Is it time???
For many Eels fans, the answer is already a resounding yes. If Mitch Moses gave up rep footy, it would dramatically improve his chances of getting through a full NRL season—something we’re all desperate to see.
But more broadly, when does it become time for any player to focus solely on club duties?
For me, if your marquee player has managed to play just 14 out of a possible 44 games over the last two seasons, is over 30, and is your club’s most important piece, then the decision should be pretty clear. Sure Cherry Evans played at 35, but he's been extremely fortunate be hardly ever injured, unlike Moses whose played 8 games and 6 games in two seasons for Parramatta respectively. This is honestly joke, it's not the fans being selfish.
Plenty of greats have stepped back from representative football to prolong their club careers: Greg Inglis, Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Jack Wighton, to name just a few. Smith, for example, retired from Origin in 2018 but still gave Melbourne two more stellar seasons.
The question is—should Parramatta make the first move and start that conversation with Moses? I’d argue they absolutely need to.
Moses hasn’t been fully fit all year. He’s barely goal-kicked when required, and looks hampered even in the few games he’s managed to suit up for the Eels. I gave him the benefit of the doubt heading into the season, but this is getting ridiculous. Let’s not forget he did minimal training in the preseason too.
It’s time the club—and the fans—made their feelings clear. Enough is enough. Parramatta needs their leader on the park, week in and week out. If that means stepping away from rep footy, then so be it.
The Club have put their faith in Mitchell with one of the largest contracts ever. Now it's time for Mitchell to make the decision in what's best for Parramatta.
Sarantinos needs to address this situation asap. The fans pay their memberships and gate fees, we essentially pay the players wages. I think now it would be self-regarding for Moses to continue this approach. His injury issues especially with his foot and lower have persisted for over 12 months now.
Replies
If it's Randy that ran you down, it was 6am
Anyone that's up at 6am on the roads needs to re-evaluate their life choices.
Only way to get to Kellyville for 9am
I think he should retire from rep as you said Chief he only played a handful off games for us in last 2 years
So the club should say to him it's us or rep Football if he chooses Rep we should go after another half like tom Duffy
Completely disagree.
His injuries have been unlucky but he's at the prime age in his career. He should be playing in as many big games as possible and each time he does its a reflection of our clubs ability to send out quality rep players. It's up to the club to develop strong enough systems to survive the rep period and Mitch to hopefully get through next time and come back to us a more developed , well rounded player and leader from spending time with the elite and playing in those games . It would be great if we get to our next finals series we have a 7 who's played in more high stakes games and faced difficult scenarios and knows how to get the job done. That comes from playing finals and origin zero chance we should be asking him to scale that back . Origin the last 2 years has cost Mitch lots of club time but it's enhanced his standing in the game and when he does play he's better for it. Fingers crossed next year but there's no way I'd be asking a 31 year old to quit rep footy .. you need rep players to go deep in comps and you run the risk of them getting injured . That's just how it's is whenever origin is a mid season comp .
100 that's our problem though we don't have the strategy how to get by without key players.If anything we've seen that over the last 3 seasons.The clubs just not in the same position as a Melbourne or Riff who've been doing it for years.
Very true but I've seen promising signs this season .
Give Ryles another 8 months of developing his systems with the side and I'd expect us to be going into 2026 a lot further along then we went into 2025. That might give you the opportunity to ease Mitch through origin not rush him out for us 4 days after a tight calf . Absolutely not when it comes to asking him to quit rep footy.
I'm not expecting anything from JRs side for at least another 12-18 months.We still need to add a fair bit of talent and we need what we've got to continually improve.
I agree there are signs but there's still a long way to go.I'm not expecting to much next year but 27 will be the year if they are to really push the boat out.
It depends on what you by "anything". We've been 5-10% below opposition in most of our matches since Week 2.
Now that 5-10% can be hard to bridge. Most likely is that some of the players improve massively while others remain in a conservative trajectory next 12 months and we win 3-5 more games next year than we did this year. Now that extra 3-5 games (I expect us to win 2 more this year, maybe 4 at a push). Would get us over 10 wins next year maybe up to 12. 12 wins a year is finals, almost.
Now that is "something" for next year.
However, even without signing anyone, I can easily see us winning 15 games next year. With youth in our NRL squad, you never know when someone explodes. I mean, Iongi keeps doing what he's doing, Penisini recaptures form, Moses is fit, and Tuivati steps up a level. All those 4 things are realistic and that alone would take our side to the next step. Let alone if we sign more players.
It's tricky and good not to expect much I guess. And indeed 2027 is when the real fruits would come.
I agree with you coryn in 2 year will make the 8 but i think if we get a centre 5/8 another forward we we just mite make 8 next year
But Moses has to retire from rep
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