Just before the 2025 NRL season kicked off, in his first public appearance as Parramatta coach, Jason Ryles addressed Eels fans at a members’ forum.
“I do know the best living example [of our journey] at the moment is the Bulldogs,” Ryles told 250 supporters back in February.
“They got the latest and greatest coach in there [Cameron Ciraldo], and they nearly ran last in the first year. That’s just the reality of the competition. I don’t want us to do that …”
How it plays out remains to be seen, but already there are parallels between the rebuild Ryles is undertaking at Parramatta and the one at Canterbury, now in its third season under Ciraldo and beginning to bear fruit.
Both coaches took up clipboards as rookies, at big Sydney clubs, with the brief to revive them after a period in the wilderness. Each gig required a roster rebuild, cultural change and a long-term plan. Their respective boards gave them the tools and time required, knowing short-term pain was inevitable.
Ryles referenced the Bulldogs in those telling remarks to remind everyone that Belmore wasn’t rebuilt in a day.
Parramatta coach Jason Ryles. Credit: Edwina Pickles
“I just used that as an example to manage expectations,” Ryles recalls, in the days leading up to an expected record crowd at the King’s Birthday clash between the arch rivals.
“There’s a new coach, and there’s a reason there’s a new coach. The most recent example was Cameron; he’d come from a premiership team and I think [the Bulldogs] finished 15th that year.
“That was the biggest thing for me at the time. It’s an example that I thought was pretty relevant to use at the time.”
Both endured baptisms of fire. Ciraldo’s Bulldogs finished above only the Dragons and Tigers on the NRL ladder after his f
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