{"id":488855,"date":"2026-02-18T23:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T23:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/488855\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T23:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T23:11:09","slug":"moses-backs-new-halves-partner-and-youthful-spine-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/488855\/","title":{"rendered":"Moses backs new halves partner and youthful spine – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Ryles<\/a> has named his side for Saturday’s final trial against the Roosters, with Mitchell Moses<\/a> and Jonah Pezet<\/a> to debut their new halves pairing.<\/p>\n

Although signed for this season only, Pezet’s arrival comes as Parramatta enters a new phase with a youthful core after the dramatic departure of Dylan Brown<\/a> last season.<\/p>\n

Excluding Moses, the Eels’ spine has just 62 NRL<\/a> games of experience, while Moses alone has played 238 first-grade matches \u2014 more than three times the rest of the spine combined.<\/p>\n

Young fullback Isaiah Iongi<\/a> had been the first injection of youth into the spine, with Moses saying the transition has gone smoothly after another pre-season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI obviously had a year under my belt with Izzy (Iongi) last year, and not much phases the kid, you know what I mean?” Moses told SEN radio<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s very calm, he’s very collected, and just at the back, he does what he needs, and he’s busy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur combination’s been working well. He had some good touches in the trial on the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one of the competition’s most experienced halfbacks, Moses said his focus remains on guiding the club’s younger players while chasing team success.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I want to win a comp,\u201d Moses said, \u201cthat’s the main thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnywhere I can help the younger boys at the moment, we’ve got a really young squad at the moment, so, anywhere I can help them and make them a better footy player, or make our team a better footy team, that’s probably where I’m going to get the most joy out of.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s more just playing good footy for Parramatta and trying to help out whoever I can at the club, and then on the back of that, individual honours come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryles, now in his second pre-season and third season at the club, has a previous connection with Pezet from their time at the Melbourne Storm<\/a>, where the young playmaker featured in finals football last year.<\/p>\n

Moses said Pezet has adapted quickly since arriving, bringing the confidence and spark the Eels needed in the halves for his one-season stint.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s fit right in with what we’re trying to do at the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s a very confident kid, very loud, we found that out on day one since he’s been there, and he’s been really good for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve been linking up pretty well at training. He loves his footy, I love my footy, so it’s been a pretty easy transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s what we needed, you know what I mean?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we needed someone with a strong personality in that position who will take chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played in big games at Melbourne last year, (he) played in that semi-finals (and was) probably Melbourne’s best player.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just that little bit of big game experience that we needed, and he’s going to come in, do a job for us, but he’s not very shy to speak what he thinks, and it’s very good. It’s what you need in half.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Parramatta, the immediate focus is the new halves partnership, with Moses expressing strong confidence in Pezet’s personality and ability to handle the role.<\/p>\n

Get set for the footy with the FREE Zero Tackle 2026 NRL Season Guide!<\/a> Packed with 130+ pages of player profiles, team previews, insights and analysis, the 2026 NRL Season Guide<\/a> is built for fans who want the full picture. Download your free Season Guide HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason Ryles has named his side for Saturday’s final trial against the Roosters, with Mitchell Moses and Jonah…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-488855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488855","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=488855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}