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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Or dare I say Canterbury? I know they have Woods but Gus is able to move players around like furniture so it's fits, well tries to make them fit. A new toy comes available, he drops is current one and goes for new one.
Joash trained atv6 and at 1 in pre season often with pezet at 7. As cover fir when Mitch misses games.
Volkman is a bit of a surprise he didn't go well in 1st grade last year. Got better as the season went on in Reggie's.
His future is tied to Lorenzo if we think hes ready (has signed long term) then Volk will either be back up or moved on thats footy.
Our biggest concern is outside backs
Well Volkman didn't do well last year as he had an unsettled pre-season as he was coming back from a shoulder reconstruction, so he hadn't played for about a year before that. Then comes into a team with a new coach, new systems and a rookie Fullback and rookie Hooker for half the game. Added to that was asked to run the team pretty much.
At the time when doing that, we had no other options.
Yes you are correct on all of those both Moses and Hawkins were unavailable.
What is ment is he has had a strong finish to last year and is showing good signs but the club is backing Lorenzo so that puts Volkman into a unknown zone
Just a question, does anybody know where abouts the Eels supporters sit at McDonald Stadium for the Knights game? Is it bay 60?
No idea TT; maybe call the Parra office or N'castle office and ask
Ah no mate. It will be Lorenzo.
Interesting blog Chief; only my view here and we need to look at a quality half as IMO Moses while being good has had some injuries over the last few years and to me we need to be strategic who we bring in as we need a leader type half too. Moses is wat 31/32 and to me he is still carrying something as his goalkicking seems to be somewhat off too.
I would look at Metcalfe tbh
Volkmann should be given the opportunity. He's still young and has been extremely good so far. Sure he's got some defensive issues but no worse than any other learning his trade. The more games he plays the better will be his improvement. He has a good read of the game for a young player and for the amount of games he's played. Joash Papali should also be given the opportunity as well and these two players should get preference over looking outside the club. It's called Loyalty
I very much doubt that Volkman will be our 6 going into 27. He just doesn't have the speed over long distances. Over 10 or 20m, sure he has good footwork, but there's no way Ryles is going to offer anything but a 1 year deal going forward. I think he'll take the $$ available in the super league. He'll probably command anything up to 400k a season over there, where here he'll be lucky to get 180k
So for mine, Lorenzo needs half a season in first grade. From at least round 16 onwards
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