NRL pre-season pictures: Eels players ditch training field and pick up the tools on Parramatta job sites
Adopting the same pre-season approach as mentor Craig Bellamy, Jason Ryles has hit his Eels with a dose of reality by forcing them to swap the training field for job sites in Parramatta. See the latest pre-season pictures.
Parramatta recruit Josh Addo-Carr swapped his Eels kit for a Hi-Vis vest on Monday morning as Eels players ditched the training paddock for a dose of reality on job sites across western Sydney.
Addo-Carr’s second week as an Eel started with a 4am alarm clock ahead of a three-day stint working in a factory alongside youngsters Josh Lynn, Jordan Samrani and Brock Parker.
The teammates spent the day packing food hampers at Foodbank’s warehouse and distribution centre in Glendenning.
It is all part of a pre-season shake-up, revealed by this masthead, under new coach Jason Ryles, who wants to instil a club culture built on hard work and gratitude after the Eels missed the finals series for a second year running in 2024.
Players, in groups of four, will work in factories, as landscapers, teacher’s aides, kitchen hands and maintenance workers.
Star five-eighth Dylan Brown, on a deal believed to be worth $1 million a year, clocked in for his first day on the job as a maintenance worker at Parramatta’s Leagues Club.
He turned up to the Leagues Club carrying a white plastic bag, which teammate Joash Papalii could not help but joke was filled to the brim with Brown’s lunch for the day.
Others braved the November heat pushing around wheelbarrows and mowing lawns.
A sun smart Ryan Matterson, sporting an Eels bucket hat and sunglasses, swapped the Steeden for a shovel as he and rising rookie Richard Penisini, along with Haze Dunster, were sent to landscape at local park in Parramatta.
Unlike Brown, Matterson came well prepared with an Esky, a more traditional job-site lunch box.
Kelma Tuilagi and Bailey Simonsson also spent the day outdoors and getting their hands dirty as the duo got stuck into some gardening, mowing lawns and trimming hedges.
The working class dose of reality is a non-negotiable rite of passage under Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy and Ryles has adopted the same approach to pre-season as his former club.
Ryles is not only hoping to hammer home a message built on work ethic but for players to get a taste of what working life is like in the community they represent.
“It’s more about connection with our community,” Ryles said.
“It also gives us a bit of perspective on how lucky we are to do what we do and call it a job. We’ll do an open training session as well at a local ground in Fairfield to maintain and grow that connection with our community, fans and sponsors.”
Australian Test representatives Mitchell Moses and Zac Lomax, along with former Penrith fullback Isaiah Iongi, have not yet returned to pre-season and did not take part in the three-day exercise.
The trio will not officially report to Parramatta HQ at Kellyville until late December.
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