BACK TO THE FUTURE (WHICH IS NOW)

‘Our future is now’ - Jason Ryles.

Whether we like it or not, as Eels fans we find ourselves again remaining ‘patient’ as results become secondary to experience for the remainder of 2025.

I get it, but, watching relentless coverage of an emotional man-child like Ricky Stuart, in front of a packed house of 6,000 Canberran’s clapping out of time with each other to a shit sounding horn, is going to be really, really, tough.

It might also be jealousy. The Raiders are flying, and their brand of footy is actually the most exciting thing to hit Canberra in decades.

And while the draw doesn't get any easier from here, it’s not all doom & gloom Eels fans....

While, there are concerns poor results could impact the progress made, its impossible not to respect JR’s ‘all in’ commitment to the future of this club & our juniors, over his own reputation & results.

EA & Sonic Boom have done a phenomenal job in giving an insight into our juniors, available here if you missed it - https://www.1eyedeel.com/forum/topics/ea-sonic-boom-rookie-report-jersey-flegg

While that talent matures like a fine wine, developing to perfection just in time for the good clubs to swoop in & purchase, what does our more immediate future look like?

While some of those questions remain very concerning, others have been answered, albeit with patience, so this is a look over some of the undeniable positives this season has brought.

This will be part 1, as it was too much information for one blog. It also gives me the opportunity to not waste my time if no one reads this one… So feedback appreciated.

PART 01 - ISAIAH IONGI

Anyone who had seen Isaiah play in NSW Cup knew, this was a brilliant signing.

It is so good, that we can only assume Ryles pushed this one through while Mark O’Neill was finalising his ‘Clause Benefits Loyalty Program’ to pitch to Iongi’s agent days after he’d already signed.

Every week Isaiah improves, likely due to the fact he is apparently incredibly coachable, and works meticulously on every part of his game.

Of course, he is making the errors innevitble with inexperience.

However, Iongi continues to inject himself into games, and his improvement shows how hard this kid works on his game. Great signs for a player learning the ropes of first grade.

Jason Ryles’ advice for his new fullback before round 01 was to ‘go after the game’, to not hold back, a mentality that appears deeply ingrained in the young custodian.

As we all search for a replacement for the incredibly popular 1EE fan favourite Dylan Brown, look no further than Isaiah Iongi.

So, how does Isaiah stand up statistically against other fullbacks in the game?

Disclaimer: Stats do not tell the full story, but they can give us an insight into certain metrics.

( Stats taken from NRL.com & Foxsports)

- Stats are shown as a total, then an average per game, for instance LINEBREAKS '8 / .5' means 8 total at an average of .5 per game.

- Rankings are taken from fullbacks only, and only players who have only played fullback

- Where there are no rankings, the player sat outside the top 50 NRL players for that metric.

- Noticeable exclusions Latrell (hadnt played enough games) & Drinkwater (because I forgot all about him).

WORK RATE:

Impossible to gauge purely on statistics, however, Iongi is on the heels of the big 'effort' dogs like Tedesco & Edwards in runs, which is great news for a player in his first season, and who is yet to fully mature physically into his frame. We saw against the Panthers last week how much ground Isaiah is covering, and his effort remains from minute 1 to minute 80. Work rate not a concern for our new fullback.

ATTACK:

Although parts of Isaiah’s attacking game are clearly a work in progress, he does appear to have all the traits to develop into an elite fullback in attack.

His acceleration is a welcomed asset to the Eels, as Iongi is able to get on the outside of opponents and draw defenders in. He has decent vision, often targetting shortened edges.

While he has missed in the timing, the decision making, & the execution of his passing game at times, Isaiah clearly possesses an ability to create & deliver on opportunities as he sits 6th for fullbacks in try assists & 8th for line break assists - an impressive stat for a player of his experience.

DEFENCE:

Defence is probably the hardest area to gauge accurately with statistics.

A missed tackle can be an attempted try saver from a fullback that never should have got there in the first place. There is also no way of analysing a players communication & ability to organise the defensive line. However, missed tackles, tackle efficiency & errors are a problem area for Isaiah Iongi.

Not completely unexpected for a rookie learning one of the toughest positions, but an area we no doubt need improvement in.

