While all our systems have shown promise, the most pleasing aspect of this year amid a bold rebuild has been the improvement in the Eels' defence — a barometer of attitude and resilience — 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
Good point on Stephen Crichton, he is the best defensive centre in the game and his structure (his or Coraldo) has actually enabled the dogs to beat us in recent times.
This was shown up very obviously in this weeks preliminary semi final against Penrith. Any side playing the Dogs need to work around Crichton's defence.
Finally, Super. Someone gets it. Couldn't have said it any better.
PLV's speeding up of the game in 2020 was the beginning of the end of BA's systems and strategies — and it was no accident it co-incided with his teams' defensive devolution. Eventual Collapse.
The forward-centric, laterally-challenged compressed middles exposed the edges badly. That was there well before the 2020-24 defensive regression. Refer Matt Elliot's breakdown of the Eels' 2019 defensive vulnerabilities.
In a COVID affected world, the 2020 re-introduction of Six Agains which sped up the game aimed to promote a more exciting brand of footy, reduces wrestling an in theory should reduce "penalties" and the "stop-start" nature of the game keeping the ball in play longer.
The Panthers, in Ivan Cleary's era, as the masters of high-speed grind took full advantage. It also took some of the edge off Storm's dominance who had mastered wrestling when Bellamy took over from 2003 and aimed to improved their defence and ruck dominance and slow the ruck down.
It's a bit of wishful thinking to put all of BA's 2020-24 defensive regression on purely "cap squeeze". Where the likes of Hopgood, Joe O, Cartwright (good for BA), Lussick, Simmonson, Hands or Russell who filled spots in the top-17 for the likes of Fergo, Reed, Ice, and Nuikore, Nathan Brown (who BA dropped for most of 2022 for reasons that still puzzle Nathan Brown), Waqa (he wasn't great defensively under BA) or Jakob Arthur (overall stats show we performed better when he played five minutes or less for whatever reasons).
The secret sauce to JRs success is his juniors and recruited taking the next step that's going to be the key.
From what I'm seeing from our youngsters are good players but not elite talent.I look at a guy like Russell whose improvement has been consistent but he'll never be a player teams fear.
I look at Casey Maclean in comparison as light years better talent wise and in a system where he can thrive and that's key with us the growth within JRs system can for go the talent difference.
PS Line 1 We need to beat Tigers, Newcastle, Titans, Dolphins, St George on every occasion, if we play them twice there's 20 points.....
Line 2 We need to beat Cronulla, Dogs, Warriors, Roosters, Cowboys, Bronco's, Panthers, Storm, Manly, Souths,
Beat them once each and you have another 20 points.
That should get us top 4, but we have to play by picking off every side one at a time! Not by looking at a broad picture.
I also think we may have an "opportunity" with depth, we can look at a rotation principle for some of our forwards.
At stages we will have to rest Junior, JDB, Smith and Tavititi, maybe also Lomax, pending his rep commitments and also a couple of middles that will end up with "niggles".
Of course the normal injury attrition will raise its head all over this process,
imteresting Blog in the sense of setting a scene of what we have to do and also what we need to avoid.
Threats..... are interesting and my greatest concern is 2nd Year syndrome......absolutely essential we get away to a good start but more importantly I know we will be a threat against the good sides ......the games we need to nail will be regarded as fringe sides but no one will really be an easybeat.
Other sides this year will look at us very carefully because they know we can rise to any occasion. The danger becomes that games against the so called fringe sides will be looked at by them as still a game they can win! It will be up to us to actually have these side's scared at the prospect of playing us, rather than "this is a side we can beat"!.
What are you rambling on about now old man?? Next.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Is another alias for you Chiefy? Anus?
Don't tell me you haven't woken up.to who it is lol. Cmon, get with the program ploppo
I think the "2nd year syndrome" will be the next big test for Ryles. Most of what we acheived in the latter half of the season was through attitude & discipline, even if other teams figure out how you play & try to come up with plans to counteract it, they can't control your attitude & discipline.
This is where Ryles needs to be able to keep that in them for the whole year, he's seen it done at both the clubs he worked at before coming to us so hopefully he's learnt a thing or 2 to make it happen.
He's already done some extremely good things here, you always hear people talking about a new coach not being able to do anything & only being judged by what they achieve in their 3rd or 4th season with a club as that's when they finally have their own roster. Ryles has done about 80% of his cleanout in 1 season, 1 pre season even which allowed him to get a look & feel for the new squad from season 1 & has us in a very good position for season 2.
I think it's up to him how far we can go & the signs are very good so far.
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