administered adversity.
The squad is just loaded with too many fringe first graders whose only consistency is their inconsistency. Occasionally they produce games that suggest development and fulfilment of potential and a higher ceiling having been reached, but next outing they can be back to their low ceiling levels which are not NRL standard. I agree 100% with Sixties that our approach to recruitment needs to change to ensure that the squad has a big enough core of elite players to develop the younger players coming through. Don’t bother going through the exercise of what players would be in the top 10 in their position across the NRL, just compare the team lists each week and consider how many eels players would make a combined team, it’s damning. As we currently stand the prospects for the next few years are looking very bleak. I’m an eels supporter of nearly 60 years, remain a ticketed member, but the worst thing for me is that these losses don’t sting anymore. I feel numb from too many disappointments from lacklustre efforts to hurt and even the wins are less celebrated as there’s always doubt around consistency and what version of the team will turn up next game. That’s our lot it seems to be a laughing stock of the NRL.
There are some consistent factors obvious in our beloved Eels
1, Recruitment is crap
2.Identification of player abilities in recruitment is awful
3. Not understanding the need to recruit genuine NRL players
4.Pushing juniors into a NRL team which lacks NRL level players to guide them
5.The recruitment team is too conservative and negotiates poorly
6. The coaching staff is being asked to work close to miracles with below standard roster
7 The failure to accept how bad the front office is compared to other clubs, and the constant patting themselves for doing well when they are not.
8. A professional football club board who seem unwilling to take a big stick to incompetence.
Could continue but it’s the same theme, iinaction is the curse of this club.
I would like to continue, I’ll add Matt Burke to your list
Someone no longer posts here summed it up perfectly on another site:
We have the worst defence in the comp. Worse than the Saints. We’ve conceded 379 points with a differential of minus 144. Jason Ryles and the coaching staff have been complete failures. We are absolutely cooked and Sam Moa has been a failure as defensive coach.
Points conceded after 11 rounds since 2000:
2026: 379 points
2025: 256 points
2024: 302 points
2023: 248 points
2022: 188 points
2021: 190 points
2020: 206 points
2019: 248 points
2018: 272 points
2017: 244 points
2016: 279 points
2015: 226 points
2014: 234 points
2013: 330 points
2012: 293 points
2011: 228 points
2010: 288 points
2009: 184 points
2008: 222 points
2007: 168 points
2006: 270 points
2005: 184 points
2004: 236 points
2003: 266 points
2002: 232 points
2001: 186 points
2000: 220 points
This is comfortably the worst defensive side we’ve had this century. Even during the Stephen Kearney years we were infinitely better defensively. Let that sink in.
Arguably the worst Storm side ever to run out has beaten us 86 to 12 in two games.
I’d love to be a glass half full optimist, but with these sorts of stats and the en-and-flow of the games I watch, it’s hard to see it for anything other than what it is – a complete cluster.
Thanks gents for the podcast,
Your obvious, and stated, frustration is matched by mine and obviously everyone else who has posted thus far. So …… frustrating!!!!
The day started so well, my son and I attended the Eels members function at the Lord Alfred, top end of Caxton Street. We were able to watch fans of all varieties stream down Caxton Street while enjoying a beverage and conversations with like minded supporters. I got to meet fellow supporters from Sydney, Bundaberg and Rockhampton just to name a few.
Sarantinos came on, gave an ok speech and took questions without notice. Perhaps it was the conviviality nature of the event but none of us a hard question. Sarantinos said the club is looking for a middle forward and an outside back. Nothing groundbreaking there that any of the crowd on Caxton could not have told us.
Post event we wondered the street, met more supporters and all was good with the world. Despite train strikes I was able to get home well in time for the game. Russell scores early and I’m feeling good. Unfortunately that was the end of it. Error, upon error, upon error. We had such an opportunity to get one over the Storm and we blew it. So frustrating.
Moses – you can see his frustration to the point where he is starting to overplay his hand at the end. Understandable.
Storm kick returns looked like touch footy. Catch, run 60, play the ball, score. How did we consistently let them run the ball back so far?
We let Harry Grant score another try against us, let him ref the game and run freely from dummy half. The guy really gets under my skin. He needs to be hammered hard several times in the game to make him think twice.