BREAK OUT GAME:

Despite being sin binned for tackling an opponent who was touching the football, or, because the Eels had opened up a 26-10 lead, both of which drew the ire of referee Liam Kennedy, Isaiah Iongi’s breakout game came in Round 07 against the West Tigers.

Where Isaiah finished with: 2 tries, 1 line break, 1 line break assist & 135m from 16 runs.

Highlights here - https://www.nrl.com/news/2025/04/21/wests-tigers-v-eels--round-7-2025/

CONCLUSION:

It’s hard to believe Isaiah was poached from Queensland because ‘no other footy clubs had spoken to him’ before the Panthers offered him $14,000 over two seasons to come to Sydney.

Thanks Penrith.

It’s been a tough year, but Jason Ryles deserves a lot of credit for going after Iongi at the expense of our long servicing captain Gutherson. It was time, and Iongi has repaid that faith.

The sky is the limit for Isaiah.

What are your thoughts on Isaiah Iongi's progress this season?

Great blog NOS.

Iongi is going to be a gun. For all the electric footwork and speed off the mark, his effort areas are amazing. A few people here were questioning if Papalii should be the fullback instead of Iongi after Papalii impressive performances in the trial. But if you watched NSW cup you would realise how ready he was for NRL. There was no doubt in my mind he was the fullback round 1. Pretty sure I said in my rookie blog during the pre-season that at the start of the 2024 season, he was the best fullback yet to debut in the NRL. Now he is slowly becoming a better fullback each week and becoming better than other fullbacks in the comp. I am glad we moved on Gutho for him. And like LB said, signing Papalii to push him during the pre-season and traning was a great decision. He is becoming more dangerous with his yardage carries as his footwork allows him to get in between defenders. His error count and ability defusing bombs have improved dramatically over the season.

I got 3 main improvements I want to see from Iongi:

Tackle efficiency. Ideally he wont need to do it as much because the defensive line should be better. However, I notice Iongi misses a lot of 1 on 1 tackles in try saving situations. Most recently against Tago. Yes they are no doubt hard but he needs to work on cutting the blokes down beter and putting his body infront to hit and force the player down. Too often he just fall of the tackle whether he goes for the legs or waist. Ironically Gutho would have been perfect for him to learn this off.
Support play: I think this also needs to come from JR. We look better when we play 2-3 short passes in a play than when we go sideline to sideline. I think a major reason for this is that our strike is more in Paulo and are backrowers. Our centres lack the ability to set up Fox on one wing and the other wing Lomax is too slow to make use of open space. So I think due to the cattle we have in the roster the 2-3 short passes is a better plan. The short interchange of passes that is normally started by Dylan Walker.He will go short to Paulo or the backrowers running a line at opposition halves. These plays often create offload opportunties given the skill set of Paulo, Tuilagi and Kautoga. Currently our support players are a second too late because a defender blocks the pass or bring the player to the floor. So I want to see a more set gameplan where Iongi and our halves are just running through expecting the offload from those plays.
Decision Making: There have been a couple times where Iongi has made the wrong decison or just hesistated for a second which has cost us point. He will no doubt get beter at this with experience but sometimes he throws the cut out pass to the winger instead of the short pass to the centre. Other times he hesistaes to pass before realising that running the ball himself was the better option. That half a second of hesistation gives the defence enough time to cover and tackle him.

Overall, still happy with how his game has developed. I think his a future star. Must be very hard coming into FG in a weak team that has missed their halfback for most of the year, the 5/8 is not fully present in the game and the hooker is in his rookie season too.

"Don't take the knights out of the equation, they have lost their best 3 players for the season and their coach is a dead man walking, the only thing they have going for them is they have a bye.
The last game of the season could be an official…"

"Agreed, Titans are in freefall with a dead man walking as coach. We should be saved as long as we don't have cricket scores put on us by the Raiders or Storm as it may come down to for and against."

Replies

LB July 17, 2025 at 11:50pm

NOS great blog as usual. Don't want to do this as everyone does it but this of proof of how you're one of the most valuable members of 1EE.

Iongi was and is a great signing. I preached move of Gutho as I felt it was right thing to do. Iongi is proof. He is getting better and better. His stats like in defence and errors are worse only due to his first month and a bit of footy where he was learning the grade while also being in a dreadful team.

