The Parramatta Eels are pleased to announce that rising talent Teancum Brown has been upgraded to a development contract for the 2026 season, and an NRL contract extension for the 2027 and 2028 seasons.
Brown joined the Eels in 2024 in the Club’s Jersey Flegg squad and has since demonstrated steady improvement, and a commitment to developing his all-round game.
General Manager of Football Mark O’Neill praised Brown’s recent form and commitment to improvement.
“Teancum thoroughly deserves this opportunity. He has worked incredibly hard during the pre-season which impressed his teammates and coaches.” O’Neill said. “Teancum has a good engine for a big man, loves to compete and he displayed a level of confidence in the trial matches which he can take into the season ahead."
The development contract in 2026 will allow Brown to continue training full-time within the NRL system, gaining valuable experience alongside the Club’s senior squad. His upgraded deal through 2028 reflects the Eels’ long-term belief in his potential and the role he can play at NRL level in the coming seasons.
Source: https://www.parraeels.com.au/news/2026/02/25/parramatta-eels-upgrade-teancum-brown/
Replies
Agreed, I also think when B Smith had that team in the 98 era (Pay / McCracken / Smith / Dymock) plus some others we had the steel; it was when they left for me that we softened a tad. I was at the minor semi againts Norths at Parra when we belted them. We had some youth too in that era......Cayless / Hindmarsh / Vella and co.
It starts and ends with the defence; even Brisbane had some defence last year.
Absolutely, Mitchy. Pay, Dymock, Smith, McCracken—The Big Four—added class and steel. And without the SL war, they don't happen for us. IMO, without Walsh, who saved more tries than he scored, the Broncos probably don't win the 2025 GF.
Two words Lateral Agility the fowards we had were North South players we wanted to play a dominant middle 1/3 style and our roster especially our middles reflected that.
Coaching philosophy is what it was and the stats can say whatever they like but the style coached was basically what you need to win finals games high completion less errors win off the back of Moses kicking game.
Remember while a lot will fault this style and it had its faults Parra were the only team in the comp to push Penrith nobody else could consistently.Not the Bennetts Bellamy's Stuart's Robinson and alike of the nrl could touch Riff like we could and that was down to how we were built and played.
Thats the positive I take away from BAs era the ability for his teams to compete and beat the best.
Coryn, spot on about "lateral agility".
Let's agree to disagree on BA's teams being built-for-finals.
He had a 4/12 (33%) record, and never beat the Panthers (0/3), Storm (0/3) or Souths in finals, conceding av. 31pg.
So, I get where Moses' inconsistency concerns come from, even in the 2022 grand final year. Especially, when you're beating the Panthers during the regular season one week, but then getting belted 34-4 by then bottom four Dogs and 26-0 by Souths a few weeks out from the finals.
Ours is a weak-link sport.
Style of play is what I'm getting at when I say that comment.Own the middle third kick to corners take your opportunities off of teams mistakes.
The record will say different but Brisbane have been the outlier over the last 5 years but those Riff teams and the Melbourne teams of years past just grind you down and suffocate you I think that's what we were trying to get to.
Finals football games tighten up and as you well know it's not flamboyance that wins these games.
Ba coached teams only ever beat also rans in each final series. He'd only managed 4 wins from 12 finals appearances. Against
8tg Brisbane - were flops at the time
8th Newcastle- hasn't done anything since
8th Canberra - scraped in
Cowboys - best win but the Cowboys have done absolutely nothing since
So essentially brad has had success against teams who just scraped into finals contention. 4 wins from 12 says it all imo
Ba couldn't keep up with the times when the rules changed to make the state of play quicker. His old tried and true bash with bigger forwards and let Moses kick had become redundant.
58-0 you must hate that a finals rout that's still a record to this day
Newcastle we don't make the draw we still beat them well.
Scraped in Canberra what did we hammer them by again.
Cows haven't done anything since funny how defense won that game in the crunch.
We had a run 15-22 where if not for off the field antics and poor leadership the record could well have been better but of course if we aren't looking at the entire picture that'll be missed.
Coryn, I get what you mean about finals "style". You've definitely got a point there.
Ryles is also looking to get more juice out of the middle too, as well as more firepower and more opportunties there for the likes of Moses and TDS in support, as he noted in that Johns' interview last year. We saw glimpses of that in the trials. Short passes, second phase. Walker & Junior provides creativity for that. Maybe Hopgood if he returns to form. He'd be hoping the likes of Big Sam, Brown, Moretti, Doorey, even an improved Hopgood will improve our middle muscle and ability to bend the line consistently. I liked what I saw of JDB too.
To me it seems he's doing these things, simultaneously, re-building the club's culture and a winning footy team, which is a huge task, including addressing these areas:
I'd also agree with you: the Broncos were an outlier. Talent over systems, though Melbourne's systems were a little off last year, as were the Panthers, and the Broncos have supreme talent and athletes. Dolphins are another. Sure, Haas is a middle destroyer, but Walsh was the difference, I feel, creating tries, scoring them from nothing, and stopping even more tries. It will be interesting to see if they can back it up this year. There is not much separating a huge bulk of teams.
Best thing I've seen is the seamlessness of players moving in and out of the team without the team losing any structure in attack and defense.Everyone has bought in and it's showing.
The only real weakness I'm seeing in the team is the back 5 coming out of yardage it's why this Lomax BS is a achilles heal that not even the market can fix right now.
Outside of this I think physically we are upto the mark a lot better than last year and the improvement is there to be seen especially what's coming with our young middles.
Against more athletic and physical sides the tip on and short passing within the fowards is a bonus also.I think we've always had the ability to do that but we're handcuffed by style of play and the dreaded setup plays.When Walker comes on the game evolves again because his run pass selection is some of the best in the comp and his role is crucial to continue our game to evolve.
Signs are definitely there we just short a player or 2.This is like you mention where R & R comes to into play.
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