The Baseline: They’re not great yet, but calling Ryles’ Eels rebuild ‘a lie’ is cooked

I was having my coffee this morning when I saw an NRL article on Jason Ryles and the work he’s doing to turn the Parramatta Eels around after some serious down years for the Western Sydney club.

Needless to say, the take that popped out at me was far from what I expected.

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Here’s the headline: “Why Parramatta Eels so-called revival under Jason Ryles is a lie.” And the meat: Dean “Bulldog” Ritchie doesn’t think Parramatta should be getting any plaudits for winning a third of their games this year.

(Just to check the till, that number’s spot on; the Eels are 7–14 heading into the last few weeks.)

Now, all love to Bulldog Ritchie, but this is one of the more cooked takes we’ll see in the NRL world for some months.

I appreciate there are papers to sell, but it doesn’t need to be by punching down on rebuilding NRL clubs – especially not when it’s one of the teams that’s actually putting together a pretty nice little return. (Not exactly the easiest thing for me to admit, considering I’ll happily put the Parramatta Eels in the ‘not so loved’ basket in my household.)

Right at the core of this argument – that all the recent positive buzz is unbalanced compared to how much Parramatta have actually been winning through the 2025 season – there’s a big, gaping problem that pops up.

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That is, that Mitchell Moses, the team’s star halfback, has been out most of the year.

The search function tells me Ritchie does touch on Moses’ absence once, pointing out that he’s been out basically as many games as he was last year. That comes 23 paragraphs down in the Tele column and doesn’t come packaged with a reminder that the Eels had a similarly torrid time without Moses and finished even worse with a 7–17 record by season’s end.

But why is the fact that the team’s built-around general has been sidelined so unimportant in the whole argument? I’d say it plays a huge part in why the team has been struggling to win football games. Take Nathan Cleary out of the Panthers side and they lose loads more – just look at the start of this season. The Storm look a step down without Jahrome Hughes or Cameron Munster to guide them around. Heck, the Bulldogs have fallen apart since Gus Gould and Cameron Ciraldo fiddled with their halves pairings.

Ritchie calls for an Eels team under Ryles to “start seeing cold, hard results” and a finals berth, but chooses to ignore the fact the team is coming together nicely. Isaiah Iongi has looked great in spurts (like any youngster would) while Joash Papalii and Ryley Smith are getting good game time.

And Tallyn Da Silva has been rocks and diamonds, but can only get better as he plays more NRL matches.

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So what’s the go here – are teams just not allowed to go through rebuild periods anymore? The Eels have pledged themselves towards turning things around, signing youngsters, shipping off Dylan Brown to the Knights, have sunk time into developing pathways, and have constructed a new $70 million Centre of Excellence to help the team.

And Ryles has been hard at work chopping and changing players, too. Take a look at this:

• In: Zac Lomax, Josh Addo-Carr, Tallyn Da Silva, Dylan Walker, Isaiah Iongi, Joash Papalii, Kitione Kautoga, Jordan Samrani, Dean Hawkins, Ronald Volkman, Jack Williams.
• Out: Dylan Brown, Reagan Campbell-Gillard, Bryce Cartwright, Clint Gutherson, Shaun Lane, Joe Ofahengaue, Maika Sivo.

That’s a hefty list of changing faces, all of which will take time to settle.

Surely if we’re swinging at teams that are struggling to rebuild, we aim the punches at a Gold Coast Titans, a Manly Sea Eagles, or a Newcastle Knights, who seem to be going backwards rather than working towards new eras.

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I’d be putting the Eels in the same basket as the St George Illawarra Dragons or Wests Tigers, who seem to be marching on the right path after some long years in the barren wastelands at the bottom of the NRL standings. Time will tell, but they’re seemingly on the mend.

Ryles is already working on 2026 and continues to fiddle with the roster, too, so there’s plenty of hope around the place. The Tele column says Eels fans will “hate this take,” but I’d reckon they might just be befuddled.

All in all, very odd to slash the Eels specifically – they’ll come good in the 2020s, I’m sure.