‘Go after the game’, Ryles tells No.1 Iongi

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‘Go after the game’, Ryles tells No.1 Iongi

Jason Ryles has told Parramatta No.1 Isaiah Iongi to “go after the game”, giving the rookie freedom to strike in a new-look Eels attack.

Iongi passed his first full audition with flying colours on Friday night, setting up a try and beating four men to score another in the Eels’ trial against Wests Tigers.

A long-time apprentice behind Dylan Edwards at Penrith, Iongi will be thrust into the spotlight this year as the man asked to replace long-time Eels fullback Clint Gutherson.

But first-time coach Ryles is confident Iongi is ready, and wants the 21-year-old to try to take the game on in attack in his first full season.

“One of Issy’s strengths is that he goes to the game, gets the footy and plays, and we just want to encourage him to keep doing that,” Ryles said.

“We’re starting to see little bits of what we will see, but we’ve got to be patient with him.

“He’s done a really good apprenticeship in (NSW) Cup with around 60 games and he sat behind arguably the best fullback in the comp for a number of years.

“He’s had a really good grounding, but it’s just a matter of getting the reps in first grade now.”

Ryles admitted Parramatta’s attack had looked disjointed on Friday night, while missing halves Dylan Brown and Mitch Moses.

Brown was in New Zealand for his brother’s wedding, while Moses is still fighting to overcome foot soreness before the start of the season.

Parramatta’s attacking structure will also change significantly under Ryles this year, after 11 seasons of Brad Arthur as coach and Gutherson the team’s fullback since 2017.

“It’s a bit of a different way of how we want to attack compared to what they’re used to, so we’ll just keep working on that,” Ryles said.

“It all goes back to the strengths of our footy team. We’ve got speed, we’ve got an experienced set of halves and we’ve got a young hooker.

“We’ll keep evolving.

“There’s no timeline on our attack. It’ll have its days where it’s not so great, but it’ll have its days (of) ‘Wow, that was good’.”

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