It's the most cliche saying in rugby league: "Defence wins premierships". Yet an effective defensive system has not been at Parramatta since the days of Brian Smith.
Despite having a dominant forward pack for a considerable period of time, Brad Arthur's Eels never sat in the top 4 regularly when it came to their defence. The defensive system seemed a mix of dominating possession while relying on individual players to solve problems rather than having a system designed to limit attacking opportunities.
At the start of 2025 Ryles' new look Eels were up against it. For the first month they were the worst defensive team in the competition.
Averaged out, Parramatta were conceding 32.5 points per game. Well on track to a wooden spoon.
There are some reasons for that. New coach, new defensive system, the absence of key players all contributed to a side unable to hold itself together.
Yet, as the season has gone the side has looked more cohesive and with that has come an improved defence.
In the last month, the Eels' 4 game rolling average has gone from the worst in the league to the best in the league.
Parramatta is now conceding 12.5 points per game.
You have to go back to 2020 when across the first 4 games of the season they conceded a miserly 7.5 points per game to have a better defensive period. However it should be pointed out that was the first COVID season and across the opening 3 rounds the Eels played the Bulldogs, Titans and Broncos. None of those sides would make the finals with the Dogs and Broncos finish 15th and 16th respectively.
Parramatta managed to replicate a similar defensive effort at the start of 2021, conceding 13.5 points per game across the opening month. Yet in 2021 they still had big off nights, conceding 96 points across 2 games against the Rabbitohs and Sea Eagles.
The trend during the Arthur era was often a strong start to the season before hitting some bumps in mid-year and then tapering off as they hit the finals (if they did make the finals).
So far (in a much smaller sample size) Ryles' Eels seem to be improving as the season has continued. With a halfback like Moses and 2 promising spine members in Iongi and Smith, the points will inevitably flow in attack. Throw in Lomax and Addo-Carr and Parramatta's ability to finish opportunities will steadily improve.
But it's the defence that is keeping them in contests now. The Panthers, 4 time Premiers, had to reach deep into their bag of big match experience to beat a Parramatta side that went toe-to-toe with them, despite being in a period of flux form-wise.
In fact, in the last 6 weeks, Parramatta have been in a position to win each of their games. A marked improvement from the start of the year.
And all of that has been built on defence. Time will tell how good this side becomes, but they are building a solid foundation and it's clear Ryles has the buy-in of the men around him.
Replies
Went back the other day and had a look at alot of Parra highlights 19-22 and our attack was up with the best in the comp.We never had issues scoring points.
19-20 our defense was up there with the best in the comp.
I'm convinced you follow another team, especially with that last blog, you come across as being too intelligent to not realise that it was a AI article. Did it on purpose?
How do you tell an AI article, your post makes no sense to me, as I wouldn't know an AI article if I fell over it.
Isn't the concept of AI meant to be substituting intelligence in such away, it just takes out the human faults?
I am getting too old for all this shit, you can probaly tell my articles as being human from the spelling faults, grammar errors and getting the facts ballsed up, and lets not get into the shit I write. LOL
I can ask AI to write me an article about anything , bullshit or not , and the program will spit it out. The easiest way to spot an AI artifice is the source it claims to have written it doesn't exisit.
I like others , went to the Parra website and saw no such interview existed. Every other player bar Iongi had footage. That's how you pick it. Or ... you can simply look at it from the angle of a parramatta player promised not to go to auction when he gets famous, and that's the first red flag that it's a bullshit story.
The story seemed way to good to be true. Red flag
Thanks Wiz.
Yeh! take your point.....but I can tell by the smell that you have both been in Hell Lol
No hes got Brads you know what in his eyes.
As soon as anyone criticises his hero he jumps in to defend immediately.
Hes more relaible than a swiss watch.
Can't be talking about me, I'm not relayable..... but I can sell you a swiss watch!
Inside pressure and more agility in the middle and what do you know the edge becomes more secure that's all this is.
Different personnel gives you different results.
Heres another one keeping the same combinations have you noticed how that's changed also.Consistency in selection all these little things all add up.
Inside and Kick pressure all starts with Ryley Smith.
I think we are missing another play 1 prop at the moment. We are probably missing Tuivaiti's rotation at the moment. I felt Penrith probably wore us down a little last week with their bigger props with Leota and Smith. Whilst having more agility has been a good thing, we still need a play 1 prop on the field at all times. Our forwards were a little bit side to side last week and passing the ball to flat footed forwards rather than passing to forwards hitting a line like we did against Manly.
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