"So Ryles sat down with Brown and laid it out. You can go, but if you choose to stay I can’t guarantee you will play in the halves."
Summary:
The Eels began planning for the future, and Dylan Brown was no longer part of those long-term plans. Coach Jason Ryles had an open and honest discussion with Brown, similar to one he had with Clint Gutherson in the off-season. Gutherson chose to leave and joined St George Illawarra. In contrast, Brown accepted the decision, expressed willingness to play wherever needed, and preferred to finish the season with Parramatta before joining Newcastle.
Opinion:
What a mess!
The second Dylan signed elsewhere his season at the Eels was effectively over. Now it's been confirmed that it is truly over as far as his Coach is concerned. Yet he still takes up salary cap space and we still have the season to finish.
I concede that the offer he got from Newcastle was insane and he had no choice but to take it, however the situation highlights the farce that is the current player transfer market. Basically if you have a player sign elsewhere 12 months out then it's over there and then. All the talk at the time about him being committed to the season and an important piece of our plans was nonsense. We're a team running 15th and we're benching one of our Marquee players. It's irrelevant if that is the right thing to do, what it illustrates is the mess that our R&R is.
Apologies for the rant but I'm frustrated with the continual bumbling of our roster. This is our 3rd season straight without finals.
Replies
Yeah .... dunno .. he can't exactly go out scouting when it's raining and get to all the grass roots locations . I'm all for giving the bloke something to do , but I'm not sure Head Of Recruitments the best gig. He'd be better than that goose we've got, 1000% but I don't think that should be our yardstick, just being better than the absolute spud we have . We need better in recruitment . Ando would make a good head of football , fuck MON off and let Ando sink his wheels into that gig.
What has Anderson done in the recruitment space that would suggest he's any good at it?
Whilst the Brown situation is appalling and at least in part by our own ineptitude as a club, I agree Coryn there's a league wide problem - the most egregious case is the top of the table Bulldogs successfully poaching a "rising star" from the languishing Tigers by offering LESS than the Tigers offered.
That is quite literally the opposite of what the Salary Cap is intended to incentivise.
Well run teams exploit the system. Poorly run ones suffer from it.
I feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel. The fact JR has made bold calls in RCG, CG, SL, BC, RM and JO makes me think the only way is up. I feel like Junior was getting the tap but has adapted to the new system. Hoping we can recruit a few more for 2026. All our new buys have improved in 2025 with many having limited first grade experience.
Sorry Mutts please correct me if I am wrong here as I am not sure it's me sleep deprived form my 6 month old that I am reading it wrong.
Are you annoyed we are benching Brown as you say at the end, yet say he is taking up cap space etc. If that is the case what I said who cares if he is benched if it bothers you that he is taking up cap space?
Or are you saying getting into the situation of letting him leave in the first place which I agree shouldn't be in that situation where Newcastle had the ability to offer $1.4mil.
Please correct me if I am wrong as I more likely am.
It's all of it.
It's telling Talagi his path is blocked when it wasn't.
It's having a key player with Player options in his contract allowing him to leave.
It's having said player sign elsewhere but we still keep playing him telling supporters he's fully committed blah blah blah.
It's when reality hits and he's not actually committed, so he's warming the bench so we can plan for next year in July.
It's a rich tapestry.
I agree with all of it bar Talagi. His path was blocked to play 6, hindsight it wasn't as if he didn't have an option for 2025 instead a proper deal (That can be more of a complaint) then Talagi would be the 6 in 2026.
So technically his path was blocked at 6 as the club would not have imagined Brown to not take up his option, but at the same time there was always that chance and that is on them.
The question is why can Talagi not stay with us but players like Pezet Fa'alongo Howarth and like stay but yet the mentioned above for Melbourne walk into starting lineups wherever they go yet as soon as Talagi is offered something else he can't get out of town quick enough.
Its a can of worms in the retention stakes like Mutts mentioned it's not hindsight when the options are in DBs contract not new news Talagi's agent knew this.JR wanted to keep him and in the same breath we not only lose Talagi throw in Sanders and Brown to boot.Now we have to establishand spend more money to fix its.2 steps foward one step back.
This is the off field issues that knee cap us as a club and the top clubs juat don't have this issue.
Though Coryn, both Fa'alogo and Pezet have clauses that let them be free agents if Papenhuyzen and Hughes extend. I have mentioned it before but yeah everyone knew the clauses were there but Brown could still have stayed.
It's just the way it's handled is all that's the real difference.
Melbourne are at the top of the tree and we are somewhere down by the roots.
That's the reality of it Parra are lightyears behind a club like Melbourne off the field.It's no fluke these guys have only missed the finals once in 20 years.
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