Where do you even begin with that one? The record says that the Parramatta Eels won in Round 22 of the 2026 NRL Premiership but anyone that bore witness to this game will have questions about what they saw. In one of the ugliest, most ill-disciplined victories you will ever see – the Parramatta Eels have defeated the Wests Tigers 16-13. Sixties and Forty20 try desperately not to add to the error count as they debrief a decidedly hollow victory on Sunday night.
Well that was ….
My advice to Ryles is that he has an epic date kicking session with Moses until he screams that he will never attempt a short restart again.
One short dropout is a mistake, three is stupidity combined with ego. Add a failed short kickoff and it’s a miracle that we won.
Other than that Samrani has earned a permanent place in the team.
The good thing is that we are ahead of the Broncos on the table.
If Moses plays like that again, we have no hope of staying there.
Moses needs more talent around him. He’s just too burdened in this team and oppositions wear him down. He’s a really good player but he isn’t superman. Tries too hard as he is frustrated
Agreed
rubish too many make up excuses for Moses, this game just proved he isn’t a 1.3 mil player and we got stuck with over paying the fraud.
Where is this team headed? What’s the plan for next year? I’m genuinely curious because whatever occurs in one year is not necessarily transferable to the next year. Some parts are more likely transferable (eg line speed, defence, some shapes and entrenched bad habits of ours like poor kick chase, poor line speed, poor wrestle and high metres conceded etc). But a lot is not transferable. And last year is evidence of that (both for Parra and knights). Parra finished well and are shit this year (especially shit at the start of year). Knights were terrible at end of last year and fantastic this year with some personnel and coaching tweaks.
So what is the plan to address our deficiencies in the middle (offensively and defensively) + our errors prone and defensively out of backrowers+ our slow and error prone backline?
Lips service such as “young talent coming through” or “green shoots” or “development club” don’t fill me with confidence. We need to add talent desperately and some speed/x factor in centres.
Here’s who should find themselves in Reggies next week. Isiah Iongi. Mitchell Moses. Kitione Kautoga. Sam Tuivati.
Most of the rest should count themselves lucky … if I were a selector … that the Reggies were towelled up.
Only Jordan Samrani, Brian Kelly, Will Penisini, Harrison Edwards and JDB should be commended and find themselves in my team next week as a cert.
Glad you’re not a selector.
Nothing is sinking in because the plan is way beyond the ability we have. The players can not execute this game plan at a consistent level because it’s way over complicated. Our passing is some of the worst I’ve seen from any team in the comp.
I’d like to see our style of play get a complete re-work over the off season our current style doesn’t bring success.
Ryles revolutionary small forward style doesn’t work consistently with The warriors and Penrith absolutely dominating there opponents on the weekend thru the middle it’s the only way you can have sustained success in this comp. Alot of our recruitment needs to be heavily focused on bringing in or developing top level forwards. There is no coincidence we had success when we had a strong group of forwards
The game plan was actually far from complicated. They barely executed a thing that they trained for. The Samrani break before Da Silva’s try was exactly what they trained to do. Was barely seen outside of that moment.
Adding more weight to that 60’s is the point that we outpointed the Penrith Pack last week…..arguably!
Lot of commentary on this game and yes the quality was horrendous, but no one seems to be able to put themselves in the shoes of the respective teams and what they were playing for……Parra got the 2 points the same number of points that Rooster’s got putting 80 on the cowboys
Tigers went home with some respect and Parra who were always on a hiding to nothing in this game….got away with what counted.
Don’t use it as a guide for any other activities.
Do we actually train 30 hours a week and yet cannot pass the ball backwards, we struggle to hold the ball in attack , our 1/1 tackles don’t connect in fact there is nothing we do well , a few of the players have a dig but basically it’s a paycheck for them , and on the coach he appears highly passionate yet gameplan wise rather inept at his job, we need a Brian smith type to come in and start again from top to bottom
Ivan
The majority of signings by our fearless front office were signed as reserve graders from other clubs, The reason they were reserve graders and available is that they don’t execute some of the simple things consistently, until we sign a. Few Levite players, we will see more of the same.
