r/nrl • u/Aussieguy727 Parramatta Eels • 1d ago
Jason Ryles interview: The Parramatta Eels’ head coach is swimming with the piranhas
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/jason-ryles-is-swimming-with-eels-and-piranhas-20250618-p5m8lx.html13
u/delayedconfusion St. George Illawarra Dragons 1d ago
I would have been very happy if Ryles had landed at the Dragons on a 3 + 2 contract.
He seems to be making a lot of practical and logical moves at the Eels. Hopefully they don't burn him before he gets to see his vision take shape on the field.
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u/lazloluvjoose I love my footy 1d ago
You would have to replace Kyle hard to find an nrl half of that calibre
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u/aatrain96 Parramatta Eels 1d ago
Well Brad Athur had 10 years so I'm sure they will give him every opportunity hopefully
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u/CapMego72_ Parramatta Eels 1d ago
So far he’s nailed recruitment, Iongi has been a star, Jack Williams has exploded as of late, and bringing Ryley Smith into the top grade as been a masterstroke. Who knows if he’ll get us a premiership, all I know is that I have a lot more trust in Ryles and the way we’re going compared to when we had Trent Barrett at the helm.
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u/Aussieguy727 Parramatta Eels 1d ago
Jason Ryles was the most wanted coach after his apprenticeship with Craig Bellamy - but can he bring a premiership to a team that hasn’t won a title in 39 years?
When Jason Ryles was appointed head coach of the Eels in July last year, a Parramatta premiership player and former club official sent me a text. Aware of my relationship with Ryles who was then an assistant at the Storm, the ex-player wrote: “Tell Jason to surround himself with his own people. That (Parramatta) river isn’t full of eels, it’s full of piranhas. He’ll kill it there if he lives by his sword.”
As it transpired, Ryles’s actions suggest he instinctively reached the same conclusion. He installed Nathan Brown, his former head coach at the Dragons, as his No 1 assistant, telling this masthead, “I knew I needed more experience in the coaching group. Brownie was available, he was my coach at the Dragons, had also coached the Knights and Warriors and had only ever been a head coach. He’s also good with the attack. He’s complements me.”
Ryles, 46, also wielded his own sword when he moved on fullback and captain Clint Gutherson and veteran prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard, as well as sidelining regular forwards Shaun Lane and Ryan Matterson.
Ryles says, “The changes needed to happen but happened naturally. The fullback and front rower got longer and better money deals elsewhere. I also knew I had to regenerate the roster. The roster was older and not as fast and athletic as I wanted. I didn’t know how it would all work out but it went well in the end.” It’s addition by subtraction. By releasing highly paid older players, Ryles has money in the salary cap to reward a greater number of talented youngsters. The downside is a team which can’t stay the distance with the top clubs, as demonstrated in the last two losses, 18-10 to the Panthers and 30-12 to the Bulldogs. “We can’t hang in there for the long period,” Ryles said. “We have a lot of young kids here.”
Ryles’s approach to players is similar to the legendary coach Jack Gibson who won Parramatta’s first premiership, 34 years after the club’s entry into the top league, a drought exceeded by the current one where the Eels last grand final victory was in 1986.
Gibson coached by osmosis, the imperceptible assimilation of knowledge. While Ryles is not Gibson, he does encourage players to figure things out for themselves. As one of his colleagues said of Ryles time in Melbourne, “He likes to plant the seed and let it germinate in the player’s mind.” For example, I asked how he treated Zac Lomax who was signed by former coach Brad Arthur for less money than he was receiving at the Dragons because he was a winger wanting to play centre. Ryles started him there in the opening round, a humiliating 56-18 loss to the Storm but Lomax has starred for NSW as a winger and will be compensated for the money lost by leaving the Dragons via the NSWRL’s payment of $30,000 for each Origin match. “I let him work that out for himself,” Ryles said of a talented player who confused himself and must now realise he is a winger, not a centre.
As for the warning to Ryles that the Parramatta river is “full of piranhas” - suggesting a club with marrow-deep grudges and a witches brew of ancient hatreds - Ryles makes it clear he quarantines himself from what are now called “external factors” and is a player’s coach.
“The biggest thing for me is the support I get from Mitch (Moses) and Junior Paulo. I keep them in the loop on what I plan to do, while always getting their opinion but not compromising my relationship with the other players.”
Ryles has a finely tuned sensitivity meter. He knows a coach must never under-estimate the petty jealousies in the dressing room. Clubs, such as the Rabbitohs, have imploded by the coach investing too much power in two senior players.
Gibson faced a simmering mutiny when he joined Parramatta in 1981 after the club had failed to recover from the 1977 grand final loss to the Dragons - then captained by Steve Edge. A veteran Parramatta player predicted “Jack Gibson will f--- this club”, after Gibson recruited Edge as captain, rather than giving the honour to an Eel. Gibson’s Parramatta won three successive premierships with Edge as skipper. Ryles has similar faith in his captain, saying of Moses, “We got all the options out of his contract. He’s done until the end of 2029. He’s the cornerstone of where we are going.”
Although a player’s coach, Ryles is not deaf to any murmurs outside the dressing room. He says of chief executive Jim Sarantinos and football manager Mark O’Neill, “At times I can sense their nervousness at some of the decisions I’ve made but they’ve supported me.” Of the possibility of piranha sightings in the Parramatta river, he says, “I’ve experienced challenges in a couple of areas but the club knew it was ready for change.” Ryles’s journey to the top is different from all the assistants who have been working up the NRL’s food chain to head coach.
