The Eels are reportedly in the box seat to retain Dylan Brown despite the Dolphins’ bid to lure him to Redcliffe on a deal worth around $1 million a season.
The Daily Telegraph’s Dave Riccio reported on SEN radio that Dolphins recruitment boss Peter O’Sullivan has a close relationship with the Eels playmaker after trying to lure him to the Warriors during his time with the club.
“We see the Dolphins coming hard at Dylan Brown,” Riccio told SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“The connection here is Peter O’Sullivan, who is head of recruitment at the Dolphins.
“He had a massive crack at Dylan Brown when he was working at the Warriors only 12 months ago.
“They have a relationship … they’ve stayed in contact ever since and now O’Sullivan is trying to do the job of getting Brown to the Dolphins.”
However, Riccio believes Brown’s close bond with Eels coach Brad Arthur could work in Parramatta’s favour and that the Dolphins offer may have to be north of $1 million a year to secure the New Zealand five-eighth’s signature.
“It’ll have to be in excess of $1 million (a season) to pull him out of Parramatta,” Riccio said.
“If I’m an Eels fan, I still hold a lot of confidence that he stays.
“Brown and Brad Arthur have a very close relationship, we saw Brown’s development this year compared to the season before … we saw his footy evolve.
“I think that will continue to evolve under the consistency of being coached by Brad Arthur.
“I’m pretty confident … I think the Eels are in the box seat.”
The 22-year-old has scored 24 tries in 82 NRL games for the Eels since his NRL debut in 2019 and has also played five Tests for New Zealand.
Replies
Based on a on 'reporter's' hunch. Gold star journalism.
A million would make Dylan the highest paid Dolphin. With that comes very high expectations and pressure.
And at 22 I doubt Dylan wants or would handle the pressure, He would be scrutinised every game big time.
Eels will keep Dylan on the 850k mark, probably with incentives. And this time lock him up for 4/5 years.
Jeremiah Nanai: " I want to stay in Townsville and win a premiership, that's on my mind and that's where my HEART is".
Where do we get players like Nanai that loves his club and not out chasing the highest $ bidder like both our halves.
Nanai wants to stay in Townsville where there's only one club to choose from. If Dylan Brown wants to stay in Sydney he has plenty of options driving his price up.
And that's why DB's management is talking to the Dolphins, because they're a Sydney club?
You've missed the point. IF he cares about staying in Sydney there's more than just the Eels to choose from. And if he doesn't care about staying in Sydney then it's irrelevant. Either way there's no benefit to us. Meanwhile Nanai claims to want to stay in Townsville. Who else can he play for other than the Cowboys? It's the same for players wanting to stay in Melbourne and Auckland. Until recently this applied to Brisbane as well.
Not to mention DB doesn't have any love for Parramatta from a sentimental aspect. Not that we should only recruit players that supported Eels as kids , but Brown didn't even go for the Warriors , or anyone. Not even a single Yawnion team , he simply had no team he loved growing up. So what chance have we got of him having a special place in his heart for us . He simply is motivated by money , which is fine , as long as we realise that when it comes to making our decisions around him . And if he walks people need to deal with it . It's very likley he will go for the highest amount he gets offered.
Look at the players Penrith let go when their contracts run out, all recruited from outside the local area: Capewell, Burton, Kikau, Momirovski, Koroisau, Hopgood.
That's not true he was a supporter of the Hurricanes and as for not going for the Warriors they rated Paul Turner ahead of DB and took him instead then Parra jumped in and grabbed him.
I think if any team has shown love for DB it's Parra.
If he or MM walk it's a catastrophic failure by Mark ONeill and co purely because these soughts of halves are so hard to come by.You can say accept he may leave but if they do can you accept it puts Parra back in the dark ages and there chances of making the 8 let alone making a run for the title are pretty much history aswell are you ready for potentially that to happen also.
Brown 1 million, Moses 1.2
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