Eels coach’s blunt admission after historic opening round beat down

Parramatta Eels coach Jason Ryles did not mince his words after his team suffered a historic loss to kick start the 2025 NRL season.

Parramatta coach Jason Ryles’ tenure got off to a nightmare start after the Eels were demolished by the Melbourne Storm.

It was one-way traffic inside AAMI Park as the Storm delivered a 56-18 victory in front of their home fans.

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Speaking after the historic defeat, Ryles made a blunt admission about the current state of his side, cautioning fans the rebuilding side needs time.

“I take full responsibility in regards to the amount of change I have brought to the club, but at the same time it doesn’t happen overnight,” he said.

“I’ve got no doubt over the course of time and the buy-in the players have given us is enormous. It’s one of those things, we got a tough lesson tonight.

“We’ve had a lot of change and a lot of change in personnel. The program has changed and then I’ve changed a lot of things we’re doing on the field.

“So it’s going to take time and a lot of that comes back onto me. There were periods of the game where we had really good periods, but then we just fell away.

“Obviously come up against a quality opposition tonight against the Storm … they made us pay for our little errors.”

Jason Ryles speaks after the loss

The rookie coach said the club had positives to take out of the contest, mainly pointing to his players keeping their heads up despite the scoreboard.

“There was some, dare I say, positives to come out of it, but at the same time we still have a way to go in regards to where we want to get to,” he said.

“The biggest takeaway for us, I thought a lot of things improved for us in the second half and it was based around our intent into contact … we had a dramatic improvement in the second half in parts of our game.

“Our commitment to contact in that first half probably wasn’t where it needed to be.

“But in the second half we turned that around, within 15 minutes we went back out there and turned it all around.

“In regards to our missed tackles, I think we had 30 in the first half and 17 in the second half, so that’s a massive improvement.”

While the club have the longest premiership drought in the NRL, Ryles is confident he can help lead the club back to the promised land of playing in the finals.

“I won’t say I’m sitting here wondering what to do, because having someone like Nathan Brown sitting next to me who has done this numerous times has been a great resource,” he said.

“But I’m seeing all the little parts of where we are going to get better, we’ve got some players, two debutants, Isaiah (Iongi) has played one game.

“That’s not an excuse, but the reality of it is, they need to play more footy and the only way is to put them out on the field.

“I know they’re not flash in the pan players, they’re going to be around for many years if they keep tracking the way they are.”

The Eels were swept aside in a historic beat down. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Storm make NRL history in mammoth win.

The Storm had the statisticians scurrying for the record books early on in the encounter, as they put on points at will.

Not only did the 38-point win extend Bellamy’s incredible Round 1 record, the Storm produced their biggest first-half score in the club’s history, 46 points, eclipsing the 40 points they put on the Dragons in 2000.

While by surpassing the 50 mark in the second half, Melbourne created NRL history, with this year marking the first time in NRL history that two teams have scored 50 points in Round 1, after the Broncos put on a masterclass against the Roosters on Friday night.

The Storm stars will now have a week’s rest with a bye in Round 2 before gearing up to face the Panthers in Round 3.

The Eels have a week to go back to the drawing board before hosting fellow stragglers the Tigers at CommBank next week.