The Parramatta Eels have confirmed eight players and one staff member will depart at the end of the 2025 NRL season.
Ahead of their final game of the season on Sunday against the Newcastle Knights, the blue and gold confirmed four new player departures, as well as four that were already confirmed.
Dylan Brown (Newcastle Knights), Joe Ofahengaue (mid-season to Leigh Leopards), Bryce Cartwright (retired) and Shaun Lane (retired) were already announced as confirmed moves during the course of the year.
Brown is the biggest departure, with the New Zealand international heading to the Newcastle Knights for the next decade in a move that will make him one of the game’s highest-paid players.
The four new faces to join the list announced on Sunday are hooker Joey Lussick, prop Wiremu Greig, forward Dan Keir and injury-plagued outside back Haze Dunster.
Head of athletic performance, Blair Mills, will also depart the club.
All of Lussick, Greig, Keir and Dunster were off-contract at the end of 2025 and haven’t been retained by Jason Ryles as he continues his radical rebuild in the west of Sydney.
Dunster, an outside back, recently suffered an Achilles injury that will ensure he has a limited build-up to 2026. Other injuries over the course of his career have limited him to just 19 matches since his debut in 2020.
Lussick, now 29, debuted with the Manly Sea Eagles in 2017 before moving to England in 2018. A short-lived stint with Parramatta in 2021 was followed by another two years in the Super League.
The hooker has played another 28 games for the Eels since returning in the middle of 2023, but fell down the pecking order in 2025 with the breakout form of Ryley Smith, and then the arrival of Tallyn Da Silva from the Wests Tigers in the middle of the year.
Middle forward Greig has played 27 matches for the Eels since debuting in 2021, while he also represented the Maori All Stars once. Keir is a former Australian Schoolboys player but has failed to recognise his NRL potential, playing just seven games at the top level.
Parramatta now have no players left off-contract for 2025, but the news likely means Ryan Matterson will return to the club from his loan stint in England at the start of 2026, while Bailey Simonsson, who is contracted until the end of 2027 but has asked for a release on multiple occasions, was also not mentioned in the list of departures.
Question marks could also surround Brendan Hands, who is contracted for 2026 but may be moved on by the club, given Smith and Da Silva’s form.
