{"id":133724,"date":"2025-09-10T21:36:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T21:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/133724\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T21:36:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T21:36:15","slug":"the-moles-season-review-parramatta-eels-mitchell-moses-question-lingers-after-late-turnaround","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/133724\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mole’s season review, Parramatta Eels; Mitchell Moses question lingers after late turnaround"},"content":{"rendered":"

A season that began with doom and gloom ended on a high note for the Parramatta Eels<\/a>, with the promise of better things to come in 2026.<\/p>\n

The Jason Ryles era started in disastrous fashion, with the team losing eight of its first 10 games, putting a finals challenge out of the question before it was ever a possibility.<\/p>\n

But just when the fans began to wonder what sort of a mess they had got themselves into, the Eels found their feet.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Burning questions from Merrett bombshell answered<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Kangaroos crisis could be save by snubbed Origin pair<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Aussie legend Hewitt banned for ‘pushing’ official<\/a><\/p>\n

With halfback and captain Mitchell Moses leading the charge, they began to look like a team going places and won five of their last seven games, including defeats of finals teams the Broncos, Roosters and Warriors.<\/p>\n

Injury restricted Moses to just 13 games and such was his influence that six of the 10 wins the Eels had were when he was at the helm.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mitchell Moses\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

And considering the team finished just three wins out of the finals, who knows what they could achieved had the classy halfback played the full season?<\/p>\n

Young fullback Isaiah Iongi proved one of the buys of the year, filling Clint Gutherson’s big boots and showing maturity beyond his 22 years.<\/p>\n

Josh Addo-Carr was another great signing, bagging 19 tries from 22 games and inspiring his younger teammates with his enthusiasm and spark on the wing.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fellow winger Zac Lomax also added plenty of strike power and scored and created several tries with his spectacular ability to leap for the high ball.<\/p>\n

Will Penisini continues to develop at centre and Sean Russell also looked handy when moved closer to the play.<\/p>\n

Five-eighth Dylan Brown had a disappointing season, with the much-hyped decision to move to Newcastle next season appearing to put him off his game.<\/p>\n

Veteran prop Junior Paulo, whose fitness has been questioned in the past, played all 24 games and his sublime ball skills resulted in many promising attacking moves.<\/p>\n

The mid-season gain of former Warriors utility Dylan Walker proved a masterstroke and he developed into one of the team’s most effective attacking weapons.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dylan Walker\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

J’maine Hopgood wasn’t quite as spectacular as in his first season with the Eels in 2024, but still produced several good games when Ryles really needed him.<\/p>\n

Back-rower Jack Williams, signed from Cronulla, was another recruit to emerge as the season progressed and his ability to bend back the defensive line will be a major asset.<\/p>\n

Rookie hooker Ryley Smith fitted into the team nicely and looks set to share the dummy-half duties with mid-season gain Tallyn Da Silva for years to come.<\/p>\n

Best player: Mitch Moses was as dominant as any halfback in the game when he was in the mood and it’s just a pity that injury restricted his game time.<\/p>\n

Biggest disappointment: Ryan Matterson can be a force when in the groove but injuries and lack of form saw him just make four appearances during the season – all off the bench – before heading over to join the Warrington Wolves on a short-term contract.<\/p>\n

He needs to lift if he returns to Parramatta.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/p>\n

Ryan Matterson of the Eels. \u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Key signing: I’m surprised the Dragons released Jack de Belin – his experience up front should be great for the Eels.<\/p>\n

2026 gains: Jack de Belin (Dragons), Brendan Hands (Toulouse)<\/p>\n

2026 losses: Dylan Brown (Knights), Shaun Lane (retired), Joey Lussick (released)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A season that began with doom and gloom ended on a high note for the Parramatta Eels, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-133724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}