As Blue & Gold fans, we can be quick to negativity & criticism, a frustration likely developed through 38 years of starvation.
For many, who are quick to criticise, Dylan is currently pouring fuel on his own fire, feeding his own negative PR.
For those who are fans of Dylan, the player, who watched his rise to exceptional from in Round 12 2023 against South Sydney, only to then witness his much publicised off-field incident directly afterwards, drawing a line through his own & the Eels season, this contract process is harder to swallow as we look forward to his continued on-feild rise in 2025.
It's frustrating, but we have to remain patient, and understand that from our perspective as passionate fans we are simply not privy to any trustworthy information - Eels are click bait, and the stories will keep coming.
FINANCIAL
While we do not know the exact details, It certainly appears that the Eels are holding firm on their offer as they likely look to remove clauses from his contract.
It’s a very refreshing stance by Parra, and we have to commend them for it.
Though, digging deeper, if Dylan were to walk from the Eels, is 900k savings per year really a positive as many claim?
The Eels lose millions in development, and more importantly (for us as fans), we lose valuable time, years, of development & growth of combinations, especially with Mitch Moses.
Removing Dylan from this Eels team might allow 900k a season to go to market, but, unless we are able to purchase a like for like replacement, which is incredibly unlikely, we infinitely go backwards at 5/8th.
What is the real price of that loss, when you consider…
THE EELS SPINE
The Eels will be running inexperience at two vital spine positions with Iongi at fullback, and Brendan Hands at hooker, unless we go to market for a dummy half.
Albeit talented, and an exciting change at fullback, these two are both still very raw. Adding another inexperienced member of the spine at five-eighth, and we are essentially rebuilding, or at best renovating, and, does that renovation period outlast the time Mitch Moses has in the game?
I hear you, we can go to market for another 5/8th, preventing the above.
Unless that is Tom Dearden or Jerome Luai (very unlikely), its going to take time for whoever that would be to gel.
Time we have, but does Mitch?
THE MITCH MOSES EFFECT
‘I feel like I play my best footy with Dylan, he knows I love playing with him, and I think everyone else in the team loves playing with him, so he knows where we all stand.’ - Mitch Moses.
With Dylan & Mitch on the field, something that has been far too rare over the past few seasons, the Eels have a halves combination capable of competing for Premierships in coming years.
These two compliment each other perfectly. Its rare, and needs to be valued.
What impact does removing Dylan Brown have on Moses?
With DB & Mitch the Eels have two very dangerous halves for oppositions to strategise for & work hard to cover both sides of the field. This forces defences to be over thinking, over working, it creates fatigue.
One of the biggest concerns with removing Dylan is the pressure it will apply to Moses. All of a sudden, defences can target Mitch, as they did with Dylan last season, it likely impacts the freedom he currently plays with.
But, just how much of a threat is Dylan Brown?
2024 ‘THE NUMBERS'
‘Whether he is good form or bad form, Dylan Brown is an absolute threat on the team sheet when playing Parramatta, so for me he’s already in that top bracket of players’ - Cooper Cronk
There has been a thought process amongst many that he ‘underachieved’ last season at best, and was a ‘complete failure’ at worst, and has not improved at all since 2022. We've heard it all.
Do the numbers back these claims?
’An argument could be made for Brown being the best performing five-eighth in the competition last season - Fox sports guru Aaron Wallace.
‘If Brown wasn’t the form five-eight last year, he was pretty close, the numbers suggest so’ Wallace continued.
Braith Anasta commented:
‘He’s been at a club thats struggling, so its easy to kind of overlook how well he is playing and when you play alongside Mitch Moses, he can be overshadowed a bit.
‘It’s easy to think he had underachieved, when he hasn’t. The stats don’t lie’.
Stats from Aron Wallace (Fox Sports).
FIVE-EIGTH TRY INVOLVEMENT RANK:
- Braydon Trindell
- Luke Keary
- Luke Brooks
- Dylan Brown
- Tom Deardon
FIVE-EIGTH TRY ASSISTS RANK:
- Cody Walker
- Dylan Brown
- Kodi Nikorima
- Jayden Campbell
- Luke Brooks
FIVE-EIGTH LINE BREAK INVOLVEMENT RANK:
- Tom Dearden
- Cody Walker
- Dylan Brown
- Luke Keary
- Luke Brooks
FIVE-EIGTH LINE BREAK ASSISTS RANK:
- Kodi Nikorima
- Cody Walker
- Jack Cogger
- Dylan Brown
- Jayden Campbell
Wallace had Dylan Brown ranked 1st, when covering all metrics.
What the stats don’t show were Dylans struggles from his unfamiliar halfback position last season. There is no doubt running the side as a general wasn’t within his abilities at this stage.
And both Braith Anasta & Cooper Cronk spoke of Dylan finding that ‘C’ word at his top level also - consistency.
What makes Dylan Browns 2024 impressive though, outside the fact he was surrounded by a revolving door of reserve grade players, while missing his halfback & playing an unfamiliar position, was the fact the Eels ran:
These are brutal team statistics that must have had Jason Ryles questioning his decision.
CULTURE
All of the above, of course, is meaningless if a player doesn’t fit, or worse, impacts the culture of a team.
Everything we have heard from the inner sanctum, would suggest this is not an issue for Dylan Brown.
‘I love the kid and what he does outside of footy is what nobody sees — he has a massive effect on the Parramatta area and I really hope he stays’ - Mitch Moses.