That Ryles has then competing is a big tick, but the failures are recruiting, can someone in the club explain how we are spending 97.5% of the cap as required, given the level of the team, All the nonsense that they were asking too much, well they got signed by bpclubs with better rosters than ours , how’s that possible.
Ivan, the game plan wasn’t followed.
When winning leaves a hollow feeling….
Spot on. But I’ll take those points.
If we can’t be professional, cant catch a ball, cannot give a forward pass, complete a play the ball, you know everyday football skills, then we are no hope. If your first grade team cannot complete these basic skills, and your hooker cannot get over his own ego. We are in deficient, we are no better than rabble, after 18 months of Ryles, basic skills, atrocious, defence as good or worse, we are not progressing. Doesn’t matter who we buy????
We need to look at the positives.
The defence is almost fixed. It’s better than at any time under Brad Arthur.
This backline doesn’t leak tries down the wings every second set of six anymore.
We have to improve the forward pack but there are some solid performers there.
I don’t know what Ryley Smith did to get on the outer but his passes from dummy half weren’t above the shoulders anywhere near as often as DaSilva’s. I attribute a lot of dropped balls to poor passes off the ruck.
We also have to ask questions about Moses.
He is a better player when he sticks to a simpler attacking playlist.
Good golfers don’t play hero shots in the middle of a round, they take their medicine and don’t turn bogeys into triples.
Short restarts are like trying to hit driver off the deck 275 over water. Maybe if you need birdie to save the match on 18 but it’s a desperation only play.
Ball security is key. Eliminate the hero offloads and we maintain possession.
We don’t need much more than that and we win at least 2 more games before mad Monday
I agree the defence the last 6 weeks is about as sure as I’ve seen as defend since maybe the Brian Smith days which is strange really because the first 12 months under Ryles I thought our attack looked a bit sharper than under Arthur but our defence went to hell.
the only positive was we won, ugly but won
I know Tallyn Da Silva brings some interesting things to the table with his speed and footwork but has he ever gone the right way when we have a team on the ropes on their line? He seems to have a complete lack of nous also his service is poor
I agree, not seeing any sign of learning from watching tape, even with sprays from teammates seem to go over his head
I’d say he has gone from making the wrong decisions 8 times out of 10, to making the worng decisions 7 times out of 10.
That’s was a hard watch, gee whiz, besides the Bulldogs game on old boys day, it’s been a long year, you don’t even know where to begin fixing this mess!
Two points is two points. Except today. I am shattered. And we won
Absolutely terrible game from both teams, but parra seem to be the only team to self inflict. Honestly is impossible to watch this team every week, they give me anxiety.
We have gone backwards, yes we have injuries but the dumb errors and penalties get worse.
The loss to the Titans earlier this season was one of the worst losses I’ve ever seen from an Eels side. Today is the worst win I’ve ever seen from an Eels side.
Some of the efforts from players on both sides of the ball were abysmal.
Kautoga’s defence was atrocious – he should be in reserve grade until further notice.
We are told there is a strategy to our roster composition – it must be top secret because I don’t see where this team is building.
Some here, and others elsewhere on Eels sites, seem very unhappy with today. Well, last week we lost against the top of the table team who scored 3 tries: one from a forward pass, another following a knock-on, and the other following a dodgy play the ball. Plus we had a dodgy six again call on last tackle against us, plus had to put up with a dodgy penalty against us for a “slow” getting off the tackled player that got the opposition out of their ten metres. Well, in the end, I don’t really care that we had so many incomplete sets today, (but our defence was mostly up to it), as we won today. I was happy today at full-time. I was angry at full-time last week, and I was angry all week. I look forward to being happy this week.
I’ve heard over the years coaches and players, and fans too, say, following an ugly win, ‘well it wasn’t pretty but we got the 2 points, that’s what really matters, and now we move on to next week’. I’m happy following the win. Try it, it’s a good feeling.
I’m sincerely glad you are happy. i am. Everyone is allowed to enjoy footy how they choose.
Generally (IMO), winning ugly matters when you are fighting for a Top 4 spot. When your season is over, winning matters far less than the process. And the process was dreadful today.
