Poppa's Corner: We made a mistake, lets admit it, move forward; and it looks like we are overrated!

This heading is probably something we don't like admitting to. Yes it implies criticism but I don't want to start looking for blame or scapegoats, just accept it and move on.

The main issue in my mind is the "Pezet" experiment. It hasn't worked and the future has to be now. If its not, then it is a pointless exercise.

Back to Pezet. It occur's to me that just about everyone is in concurrence that he is not up to the 5/8 role.

The fact that our Reserve Grade side is struggling and do not have a proper half, it is a good opportunity to let Pezet fill this role and see what he can achieve, and how our long term 5/8 potential reacts to having a "proper" half!....????.

After all the real point of having Pezet was a backup half for Moses and the developing of our junior 5/8 talent. Well the 5/8 role ain't working.

He has no speed. His defence is poor. And he show's me nothing much as a link man.

I believe all the rhetoric and dislocation, not to mention the poor form of Moses is directly related to covering Pezet's shortfalls. That included the positioning of Williams at lock and the dropping of JDB to provide cover defence for the Pezet shortfall.

We are in a remarkable good position with 2 out of 3 games, whereas we could be zero and 3 and in deep shit.

Lets not abuse our good fortune. Let's act now.

There is no way we will beat Penrith going forward with this current make up.

Finally, I expected with our back ups and juniors coming through that we were good things for Reserve Grade. But we are now showing issues there. Our junior's are struggling as well. The issue is our upcoming 5/8's are not exactly killing it!

Have we overated our position and personell?

How does this happen? Well, we, Parramatta, are total optimists with the exception of a few and we always want to see the positives.

All that being said, I continue to believe in Ryles and our coaching staff and the reality is he is still learning as well.

Just a smokey to end this discussion. Bevan French.

I do not know the contract implications, but if we get cap dispensation on Hopgood, how about making an offer for French to take the 5/8 position? He hasn't played for Wigan yet this season and I would be not against making an offer he "can't refuse". Obviously this could simply be too hard, but we are a long way short of what we want to be!

Please don't bring up the "French" defensive issues, he is now one of the best players in the world and a lot stronger defensively than when he was with us.

Great blog, Pops. Some really good points here, and the posts as well, we have some very intelligent minds on this site.

Most fans will admit to often getting recruitment wrong, there is so much about a player we aren't privy too, and so need to trust 'the process' from those behind closed doors.

I look at Sean Russel, this is a player I would've happily seen leave in 2024, now, wish he was staying long term - couldn't be happier to be wrong, he's always seemed a likeable person.

But, we did we get this one wrong?

Many of us said losing DB & it will cost us years, we'd already lost Blaize, targeted a disinterested Jaydon Campbell, and missed a sliding doors moment with Galvin where all the stars aligned, and this is where we land.

If Pezet was a generational talent, a Kotoa type, for 12 months you take him, why not. He's not in the same stratosphere.

Joash, even if not a natural 5/8th, is committed, a team-first (Eels first) player, and he brings energy, and he is no further behind Pezet in development, who is also not a 5/8th, so to your point, what is the point?

Pezet had to hit the ground running at 5/8th to make this work, at a minimum he had to hold up defensively, he's not & it was never really possible for a kid of 20 odd games. A back up 7 makes sense, though. Moses will miss games.

Like Bluey, its not Pezet in particular that bothers me, its everything that's happened (and hasn't changed) to see us taking a 4th/5th preferred option as our 5/8th for 2026, with no guarantees beyond this season either.

As Cap said, until we are ready to be more honest with ourselves & where the issues are clearly sitting, we will continue to see the same short comings roster-wise & in turn what we are seeing on the field.

Its not about personal vendettas or finger pointing, signs of a weak organisation, it might just be more clarity around roles & investing in a new recruitment system.

Ryes & the club have come so far in so many areas, and have actually now gone backwards in one area.

Coryn mentioned a line through us in 2026, but honestly, I can't see how we genuinely compete until 2028, unless we sign 2/3 elite talents in needed positions, or, our juniors have a storm-in-a-teacup Panthers style development incoming.

Just my opinion, and of course, hope to be wrong.

"Agreed. He will be the leader of the forward pack in a few years. In the meantime he has some old heads in Paulo, Walker and De Belin to provide some guideance, along with of course JR who was himself a rep quality forward. Sam is the type of player…"

"If Isaac Moses is his manager I can guarantee he'll go to the open market and sign with the highest bidder. We will literally have to outbid the market to keep him. If we know he's special who cares if he's only played a handful of NRL games. We…"

Replies

- - - - Poppa > LB March 24, 2026 at 9:59am
        
        LB Just re read that and trying to remember why I would have said "I don't remember that" "it could have happened but can't remember"..... and wondered why I can remember it now and realised it is because you brought this up previously to remind me and it was months later and at the time it was no big deal, you and Wiz threw it back in my face in a "point scoring" exercise, just like you have again this time......games you people play? its amazing!
- Coryn Hughes > LB March 24, 2026 at 11:35am
  
  Maybe it's as simple as French doesn't want to comeback.
  
  Lifestyle money I have no doubt he's set himself up for life he doesn't need to comeback here and prove himself.
  
  ESL is his high tide and he's reached the peak of that mountain while sustaining his health and well being.
Nightmare Off-Season March 23, 2026 at 10:47am

Great blog, Pops. Some really good points here, and the posts as well, we have some very intelligent minds on this site.

