The most pleasing aspect of this year amid a bold rebuild has been the improvement in the Eels' defence — a barometer of attitude — after four years of decline post-2020 (4th, 8th, 11th, 16th, to 10th defence rank this year). Kaizen in motion. The late-season surge was also a glimpse of what the Eels could be. A genuine turning point? Hopefully. I'm rooting for it. It's worth noting the cap won't be cleared up until 2027 with a significant war chest. If the improvement continues, it'll help encourage more players to come aboard.
A Brief SWOT Analysis
Strengths
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Coaching alignment: Unity between coach, CEO, GM, and board, giving Jason Ryles stability and space to implement long-term strategies. There is a promising Club-First, Team-First ethos building.
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Defensive turnaround: From worst in the NRL over first six weeks to top-3 defence in the final seven-game stretch. Evidence of buy-in.
Nightmare start 1/ 6 (17%), rock bottom 17th last on ladder Attack second-worst (13.4pg), Defence worst, 17th (30.4pg) during this period Crawling out of hole 4 / 12 (33%), up one place 16th Attack 10th (21.3pg), Defence 11th (23.6pg) Blazing Finish 5 / 7 (71%), finish at 11th, highest of season Attack 7th, 27pg, Defence 3rd, 16.6pg -
Momentum builder: Ended with a 5 from 7 wins, including 3 wins from 4 against top-eight teams — a sign they can match intensity at the pointy end.
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Competitiveness against best: Against the teams in the top-eight. Rounds 1-20 won 0 from 8. Rounds 21-27 won 3 from 4.
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Rookies and most stepping up: Iongi, Smith, Papali’i, Kautoga, Tuivaiti, and even Russell providing impact for his best season to date; Paulo logging career-high minutes in a renassaince year; Williams' a career year; Walker proving the missing link in the middle
- Ryles' recruitment strategies: Has a scent for the right fit and attitude. Fox, Walker, Iongi, Williams, Kautoga, Papali'i, Hawkins proving good recruits.
- Back Three: Lomax, Fox, Iongi have been outstanding. Lomax is a Payne Haas on the wing. Helps relieve stress on pack.
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Improved culture: Younger, fitter, faster roster playing with visible resilience and cohesion. Leadership from Moses, Paulo, Walker, the Fox, and Williams.
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Systems: attacking and defensive structures showing improvement and promise
Weaknesses
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Ball control and errors: 13th in completions (79%) and 4th worst for errors (~12 per game). Has cost winnable matches.
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Reliance on Moses: Win rate drops from 54% with him to 27% without. His kicking game is critical. 2026-2027 could hinge on his injury status.
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Spine still evolving: Five-eighth role remains unresolved; a young spine still developing
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Right-edge defence: Still the softest corridor; heavily targeted.
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Overworking stars: Paulo’s heavy minutes and Lomax’s forced involvement (via premeditated kicks) risk burnout and inefficiency, and some lost opportunities.
Opportunities
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Targeted recruitment: Punch in the middle and more strike out wide (centre) could elevate attack. A more established six?
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Kaizen continuity: Another preseason under Ryles should help cohesion, combinations and sharpen execution.
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Pathways and development: Shows promise and renewed investment. Translation into first-grade will be critical for sustainable success.
- MOMAX: could be used with more variation. Sometimes pre-determined last-tackle kick for Lomax has resulted in lost opportunities.
Threats
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Second-year syndrome: Young squad may regress in intensity and consistency after the adrenaline of a late-season surge.
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Salary cap squeeze: Clean-up job in 2025–26 leaves limited flexibility until 2027; risks stagnation if injuries strike and depth challenged.
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Roster succession gaps: Key veterans (Paulo, JDB, Walker, Fox) nearing the back end of careers.
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Competition benchmark: Rivals like Panthers and Storm combine talent with calm-headed leadership (Cleary, Yeo, Grant). We're still a work in progress.
Quirky Stat
- The Eels have finished the season with three-straight wins for only the third time in the Eels' NRL history: 2001 (grand final), 2022 (grand final), and 2025.
Quick comparison with Dogs rebuild
- It took their rebuild three years to get to the finals once Gus took over mid-2021 as the architect. They were in doldrums missing the finals five times 2017-2021 (11th-16th wooden spoon).
- 1st Year (2022): 16th ➝ 12th improvement from spoon after leaking 710 points in 2021 (Barrett)
- 2nd Year (2023): 12th ➝ 15th regression to third-last (Ciraldo's first year)
- 3rd Year (2024): 15th ➝ 6th Finals, first time in eight years since 2016
- 4th Year (2025): 6th ➝ 3rd Finals, top-four, for first time in thirteen years since 2012
Replies
Looking at the ba era in defence, and its mostly in the red and in nearly half his time, finishing in the bottom 4 id d.
Premiership-winning teams are built on defence, and the team under Ryles are showing that they can now turn the opposition away defending our own try line. That hasn't happened since - well honestly i can't recall when.
Since April the clubs for and against is
423 and 376 against.
It took time to adjust to Ryles's defensive structures, and the proof is in the pudding 🍮 in our last 18 games results.
And don't forget, the club still had a few million dollars worth of players on our books who had either not wanted to play, released, or in the process of retiring - Matterson, Ofehengaue, Cartwright, Lane, Hands.
Yep, Chiefy, true. I reckon 2025-26 is around a $5-6m cap hit because of the rebuild-clean up.
PS: I was going to add details of that but my blogs are already torturously long enough.
Defensively. 4/11 seasons were we higher than 8th. 7/11 we were mid-range 8th to 16th. We were Jeckly-Hyde. Moses essentially admitted it on a podcast: Even the best year (2022) was up & down. The group was surprised & just content to make the GF.
Is that podcast on parra+ hoe?
Chiefy, It's on Sixes and Seves. Nathan Cleary and Sam Walker are also good listens. Bullet points re that Moses interview off the top of my head:
We were paying over $3 in that grand final, and in the first week against Penrith. They were just a much better team than us and almost everyone else. That was their second of four straight premierships ffs. We didn't 'fail' any more than any other club that year.
Sure, the Panthers were the best team in the comp & for most of the last 5-6 years and we probably did the best we could. But Moses said what many of us have said. We were up and down, Jeckly-Hyde, even in 2022, our best year of the last 15-16 years.
Even the best teams are up and down. But people don't tend to notice when they are down because they are usually still good enough to win. An example is Melbourne's narrow win over us in round 22. That was an off week for them, but they still had the class to pull a win out.
Don't worry the only solace I take in that GF year was we were the only team that pushed one of the best teams in nrl history consistently no one else in that time gave Riff any sought of trouble like we did over that 2-3 year period.
Moses was just of the realisation that we weren't good enough which is just fact pure and simple.Teams have only been able now to match it with Riff through attrition of talent not because of what we had to face over the same period.
We we're just wrong place wrong time and gave it a shot and missed.
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