First of all, good luck to you Dylan Brown. If your agent can squeeze a $14 million deal from an NRL club, then fair play to you.
No one reading these words would knock back that chance, even the most ardent Parramatta fan who will undoubtedly be screaming “where’s the loyalty in rugby league” after Brown “decided to take an opportunity that is best for me and my family”.
Secondly, Newcastle – you have mortgaged your club’s future on paying over market value to convince a very good player, not yet a great one, to join your club.
Brown could indeed turn out to be one of the best players in the NRL but judging by the first 124 games of his career at the Eels since his 2019 debut, the Knights are seeing something in him that most of us who follow this silly old game are yet to be convinced about.
He has been a dynamic player when he’s been alongside Parramatta’s actual superstar, gun halfback Mitchell Moses.
But when Brown has been called upon to step up when Moses has been out, he has consistently been unable to deliver.
Parra were pummelled 56-18, a scoreline which actually flattered them in the end after they trailed by 40 at half-time, with Brown lining up with injury-plagued former Warriors half Ronald Volkman as the key playmakers.
Last year when Moses was out, the Eels won four from just 16 outings. That was not entirely due to their NSW Origin half being sidelined but Brown did not cover himself in glory with his efforts in the No.7 jersey.
Quite bluntly, he is one of the best five-eighths in the NRL, but would probably only just be in the top five behind Cameron Munster, Matt Burton, Tom Dearden and Jarome Luai.
As far as inheriting the title of the highest-paid player in the game, if he is worth $1.3m a season then Nathan Cleary should be in the $2m-plus category with Panthers comrades Dylan Edwards and Isaah Yeo not far behind.
Dylan Brown. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
His manager claimed in a recent email to prospective suitors that Brown could be a “franchise player” but it is his job to sell his client not necessarily speak the truth.
Brown created 22 line breaks last season in 24 appearances which put him equal-second among five-eighths and was involved in 42 total try involvements (fourth in his position) but was ranked 10th for possessions per game. Even though he was often Parra’s main man in attack, being first receiver does not come naturally to him.
His statistics portray him to be a better version of Luke Brooks, who was also burdened by the expectations of a lucrative contract for several years at Wests Tigers before thriving as Manly five-eighth last season.
Brown has reassured the looooooong-suffering Eels faithful that he is “locked in for this year and we have a job to do”, perhaps referring to the task of not trailing by 40 after as many minutes from now on.
Nothing shows sincerity like a post put up as on Instagram story which disappears after 24 hours.
His decision it will be cold comfort to a fan base that has put up with years of disappointment while the club’s powerbrokers have every right to feel aggrieved after standing by Brown after he was banned for seven matches and fined $40,000 after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual touching following a drunken incident in 2023.
The Eels knew they had a special talent on their hands when they fast-tracked Brown into first grade as an 18-year-old prodigy six years ago.
And after he has for the most part proved to be a valuable investment, it’s why they signed him to an historic deal at the end of 2022 which was supposed to run until 2031 although the devil in the details was that there were get-out clauses along the way.
Brown has now exercised that right to walk out on Parra that they were foolish enough to include in his contract. Surely all future Eels deals will be free of this kind of player entitlement even if it means they have to let a quality prospect leave rather than wield the same kind of power over the club.
They have perhaps dodged a bullet in that the Eels now have nearly a million bucks up their sleeve over the next six seasons which they can now use elsewhere.
Kalyn Ponga wins the 2023 Dally M player of the year. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
For the Knights, they have put all their golden eggs into two baskets – Brown, who has already ended one long-term contract early, and their Dally M Medal-winning skipper Kalyn Ponga, whose history of loyalty to the cause has been chequered.
The Knights wisely took a punt on Ponga when he was a skinny teenager with potential at the Cowboys but after signing him to what started off as a good deal for the club, they were forced to re-negotiate terms to keep him around long term.
Every season there is talk of Ponga being tempted by the lure of the all but impossible All Blacks dream.
Former New Zealand rugby star Steven Donald was the latest Kiwi to speculate on Ponga being on the radar of Super Rugby franchises in the Land of the Long White Cloud just last week.
Ponga is, up until Monday night, Newcastle’s highest-paid player and is signed up until the end of 2027.
By adding Brown to the mix, the Knights could say that they have shored up their roster in case Ponga does hope codes or that they have two bona fide marquee names in their squad as they look to break a premiership drought which stretches back more than two decades.
But splashing cash has never been a recipe for success in the Hunter.
The nucleus of their title-winning sides of 1997 and 2001 were made up of home-grown talent who wanted nothing more than to represent the region – not just Paul Harragon, Andrew and Matthew Johns, but the likes of Matt Gidley, Steve Simpson, Danny Buderus, Timana Tahu and Mark Hughes.
Their one big-name recruit in those years was Ben Kennedy and even then he had only just broken into the representative ranks with NSW during his stint at the Raiders when the Knights snared his signature in 2000.
With Brown and Ponga eating up so much of their salary cap, it is going to be hard to add talent around the edges unless they are locals who want to be at the club or bargain basement additions from the journeymen carousel.
Knights Immortal Andrew Johns. (Getty Images)
Brown now becomes their David Fifita – when the former Broncos forward inked a mind-boggling three-year deal with the Titans worth $3.5m in 2020, it put a gigantic target on his back.
If he didn’t perform like the best player in the game, he would be considered a dud signing. He hasn’t been close to No.1 status since he’s been coasting at the Gold Coast and the backlash has been constant.
The other curiosity over the Knights going all in for Brown is that they have seemingly uncovered a diamond in the rough in the form of Fletcher Sharpe to solve their ongoing problem at five-eighth.
Sharpe played in the halves as a junior but was primarily used as a fullback or winger last year in his rookie season. He’s been a revelation in the No.6 jersey in the trials and last Friday’s win over Wests Tigers but either he or Brown will be charged with the chief playmaker’s role.
If you go by pay packet, Brown would have to be charged with this responsibility but this is not the second coming of Andrew Johns.
Brown’s not the messiah, he’s just a very good footy player who now has to justify the eye-watering investment the Knights have made in him.
