National Promotion/Relegation Competition

So thought I'd chuck this one up for orf-season discussion.

There's been a lot of talk about ways to expand the competition and I'm surprise that the idea of relegation/promotion has never come up. I think if you combined that with a promotion/releg

Long-serving player allowance

One interesting nugget is that despite the fact that the long-serving player allowance has been reduced to just six years (and includes NYC and NSW Cup time) by my reckoning we've only got three players who would be eligible for part of that $250k th

Fui to join English second-div team Leigh?

This from The Mole:

http://rugbyleagueweek.com.au/moles-midweek-scoops-4/

I’M told English outfit Leigh have ordered a batch of FAKE WIGS in anticipation for Fuifui Moimoi’s arrival! It seems the Eels cult hero is already proving a crowd-pleaser wi

Nearly 10k members already

Nice to see Parramatta quickly closing in on 10k members already for 2015.

Was also nice to just have my seats renewed automatically via the Eel for Life membership program and I'm sure that was behind the massive bump in numbers in the past week. Wa

Norman as primary first-receiver

In the Sandow post being discussed elsewhere, I thought this was a very pertinent quote from Sandow:

"At the time, I was killing it at Souths. I thought I was worth that at the time. But then I came and I didn't play too well because what I was doing

Hypothetical: Matterson becomes a star

Ryan Matterson has all the skills to be a quality five-eighth. Coming off a great year in NYC, he'll have the size to transition to NRL and let's assume he does that - in fact, let's assume he storms through and stamps himself the best young five-eig

Eels Roster Analysis

Over the past couple of weeks, there’s been considerable movement in Parramatta’s roster and despite losing Jarryd Hayne, the club’s 2015

Fullback: Will Hopoate will return to his favoured position in 2015 and I believe that he’s going to be a grea

Do we keep players for depth?

I blogged a week or so that Parramatta would definitely free-up cap before the start of next season and the one I expected to head out, Lee Mossop, has now been confirmed as gone.

The two other players who look to have limited opportunities at the cl

Election ballot this afternoon

UPDATE: At around 3pm today, I was informed that the election ballot was postponed pending a challenge to the accuracy of PDRL memberships. I've posted more in the comments below.

Just to give everyone a heads-up that the PDRL board election ballot

Watmough signing all about mentality

Anthony Watmough is a bloody good footballer. You don't rack up 14 NSW appearances and 16 Test jumpers without being able to play footy.

But I have no doubt Watmough is at Parramatta because of what he will bring to the club in terms of mentality. An

DCE back in the frame?

With news that a change in ownership at Manly could threaten the Watmough deal, there's another angle - and that's the fact that it could bring DCE back onto the radar.

The DCE to Parramatta meme was pretty much silenced with Watmough being linked t

Thoughts on Kyle Stanley?

Wondering what people's thoughts might be on making a play for Kyle Stanley? I'll certainly be interested in seeing how he goes playing in the halves for Samoa in the Four Nations.

He's off-contract and I thought that given we'll have a bit of money

Brett Stewart vs Will Hopoate

I'm pretty confident one of two things will happen in regards to our fullback role.

Either Will Hopoate goes back there or Brett Stewart is given a release and joins us.

Now, let's assume for a second that Stewart wants to leave Manly and that Manly

ZDC leading the Haka

How awesome is this Haka in the Junior test, with ZDC leading the Kiwi boys at the start.

Harden the %$%# up

For many years I've been I've been writing about Parra's soft underbelly. It's something that I believe Brad Arthur is systematically addressing and I see great strides in terns of the whole club getting an attitude adjustment surrounding developing

If Hayne returns will he return as fullback?

Or Five-Eighth? Or even centre?

Jarryd has always said that he saw himself moving into the six role at some point in his career. Considering he wouldn't be coming back until he was 28/29, you'd think maybe he might be on the downhill slide in terms o

Hopoate's time to return to his natural position

It's worth noting that before Will Hopoate went away on his mission he was easily the most promising young fullback in the game.

While he made a name for himself playing wing for NSW, his best games for Manly was as a fullback.

In the handful of game

All I want now is Kieran Foran

I've said this any number of times of this site and in conversations when asked the question: "If you could choose one player in the NRl who would it be".

I've said Kieran Foran every single time.

Now, my desire to get Foran to this club just intensi

What the other Hindy is up to these days

Corey Norman as middle playmaker

While opinions are pretty divided on Corey Norman, I wonder if he isn't perfectly suited to playing that middle playmaker role that Joseph Paulo has occupied if we continue to use that structure.

Those who are prepared to give Norman a pass-mark for