Wow – That was bad. The Tigers can bring out the worst in teams can’t they?!
At times the defence was very good… you could see the discipline in defence. But it wasn’t that challenged. The TDS miss on Bole was dreadful.
Yep, Tigers ruck infringements that weren’t called, were off the charts.
But when you make as many errors as you do score points, you don’t deserve to win. We should have an asterix against us at year end acknowledging we have 2 points we don’t deserve.
I actually don’t love getting the win if it is going to mask everything that was wrong with that game. So much ill discipline, so many dumb plays, so little creativity (seriously to go to the Volkman kick to Moses first time we get the ball in attack, exactly like last week! We have to have more ideas than that?!)
Katonga….. How did he not get hooked? I guess cause Talagi was injured. I didn’t know how he got picked for Rd 1. I was even more confused when he was picked for Rd 2. 20 rounds later, nothing has changed. He isn’t very good, he isn’t very smart (football IQ). I don’t know what the redeeming quality is.
Moses kicking game is awful. Long kicks are fine, but drop outs short kicks, goal kicks. Have all been off for much of the year.
I have to say I want Iogni to be good. I was confident he would be good early on. Starting to get into the hope spaces. Too many simple errors.
Williams was good. I thought it was Big Sam’s best game in terms of physicality which is all i want from him.
Early on I was loving seeing JAC get himself involved. I could even wear the try he bombed. But like everyone on the team, the errors just kept coming.
There has been a bit of a drop off in attack but would say that’s more to do with the team dynamic at the moment. Defensively he was excellent – up there with vintage Gutho. That tackle on Herbert was one of the best fullbacks tackles I’ve seen this year and half the fullbacks in the comp don’t even go close to making that tackle.
You know what Eelsfan81 – That’s fair. His defence has improved. We got a bit spoilt with Gutho and his dtermination, but Inogi, positionally in defence and his general goal line tackles have improved.
BA, do you think that winning that game masked anything? The performance was there for all to see.
Forty and I are both concerned about Gideon. He has regressed in 26. To be fair, the roster needs to be stronger for some of the less experienced players to reach their potential.
I was looking forward to big things from Gideon this season. Very disappointed in his performances thus far this season
I sure hope it didn’t mask anything.
I watched the way the players celebrated the final try and i just thought it was a bit over the top. I know we are not out there getting bashed and smashed, but as fans did you really feel like jumping up and down and celebrating?
In the footy i have played in my life (again different codes and nowhere near NRL standard professional rugby league). but if we beat a team narrowly that we should have flogged, because we played down to their standard, the final goals/points weren’t celebrated ferociously.
I hope (imagine) Ryles will have knocked that out of them straight after the game.
I see people mentioning a variety of different things that were an issue with the game, and the club in toto, but we need to start at the start-Moses. Our marquee player who misses more games than he plays, clearly this is bad for continuity/consistency
And then when he is available he is out of form, that’s a poor use of 1.5M
What is his role supposed to be at the club?
I think it’s time he got told a few home truths from the club, if he isn’t available for 20 games next year then why do we bother with him and before anyone replies ask yourself if you want to see us in the top 8 next year because it starts with the halfback being available.
Honestly I would take an Atkinson at this point
And as for the rest of them, there’s no upward pressure from reserve grade, until that happens the first grade team aren’t going to get into top 8 form because their spot is safe.
We need him available. He needs to choose to sit out origin footy now. Perfect time for him to step down
I can’t agree with this. The Spotlight on him playing Origin only exists because he is the Eels only elite player. That isn’t his fault. If we had 4 or more players in Origin would we want them all to stand down? His injuries have been genuine and I have seen innumerable instances of him playing busted.
But the majority of the injuries in the past 3 or 4 years have occurred as a result of origin. The only one I recall that didn’t was the foot injury when Brooks stepped on his foot.
He’s 33 next year Sixties – unfortunately he had a late run at origin but he needs to prioritise club footy now. No one can or should make him do it but it’s the right call
So this is the deal. If you are recruited to the Eels and good enough to play SOO you will be pressured to stand down from SOO.
