Jason Ryles, Mitchell Moses confident Eels can move on from 50 point thrashing

Jason Ryles says he is looking for a strong response from his side after what he described as a valuable wake-up call in Melbourne, where the Eels were handed a heavy defeat to open their 2026 campaign.

The new Parramatta coach labelled the result a 'schooner of reality' in the aftermath of the loss, and said the focus this week has been on honest reflection and quickly moving forward.

“When you do end up on that side of the scoreline, the best thing you can do is get straight back in and review it, wash it and we’re all looking forward to playing again,” Ryles said.

“Certainly not the way we wanted to kick off round one. We’ve come in and reviewed very honestly and moved on quickly and got into some work.”

Ryles also backed young playmaker Jonah Pezet to respond well after a tough first outing for his new side.

“Jonah is a pretty confident kid, and obviously he got some good lessons last week,” he said.

“And if there is a good lesson, we’ll learn from him and we’ll, like all of us, move on quickly and prepare for this week.”

Captain Mitchell Moses also backed Pezet to bounce back from a difficult first outing.

“He’s fine, he’s a confident kid and he’ll move on,” Moses said.

“He’s been pretty good at training this week so hopefully we can transition that into the game. I don’t think anyone in our team probably would have liked their performance, we had 50 put on us.”

Moses also echoed his coach’s sentiment around moving on from last week's performance and preparing for Thursday night’s challenge against the Broncos.

“We had to move on pretty quick, seven day turn around so we get straight back into it against Brisbane on Thursday,” Moses said.

“It is round one, but there was a few things in there that wasn’t up to our standard.” We set a high standard for ourselves in the pre season, that wasn’t up to standard,” he said.

“We hurt ourselves on the weekend, we didn’t complete high and we didn’t get into the footy that we like to play. We need to be better, it’s a bit of a reality check I guess for us. We’ve got a young squad so we need to bounce back.”

The halfback said last season’s late form would count for little if the Eels didn’t quickly lift their standards.

“The NRL is a tough competition. We finished the season off pretty well last year, but that was last year,” Moses said.

“The shackles were off, we couldn’t make finals, we knew that, but it doesn’t just happen again.

“We’ve got to strip it right back, get back to the little things that matter for us.”

With a trip to Brisbane looming, Moses knows the Eels will need to improve quickly against one of the competition’s toughest teams on their home turf.

“It will be hostile, it’s a great stadium to play at, Suncorp, and we’re going to need to be at our best,” he said.

“We need to try and get them into the grind and hold the ball.”

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