The majority of rugby league media and expert commentary has been bullish about the Eels under Jason Ryles in his first year, with some believing they could be finals contenders as early as next season. Yet, predictably, the knives are already out.
A Lie
Following the Eels’ 20–16 loss to Souths last week, and with their ladder position showing seven wins to date, the same as last year, The Daily Telegraph’s Dean Ritchie declared that Parramatta’s ‘Remarkable Revival’ is a Lie.
Ritchie has been highly critical of the club, including their controversial decision to move on talismanic captain Clint Gutherson. Many on this site agreed with some of his views, and many have been equally and consistently critical of the club.
“Parramatta is like a selfie with a filter. It looks great but you know it’s make-believe,” Ritchie mocked.
His comments were soon debated on NRL 360 (a video link). Although Braith Anasta didn’t fully agree with Ritchie, he admitted the Eels had “fallen off their perch a bit” after recent losses.
Disagreed
Michael Carayannis, Ritchie’s Daily Telegraph colleague, disagreed. He praised Ryles for making tough decisions, moving on some veterans to give younger players a chance.
“I don’t think they are being as comprehensive as some have made out but I don’t think it’s been doom or gloom either,” Carayannis said.
“Look at Mitch Moses. How many games has he played, nine? The fact they’ve got a rookie fullback."
“There’s been so much change, they’ve had the Dylan Brown turmoil going on. They have cleared out the joint. Ryan Matterson isn’t there, Joe Ofahengaue, Shaun Lane. These were guys that started the season now out the door already."
“I think they’re building. You can see the structure of play Jason Ryles is trying to introduce. The gameplay in the middle of the field, the sharp back line movements.
“They’ve unearthed a gem in Isaiah Iongi. We’re going to be looking back in 5–10 years time and judging Jason Ryles on the first call that he made and that was to move on Clint Gutherson to sign Iongi,” Carayannis concluded.
Bullish
An optimistic Gus Gould added his voice this week on Six Tackles, thinking the Eels could push into the 2026 finals.
“Parramatta are building nicely. There are some good kids there."
“You have another off-season under the coach. Yeah. Why can’t Parramatta make a run at the eight next year?”
But Gould also stressed the importance of Mitchell Moses.
“What I like most about is their attitude in defence and the structures and the principles that they’re consistently doing.
“Going back six or eight weeks ago, just looking some of their attacking play. They were moving the ball well. They weren’t getting it right, but they persevered. They knew they were on the right track. They just weren’t executing in games. Now, they’re starting to execute a little bit in games and points are coming. That builds to confidence,” Gould told his co-host.
A few weeks ago, Matty Johns and Billy Moore also tipped the Eels to be pushing for finals next season after their close loss to the Storm. Johns even suggested they could win a title under Ryles.
Others, like James Graham, remain lukewarm, somewhat sitting on the fence, not yet fully convinced.
My position remains much the same as it was at the start of the year: the Ryles era needs time before anyone throws it under the bus. It’s only Year One. Despite being anti-rookie last year, Ryles and the new era has shown promise. With another offseason, we should see improvement, particularly in reducing errors and tightening some fundamentals which have let us down this year. Greater cohesion should follow in theory.
Of course, much depends on Mitchell Moses, his captaincy, staying healthy and on filling key roster gaps, especially at six and in the forward pack, and the team's mentality and habit-patterns during the off-season. Building belief. It’s worth remembering that the Bulldogs regressed badly in Year Two of Gus’ rebuild (which began in mid-2021). In 2023, Ciraldo’s first year, they ended up with the worst defence and the second-worst attack in the competition. As such, I wouldn't be surprised if there is only marginal improvement next year. Given the unpredictably of the competition, anything is possible.
For us, 2027, when the salary cap clears, might be the year we get clearer answers.
Over to You
So, are you bullish or bearish about next year and the road ahead? Why? Why not?
Replies
I'm done with penisini, I highly doubt we are going to get anything better from him from what we have already seen, inconsistent, drifts in and out of games mentally and error riddled. I would be looking for a replacement.
Until the find some other centres have to stick with him, he's the only centre we have that can force his way over the try line with brute force. He is still far more threatening then any other centre on our roster
When you look at the talent of Penisni coming through the junior grades and even union at Kings school, I thought we had an amazing centre of the future. But his career since the GF has been really disappointing. He first 2 years in FG made most of think we have an origin calibre centre. He was so defensively sound as an 18-20 year old centre. Showed some strength in his fends and runs. But now, as you say, he has games where he makes too many brain farts whether its defensive mistakes or handling errors. He is still young but I have really lost hope on him.
With his age he's still got room to improve definitely a player I'm not giving up on, if we can find a centre for the other side I'd be stoked
He definitely has talent, his weakness is mental attitude, staying focused, it's all a by-product of the complacency that festered under the old leadership both captain and coach. Hopefully ryles can rectify this but penisini only has next season to get it together or he won't be an eel any longer.
Agree im slightly bias cause hes come all the way through our juniors and want him to succeed 😂 cheering for him
He hasn't added anything to his game EA that's why he is what he is.
Guys like him who rely on power alone need to add agility to there game and another yard or 2 of pace also.
But for me he's got to go back and watch the tape especially defensively.What we can do to help him is put the same combination around him weekly so he gains more and more confidence and doesn't need to over think anything in both attack and defense just play.In essence him adding a few little parts to his game and the team wise doing the mentioned and we may see a different player.
Im kinda with HKF if he doesn't add anything you move from him because what we've seen is what he is.
The only real part I like to his game is his ball carry out of trouble his low centre of gravity makes him hard to handle if he added some agility to it he becomes a harder player to tackle again.
Wish he did some speed and agility training with those respective coaches. He really needs it. and as you say he needs consistency with his combinations around him
Bulldog Ritchie...seriously what is his contribution to the game compared with Gus? Its a no contest every day of the week.
As long as people still belive in this myth about our great junior nursery the worse we'll be . We need to recruit , plain and simple. We need to recruit at the top and recruit at the bottom.decades ago we had the great catchment of talent , now all the growth in development and population is West and South. Best we can do is set our sights on the kids not good enough to make it into Penrith and Wests . Areas like Parramatta and Canterbury just don't have the catchments they used to.
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