Big Breaking**** updated ***** luke metcalf expected to ask for permission to leave today
Parramatta eels next five-eighth is looking more and more likely to be an external signing as we really don't have the answer internally. The main candidates the club will be looking at are Chanel Harris - Tavita 27, Kodi Nikorema 32, Jack Cole 22 and Luke Metcalf 27
The main two Eels candidates are currently Ronald Volkman and Lorenzo Talititiana.
Volkman is still relatively young at 23, has performed well in the past few games, but I don’t think he's the club’s long term solution. If he was in the club's plans, he wouldn't be off contract this year. Also if he was in Rylsey's plans, why did he have Pezet along side Moses all pre season and during the early rounds - forget Volkman he's out of the running.
Lorenzo Talititiana. He's only 18 or 19. He's played a few games in cup around 15. Lorenzo hasn't yet debut in first grade and Volkman, who isn’t even signed for 27 has the jump on him. Its nearly mid season so if Ryles was considering Lorenzo for 2027, you'd think he would have at least gotten a taste of fg and would need half a season as Joash did last season. Lorenzo is also very slight in stature and he will most likely stay in cup for another year or two unti lhis body fills out - it won’t be Lorenzo
Joash- if it was Joash he wouldn't have been training at fb in the preseason with Pezet and Moses calling the shots. It seems like Joash has been scrapped from the idea of 5/8.
For mine its between Chanel and Metcalf. Tannah Boyd has just committed to a three-year deal. So three into 2 doesn't fit, and both are NRL standard
So Its a dead set toss up between Metcalf and Metcalf
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I expect he will get a run at some point in the back 3rd of the season most likely off the bench at first. It all depends on how the team is playing , if they are getting flogged every week i suspect it's less likely he gets thrown to the wolves.
If they get anyone from outside my guess will be burton
Gee hope not
When you consider how our halves played in games when we were going well over the past couple of years, you had Moses leading the team around and Brown supporting him. They came together to put on attacking raids, and that put doubt into the defenders. they expected only Moses to produce the killer plays, but with Brown chiming in, it could have come from him also. It also gave us options either side of the ruck.
We need to get back to that. With Moses we don't need a topline 5/8, but someone who is willing to support Moses and has the skills to put on plays as needed. At the moment we have Volkman, Papalii and Talitaina all in contention for that 5/8 spot. I wonder if Ryles intends to trial them all out in that spot in the back half of this season to see where they are at? Do either of these players have the skills we need? Probably not at the moment, but they have all grown over the past 12 months, and no doubt will continue to grow.
If I were R&R, I would be looking to fill a massive gap in our outside backs. Other teams have shown that skills there is worth putting money into.
Longfin, good post.
Agree with you & MW, who said similar, outside backs & another middle feel more pressing.
EA & Sonic have mentioned the great middles we have coming through, but there seems to be very little in outside backs?
Volkman offers some attack as he's quite elusive. He seems serviceable for the time being, with the opportunity to keep improving?
I think Ronald Volkman is improving with every match at six and gaining lots of confidence.
Last round.
Volkman (came on a train and trial). 2 try assists. 6 tackles busts. 2 line-breaks. 5 runs for 95m. His break allowed Moses to kick the winning FG.
Brown ($13m + $3m in TPAs). 0 try assists. 1 tackle bust. 0 line breaks. 9 runs for 106m.
It's still Ponga's team but admitedly Dylan is playing well overall.
Dylan has Volkman for defence though 18 tackles for 1 miss and extra kick metres. Volkman made 16 tackles for 5 misses. So that's where some of the extra $15.7 million went.
Haha HOE, some top level 'cherry picking' there.
Great bait, but not biting.
Newcastle spoon to top 8 in half a season.Parra bottom 4 just saying 😂
NOS, agree. It's cherry picking: last round. But it's also factual. Reality.
More cherry picking. Against Souths, it was a dropped ball from Brown on the line that allowed Souths to get back into the match and almost win it.
Admitedly, Souths made an error (Aitkin) on their line that Dylan made amends with some briliance on the line to set up that Mooney try.
To his credit, Brown also took that dropped ball really badly. He dropped his head and took it to heart. He seemed to take errors like that more casually at the Eels quite often.
I like that. It showed he cared. I respect that.
I'm not saying Brown isn't a loss, or he's playing badly. He's had some excellent moments on his short highlight reel at the Knights and us.
But remember he's on the richest deal in history (he's a new father and starting a family) and POs or no POs, he would've tested the market and his agent knew O'Sullivan (who's also made plenty of dud signings no one talks about) was going to offer him the deal of a lifetime. Let's be realistic.
And in many ways, I think a change is as good as a holiday for him at the Knights. The extra responsibiliy is good for him. I don't bedrduge him. But I also think the cheap shots at the club are naive.
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