There are fresh concerns out of Parramatta which indicate the club fears they’ll end up losing star playmaker Dylan Brown in free agency amid an eye-watering offer from a rival club.
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As reported earlier this week, the Newcastle Knights have tabled a massive ten-year, $13 million offer to Brown, which is a $300,000 annual spike on his current deal with the Eels.
Brown’s contract with Parramatta runs until 2031 but is littered with controversial get out clauses. He has one for 2026 which means he has until Round 10 of this year to opt out of his current deal if he wishes to do so.
In the meantime, he can negotiate with rival clubs, with the Knights one of two teams interested.
If Brown decided to reject the Knights to stay with the Eels, he would leaving up to $6.4 million on the table.
The second team showing plenty of interest in Brown wishes to remain anonymous.
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The Daily Telegraph’s David Riccio confirmed Newcastle’s massive offer to Brown but also revealed that for the first time, the Eels are “nervous” about losing Brown.
“The Knights have come in with a ten-year offer worth $13 million or $1.3 million a season,” Riccio said on NRL360.
“Now I can tell you that for the first time of this entire process, the Eels are getting nervous.
“They are sitting at $1 million a year the Eels which they think is a fair offer, and I have to say I agree.”
Given the length of Brown’s contract with the Eels, the Knights needed to make an extravagant play to come under consideration.
The problem is, they’ve already got the most expensive player in the NRL on the books in Kalyn Ponga. Can they realistically use up so much of the salary cap on just two players?
While NRL360 host Braith Anasta believes it’s a “risk the Knights should take”, Riccio disagrees.
“This is a risk beyond all means. I see it as a desperate play by a desperate footy club that’s trying to get a significant signing,” he said.
“I think it’s an additional paly to keep Kalyn Ponga. Right now, the Knights are losing more than they’re signing.”
“They need elite players around him because they’ll waste Ponga’s best years … If you don’t surround him with good talent then you have just wasted his best years,” Riccio’s colleague Michael Carayannis countered.
“I’m sure the Knights won’t want to give him a ten-year deal, but they have to do it to compete with Parramatta.”
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If the Knights end up inking Brown to the $13 million deal, how will they be able to swing it to appease the salary cap?
Following the hire of recruitment manager Peter O’Sullivan last season, the Knights were able to move on some bad contracts, with several other players set to leave at the end of 2025 as well.
“They can afford it because they get a little bit of free space next year. They’ve been hamstrung the Knights by an inability to move players on,” Carayannis explained.
“We saw Daniel Saifiti leave last year, Jayden Brailey won’t be re-signed, Jackson Hastings won’t be re-signed, plus Adam Elliott and Jack Hetherington come off contract at season’s end as well.”
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