But look at the kid after nearly a full year. He always pokes his nose through in runs, always popping up both sides of the field, he can pass both sides, getting to dummy half more, even under the high ball he is getting better. It seems oddly enough the game slows slightly each week for him. In the off-season he will put on more KG's as his body gets ready for the demands of another full NRL season. Once stronger he will break tackles more often and be more of a threat.

Ryles bringing in Papali'i was a masterstroke too as it made Iongi not get too comfortable, we all knew Iongi was day 1 starter but he was not to know that and Papali'i gave him a run in pre-season. Competition makes players and made Iongi this year.

Of course there could be 2nd year syndrome, but after 60 odd games in cup, his body seems built for FG as does his mind, as to where I'm comfortable in believing that won't be the case for Iongi.

With Ponga and Walsh consistently hurt, I reckon come 2027 good chance Iongi is the fullback for Queensland. If not in the squad at least.
EA July 18, 2025 at 1:17am
Great blog NOS.

Iongi is going to be a gun. For all the electric footwork and speed off the mark, his effort areas are amazing. A few people here were questioning if Papalii should be the fullback instead of Iongi after Papalii impressive performances in the trial. But if you watched NSW cup you would realise how ready he was for NRL. There was no doubt in my mind he was the fullback round 1. Pretty sure I said in my rookie blog during the pre-season that at the start of the 2024 season, he was the best fullback yet to debut in the NRL. Now he is slowly becoming a better fullback each week and becoming better than other fullbacks in the comp. I am glad we moved on Gutho for him. And like LB said, signing Papalii to push him during the pre-season and traning was a great decision. He is becoming more dangerous with his yardage carries as his footwork allows him to get in between defenders. His error count and ability defusing bombs have improved dramatically over the season.

I got 3 main improvements I want to see from Iongi:
- Tackle efficiency. Ideally he wont need to do it as much because the defensive line should be better. However, I notice Iongi misses a lot of 1 on 1 tackles in try saving situations. Most recently against Tago. Yes they are no doubt hard but he needs to work on cutting the blokes down beter and putting his body infront to hit and force the player down. Too often he just fall of the tackle whether he goes for the legs or waist. Ironically Gutho would have been perfect for him to learn this off.
- Support play: I think this also needs to come from JR. We look better when we play 2-3 short passes in a play than when we go sideline to sideline. I think a major reason for this is that our strike is more in Paulo and are backrowers. Our centres lack the ability to set up Fox on one wing and the other wing Lomax is too slow to make use of open space. So I think due to the cattle we have in the roster the 2-3 short passes is a better plan. The short interchange of passes that is normally started by Dylan Walker.He will go short to Paulo or the backrowers running a line at opposition halves. These plays often create offload opportunties given the skill set of Paulo, Tuilagi and Kautoga. Currently our support players are a second too late because a defender blocks the pass or bring the player to the floor. So I want to see a more set gameplan where Iongi and our halves are just running through expecting the offload from those plays.
- Decision Making: There have been a couple times where Iongi has made the wrong decison or just hesistated for a second which has cost us point. He will no doubt get beter at this with experience but sometimes he throws the cut out pass to the winger instead of the short pass to the centre. Other times he hesistaes to pass before realising that running the ball himself was the better option. That half a second of hesistation gives the defence enough time to cover and tackle him.
Overall, still happy with how his game has developed. I think his a future star. Must be very hard coming into FG in a weak team that has missed their halfback for most of the year, the 5/8 is not fully present in the game and the hooker is in his rookie season too.
- LB > EA July 18, 2025 at 3:35am
  
  All three areas EA you can see he is better at than at the start of the year, which is a positive as it shows improvement across the board. Tackling is a lot better, he saved a few tries v Penrith though let some in too. He will get stronger over the off-season as it seems he is one to find ways to improve his game.
  
  The support play is a big one, he is getting better on an edge but through the middle he is not there, nobody is. It is a team issue. One thing Gutho was great at is 8/10 of the breaks we made this year where nobody was in support Gutho would have been there. Iongi has the work rate of the likes of Teddy and Gutho. He is not an Edwards type where he just is a metre eater, he goes looking for the ball as a ball player. He should be magnetized to the ball. His vision of that will come too. Where decision making fits into the other two points and more. All is getting better gradually.
  
  Thats a positive, not like he was awful, then great then had a dip. He went from raw to good to great and is continuing.

This reply was deleted.

Eels Blogs