Rumours and Stuff

[Poupou Escobar]

I think the sauces speaking to you have been on the sauce. We play less structured now than we did the whole BA era . Forwards all use the ball and the halves are encouraged to play eyes up. The only thing we don’t do are stupid offloads in our own 20.

We definitely play more structured now. Maybe you have a different definition of structure, where you think it means more boring. Structure just means sets of six are predetermined, with less room for ad lib play (not zero, just less), because ad lib play can move the ball across the field and ruin any set up for a planned move.

We have become a better defensive team, but we score fewer points than we did with less structure.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Agree on the less structured part. I’d be surprised if it was recorded but early spreads in our own 20 seemed more common (could be my imagination).

That's a sign of structure. You can't shift the ball if merkins aren't in position.

We certainly seemed less predictable than under BA.

Opposition teams watch a lot of video, so they will be aware of our structure, even if us fans are not. But knowing what's coming doesn't mean you can stop it.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Again it’s possible we have lots of cap space for remaining spots (see recently failed bids)

Don't forget Koloamatangi was for 2027, not '26.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Will he invite all the young fellas to a BBQ so he can lay down his expectations?

Maybe we only need him to set an example on the training paddock and the footy field, not in his backyard.

 

[LyonHeart]

On Talagi, we could have rolled out Sydney Sweeney and promised a daily motorboat, the reality is we didn’t have a spot at 5/8 to offer him.

we lost Talagi and Brown due to PO's in their contract. Whoever signed off on these contracts should be sacked immediately

 

[Grimmace]

We definitely play more structured now. Maybe you have a different definition of structure, where you think it means more boring. Structure just means sets of six are predetermined, with less room for ad lib play (not zero, just less), because ad lib play can move the ball across the field and ruin any set up for a planned move.

We have become a better defensive team, but we score fewer points than we did with less structure

Completely disagree . We play with more organisation / people knowing their roles though Ryles himself has been quoted as saying he wants to score more adlib try’s and wants Moses to be less concerned with what happens on 4th tackle.
We had a lot of offloads under BA but also a lot of 5 tackles and kick long to the same corner.

 

[Timana]

I recon doorey has a bit of fui in him especially the acceleration

 

[chiefy1]

we lost Talagi and Brown due to PO's in their contract. Whoever signed off on these contracts should be sacked immediately

Talagi was behind Brown at 5/8 and had a clear opportunity at Penrith.

 

[hineyrulz]

Talagi was behind Brown at 5/8 and had a clear opportunity at Penrith.

It didn’t help he’d been in our system for 5 years and the club and coach had no idea on his best position.

 

[Glenneel]

Hahahaha sorry I had a very, very rare sleep in. Same person from inside the club shared this as things I have shared previously.

I’ll do my best to remember as I had a thousand beers yesterday. Should have not put my Ring cameras on mute lol.

Feedback I got was a lot of frustration between the playing group and Jim CEO, Mon, Ben Rogers is it?, and some other guy from R&R.

Matto has openly told pretty much anyone that he is “collecting his paycheque”. He is not necessarily seen as disliked as he gives the impression of caring more about family and his devotion to religion. Massively upsetting to hear we waste a top 30 spot in him though.

Mitch Moses is intense, like really intense internally. Was told he was picked because he is our best player, not because he is our best leader. In fact, far from it.

Moses is apparently VERY pissed off with the club atm. We have got “a shitload of cap space” but I was told we haven’t even come close to landing one. The only thing of note we’ve really landed was Pezet who is a rookie and gone after his learning year with the club.

An example I was told was when Talagi was being courted to stay, we rolled out Steve Ella. The comment was no disrespect to Steve Ella, but Talagi didn’t even know who he was, let alone admired him. Penrith rolled out Nathan Cleary and it was a no contest!

We have this new super impressive training facility and wonderful setup, loads of cap, great brand but I was told “no one wants to come to Parramatta”.

The thought from the playing group is one of frustration and anger around the squad and depth. There have been times when they finish training and all put their hands in and say “1,2,3 f**k Jim!”. I can only assume this is not around JR but I didn’t ask.

Ryles plays an extremely structured footy and outgoing players have openly criticised the lack of “off the cuff” footy with offloads. Dylan Brown despite getting a massive offer was not enjoying the style of football much. Carty has been very open with his criticism of the teams style. My comments to this was the older style of footy won us nothing and we agreed.

There is a school of thought we are effectively playing a very Melbourne style without the cattle to make it effective. I’m told that’s the thought from Moses and a couple senior players.

I am not implying they are unhappy under Ryles, that’s not was not what was said to me I want to be clear on that. In fact the feedback was the “footy culture” seems really good. But there is significant disharmony between the playing group and Jim and Co.

Players are concerned about the impression people aren’t lining up to knock on our door. None of the Melbourne players had any interest in us with the Lomax swap.

This could absolutely be Juniors last season, but he may go another one. Apparently BA is still a “fatherly figure” to Junior and they talk every day. There is a thought BA will take him wherever he is in an immediate coaching capacity. I believe this will be a huge opportunity missed if it happens.

I was told Gutho absolutely hates Parra now. He has told others he will not have anything to do with the club post football which although I’m not a huge fan of him personally he was our best player for a very long time. He is far from a leader though but I had suspected that. There is a school of thought he should have been playing centre and at the same time been able to turbocharge Ionghi’s development whilst finishing as a Parra legend, that’s all gone now.