I really like Jack Williams, he is an effort sort of player. But geez, the lowlights reel at the end of the season is going to show a lot of him watching someone run through at pace near the posts for another try.
We are meant to get a few players back post bye. Will it make any difference? I don’t know.
Despite it all, next game I will be watching, cheering and hoping for victory. It seems the price I have to pay for my sins.
Apologies for the multiple typos. One should proof read before hitting send to check what auto typing has done to words 😣
Adding something no one else has in this thread, have you ever seen a back three so dominant?
Both wingers made 15+ metres almost every carry and often times far more. 3 of the storms tries came from losing just one tackle in the entire set and getting scorched for it.
They made about 4 clean breaks from kick returns as well. Absolutely abysmal communications.
And for as bad as the storm completed their sets, they only missed a dozen or so tackles all game – which is elite defence. We never looked even remotely likely going to our right side, so they could over compensate on their left side which was the only place we were ever going to score.
Why Russell didn’t pass to Addo Carr with the line open with 10 to go, you’ll never know. Brain-dead play.
Something in talent recruitment and retention has to change for the better – 2 stand out examples from yesterday
Manly have Taniella Paseka ( went to school at fairfield pats ) and Haumole ( played junior footy at Guildford – taken a few years but mow starting to dominate – we dont want to make the same mistake with other players coning through
Eg – have Kitioni coming through which is great , and Tony Mataele who apparently is still unsigned for 2027 – is this still correct? How long till we re sign him….or does an offer come from the Bears or another club ? We cant risk losing these prospects like Tony and Teancum
Its the hottest topic for Eels fans but it is clear with our results that it is not wotking – and that the young guys with upside need to be retained ( and that players who have had top 30 opportunities but have not taken them ( eg – Tago ) need to be released in a ……another squad rebuild .
And 2 or 3 elite players from winning cultures need to be a priority
Its all well and good to say the club need to sign marquee players or the club to improve the roster – but at the end of the day, who’s accountable??
Who’s been at the club for 8 + years and is in charge of overseeing recruitment and retention and pathways?
Until people start making those who are in charge accountable, nothing will change at the club for the next decade
Agree – it’s shocking how an approach the recruitment, retention and squad building under O’Neil has been proven to fail for years and years now but no change has come.
Even under Brad we 1) conceded most metered per set in defence; 2) almost always lost ruck; 3) had poor defence (especially on edges); 4) lacked athleticism and speed in backline; 5) had poor kick chase; 6) low balled marquee players and signed bargain rejects from other clubs; 7) struggled to retain promising juniors/players.
We have the same problems today and haven’t addressed the player profiles issue (for god sake we are playing Russell, penisini and Samrani as our centre options. The latter two are complete wrong profile for centres in modern game as are too slow laterally and Russell is astonishingly bad with his footy fundamentals in attack and hands). Our props have been big and slow (rcg and paulo) for years which was livable pre-6 again but suicide post.
All of this was obvious even during Brad Arthur era and we pretend to be surprised the same problems exist now? O’Neil and Jim are magicians with how the evade scrutiny and accountability. No other club tolerated failure like this club. They are happy patting themselves on the back for pre season cup and last years plucky wins as well as a centre of excellence.
A club with real aspirations to improve would be far more ruthless (the lomax litigation was good in one respect but we didn’t get a player out of it so what was the point of releasing him to rugby 360 in first place. Lost dyl brown and lomax – two internationals – with no replacements. That’s suicide )
If we are fair dinkum, this year was a rebuild from round 1. You don’t turn up first game of season and roll over like we did and pretend that’s not a symptom of broader, fatal failures in squad building
This is just tiresome at this point- the flaws are obvious to most, the solutions seem to be talked about daily but I don’t see positive change from the club, I see a lot of big talk but not a lot of follow through.
And the fans have every goddamn right to feel aggrieved, the NRL push for fan engagement, merch, sports betting, tipping accounts, super coach and more
The fans have more skin in the game than ever before and are voicing their opinions so the club better buckle up and start listening because fans are getting annoyed that we are 10 rounds in and we should have our act together by now.
