The deal is done. At first glance, it seems to be a bad idea. Real bad. Weird too. Like we’ve betrayed the Future Is Now mantra and sold out the Parra Badge for a short-term fling with the future Broncos bride walking down the aisle in 2027. How could we help the Broncos? Like they need our help. It almost feels like we’ve been, well, done over. Cuckolded. But then I stopped to think. To consider the idea further. It made sense. Still, the continued fan backlash intrigued me. Some supporters have gone personal, calling Ryles a liar or a con man of sorts. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised? Social media mob mentality, mixed with forty years of galvanised cynicism with that old loser-victim complex forty-year-title-drought albatross we wear, created the perfect storm. I’ve worn the cynic badge plenty of times. We all have. And it usually ends in muddied swamp lands if not gutter trash. Even TCT and 1EE were Siamese Twins for once: united in a majority vote against the idea.
But that’s only because it hangs on three naughty assumptions.
One, Papali’i is the future, right now.
Two, New faces on short-term deals can’t fight for the badge; sending mixed messages that might compromise culture.
Three, Ryles is the sort of coach who rigidly sticks to treasured fan ideologies set in stone over winning.
The Future is Now, It really Is
Let’s start with Papali’i. He has shown passion and defensive application, no doubt, but he’s still only played four NRL games at six. That’s not exactly “case closed.” If he goes down, or form drops, who’s next? Lorenzo isn’t ready. What happens if Moses goes down? Hawkins did not leave because of Pezet. He left because his path was blocked by Moses, Papali’i, Lorenzo and Lincoln (the future), well before Pezet came into the equation. So Pezet gives us something the spreadsheet currently doesn’t: depth and competition. That aids winning possibilities, not undermines them.
Fighting for The Badge
And this old chestnut about “outsiders not fighting for the badge”? It’s fiction. Passion isn’t linked to postcode or contract tenure. Matto’s long-term. How is that working out? Lane had two years left on his contract before he realised he was burnt out. Meanwhile, the new kids on the block either juniors or developed elsewhere — Iongi, Lomax, Walker, Williams, Fox, Kautoga, Papali’i, Samrani, TDS, Ryley — breathed new life into the joint. Moses, our most important players, was developed at first grade by the Tigers. If we’re only signing players we developed, or naive enough to believe some of our juniors won't leave, we’re on a one-way trip to Spoonsville. Permanently. Players come and go. Ryles’ job isn’t to run a finishing school. It’s to build a squad that performs.
Ryles clearly rates Pezet’s character and competitiveness, saying he "gravitated" towards him, and that matters more than where he did his juniors or where he is going next.
Competition in Pathways
Which brings me to “competition”. Did anyone have an issue when Hawkins was pushing Papali’i for the six? No. Papali’i won that battle. So why the meltdown now that Pezet’s arrived to do the same? That’s sport. It’ll test Papali’i. Maybe sharpen him. Competitive people get jealous. They respond. If you’ve ever played chess, you’ll know you only get better by playing stronger opponents. Papali’i might just pick up a few tricks from Pezet and become our permanent six solution, which is still up for grabs.
Cuckolded
Now, about this so-called "we lost the deal" to the Broncos. The cuckold theory. If it were judged purely on optics, sure, it holds. But Reality Check: we couldn’t offer Pezet the long-term future he wanted.
Pezet wants seven. Ryles knew it. The Club knew it. He wasn’t going to wait four years behind Moses, or Hughes at Melbourne for that matter. It’s why he had that PO get-out clause at the Storm in the first place. What does that tell us about those yelling “good clubs” like the Storm, not losing promising juniors and players through POs or the front office? Ponisini is highly respected.
Long-term vs Short-term: which camp?
As for Ryles, I used to wonder which camp he’d fall into when backed into a corner: the culture-first, long-term ideology guy, or the winning pragmatist?
Turns out he’s gone the way that keeps head coaches as in the game: the winning way. Sure, he wants to rebuild the Parra culture with Parra people who fight for the badge. But he's also got to build a squad, right now, that has the most potential to win right now. And sure, there are a few holes to sort out, like the long-term six.
And honestly? Thank God. Ideologues don’t last in first grade. He will be judged on wins, not how the pathways might look in ten years or how Pezet might be temporarily on the nose for some. We have others working full-time on that. He can’t juggle both simultaneously nor please everyone. Not really. If the first-grade team wins a spoon next two years? Bennett said it best in the documentary The Rise of the Dolphins: “I’m in the performance business.”
So no, signing Pezet isn’t a betrayal. Sure, Pezet could flop and be the next Brody Croft and struggle. Time will tell. But either way, it’s a reminder that the badge is earned, not inherited. Depth isn’t betrayal. It’s survival of the fittest. Adapting. And if a few temporary outsiders help us climb further, I’m all for it.