Most fans will admit to often getting recruitment wrong, there is so much about a player we aren't privy too, and so need to trust 'the process' from those behind closed doors.

I look at Sean Russel, this is a player I would've happily seen leave in 2024, now, wish he was staying long term - couldn't be happier to be wrong, he's always seemed a likeable person.

But, we did we get this one wrong?

Many of us said losing DB & it will cost us years, we'd already lost Blaize, targeted a disinterested Jaydon Campbell, and missed a sliding doors moment with Galvin where all the stars aligned, and this is where we land.

If Pezet was a generational talent, a Kotoa type, for 12 months you take him, why not. He's not in the same stratosphere.

Joash, even if not a natural 5/8th, is committed, a team-first (Eels first) player, and he brings energy, and he is no further behind Pezet in development, who is also not a 5/8th, so to your point, what is the point?

Pezet had to hit the ground running at 5/8th to make this work, at a minimum he had to hold up defensively, he's not & it was never really possible for a kid of 20 odd games. A back up 7 makes sense, though. Moses will miss games.

Like Bluey, its not Pezet in particular that bothers me, its everything that's happened (and hasn't changed) to see us taking a 4th/5th preferred option as our 5/8th for 2026, with no guarantees beyond this season either.

As Cap said, until we are ready to be more honest with ourselves & where the issues are clearly sitting, we will continue to see the same short comings roster-wise & in turn what we are seeing on the field.

Its not about personal vendettas or finger pointing, signs of a weak organisation, it might just be more clarity around roles & investing in a new recruitment system.

Ryes & the club have come so far in so many areas, and have actually now gone backwards in one area.

Coryn mentioned a line through us in 2026, but honestly, I can't see how we genuinely compete until 2028, unless we sign 2/3 elite talents in needed positions, or, our juniors have a storm-in-a-teacup Panthers style development incoming.

Just my opinion, and of course, hope to be wrong.
- Poppa > Nightmare Off-Season March 23, 2026 at 1:27pm
  
  Beautifully responded NOS, your summation is just about perfect......and like you and Coryn I have no answers.
  
  One thing I will say is that we know that Perth and PNG are going to place a large drain on overall playing talent, I think our lack of recruitment vision has been our valuation of players, I think in this environment and the salary cap being raised substantially in the light of TV rights etc then we need to be more adventourous with "offers too good to refuse' I now fear we have missed this boat as well......French could work btw.
  - Nightmare Off-Season > Poppa March 24, 2026 at 10:16am
    
    It feels (from the outside at least) you've hit the nail on the head there Pops - maybe some scars from the past indiscretions around our cap?!
    
    As you said, with Perth & PNG, its only going to get harder.
    
    We only have to watch the opening 20mins of each of the 3 games so far to see why Ryles wanted an elite middle & was willing to offer big $.
    
    We need a win, and 1 or 2 players can change everything, proven by the Bulldogs who many claimed paid 'overs' for Crighton as a centre.
    
    Let's hope circumstance assists us & we can close a few vital positions going into 2027.
Angry Eel March 23, 2026 at 10:55am

I think some of us are massively overreacting. St George are always going to be a tough team to put away. Melbourne and Bulldogs both struggled to put them away and everyone is expecting those teams to be top 4. It's early in the season and we have heaps of improvement in us not to mention I think most teams are adjusting to the way the referees are controlling the games and how teams use their interchange benches moving forward to combat/exploit fatigue. I suspect we still have a lot of tinkering to do with our starting lineup/bench rotation. The form lines read Melbourne beat us, we beat Brisbane, Brisbane beat Melbourne. This weekend says a lot about where we are. Penreff have been the standout team so far. If we are close to a result (even if we lose but lose a tight one) 2/4 with one of the worst possible draws to start the season becomes a pretty good result. 3/4 is phenomenal with improvement still left in us. Whilst our pack you can argue has been dominated so far to start the year, last year we were able to combat that with fantastic ball movement which we will get better at as the year goes on. Yes Pezet's defence hasn't been good at all but he's had some nice touches in attack. We are not the complete package yet but there's heaps of improvement in us and yet we are 2/3. Absolutely no need to overreact right now, just like there was no need to compare Ryles to Kearney 2 weeks ago.
- CarloEEL2 > Angry Eel March 23, 2026 at 11:16am
  
  That's the spirit !!!!
  
  in my mind a player that has been recruited for a year is always a risk in " protecting " their investment for their " real " club signing for the following year 🤔
  
  even if it's subconsciously not putting themselves fully into the fray to avoid injury
  
  that's why I don't like it
- Clintorian > Angry Eel March 23, 2026 at 11:26am
  
  I agree AE, it's way too early in the season to be making calls like this.
  
  I was one of the fans rubbishing Russell before the season started and said he needs to go. Well... I was wrong, embarrassingly wrong, and happy to admit it. We have a tough draw with Storm, Broncos, and Panthers in the first 4 rounds so our start was always going to be difficult.
  
  Let's wait till we play Tigers, Titans, Sea Eagles, Warriors, Cowboys before we start sounding any alarm bells.
  - Muttman > Clintorian March 23, 2026 at 11:40am
    
    Warriors are the form team of the comp.
    - LB > Muttman March 23, 2026 at 11:51am
      
      Warriors are dangerous, their pack of JFH, Ford, Barnett, Clark, Halasima, Capewell and there are more. Boyd and Metcalf eventually in the halves.
      
      The one team at the moment i actually believe can beat Penrith.