Eels Blogs

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            Coryn Hughes > Adam Magrath May 3, 2026 at 11:57am

            

            From what I'm seeing it's a whole issue recruitment retention and coaching at this point in time is all in big trouble.

            Even when I had conversations with Blair Mills he pretty much echoed the same the club just isn't in a position across the board to challenge for a premiership.He told me if everything went right in the mentioned spaces he believed the club was 4-5 years away from actually making a push.We are in year 2 taking our lumps.

            IMO from what I'm seeing we've got big issues in all of the first mentioned areas and not easily fixable areas with the roster we have.If we don't start getting our recruitment right and our development doesn't hit this is just a rearranging of the deck chairs and calling it something different.

            Me I think the biggest issue we have is we have no chanmpionship dna in our building.It doesn't seem like we are looking to add that either..
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        LB > Adam Magrath May 3, 2026 at 11:01am

        

        Well no, but at the time we had Brown and Moses as starters. As a back-up? Sure why not. But it's always the way. Players play one good game "why didn't we get him?" Sometimes they go on with it or some have one great year or even month of footy and nothing else.

        Nobody can predict Boyd becoming what he was but Andrew Webster has coached him well as he always does with halves.

        But in terms of quick fixes, does getting Keaon help our middles? Yes, it does instantly. Still need a few others but the difference would be night and day.
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          Adam Magrath > LB May 3, 2026 at 11:33am

          

          It was a hypothetical LB to illustrate a point, I wasn't suggesting we should have got him. Webster saw enough in him to take the punt so when you say nobody could predict, well someone was willing to take that chance. It is simply not possible to fill our roster out with players right at their peak, the salary cap doesn't allow it. 
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        The Captain > Adam Magrath May 3, 2026 at 11:21am

        Professional sports people have careers that last in the single digit years. When assembling a roster all you have are quick fixes. It's a dynamic arena.

        What you need are solid systems around you so you can react and respond to those situations with speed. Players changing form, opportunities presenting themselves, junior talent working out, or not working out. You have to respond to all of these situations at speed because there are 16 (soon more) other clubs trying to outpace you to that decision.

        Good systems make good decisions look like good luck in hindsight. We do not have good systems, therefore we keep feeling like we are always on the receiving end of "bad luck" and that everyone else is just lucky.

        Ryles is starting to see that he doesn't have the support systems he saw at his previous clubs. And that leaves him in a pretty bad situation as a coach because nothing he does right now will make this team good enough to compete with the best. The roster isn't good enough, injuries aside.

        He can't come out and say that, because that is having a go at his bosses. So he is wedged. What did BA do? He built a siege mentality with himself and the players - they didn't play for the Eels or the fans, they played for BA. And it worked...until the systems let him down to the point where even that strategy failed.

        Right now our roster is at the whim of true good luck (JAC getting fired) and true bad luck (Lomax leaving for a fake pipedream). Unless we put better systems in place that won't change, and winning a premiership on luck alone turns it from 1 in 500 odds, to 1 in a billion. 
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          Nightmare Off-Season > The Captain May 3, 2026 at 11:35am

          

          This Cap, unfortunately, I think inevitable cracks are starting to show with JR.

          Ryles proved his potential as a coach at the end of last season.

          He transformed defence, effort areas, he had players playing above their pay grade, and for each other - the 'green shoots’ were evident from round 7/8, we could see the growth, the improvement, and so we took the losses, the disappointment, because there was a reason to believe in our path. 

           

          But, as mentioned during late last year, the spirit & grit will get you so far, but eventually, shaping up against superior ability catches up, especially when things start to work against you, belief can fade & quickly.

           

          We had an opportunity to strike off the back of 2025, and we blinked, again.

           

          I don’t know how much of our situation sits with Ryles, we can shift responsibility down multiple avenues and land on whatever name / names, but at the end of the day, we entered the 2026 season completely unprepared in the front row, outside backs, and with a huge gamble at 5/8th.

           

          The horrific injury toll has purely amplified this pre-existing issues, and there was never a way to hide from any of it.

           

          It is genuinely astounding that there were no shockwaves sent through R&R off the back of 2025 with this roster & its changes, it appears we believe there is nothing worth evolving here - which says it all.

           

          Even when all is working, there should be reviews, movement, innovation, as there is in training methods, analytics, recovery, sponsors, game-day experience etc.

           

          There are always ways to find another 1%, as Adam Druissi mentioned in the transformation of the Bulldogs. 

           

          We will all support regardless, and so may as well enjoy the good weeks that will undoubtedly come, but its very hard to believe in the path we have shifted onto now by choice - and maybe Ryles is starting to wonder also.

           

          Just opinion, hope to be wrong. 
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  BEM May 3, 2026 at 11:56am

  

  Blaming the ref is usually what a coach does when he has run out of ideas.

  I hope that's not the go here.