If Ryles feels Dylan isn't the right fit for what he is building, then now is the time for change, and it feels as if we can finally trust the coach & club with that decision
CONCLUSION
We are all Eels fans, we bleed blue & gold, and, the future is looking bright.
Players will always come & go, we’ve seen more than our fair share of talent walk from our club.
Would we survive without Brown? Of course.
But, its unmistakeable that the Eels are a far superior side with Dylan Brown, and we’d be selling ourselves short to assume he's easily replaceable. Especially now, as the club have rectified shortcomings of the previous few years that will ultimately impact Brown more than most.
We have a genuine back up halfback.
We have two genuine rep standard outside backs.
We have a more mobile & agile forward pack.
We have our halfback healthy again.
We have a new coach, and hopefully, we have a new defensive mindset & ability with the changes above.
At the end of the day, a Premiership is what we as fans are ultimately seeking.
Love him or hate him, Dylan Brown makes the chances of competing for one in the near future a far more likely prospect.
Sign, Dylan.
Replies
Agree ads the circus has to end, removing the options is a good start - standard contract with no incentives for DB, 1 mil is overs and if activates the options that's what he will paid 26 - there is a shift happening hopefully we see a club first approach especially when negotiating contracts - in Jason we trust!.
You still don't understand and your responses are akin to your intelligence.
Context....it's not a big word, go and look it up .
What's Pawn Stars or whatever you think is relevant got to do with it?
I have made no reference to your occupation, if you have one, or your educational qualifications if you have any? BUT then again I would not bring it up about your recent missing time BUT then again I am staying in context. The context was about Dyllan Brown and the fact is you know nothing about his situation other than your conjecture, is it relevant to the extent of "what if you are wrong" how will you hande it?
I have had similar conjecture and I will ask the same question, what if I am wrong? My answer is "so be it", I am glad it was not as bad as I first thought.. I am happy to be wrong in such a situation!
That was my question, why ask that question of Ads? because he has every right to express his opinion, I would add that it requires some qualification, but I did not qualify that, only asked the question which I will now put to you as well.....what if you are wrong?
When you talk in the absolute the way you do, you need to qualify same....simply you dont! You can't comprehend this because esentially your too stupid to understand.
Sorry I cannot help you with that!
Lol I remember you comments about MON, clueless
You take a postion, argue and then get proven wrong in most cases, your not qualified! Lol
Who"s asking for help dopey?? Lol ah the delusional
Fark off dickhead, your anti intellectual
You've managed to ruin a great blog.. very predictable btw
Instead of shitting all over this blog, take a dump in your own blog Ploppa .
lol
You have called me Anti-Intellectual Micky....
Do you want me to explain it for you?
Anti-intellectuals may present themselves and be perceived as champions of common folk—populists against political and academic elitism—and tend to see educated people as a status class that dominates political discourse and higher education while being detached from the concerns of ordinary people.
Listen my son you are the intellectual by definition on here and we both know that is not true! just that you would like to be.
You try to be anti intellectual without knowing because you are fundamentally a person that simply doesn't understand.
Personally after being on an advisory board to a major university (Griffith many years ago) I could never call myself anti intellectual but to coin a phrase I would say that I can fit both versions in circumstances....a bit like the "curates egg" good in parts. Scientists by the way never get involved in emotion, only the facts.
The true intellectuals on here that I respect would be Daz, Phil and Nos so I cannot be totally anti-intellectual any more than you could be intellectual. I might add that i suspect all three lean somwhere on the left side of the spectrum and I believe the term would need more definition to be something we could acuse one of. Notice I used the word "suspect" and not in the absolute tence. I simply do not know.... trying saying that sometimes. I have no trouble admitting it, it seems you may have!
Go and do some more homework my boy!
Hey you cooked, confused dirty, old, crusty, perverted useless piece of shit.. how are them sleep over requests been recived? Lol keep trying...
Even on minor football discussions your all at seaa.. should I mind you??? Jordan Samrani to make his first debut on the Wing?? Bhahaha this kid covers second row and centre.. wtf are doing you doing copying and posting TCT information.. seriously it's a point but pressed you carried on baby...
Your who take on the DB contract saga is complete dribble and rubbish, you've been owned plenty of times by snake,wiz, Randy, I'm in great company.. no need to pull others up with you nonsensical comparisons, lame observations and your l unintelligent posts... Just stay away from the thoughtful discussions that take place and shit all over your own blogs . ..
Your content stinks...can't wait for the likes NOS, HOE prof Daz to share thier intectect, insights and wealth of knowledge & information all stand up men unlike yourself you nobody..
Finally clown.. don't interrupt any dialogue I'm having with another poster...stay in your shitty lane
Poor boy, you got into the gutter, not me.
You cannot stay away is your problem, not mine. BTW being a nobody is not that bad. You should try it, your obviously very worried about being one.
All your own doing, don't play the victim card...you won't fool anyone here your rubbish antics..
Ok!
The only part of the game I hope Ryles unlocks is the defensive side of it.
Attack for the most part over the years isn't the issue here.
Giving up 30 plus a game is unacceptable and has to be the #1 fix this season.
We need edge consistency and we need to tie up our middle to help the first mentioned.
Ryles Moa and co this is the key to a good season for Parra.
You want to know why Riff have won 4 on the trot it's all starts with the defense that's the mantra we must have defensive resilience for mine all this other talk is secondary.
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