Fox: Ryles on Pezet: A Win-Win All Round
Who could forget the start of the season when we lost five on the trot? Ryles was criticised and people questioned his 'rebuild' for going too far, and for letting go of Gutho, RCG, and what was happening with the likes of Matto and Carty.
Optical illusions: Which square is darker, one or two? If you're "sure" it's one, you're not alone. That's what I thought when I first looked at it. But reality, the truth, tells a different story.
Replies
Nice article HoE!
At the end of the day, the jury is still out on Ryles but I have really loved what I've seen so far from him (our body composition changes, playing style changes, defensive changes, and ultimately the results on field). So until the data shows us something definitive I'm going to assume that JR absolutely knows what he's doing and we will all come to understand the genius when we're in endgame and it's finally obvious to all of us.
Many of us, myself included, were calling for a more innovative and modern approach to the game both on and off the field. Well, we're definitely getting what we asked for.
For us to be competitive long term we need as much talent density in our squad as possible - ideally no one feels too safe in the squad because they all have multiple others breathing down their neck in reserves and the other grades. So let's roll with the punches and see where this Ryles train takes us. I'm down for the experiment!
Let's roll the dice!
Cap, great points.
As usual, you lead the charge with class: clear-minded, well-articulated intelligence and supported reasoning.
The scene is set for an intriguing 2026 with plenty of questions.
What gives me hope, cautious optimism really, despite my natural cynicism for the road ahead, is the club at the pointy end up top are authentically aligned in a way I haven't seen for many years. In a way I never saw in the BA era for whatever moot reasons.
We aren't blessed with sugar daddies to buy us wins, and the big fish to make it easier, and we haven't played finals since 2022. So, it's going to have to be through fighting, scraping, adapting, opportunism (e.g. Walker, Fox, Pezet), hard yakka, and sometimes tough decisions that won't please everyone. They need to keep going and be driven to get this club to the top, regardless of noise or the past.
Making the finals next year is an important step in my mind if we are serious about showing continuous improvement with the pressure valves rising.
PS: If Super ever gets those podcasts up and running, with interviewees, you need to be on there when you can.
Great read and some real perspective. Love the signing and hopefully the way you've explain it, helps others to reconsider their first feelings of disgust or similar.
With wins early next year and a genuine fight out for positions will probably quell the mob. Losses and a favouritism to a "fly in player"may see Ryles lose the fans.
Im thinking the first option. Im a Pezet fan.
Yeah good article HOE, good read and agree with Cap to a degree. Yes Ryles has changed our dynamics, but all he has done is put the storms structures in that he learnt off Ballemy with a touch of attack that he learnt off Robson (roosters coach) while he was there.
I just read that Ryles has just come back from a fact finding trip to the UK, with Sarantinos, MON and the new Chairman looking at the setups of a few EPL clubs and high end rugby clubs over there. Not having a dig at Arthur, this is a genuine question, did Arthur ever do the same? I don't recall ever reading that he did.
Yes, Arthur did it a couple of times. Once to the US with the Seahawks and I believe he went to England as well.
Fair enough then.
One thing I want to mention and highlight, is that Ryles and other members of the club have mentioned on multiple occasions the use of bridging players.
De Belin is one example, now Pezet is another. They're both seen has filling a specific role for a season (maybe 2 in JDB's case) to allow for either juniors to come through or to recruit a full time replacement.
Melbourne, for 2 decades, have shown how to bring guys seamlessly into first grade. Harry Grant is a perfect example. Most watchers would have said he was first grade ready in 2018. He made his debut that year. But he spent the rest of that year and 2019 in reserve grade. Then in 2020 he was loaned to the Tigers and in 2021 he was the first string hooker and has barely missed a beat. Now, of course it's easier to do that when you have Cam Smith as your hooker. But it's the same process they have used for many players.
We've seen it ourselves with Iongi looking NRL ready from the moment he took the field for us. Ryley Smith too. You take guys with 30, 40, 50, 60 reserve grade matches and then promote them to the NRL and they're much better prepared for the weekly grind than a teenager just thrust into the fray as soon as possible.
And that's what I see Ryles doing with Pezet. We have Lorenzo and Fletcher but I doubt we want them anywhere near regular NRL football next year. Pezet for a year gives us a chance to give Lorenzo a big crack in the lower grades while Joash also gets development time. By the end of 2026 either reserve grade produces us a 5/8, or we know we're hitting the market and as some have already mentioned, the 2026/27 player market is looking a lot more open than the current market.
Agreed Super, and the Reserve grade team needs to be the the place to generate NRL ready players. Too often in the past this team has been filled with older players in poor form. They don't offer much for the development of younger players. R&R just needs to get smarter with offloading players before they lose it completely and are no longer NRL standard players.
Agree totally on this Finny, your second grade team needs to be top 2 to justify a premiership coming!
We were heading there this year for a while but the depth after injury stuffed us.
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