“What we needed”: Moses excited by new Pezet combo

Mitchell Moses is confident his connection with new signing Jonah Pezet will click from Round 1 as Parramatta search to end a 40-year premiership drought.

Following the well-publicised departure of Dylan Brown at the end of last season, former Melbourne half Jonah Pezet has arrived at the Eels on a one-year pit stop before he joins the Broncos in 2027.

Moses will link with Pezet with the goal of ending the Eels drought, the longest of any current NRL club.

Pezet may have only played 18 NRL games thus far, but he has shown enough composure and skill in that time for Moses to have nothing but confidence in his new halves partner.

“He's fit right in with what we're trying to do at the club,” Moses said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.

“He’s a very confident kid, very loud, we found that out on day one since he's been there, and he's been really good for us.

“We've been linking up pretty well at training. He loves his footy, I love my footy, so it's been a pretty easy transition.

“It's what we needed, you know what I mean?

“I think we needed someone with a strong personality in that position that will take chances.

“He played in big games at Melbourne last year, (he) played in that semi-finals (and was) probably Melbourne's best player.

“It's just that little bit of big game experience that we needed and he's going to come in, do a job for us, but he's not very shy to speak what he thinks and it's very good. It's what you need in a half.”

Pezet joins a relatively young spine, alongside fullback Isaiah Iongi and hooker Ryley Smith; an average of 20 games played between the three of them.

Iongi was nominated for Dally M Rookie of the Year after an impressive 2025 season at fullback. So impressed were the Eels with Iongi, they extended him until the end of 2030 in December.

As Moses prepares to play his 250th game in 2026, he has just under four times the amount of experience than the rest of his spine combined, but the Eels captain is excited about Parramatta’s two confident young guns combining on the field.

“I don't think it's been too bad of a transition,” Moses said about Iongi.

“I obviously had a year under my belt with Izzy (Iongi) last year, and not much phases the kid, you know what I mean?

“He's very calm, he's very collected, and just at the back, he does what he needs and he's busy.

“He's everywhere on the field, and he's a big asset to our team, and obviously the club as well. He's such a good kid.

“Our combination's been working well. He had some good touches in the trial on the weekend. He only played about 20 minutes, but he was good.”

With the combination of Pezet and Iongi enough to excite Moses, the goal for the year is firmly on ending Parramatta’s premiership drought.

Moses is firmly in the race to feature for the Australians at the Rugby League World Cup at the end of the year and return to the Origin arena after missing the last two games of the 2025 series, but his focus is on helping Parramatta’s young players develop.

“Obviously, I want to win a comp,” Moses said, “that’s the main thing.

“I think that anyone's goal is to win a comp but obviously to do it at Parramatta would be unreal.

“Anywhere I can help the younger boys at the moment, we've got a really young squad at the moment, so, anywhere I can help them and make them a better footy player, or make our team a better footy team, that's probably where I'm going to get the most joy out of.

“It's more just playing good footy for Parramatta and trying to help out whoever I can at the club and then on the back of that, individual honours come.

“I obviously want to play in the Origin Arena. You want to play for Australia. You want to do those things, but, mate, I'm not going to be in those teams if I'm not playing good footy at Parra.

“If I'm playing good footy at Parra, everything else will sort itself out.”

The Eels’ first game is against the Melbourne Storm in Round 1.