I’m done pretending this is just a bad game. This is who we truly are — and it’s been the same story for years.
Every season repeats the same cycle. We beat average teams, everyone says “we’re so close,” and then when it counts, we get exposed by the top sides. Nothing changes. Absolutely nothing.
This isn’t about Penrith — they’re doing what elite teams do. It’s about Parramatta being stuck in mediocrity and calling it progress.
How much longer are we going to accept this?
We’ve had the same management, the same approach, the same excuses for over a decade. “We’re building,” “we’re improving,” “we’re close” — we’ve heard it all before. At some point, it just rings hollow.
Where is the accountability?
From the outside, it looks like there isn’t any. No urgency. No real pressure. Just the same people making the same decisions and expecting different results.
Let’s be honest — we’re not a serious premiership threat. We’re a team that needs everything to go perfectly just to compete. The moment momentum shifts, we crumble. That’s not bad luck — that’s poor structure.
Good teams don’t rely on emotion. Great teams operate with systems. We lack both when it matters most.
Fans keep turning up, keep believing, keep waiting — but for what? More of the same?
I’ll always support the club. But I won’t keep buying into the myth that we’re “almost there.”
We’re not.
And until real, fundamental change happens — not just small tweaks — we’ll keep witnessing the same story year after year.
Replies
I think just defensively we need to aim up. Yes we also need some better players in the squad but we have been very poor defensively to start the season. If we can tighten up the defence the wins will come.
hear hear, totally agree, we just do not have the talent or club backing R&R. Every year I cannot wait to the season start. Then we get flogged by Storm. At the moment we are not on the same league as the elite (somewhat protected) teams and never will be.
Christ we lose to best team in the comp who is annihilating everybody and yet that's the catalyst to this realisation? We saw us against Saints and we were same there.
It's been different for me since the club botched the BA sacking. We wasted an entire season when with just an ounce of forethought BA would have been gone at the end of 2023 and Ryles appointed before 24 pre-season. But instead we wasted a season under Barrett and got to enjoy a spoon play-off.
In tandem with that shitshow has been a never ending amateur display of recruitment and retention. Rep players leaving and replaced by has-beens or never beens. Contracts mismanaged with options all over the place.
And meanwhile the members and fans are told to be patient. Our attendance and our dollars taken for granted. It gets to a point where it becomes simply too depressing to keep being so engaged each week. You just know you're going to get crushed.
We don't have the correct people in our organisation to manage our R&R program. And from the Chairman down they seem to be totally ok with that.
A lot of doom and gloom for a 2-2 playing against 3 of the Premiership favorites.
We have points in us. When can pull tries out of our arse. We have talented players coming through who are a season out of being solid NRL players. If we tighten up our middle defence, we can contend for the top 8.
We've lost some cattle but we need to win at least 2 of our next 4. Manly and Titans are both doeable. We are better than them. I think we can pip one of either Dogs or Tigers.
Exactly this! The team still has A LOT of work to do, especially with defense, but no one in their right mind would have expected us to go anything but 0-3 against the broncos, storm and panthers (top 3 teams of last year).
Seems like too many unicorns saw our full strength team pump the preseason reserve grade teams and thought we were going to win it this year. Now they're facing reality. 🤣
Yep good way of looking at it in that our attack matches everybody.
Quick stat on Easter Monday games. Every odd year we win, every even year Tigers win. Our record at CommBank with Easter Monday 1-2. Win loss win loss is how it goes. We won last year.
I agree with the sentiment, but will say it was kinda the other way round under BA, we'd beat Melbourne and penrith during some regular season games and lose to the shit teams.
Where the club management is failing is engagement with the Desi business community, we need that cricket money to come our way.
Ffs.. There's a lack of awareness about this post that is just as frustrating as the loss. Panthers are on another level, most of us were all expecting that loss. We are building and have some work ahead of us. You don't win Premierships in March or April, just chill.
We've played the best 3 teams in the comp and we're still 2/4, the next couple of weeks will be a better indicator of where we sit with the rest of the comp.
Had this score been v Wests or Gold Coast or Manly, then ok that's fair.
But 3 of the 4 preliminary finalists of last year in 4 weeks.
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