I haven’t even started on the goal kicking (Matt Burke should be dishonorably discharged) and recruitment
And those that say there’s no players available to be recruited, look over the last two years who’s signed and who’s changed clubs, there’s been plenty of movement but we have had gorse in our wallets. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
You are right Bob. It is bloody tiresome.
I think the thing that grates all of us is the realisation that in the world of haves and have nots… We have not.
Every year, we come to the well with expectations but the stark reality is that the competition is heavily dominated by a select group of clubs and the rest are there as mere cannon fodder.
Perhaps in a bit too distant future, there will be a relegation system whereby the strong clubs can compete. If it ever happens, we are in a shitload of trouble.
Why don’t people address the elephant in the room who is the common denominator in all of this and has been here for more than 8 years to transform the roster?
Why can’t Sixties and forty acknowledge this.
Someone needs to be held accountable
I hope o’neill has some big signings planned fir his sake
Well the club has said it is looking for an outside back and a middle forward.
1 of each.
That means whoever it is, the back will be replacing Russell and the forward will be replacing Kelma.
Thats it.
And .. not only that. Who is available for 2027 to fill those roles ?
Certainly no one of any note.
Both replacements will be of the Brian Kelly type quality.
It’s ok, we have wonderful players in Cup that will propel us straight to premiership contention.
Guys like Allamaine , Louziou, Tago and R. Penisini.
The club is delusional.
Look im.not having a go at forty or Sixties but someone at the club has to be held accountable, just as players and coaches are when things go.bad
That group of junior outside backs is barely Ron Massey cup level… it’s a dire state of affairs in the junior outside backs
Even nanva is barely dev level (too slow but okay defence)
Yep
People were available to fill those roles though. Payne Haas and Koloamatagi are both on the move next year. A position of need and we were never in the hunt for either. Couldn’t even get close to getting Barnett. No one is coming because O’Neil clearly can’t close a deal with any player where there is a competitive market.
That isn’t changing, well it is, it is getting harder because of 2 new teams – one which will be able to offer more $$ for literally any player who is in demand.
Bang on Bob — it’s becoming absolutely tiresome, and the faith is being sucked out of the fanbase at a rapid pace.
Both on and off the field, the last six months have been nothing short of a disaster. Looking back now, the Lomax situation has cost us more than anyone probably expected. So much of our game plan and the way Ryles wanted the side to play was built around Lomax’s yardage coming out of trouble. He took enormous pressure off the middles bringing the ball out of the backfield.
We effectively lost 200+ run metres a game, a genuine try-scorer, and a serious aerial threat — and never properly replaced any of it.
The minute he walked, we were always going to go backwards. You simply can’t lose elite talent like Dylan and Zac the way we did last year and expect to climb the ladder.
It all falls back on recruitment now. We need to bring in that same calibre of talent again, otherwise we’re destined to sit near the bottom for years to come.
Watching the NSW Cup and the Eels team is dropping the ball, disinterested performances from KK and Pezet. Neither can be elevated. They have been the two wortst in the second half. Talagi and Iongi on the other hand really strong. I remember reading how in the pre-season the coaching staff had worked to levate the skill level of individual players. It hasn’t worked. It seems at the eels the higher the grade the lower the skill level.
Could be worse, could be a Hearts fan. Now that was cruel.
Or a Spurs fan …
Yeah, but Spurs deserve everything they get !!!
My uncle took me to see Hearts v Australia in 1959. They were top dogs back then, it’s taken near 70 years to give another yelp. We’re up to 40 and counting.
I’m actually a Celtic fan but even I was quietly cheering for Hearts. That was the ultimate heartbreak
I concur with most of the above.
Its the errors that kill me – we do have intent and can win some games but the errors mean we have to defend more, and with an inexperienced side for various reasons its not pretty some weeks.
As others have said, where are the strong signings, that can build confidence. We have Sua for 2027; but we need some more alpha type mongrels in the pack and a decent centre….
Injuries have hurt us but there was a lack of depth before a ball was kicked…
And we are only a couple of wins from the top teams.
Thanks for the show gents, especially after a game like that.
On the upside, expectations, hope and frustrations lessen with each poor loss.
I don’t see the bye as a circuit breaker but rather a holiday from another miserable performance.