Here’s how I see it playing out. I’ve always felt Footy Dean was on the outer at Parramatta. If you remember the final four games of the 2025 season, Dean dropped out of the side completely when Iongi returned from injury, pushing Joash Papali’i into the five-eighth role.
What stood out to me was that Dean didn’t even feature in reserve grade — he was nowhere to be seen for the final rounds or the finals. That seemed strange at the time and hinted that he may have already been out of the club’s long-term plans.
Now, with Pezet’s arrival and Dean reportedly heading to the Super League, it makes sense that Pezet has been brought in as a reliable backup to Mitchell Moses, allowing Joash to retain his starting position at No.6. Given Moses’s recent run of injuries, this looks like a smart move by Ryles — having a quality half ready to step in if needed.
To start the season, we’ll likely see Moses at halfback (7) and Joash at five-eighth (6). That said, Joash is still very young in his career, and there’s always a chance Pezet could slot in at six during the season if Ryles feels Joash needs a breather or a fresh perspective.
Overall, this looks like a well-balanced outcome for the club — exactly what Ryles probably intended. With a capable backup secured and Joash keeping his place, the team’s chemistry remains intact. It avoids the disruption of bringing in a short-term “stop-gap” player, something many feared would happen.
Replies
Very true that Hawkins did not play Cup late in the year and Talataina played a lot of NSW cup.
Hearing Braith on his podcast saying Parra getting Pezet for dirt cheap (like a loan). If true and it's just a simple salary replacement for Hawkins leaving, then I'm OK with this one year deal situation.
Pezet can be just another Hawkins replacement, and if he's good enough, he can partner Moses for a year. Hopefully in his short stint with the club, he can make players around him better, including Joash.
If, it is a big if as i doubt it is the case, Pezet is used as a Hawkins replacement and is a back-up, then i am ok with this deal a bit more. We are still in trouble for 2027 to have a back-up Half but it was more likely Hawkins leaves in 2027 anyway for an opportunity so we would have been in same spot it guess. Ryles saw how many games we won without Moses and thinks if during Origin Pezet is worth 1-2 more wins then that can help. It can. Going to semi's this year for this squad will do wonders.
The only positive about the Pezet deal is if he is rubbish and/or gets an injury that is serious we have no obligation to him further and get him off the books. Still overall does not sit right with me as it does seem we are going with "Better than nothing" deal where we wanted Pezet longer, as Braith said we did apparently. But to get players wanting to come here we need to win and through our young players it seems we have to do it that way. It also does not sit right with me that we are basically developing him for Brisbane, but could have done same for Melbourne.
If Pezet starts, one player who is effected the most is Joash, it pretty much draws a curtain on the experiement of him being a 5/8. He wont be playing 5/8 in Cup, he will be Fullback. The opportunity will be to Talataina.
I mean he could make us better with the Melbourne Storm type work ethic, but he has played 5 games more than Papali'i. Started only about 3 more games at 6 than him.
Why would Pezet leave Melbourne where he has been stuck behind there 2 halves and sign for 1 year at Parramatta to be a depth signing playing NSW cup?
Pezet is definitely starting, but can pencil in Moses to miss like 8 games at least so it's not like Joash won't play nrl at all. It's just a smart move by Parra to fill a gap for the time being
This is just a thought, but I think that Pezet had to take up on his clause before the season started, or else he'd be locked into a long-term contract with the storm, so by being our backup 7 this year, it lets him get to the Broncos earlier than he would have
He probably had one chance to activate the clause in his contract - i.e.: it had to be activated within one year (or a set period of time) of Hughes re-signing. Otherwise, he would have to see the rest of the contract out in Melbourne.
This would be the only possible reason why this deal is good. If Pezet is signed to be our back up in nsw cup. But I am a bit confused how Volkman & Lorenzo than fit in nsw cup.
He hasn't been signed to be a backup, watch anasta's podcast posted in another blog. He is coming to win a comp according to anasta and he is going to teach the club how to prepare and compete.
What fucking garbage. Club doing everything to cover up how fucking horrendous they are. This is easily the first big thing that has lowered my opinion of JR.
My thoughts on MON and the RR team were already shit.
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