The comments to me are that we don’t really have any legends of the club that are relevant. We have Cayliss, Burt, etc but they are hardly considered legends of the game broadly speaking and even Hindy never won a competition. We just don’t have the strategy or firepower.

I’m sure there is more stuff I’ll remember but wanted to share. I’ve tried to seperate my opinions for another post and keep this as close to how it was said to me directly.

Hope you guys bloody appreciate this effort during my headache lol.

Always good to hear from sources within the club. Many thanks Stevie. Thought the team played an attractive brand of football with plenty of offloading especially towards the end of the season in reference to one of your points. What do other fans think?

Maybe the lack of getting players here is more to do then just Jim and co. Although past history suggests they could be part of the problem but not all of it. Our lack of being one of the top performing teams would play a part, maybe a big part. If we're successful recruitment will follow and that's up to Ryles now to make us successful and consistent.

Currently this means we have to recruit astutely in the juniors and train them well to promote to higher grades. Always good that the millions we put into juniors amounts to something tangible. That'll cover lack of recruits plus make most fans happy that we're a development club. Always good to see a junior progress to NRL especially if with our club! There appears to be a heap of good players coming thru HM and Ball and a few in higher grades and I guess we have to be patient for them to filter thru.

 

[Glenneel]

That’s what I thought when Stevie said Moses was intense. I reckon he’s the minimum standard of what we want players to be. Sure they should still be professional and some of that intensity may be internalised in some but f**k me it’s not under 9 Div 5, they don’t give participation trophies and every player should be pissed when they play bad. I just got out of playing some wheelchair basketball at OPT against some numpty kids and even I was annoyed at myself for missing a couple of intercepts

Now that's intense, trying to shit on all the disabled young kids. Go 85!!!

 

[Joshuatheeel]

The part around players thinking Ryles style is to "structured" is interesting.

It's the opposite to what Ryles said in the John's interview of how he wants us to play / develop more this year.

He wants us to "evolve" our middle third of the field with playing off our 9 more (which is less structured footy) and score more ad lib tries rather then "manufacture everything"

around 20 mins in:

 

[Glenneel]

And Gutho should’ve learned how to conduct himself. Sounds very similar to Brad Arthur since he left, no wonder they bummed each other. Thank f**k they have both gone. They will be remembered for winning nothing.

I rate Luke Burt higher without hesitation — he gave more, took less, and didn’t turn every contract into a public soap opera. You spent your career whining, milking the system, and confusing noise for leadership.

No legacy. No silverware. Good riddance.

Yes the Gutho thing is a little perplexing. He wasn't pushed out the door, he was offered a new position, and even he must realise he is falling below most fullbacks now. He took the option to extend his career with another club and that is on him. Honestly some of these footballers are just whingers and have an inflated sense of worth! Obviously he is one of them!

 

[85 Baby]

Now that's intense, trying to shit on all the disabled young kids. Go 85!!!

They weren’t disabled (at least not visibly so) and to be fair I was throwing some sweet dimes to the kids on my team, which didn’t annoy when as much they missed open shots because I knew my pass was money

 

[Poupou Escobar]

we lost Talagi and Brown due to PO's in their contract. Whoever signed off on these contracts should be sacked immediately

No we lost them because they were off contract. The fact they didn't activate the POs has nothing to do with it. POs are a safety net, in case the player gets no other offers, not because he wants extra years on unders.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Completely disagree . We play with more organisation / people knowing their roles though Ryles himself has been quoted as saying he wants to score more adlib try’s and wants Moses to be less concerned with what happens on 4th tackle.

That's why he brought in a 6 with a kicking game. Moses is also a much better runner than Pezet. With Drown gone, Moses will need to run more on the fourth.

We had a lot of offloads under BA but also a lot of 5 tackles and kick long to the same corner.

Every team wants to complete its sets, including us.

 

[85 Baby]

Playing “unstructured” reminds me of that Kenny Rogers song about the hobo who steals Kenny’s booze and then dies on a train

 

[Timana]

Always good to hear from sources within the club. Many thanks Stevie. Thought the team played an attractive brand of football with plenty of offloading especially towards the end of the season in reference to one of your points. What do other fans think?

Maybe the lack of getting players here is more to do then just Jim and co. Although past history suggests they could be part of the problem but not all of it. Our lack of being one of the top performing teams would play a part, maybe a big part. If we're successful recruitment will follow and that's up to Ryles now to make us successful and consistent.

Currently this means we have to recruit astutely in the juniors and train them well to promote to higher grades. Always good that the millions we put into juniors amounts to something tangible. That'll cover lack of recruits plus make most fans happy that we're a development club. Always good to see a junior progress to NRL especially if with our club! There appears to be a heap of good players coming thru HM and Ball and a few in higher grades and I guess we have to be patient for them to filter thru.

I don't think it was really offloading but passing. There was nearly no silly out the back except from lomax.

The structure i think was that you can't throw those out the back. Hence why you didn't see jnr, hoppa pop them out. There were controlled offloads but not willy nilly ones

 

[Poupou Escobar]

It didn’t help he’d been in our system for 5 years and the club and coach had no idea on his best position.

All that matters is what he thought his best position was, and we didn't have a vacancy there.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

The part around players thinking Ryles style is to "structured" is interesting.

It's the opposite to what Ryles said in the John's interview of how he wants us to play / develop more this year.

He wants us to "evolve" our middle third of the field with playing off our 9 more (which is less structured footy) and score more ad lib tries rather then "manufacture everything"

around 20 mins in:

We were very structured last year, and Ryles obviously wants more ad lib. Maybe because the players want more of it too?