Broncos fans were treated to a sneak peek at what's to come with Brisbane-bound playmaker Jonah Pezet putting on a show as the Eels claimed a 40-32 win in a rollicking contest.
The former Storm half will spend the 2026 season partnering with Mitchell Moses at the Eels before moving up to Brisbane in 2027 to help fill the void left by retiring halfback Adam Reynolds.
In front of nearly 40, 000 fans at Suncorp Stadium, Pezet showed remarkable resilience to bounce back from a poor Round 1 showing against his former club Melbourne to produce three try assists and a cheeky solo try.
Jonah Pezet Try
A desperate defensive effort at the line to deny Jordan Riki a try in the first half when the Broncos were on a roll also told in the final telling of the match.
However, much was the case in their heavy loss last week, Pezet said he had a few lessons to take from his performance and plenty of improvement to make.
“I was pretty ordinary in the first 20 to be honest, I let Payno [Payne Haas] go through untouched and I think I had an error early," Pezet said.
“I wasn’t great, but that’s footy – you just have to worry about the next moment and get on with it.
“Same as last week, you have to get on with it. The good thing about footy is we get to go again, and we spoke about that.
“To come up and to put in that effort, everyone together, was really special to get that result tonight and my first win for Parra."
However, despite only being 20 games into his NRL career, Pezet had plenty of confidence to back himself to bounce back from any early setbacks.
“(You have to back yourself) when you make an error, you just have to get on with it and get on with the next job," Pezet said.
“My job is to help this team score points and take pressure off Mitchell.
“I guess in the last 60 minutes of the game I did that, but I need to start doing that for 80 minutes and being an 80-minute player.
“That’ll be my work on going forward.”
Eels: Round 2
Parramatta coach Jason Ryles also didn’t want to let Pezet – still only 23 – to get too far ahead of himself either, despite being pleased with his performance, saying he was still “a work in progress”.
"There are some other parts of his game he needs to work on, and he is aware of that,” Ryles said.
"Whilst that is really pleasing for him, he's got some areas of his game we want to keep working hard on."
For Pezet, some of the key areas to improve on were his physicality from the start of games and also adapting to the faster pace of the match with the updated six-again rulings.
“That start I had tonight, I can’t do that next week and for the next 25 rounds either,” Pezet said.
“I need to start well and be physical from the start. I missed the jump (tonight).
“It gets a bit quick there with the six agains, it’s going to keep getting quicker and quicker.
“Me and Mitch need to be on the ball and take those opportunities. We did that in the second half.”
Next week for Multicultural Round, the Eels will host St George Illawarra Dragons at CommBank Stadium.
Match: Eels v Dragons
Round 3 -
home Team
Eels
10th Position
away Team
Dragons
12th Position
Venue: CommBank Stadium, Sydney
Match broadcasters:
- WatchNRL