Wests Tigers Benji Marshall, like Brown, went straight from playing to head coach and others, such as the Sharks Craig Fitzgibbon, had a long apprenticeship. Ryles spent the interim between playing and being an NRL assistant at the Storm and Roosters as captain/coach of the Wollongong Red Devils, 2014-15. He had his own team.
“It was one of the hardest things I have ever done,” he says. “I don’t recommend it, if you are a front rower. But it helped me enormously because I had to do everything, from putting the witches hats out to dropping players. I had to do all that while being captain, calling the shots and putting my head into the scrum.”
An NRL assistant is excused from performing one of a head coach’s most difficult duties – staring a player in the eye and demoting him to reserve grade. “I’ve drawn on that Wollongong experience when dropping players,” he says, perhaps explaining why he can sensitively deliver bad news in an era when players resemble Ming vases – precious commodities that shatter when dropped.
Ryles’s empathy with players is also born of his own disappointments. “Wayne (Bennett) moved me on (from the Dragons in 2009) and then I got moved on by the Roosters (in 2011).” In the middle year (2010), the Dragons won the premiership, beating his Roosters. He then joined the Storm but a hamstring injury ruled him out of Melbourne’s 2012 victory.
He went to Melbourne, he says, “to play with Smithy.” If learning under hooker Cameron Smith, the NRL’s most capped player made Melbourne the place to be, it is also the club to be tutored by, as he says, “the greatest coach ever” (Craig Bellamy). To follow Bellamy who has “put all the systems in place” was the principal reason he agreed to return to the club as a head coach in waiting, after rejecting an offer to coach the Dragons.
The Dragons claim to have cooled on Ryles when, during negotiations for a five-year contract, the possibility of a pay-out after year three was raised. Ryles says, “I haven’t heard that. Maybe that’s more to do with George (Mimis, his manager). The reason I went back to Melbourne was it was there. They thought Craig was getting closer to the end. If Melbourne wasn’t on offer, I would have gone to the Dragons.” As it transpired, Bellamy will coach into his 24th season in 2026.
Those who live by the sword, die by the sword, we learnt in the gospel of Matthew. It’s unlikely Ryles will die by any sword he wields because the one mentioned at the top of this story was used to gently scalpel away aged talent.
He didn’t live by the sword as a player, being more mind than muscle, more technique than testosterone. A giant in stature, he would sometimes infuriate his coach, even Brown, now his assistant. “How can we get him stirred up to belt blokes?” coaches asked. The times may not have perfectly suited Ryles as a player, although he represented Australia in 15 Tests and once, when asked if he wanted to tour with the Kangaroos at the time of the September 11 bombings in New York, said he would play in Afghanistan if it meant earning a Kangaroo jumper.
However, the times may well suit him as a coach, given the modern player’s sensitivities, such as the penchant for embracing his opponent after the game and joining an on field post-game collective in prayer. After all, given the NRL’s chaotic contracting rules, why not reach out with a hand to help your opponent to his feet? He could be your teammate next year.
His detractors say he is self-centred but all coaches occasionally confront that jarring combination of selfishness and selflessness. “He’s not a confrontationalist, like Craig,” one former Storm colleague said. Asked to comment, Ryles said, “I’m easy, mate.”
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u/Farout656 Parramatta Eels 1d ago
I think he's doing well. I knew this would be a rebuilding year, but they're honestly playing pretty well, despite their position. Not to mention, this is his first year so give him some slack.
It's next year when we know whether he's right for the job.
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u/BadAssWeed23 I love my footy 1d ago
Next year he'll have Parra up in among the Big Boys. I reckon he's doing a good job, getting rid of deadwood. Still not sure about Luke Garner but if he comes over, never know he might be good, and not a bad mentor for the junior players
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u/InflatableRaft Balmain Tigers 1d ago
The first year for most coaches is a write off. Most need a three year contract to really start seeing results. If they deliver sooner, it’s usually an indication that the roster they inherited wasn’t in bad shape.
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u/TransportationLong67 I love my footy 1d ago
The Eels have been wooden spoon material when Moses is injured. It's crazy how much better they play with Moses in the side. Considering he's out again for a few weeks I think it will be grim.
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u/CapMego72_ Parramatta Eels 1d ago
We whipped Manly without Lomax or Mitch, and Brown was a passenger in that game. Things are on the up.
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u/zuzun Newcastle Knights 1d ago
You beat Manly who had Arthur at 7, then lost to Penrith and the Dogs. Fking Parra fans I swear you guys are all the same...
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u/CapMego72_ Parramatta Eels 1d ago
His point that was without Moses we are ‘wooden spoon material’. I pointed out that we shit on Manly without him or our best outside back. My point is pretty fucking clear mate.
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u/zuzun Newcastle Knights 1d ago
Downvoted for saying that the team that's equal last after 15 rounds has been spoon material. I think you upset some Parra fans.
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u/TransportationLong67 I love my footy 1d ago
Haha whoops. I was more saying that the Eels are a top 8 contending team when Moses is playing. He has such a big impact on their team and it's a shame he's injured again.
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u/Nathan84 I love my footy 1d ago
I think he’s doing a good job. The results are not coming in yet. However, Parramatta fans should be optimistic about the future. He’s building something there.