Parramatta Eels special: New coach Jason Ryles on taking the NRL’s toughest gig and his Dragons regret

Parramatta have gone nearly 40 years without a premiership but Jason Ryles is embracing drinking from rugby league’s poisoned chalice. The incoming coach reveals how he’ll change the Eels his way - and his missed opportunity with the Dragons.

Jason Ryles isn’t intimidated by a job that history suggests is among the toughest in the NRL. Maybe one of the most difficult in Australian sport.

You don’t have to tell long-suffering Parramatta fans that it has been nearly 40 years since they last won a premiership.

It has been an agonising period in which the club has endured political turmoil, salary cap shenanigans and churned though 10 coaches in either an interim or official capacity — Ryles is the 11th to take on the hoodoo.

Since John Monie led the Eels to the 1986 title, the club has chewed up coaches and spat them out. Some have lasted longer than others but the outcome has always been the same — bitter disappointment.

Now Ryles steps into the breach after the club parted ways with Brad Arthur earlier this year, and then overlooked assistant Trent Barrett, opting to put their faith in a man who has served one of the most decorated apprenticeships in rugby league.

Ryles has sat at the right hand of rugby league royalty. He has watched and learned from the best. He is ready and he insists that the challenge that awaits sets his heart racing.

Where others see enormity, Ryles sees opportunity.

WATCH JASON RYLES’ FIRST INTERVIEW AS EELS COACH IN THE VIDEO ABOVE

New Eels coach Jason Ryles.

“I find that exciting,” Ryles said.

“Imagine breaking that drought? You dream about that sort of stuff. That’s where my head’s at, at the moment.

“I don’t see that as intimidating or daunting at all. All I do is just see that as an unbelievable opportunity.

“And since I’ve come into the four walls a little bit — I’m not over here yet — you can just see that everyone in the place just, just wants to win and be successful.”

“I don’t see it as the enormity of the job. If I see it as this big enormous thing I’d be looking to far down the track. So I think Craig Bellamy, one of the biggest lessons I’ve got off him, he really struggles past a week.

“Let’s just today right, let’s just get today. How do you eat an elephant — one bite at a time. So that’s how I see it. I see it as an unbelievable opportunity.

“You only live once and I’m going to go flat out of it.”

THE SEED GETS PLANTED

Ryles was a heck of a footballer in his day. Good enough to play nearly 250 games in a first-grade career that spanned stints with St George Illawarra, the Sydney Roosters and Melbourne.

He played for NSW on eight occasions and pulled on the green and gold for his country another 15 times. Coaching wasn’t really on his radar until he arrived at the Storm and got a glimpse into Craig Bellamy’s world.

“So what flipped the switch with coaching was when I went to Melbourne and when I jumped into the meetings and watched Craig,” Ryles said.

“It wasn’t so much what he knew about the game, it was just how simple he made the game sound. It was based on effort, it was being consistent every day and it was just doing the little things well.

“It was like when you’re at marker, this is how you stand, this is how you split square and this is what you do next. You know what I mean?

“You talk about effort a lot, but he’ll show you exactly what effort looks like and it’s just constantly just drilled into you, drilled in.”

He started dabbling in coaching with the NSW under-20s side and Junior Kangaroos before his playing days came to an end. He still recalls writing Melbourne head of football Frank Ponissi an email about some players who had caught his eye while he was in camp.

“I would always write three players out of the camp — character, talent and all that sort of thing,” Ryles said.

“One of the emails, I still remember it, had Dylan Edwards, there was Nathan Cleary and there was Jaydn Su’A. I was always remind him of that.”

THE COACH

Ryles was coaching with Wests Red Devils in the Illawarra competition when he got a call from Ponissi, asking him whether he would be interested in returning to Melbourne as an assistant.

It was a decision that changed his life. Bellamy had opened his eyes to coaching and Ryles jumped at the chance to join his staff. Melbourne was the beginning of a journey that took him around the NRL — and the globe.

He spent time with the Storm, joined Eddie Jones’ staff when his “little mate” was coaching England, worked with Trent Robinson at the Roosters and then returned to the Storm, having rejected the opportunity at the 11th hour to take over at St George Illawarra, before they offered the role to Shane Flanagan.

“I was always looking for the right opportunity — not any opportunity,” Ryles said.

Jason Ryles is Dragons great and St George Illawarra junior.

“With the Dragons, I reckon if Melbourne didn’t come off, well I’d probably be there now. I basically just spoke to people that I’m close to and that have been around a lot longer than me and then I made the decision to go to Melbourne.”