Well that is a good policy for enhancing R&R. We will have great players flocking to the club.
Yeah because that’s exactly what I said
False equivalence, not all origin players are made of glass
Moses has more missed club games from origin/origin training injuries than anyone else and it’s not even close
Sure play origin but not if it means you miss half a season, and in our most vital role which upends our strategy of a long kicking game and all the training the rest of the team have around that
surely its not difficult to see the point?
There has been a whole host of players who have stood down from rep duty. Jonathon Thurston and Cameron Smith are 2 that spring immediately to mind. No ones saying you force a player to stand down I’m only expressing that as an eels fan he himself makes that call
Sorry I was talking to John eel
Btw if the club wants him to stand down from rep duty then so be it, the club pays the salary
Yeah I know you were I was just reinforcing the point haha
I have had 12 hours or so to move on from the game.
Firstly we won; that is the end result. We could have put the game to bed if we held the ball; a story that seems to have occurred before.
Our defence was actually good besides those two poor attempts when they scored and it was good to see Jack W showing some frustration – we need to keep the expectations high.
For me moving forward we need some onfield leaders who lead by example and stay calm under pressure; Jack W fits this role but we need more considering Paulo is going and Walker too.
People are saying why is so and so not dropped etc. simple reason is we do not have adequate back ups with experience.
If there are no signifant signings by November like many I fear for the next 12 months; as we have lost Russell; Simmo is injured; Walker; JDB; Paulo and more are leaving.
We need two strong forwards and a centre….as others have been saying.
Your takes on the game are spot on Milo. And leadership needs to be a defining quality for recruits too.
What is this alternative reality all about? …2 Wests tries and 4 drop outs then topped off by a million dollar circuit breaker blowing a fuse. The 2 tries were basically identical, after 50 or so minutes of good team application(maybe not individual purity) we offer flat footed grabs in defence inside our red zone like ‘oops, you blokes weren’t supposed to run through here’ in the middle of 4 line drop outs where intent and execution couldn’t quite gel, then all the pressure, all the crap stuff gets erased with a dropped ball scoop up, 40 mtr dash and 6 points…no, hang on, cancel the 6, the ball’s gone walkabout. There’s a Netflix series in the build up week and the game, I’m struggling for a title, the events are all over the place like a mad dog’s something or other.
That game eh BDon…
Must say a win is a win But I watched Luia all game my god the bloke should be in park football, Volkman had a far better game than that showpony . Can anyone explain please why we are going to have this PERSON in Parra Colours next year
Because he is a Premiership winning Origin 5/8. Name a Wests player who has improved by being there. Seriously, the stories that come out of that camp about standards are diabolical. And I’m not just talking about what has hit the media. I’m talking about what former players say when they leave.
Why isn’t Sarantinos being mentioned. Every grade bar flegg is poor. Sarantinos gets off scott free and no questions asked.
Unbelievable
Christy as you point out Recruitment and Retention is made up by talent scouts, Player Manager negotiations and Corporate Governance agreeing to hand over the money.
All of these things need to come together to get a player deal over the line. It’s also why I called for an independent assessment of the process.
Chiefy. Sorry my eyes are letting me down in my old age 🤨
Adding more weight to that 60’s is the point that we outpointed the Penrith Pack last week…..arguably!
Lot of commentary on this game and yes the quality was horrendous, but no one seems to be able to put themselves in the shoes of the respective teams and what they were playing for……Parra got the 2 points the same number of points that Rooster’s got putting 80 on the cowboys
Tigers went home with some respect and Parra who were always on a hiding to nothing in this game….got away with what counted.
Don’t use it as a guide for any other activities.
What wasn’t to like – other than botched play the balls, forward passes from dummy halves, losing the ball in tackles, dropping good passes stone cold, blowing clear try scoring opportunities and repeated failures with kicks. Oh, and throw in some dumb penalties.
Honestly, I want to be positive and support them no matter what but that performance had me screaming at the telly. I get that it is an inexperienced team but some players repeat the same mistakes week after week. We are past excuses.
The Souths game could turn ugly. I really hope not. There is some talent in the team but basic mistakes are killing them (and their supporters).