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Opinion
Before Dylan Brown worries about his next contract, he should perhaps worry about stringing together more than half a dozen good games in a row.
The Kiwi international is a very good player, but not yet a great one, even though he is seeking the salary of someone who is already a bona fide superstar.
Brown is entitled to earn as much as he can on the open market, but his reputation is suffering a hit in value as his manager offers his wares as a “franchise player”, even though his form for the Eels has fallen short of that highest of standards.
His halves partner, Mitchell Moses, is a franchise player. He is Parramatta’s franchise player.
When Moses was out last year with a torn pectoral, Brown was unable to step up and lead the Eels to the finals, or even keep their heads above water during the middle stages of the season when the finals were still a possibility.
Another five-eighth who has had his fair share of critics, Jarome Luai, proved he can be a franchise cornerstone when he took the reins from Nathan Cleary when Penrith’s superstar playmaker was out injured last year.
Granted, the Panthers have a much stronger roster than anything Parramatta were able to muster, but while Luai silenced many of his critics with the way he organised Ivan Cleary’s machine, Brown did little to convince anyone that he is capable of being anything more than a very good secondary playmaker, but not the main man of an NRL team, the very definition of a franchise player.
If you deem a “franchise player” to be someone who can make a team a playoff contender, pretty much no matter what happens, there would be no more than a handful of genuine franchise players among the 17 NRL clubs.
The Panthers have three of them in Cleary, Isaah Yeo and Dylan Edwards.
Moses fits into that category, along with the likes of Cameron Munster, Jahrome Hughes and Harry Grant at the Storm.
Mitchell Moses. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Broncos fullback Reece Walsh is not quite there given that he has been hot and cold for his team and it’s hard to make a case for anyone else being the go-to guy for a premiership winning team at the moment.
There have been players like Nicho Hines, Kalyn Ponga and Latrell Mitchell who have shown flashes of brilliance to put them in that conversation in recent years, but there are very few players who consistently can deliver the goods.
Brown needs to be careful he does not fall into the trap of becoming one of the modern era’s cautionary tales – the highly paid young playmaker who never quite lives up to his potential.
Players such as Luke Brooks, Ash Taylor and Jarrod Mullen had their careers derailed and attracted more than their fair share of criticism after their salaries were publicised as astronomically high compared to their playmaking peers and their hard-working but not quite as talented teammates.
Each of them had the misfortune of being labelled the next big thing and with it being hard enough to guide an NRL side around as a young player, the tag weighed heavily on their shoulders.
For Taylor, the multimillion-dollar investment that the Titans made in him proved to be of little value to the club and he retired two days after his 27th birthday due to a chronic hip problem after being forced to accept a bargain basement deal with the Warriors.
Brooks copped plenty of heat for not performing up to expectations after signing a mega deal with the Wests Tigers after the club was desperate to keep him amid Moses, James Tedesco and Aaron Woods walking out the door.
That deal was an albatross around his neck and it’s fair to say even Andrew Johns in his prime would have struggled to have dragged the Tigers rabble anywhere near the playoffs.
Brooks’ career has had a new lease of life after switching to Manly last year where he can comfortably play his role as the second banana alongside Daly Cherry Evans rather than being a team’s chief on-field general.
Headlines screamed that Mullen was “the next Andrew Johns” when he inherited the No.7 jersey from Newcastle’s favourite son and while he was a very good player for more than a decade in the NRL, there was never going to be another Joey.
Brown’s lengthy contract, which in theory runs until the 2031 end of season, is yet another example of the NRL’s chequered history with ultra-long contracts.
It appears that no sooner does the ink dry on these deals than leaks are made to the media about get-out clauses which strike fear into the hearts of fans.
Luai is still six weeks away from his first game with Wests and there have already been reports revealing that he can walk or he can negotiate with other clubs at the end of this season if the latest rebuild in TigerTown falls flat.
Jarome Luai. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
Whatever happens with Brown and his contract negotiations he needs to commit long term to whatever deal he ends up signing.
He is well within his rights to exploit Parramatta’s short-sightedness in allowing him to sign a long-term deal with two distinct exit ramps, one at the end of this season and another in 2028, which give him all the power and leave the club in a vulnerable situation.
Crying foul about contract negotiations being leaked to the media is bordering on disingenuous after the email from Brown’s manager was sent to the other 16 clubs.
Managers love this kind of publicity because it puts their client in the news and drives up their asking price (and, in turn, their commission).
The Dolphins have already been linked to a possible play for Brown as a halves partner for Isaiya Katoa and several other teams such as Newcastle, the Roosters, Dragons and the Warriors are in need of star power in their halves and would love to get their hands on a player like Brown for the right price.
He is still just 24 even though he has been in the NRL for six seasons in racking up 123 games for the Eels and he should be coming into the prime of his career over the next four or five years but, as we can see by the latest hullabaloo, he will not come cheap.
Dylan Brown. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
NRL playmakers according to the governing body’s own benchmarking in the salary cap earn a lot more than the players filling the other positions on the field.
The NRL is becoming like the NFL where quarterbacks are often the be-all and end-all of a team which means their worth dollar-wise is huge but the pressure to deliver is also immense.
Talented young QBs are often chewed up and spat out quickly if they don’t live up to expectations.
The potential exit of Brown is the last thing that rookie coach Jason Ryles needs as he tries to galvanize the blue and gold fold after a turbulent off-season in which Reagan Campbell-Gillard and Clint Gutherson were told they could leave early and did so while Parra’s best young prospect, Blaize Talagi, decided he would prefer to switch to Penrith and play out of position at five-eighth rather than stick with the Eels even though he was virtually guaranteed his preferred No.1 jersey after making an eye-catching start to his NRL career last year.
The bad news for Parramatta is that Moses is another of these players with get-out clauses in his contract as part of his long-term deal, meaning he could give the Eels the slip at the end of next year or 2027.
NRL clubs and players almost need to be protected from themselves when it comes to agreeing upon long-term deals.
Jason Taumalolo has still got three more years to serve on the 10-season deal he signed with the Cowboys at the end of 2017.
The problem for North Queensland is that the Tongan veteran is no longer the franchise player that he was three or four years ago and he’s been struggling with injuries which have limited his game time and hampered his effectiveness.
On current form, he is not worth anywhere near the reported million dollars per season he is entitled to for this year and the next two seasons.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Daly Cherry Evans’ similarly lengthy deal with Manly is one of the few long-term deals that seemed to be mutually beneficial to each party.
There were of course famously teething problems in the beginning when he did a U-turn on the Titans to stay with Manly but he actually got better as the deal went on and the Sea Eagles had the stability of a star halfback for more than a decade.
Even though he’s not as quick on his feet as he once was, DCE’s speed between the ears is still up there with the best in the NRL and if he can stay injury free to orchestrate Manly from first receiver, there’s no reason why he won’t be offered an extension beyond this season if he wants to play on even though he turns 36 next month.
Brown was smart enough to get the Eels to agree to his loaded contract in the first place so he can take his time, in theory, before deciding upon his future. Officially, he has until Round 10 to get it sorted.
Eels fans are a loyal bunch and it would not surprise if Brown copped booing from the grandstands, like David Fifita did from Titans supporters last year when he momentarily decided he was heading to the Roosters.
Parramatta also need to resolve this as quickly as possible because it has the potential to be an unwanted distraction for a team which has missed the finals for the past two years and is probably a 50-50 chance at best of getting back there with a new-look outfit.
They definitely have one franchise player in their line-up in Moses but his teammate who has been declared one by his agent is yet to prove he is worthy of that status.