* 6 man bench will be implemented from R1 2026
* Any of the 6 players can play at anytime.
* maximum 8 interchanges
* Although any of the 6 can.be called upon, only 4 of the 6 will play unless there's hia issues.
I think this will advantage a club like Parramatta as we have good depth especially in the forwards.
The bench will cover for injuries, and teams will now carry outside backs on the bench. The times where teams would have to throw a second rower in the centres will be history,
The concern will.be how much.game time will some players receive. Players like Joash Papalii may not get much game time in reserve grade as he may now become a specialist bench player who can play multiple positions.
My bench would be
14. Walker
15 Moretti
16 Tuivaiti
17. Da Silva
18. Joash
19. Russell
Replies
Also suits our forwards who can play longer minutes. Hopgood JDB Paulo Williams can all play heavy middle minutes. Ryles building his pack with that in mind
Most likely bench for Eels has been TDS. Walker, a 2nd rower and a prop.
Now Papalii and an outside back/utility like Samrani might be 18 & 19?
Yeah it will vary, Joash would be 18 most of the time and likes of Simonsson at 19 or Samrani or unless we have one Hooker might name another as 19 with 4 forwards and Joash.
I just wonder how it works with the likes of Joash every week, he will miss some NSW Cup game time you would think. Is that key? Plus if we decide to play him in Cup for some minutes but that will be the week we need him most.
NRL
NSW Cup
In NSW Cup I would refrain from putting promising players like Lokeni and Funa-iuta if they will only be 18/19th man. So they can just play JF.
This is the thing EA, bit awkward if Ryles says to say Funa-Iuta "Hey mate, you might be making your debut this week" haha. Are we all assuming that the norm is 14-17 are the main players and 18-19 are emergencies or tactical?
Like the 17th player usually gets limited minutes anyway, so maybe Joash hanging there and adding speed around the middle of a tired defence could really work in our favour and for a game Ryles may sit Guymer or Tuivaiti and they back-up in Cup if they play the next day or two.
Haha. Got to tell players familys to keep attending games till they are actually needed off the bench lol. Plus jersey presentation how do you plan that lol? Cause their eels number may not be right by the time they make theri actual debut lol.
I think our forwards depth is so great that we will have the opportunity to rotate our forwards between NSW Cup and NRL extended bench without much drop of in performances. Like right now, it is fair to say Doorey, Tuivita & Guymer deserve to be on the NRL bench not NSW Cup like I have listed them.
However, I feel if we want give someone like Papalii or Russel game time in nsw cup, the players we would put on the extended bench to replace would cause a drop in performance if they were required to come on the field. A lot will depend how many times we have NSW cup games after the NRL game.
It is a very interesting balance to get right between rotating squad (giving players gametime) and not hindering development. I got no idea what the correct answer is.
You state you'd put Papalii at 6 in Cup if he can back up (which I am neither for or against) but how will Talatiani develop into our 6 if he isn't playing there?
Surely the club has to play him at 6 in cup on a regular basis to gauge how he fits in from 2027 on.
If Papalii returns to cup, I would move Lorenzo to 14 in cup. However, I assume most games Lorenzo would start at 6 because Papalii will be on the NRL extended bench and therefore unable to feature in cup.