A lot of people believe that Dylan Brown is not very good and should not be a half and rather play at centre. I am personally a massive Dylan Brown fan and believe he will be a great half. I do agree that his trial peformance was not very good but I will not cast any big judgment on him over 1 game which was also just a trial. You have to also realise it is harder to attack if teams are not obbeying the 10m offside rule and the ref is not calling 6 agains. I don't understand how Klein could do that because the players are not actually getting a proper trial of the new rules. Additionally, all those who have made judgements on Dylan Brown from his first 2 years in the NRL are being overly harsh. The kid is still only 20 years old and suffered couple injuries that kept him from the NRL for many weeks. The injuries didn't help him develop his combination with Moses who also got injured last year. So hopefully both halves can go injury free this year and string many games together so they can develop their combination.
My only though for Brown is maybe playing a few games in NSW cup as the number 7. It is very challenging for a half to jump straight from SG ball to NRL standards without playing in reserve grade for sometime. Many people believe halves should not debut at a very young age due to the pressure halves have in controlling and winning games. Reserve grade gives young halves the opportunity to learn their craft, mature and develop their game without the pressure of NRL media scrutinising every error you make. This could be very advtangeous in also helping Dylan Brown become an NRL halfback quicker. This would allow Moses to play five-eight which is when he is much more dangerous with his running game as he has less on his mind with Brown than taking more control of the game management aspect. While Brown is in reserve grade developing his game the NRL team could always have Moses at five-eight and Ranking at halfback. Alternately, Will Smith could play. I would not reccomend Jakob Arthur yet, cause like Brown, he should play in reserve gradde to develop his game.
Thoughts? (P.S - HE IS NOT A CENTRE. lol )
Replies
No offence Graham but to say he has no vision or natural ability is absolutely ridiculous.
If he had no vision or natural ability he wouldn't be a starting 5/8 in a professional rugby league team who was also chased hard by NZ rugby.
I don't know if you have ever watched the all blacks but they are a champion side who wouldn't chase him if they thought he had no vision or natural ability.
He will be our long-term 5/8 and will also be the NZ long-term 5/8.
Whatever is thought of Dylan Brown, the reality is that he will play 6 all year because the Eels are thin on backups (Will Smith, Jordan Rankin).
For some this reality is fine because DB is a very good defender. But his opposite number stepped him and scored, making him look silly, in the Panthers trial. So we all know a quality 6 is more than just a solid defender, otherwise teams would play mobile back-rowers in the position. A quality 6 needs to create. And here I personally think DB became very predictable in the latter part of 2020. He dummies and steps inside straight in to a defender way too often. He often does the Corey Norman too (gets caught flat footed with the ball in the opposition quarter). And because he lacks a long kicking game, opposition defenses know they can target Moses on downfield kicks. DB also seemed to have a better short kicking game in 2019 and it's gone off somehow.
Overall, I'm personally not sold on DBrown. Sometimes I struggle to see the point of the praise that he "seems to have so much time". I'm obviously missing something, because it just looks like he too often dawdles with ball in hand. I hope he proves me wrong, because the Eels attack is boring and predictable, and we really need more output from our halves in general. Indeed, I suspect if the Eels do better than I expect - and I expect them to assume a spot in the bottom of the 8, never considered a genuine threat, and bow out of the finals without firing a shot - that it will have a lot to do with DBrown proving me wrong. Go Dylan
One of our best ever Brett Kenny started 1st grade in the centres and was used by the Master coach Jack Gibson more times then i can remember in the centres, not to mention for NSW and Australia.
Dylan Brown dosnt need to be dropped, he is definitely a first grader, however he dosnt have the skills as a 5/8 to take us to a Grandfinal, on what he has shown so far.
As far as asking us not to judge him for the last 2 years and only being 20, that seems a bit stupid, he is quite rightly being judged in the position he is supposed to be playing fullstop. His age dosnt matter what does matter is that we see improvement.
Dylan Brown at centre would kill it, how good would we look if we had him at centre and a Luke Keary, Cody Walker, Jack Wighton , Cameron Munster or Jarome Lui as our 5/8.
Our attack would look soooooooo much better.
For our sake i hope Dylan Brown really shows the improvement we need from him in the 5/8 position.
We need to put Dylan in a position to succeed. Plain and simple.
He's shown he has time with the ball, is competitive, not afraid to take a hit, and more than holds his own defenseively. The best ball he gets is pushing up in support of offloads. In attack he generally gets wide passes and trys to attack short sides with a plodding Lane and often has to take the hit himself. I've said in other threads in my opinion its Reed who is stuffing up the attack. He needs to be a threat in the middle. He needs runners playing in tight with him when we are rolling with strong carries and occasionally run himself.. not just swing it wide to Mitch or Dylan. We need to get Dylan some ball with the defensive line a disorganised as most of the ball he gets now his options are to run or kick. I'm not sure what we're trying to do with Reed. I think we've worked him so hard in defence and working on his contact etc the last couple of years his attacking game has been totally neglected. He still has a beautiful pass and long kick.... but he made way too many fatigue errors for a 9 last season. I'm not writing him off as a player, im saying we need to change his role and our attack. It might not always be like this, but this season we have to play a utility 14 who gives Reed a spell.
A lot of people? Who?
Brown is our shinning light in the halves. He is young but plays better than most. Our future is with him.
If he's our future, we are fekked.
Im not a big moses fan but Mitch outplays him every week, Brown basically offers nothing .
If Brown offers nothing why are they adding more to his plate this year hmmmmmm.
Theres a lot of absolutes being mentioned here for a kid who hasn't played out a full season but ok.
Dylan Browns best is in front of him the more he plays the better he gets.Finallly we develop a decent looking half and all a lot can do is tell us what he can't do okkk then.
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