In 2025, the Eels’ title drought ticks into its 39th year. The blue-and-gold army hopes new coach Jason Ryles is the man to return the premiership to Parramatta.
FORMER Kangaroos prop Jason Ryles has been touted as a first-grade coach in waiting every time an NRL vacancy has come up over the past couple of years.
So highly regarded is he that Ryles knocked back the chance to take over his old club St George Illawarra last year — a luxury very few rookie coaches would take.
But after a diligent apprenticeship beneath world-class mentors, the Parramatta hot seat left empty by Brad Arthur presented the opportunity he was looking for.
“I’ve been on a journey for probably 10 or 12 years now, firstly captain-coach of Wests in Wollongong, then that led to a role down in Melbourne working with Craig Bellamy for five or six years and then Eddie Jones and then onto the Roosters with Trent Robinson,” Ryles said in his first interview as Parramatta coach.
“I knew pretty early on that was the end goal but I wanted to make sure that I did my apprenticeship and got some experiences under my belt and learned the lessons that I needed to, and I thought this was the next step.”
Ryles was a decorated player at the Dragons, earning 15 Kangaroos caps and eight Origin appearances for New South Wales.
But the back end of Ryles’ playing days had more influence over his burgeoning coaching career.
After a year at the Catalans Dragons, he joined the Sydney Roosters in 2010, where Trent Robinson had just become defensive coach.
Then in 2012, Ryles moved to the Storm to collect a premiership ring and, perhaps more importantly, the experience of playing under master coach Craig Bellamy.
After coaching his own team at Wests Wollongong, Ryles returned to those two NRL heavyweights to cut his teeth as an assistant, sprinkling in some time under Eddie Jones in international rugby union to round out his education.
“Melbourne and the Roosters have been at the top of the the league now for 20-plus years and that’s no fluke,” Ryles said.
“It’s one of those things where you put those experiences into into action and add my own flavour to it and and see where we can get to.”
Having signed as Parra coach last July, Ryles has enjoyed a long runway to prepare for his first season as a top-grade boss.
With a host of Eels coming off contract at the end of 2024, the rookie coach has already made a major impact on the roster.
In comes Josh Addo-Carr (Canterbury), Zac Lomax (St George Illawarra), Jack Williams (Cronulla) and a handful of squad players.
But the most exciting recruit is a 21-year-old rookie with just one first-grade game to his name: Isaiah Iongi, the former Panther who’s expected to slot straight into the number one jumper.
His predecessor Clint Gutherson (St George Illawarra) headlines the list of departures, alongside Reagan Campbell-Gillard (Gold Coast), Maika Sivo (Leeds) and youngster Blaize Talagi (Penrith).
While those exits are ostensibly a blow, they do give Ryles a golden opportunity to shape a new-look dressing room as he likes, with freed-up salary cap space to play with too.
Fitness will be vital in 2025 after injuries hampered last year’s campaign.
Parramatta only dodged last place in 2024 courtesy of victory over the Wests Tigers in the last-round clash dubbed ‘Spoon Bowl’, condemning the joint venture to their third consecutive wooden spoon.
Key men Mitchell Moses (eight games, foot and biceps injuries), Bailey Simonsson (10 games, ACL), J’maine Hopgood (12 games, back), Wiremu Greig (seven games, various), Kelma Tuilagi (16, thumb), Ryan Matterson (16 games, concussion) and Junior Paulo (16 games, foot) all missed big chunks.
With their full complement back on the park — particularly Moses teaming up with the impressive Dylan Brown in the halves, extra firepower out wide and depth in the middle — the Eels look more like finals contenders than wooden spoon chances.
Off the park, Ryles has also thoughtfully assembled his own coaching team.
Joining him in the coach’s box is Nathan Brown, Ryles’ old Dragons mentor who now has a wealth of experience at Huddersfield, St Helens, Newcastle and the Warriors to draw on.
Club legend Nathan Cayless continues as second-grade coach, while Scott Wisemantel — who started his playing career at the Eels 36 years ago before making his name as a rugby union assistant across the globe — rejoins the 13-man code.
Former Tonga and New Zealand international Sam Moa, who only hung up his boots in 2021, comes in to build the cultural connection among the Eels’ Pasifika contingent.
And Ryles has also drafted fitness guru Blair Mills from his time in union.
The 45-year-old hopes this is the recipe to break the longest premiership drought in the NRL.
The Eels last got their hands on the Provan-Summons Trophy in 1986, when their team sheet was laced with legendary names like Peter Sterling, Brett Kenny, Ray Price, Mick Cronin and Eric Grothe.
It was their fourth premiership in six seasons … but they’ve now been waiting 38 years for title number five.
Famine followed feast, with a 10-year absence from the play-offs following that ’86 triumph.
When the Eels finally regained their status as September regulars, they were met with heartbreak time and time again.
In 1998, they led arch rivals Canterbury 18-2 with less than 11 minutes on the clock, only to let a Grand Final berth slip through their fingers.
History repeated 12 months later, throwing away a 16-6 lead against the Storm with a spot in the decider just 25 minutes from being sealed.
Parra finally made a Grand Final in 2001 — and they were unbackable favourites after a rampant Minor Premiership — but crumbled to Newcastle, 24-nil at half-time.
Minor premiers again in 2005, they inexplicably lost their preliminary final 29-nil to North Queensland.
Most cursed of all, though, was falling to the Storm in the 2007 prelim and 2009 Grand Final, only to watch Melbourne forfeit their trophies from those seasons for salary cap breaches.
Another stint in the cellar followed, including back-to-back wooden spoons before Arthur’s appointment in 2014.
And when Arthur finally got over the hump of four semi-final exits in five years, Parra were pounded by Penrith in the 2022 Grand Final.
The lowly 2024 campaign cost Arthur his job after a decade at the helm, allowing the Eels to land the best credentialed coach-to-be on the market.
Now it’s up to Ryles to write his own chapter in Parramatta history.
“We’ve got the baton now,” Ryles said.
“It’s up to us to continue that proud tradition and history that they’ve started but then also forge that new direction and make it our own.”
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 504 (January 2025)
