Parramatta Eels head coach Jason Ryles is building something in the west of Sydney.
Exactly what that is probably requires another three seasons before a judgement can be made, but by that time, he is either going to be Parramatta's long-term coach, or sacked and struggle to land another job.
It's rare that a rookie head coach can impose his will over a club as much as Ryles has, but he is building Parramatta differently than maybe any club in the league, and doing it on his terms.
For so long, the Eels have been something of a laughing stock in the recruitment and retention space.
From countless player options, to eyebrow-raising contracts, and a number of juniors being lost to rival outfits despite having one of the best junior areas in the game and now an academy and high performance centre to match, it simply has been an awful recent history in that space for the Eels.
The moves Ryles has made to reshape his squad, though, have been aggressive from the outset and ensure he is able to remove what he has quite obviously considered deadwood from the outfit, and bring in players he wants are already well and truly in motion.
You only need to look at the list of discarded players at Parramatta to know Ryles is not here to take any prisoners.
Ryan Matterson, Bryce Cartwright and Joe Ofahengaue were three forwards at the centre of the previous season's plan under the coaching of Brad Arthur before he was sacked.
Shaun Lane was another, although still at the club, while his decision in recent weeks to axe Dylan Brown, who will leave for the Newcastle Knights, is an obvious play to continue the rebuild at Parramatta.
Ryles made a very clear decision after the blue and gold missed out on the signing of Lachlan Galvin from the Wests Tigers. Joash Papalii is the future of the number six.
And that starts now. Not next year. Not when Dylan Brown gets injured or suspended. But permanently and immediately.
Yes, Papalii is now playing fullback with Isaiah Iongi sidelined due to injury, but Brown still hasn't been recalled. The replacement five-eighth Dean Hawkins is going to be at Parramatta next year, so Ryles would prefer to play him.
It's a line in the sand moment for Ryles. You're either in this Eels' rebuild for the long haul, or you're not. There is no in between.
The coach even admitted there was discussion directly with Brown about leaving the club early, before this year's June 30 trade deadline.
That was despite the fact that the Eels were still somewhat in the mix for a finals spot at that point. That's not the case anymore, though, and Ryles has clearly turned his attention to next year and getting this team ready for a run to play finals footy in 2026.
Right from the start of his tenure at Parramatta, he has made decisions that were difficult, but that he believed to be in the best long-term interests of the club.
The move on of Clint Gutherson, the refusal to guarantee a selection for former Bulldog and Origin winger Josh Addo-Carr at the start of the campaign, the signing of Tallyn da Silva and Dylan Walker, and the trust he has shown in Jack Williams are just other examples.
The list of decisions he has made to shape the club the way he wants it goes on and on.
As captain Mitchell Moses put it after a tight loss to the Melbourne Storm on Thursday evening, the team already believe they can compete with the big guns.
It's a mentality that didn't seem to exist last year.
“They are getting a lot of confidence, Rylesy is showing them a lot of confidence and putting a lot of confidence in them to be able to go out there and perform,” Moses said during his post-match press conference.
“They are just going to have to learn on the run. At least they are learning lessons in the big games.... not just going out there and going ‘how much are we going to lose by today?'
“We are going into games (thinking) we can compete with anyone at the moment, and it's good lessons for a young kid.”
One of the key reasons Ryles apparently elected not to coach at the St George Illawarra Dragons - his former playing club - was that he wouldn't have full control over all aspects.
It has become obvious in his short time at the now Kellyville-based club that he has exactly that, wearing a blue and gold shirt.
And so, whether you agree with the way Ryles is going about things in the west of Sydney or not, you do have to appreciate the enormous courage he has had in making the decisions he has. But with that comes an enormous risk.
Either this team - the one Ryles is hand-picking - is going to build into a premiership force somewhere in the next three to five years, or it's not.
And if it doesn't, the former hard-nosed forward who has served his coaching apprenticeship under the likes of Craig Bellamy and Trent Robinson will have no one to blame but himself.
If it goes that way, there is a real chance no other club is going to take a punt on him moving forward.
Why would you bring in a tested head coach who has no hesitation in ripping up a club but not finding success on the back of it?
If it does work, though?
Well, the new benchmark for rookie coaches to back themselves, to do what they want, when they want, will have been set, and Ryles will become an Eels legend, potentially breaking one of Australia's longest sporting premiership droughts.
That's the risk Jason Ryles has taken with his aggressive moves this year.
Time will tell if the club, and the coach, have made the right calls.
“Why would you bring in a tested head coach who has no hesitation in ripping up a club but not finding success on the back of it?”
It’s a fair question, but I think criticism would be warranted only if the coach had gone to a team that had just finished in the top eight and “ripped it up”.
If a coach has been recruited to sort out a club that is limping along and going nowhere, then he will be damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t, so by all means rip it apart and start again !