Ryles walked into Melbourne as the heir apparent to Bellamy but immediately had a sinking feeling.

“I got there within a fortnight, I was like ‘Craig’s not retiring’,” Ryles said.

“I am like ‘wow, okay, sweet’. So then I just pushed on with the pre-season and contributed as much as I could.”

He conceded there was a tinge of regret about rejecting the Dragons.

“Absolutely, I was laying in bed at night thinking about it,” Ryles said.

“I definitely thought about it. It definitely got me thinking. I just thought if the right opportunity comes up over the next 12 months, I’m all in.”

THE EELS

He didn’t have to wait long. The drums were beating earlier this year that Brad Arthur was under pressure and a slow start to the season signalled the end. The Eels went hard after Wayne Bennett but when they missed the seven-time premiership winner, the job turned into a two-horse race between Ryles and Cronulla and Queensland Origin assistant Josh Hannay.

Ryles and his long-time agent, George Mimis, had spoken about the Eels over the years. Mimis had given Ryles an insight into the size of the club and their potential to own the golden west.

It had piqued his interest.

“So we’d had discussions super informally about it over the years and then ... the noise came up about Parra,” Ryles said. “Then you start hearing it and it’s like, ‘there might be something in this’. George makes the phone call and then I said, ‘is that legitimate?’ He said, ‘yes, but there’s a way of doing it.’ “I just kept the Storm in the loop the whole way. They knew about everything before anyone else.”

Ryles was mowing the lawn when Parramatta chief executive Jim Sarantinos called to offer him the job. Later that night, he was already planning for the future.

New Parramatta Eels coach Jason Ryles CommBank Stadium.

Sarantinos had hosted Ryles at his Sutherland home as part of the interview process that also heavily involved chair Sean McElduff.

A second meeting in the Sydney CBD sealed the deal and Ryles has been quietly going about his business in the background, showing former teammate and interim coach Barrett the respect to run the team while he has been shoring up the roster and preparing for the future.

A reset, as Ryles calls it.

“The biggest message that I want to say is that it’s a reset and it’s a great opportunity in a lot of different areas of the club for just small improvements,” Ryles said,

“That’s the biggest thing that I’m going to be working on. Someone like Craig Bellamy, we never talk about winning. It’s just about each day getting in, being the best he can be, and then creating that environment and giving the players the information that they need where they can come in and get better.

“That’s what I’ll be doing — building it on effort and consistency.”

THE CULTURE

Ryles learned the value of effort and consistency from Bellamy. Jones had an unrelenting desire and pursuit of excellence. He calls Robinson a hybrid of the two.

“I got a lot off Robbo in regards to principles and fundamentals; how to coach and how to frame it out, how to sell it to the players,” Ryles said.

“Then the other part with Robbo is daring to be different. He does some pretty crazy stuff sometimes, in a good way, for the group.

“It’s like, that’s bold, but that’s cool, you know what I mean? It gets you thinking. Nothing’s too corny.

“One thing I’m super clear on is I’m not any one of those three guys. I’m myself and I’ve got my own little personality and my own little take on it.

“We’re not going to play like Melbourne, Roosters, Penrith. We’re going to play like Parramatta.”

Ryles has already begun researching the local area in a bid to connect the players with the region and address the club’s culture, an area that has come under fire in recent seasons.

Ryles wants to take them back to their roots, a time when Parramatta were known as the Fruit Pickers because the surrounding area was home to hard work and fields of fruit.

“The area was renowned or known for big orchards and people working manual labour,” Ryles said.

“So for me, that’s the soul of where it all began. There’s a lot of history here that we can draw upon, especially from the area as well.

“It’s a hard-working western suburb. I think we’re the third-biggest economy in the country. We can’t forget where we’ve come from.

“You start with one little theme or message like that, before you know it, it dies out quickly or it just goes bang and here we go. My philosophy is ... I’m a servant to the players.

“So I’m there to do whatever it takes for those boys to fulfil their dreams and to get better every day. That’s my job. I like to have really good relationships with the players. I like to know where they’ve come from so it helps me understand them. “I wouldn’t say I like to be best mates with them because at the end of the day, I reckon they’ve got enough friends. They probably don’t want me as their mate because I’m 20 years older. “I’m pretty realistic about that. But, I just want to be a good servant to them in a way. And being a servant to the players isn’t telling them everything I want to hear.

“You’re serving them by telling them what they don’t want to hear and how they can get better.”

Originally published as Parramatta Eels special: New coach Jason Ryles on taking the NRL’s toughest gig and his Dragons regret