{"id":2226,"date":"2025-07-18T04:46:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T04:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/2226\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T04:46:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T04:46:08","slug":"eels-keep-door-open-for-out-of-favour-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/2226\/","title":{"rendered":"Eels keep door open for out-of-favour Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

The door remains open for Newcastle-bound Dylan Brown to put on the Parramatta shirt again, Eels coach Jason Ryles insists.<\/p>\n

But whether that does happen for the star five-eighth, a forward-focused Ryles can’t say for certain.<\/p>\n

Ryles has taken a clear eye to the future with Parramatta of realistic finals contention, leaving Brown as 18th man for Saturday’s clash against ladder-leaders Canberra.<\/p>\n

With Brown set to join the Knights from 2026 on his record-breaking $13 million, 10-year deal, Ryles handed 20-year-old rookie Joash Papalii the No.6 jersey last week.<\/p>\n

\"JoashJoash Papalii (c) enjoys an Eels try during a recent game against the Dragons. (Dean Lewins\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Brown started at hooker and played only 35 minutes across two stints, but youngster Ryley Smith’s return from suspension now leaves Brown out of the side altogether.<\/p>\n

With eight rounds remaining, there is a chance the 25-year-old has played his last game for the Eels.<\/p>\n

But not according to Ryles.<\/p>\n

“No, he hasn’t, I don’t think, but I don’t have a crystal ball,” Ryles said on Friday.<\/p>\n

“The option to use him again is certainly there.<\/p>\n

“If that does come up and we get an injury or two and he fits into that picture, then we’ll do that, definitely.”<\/p>\n

Brown finds himself on the sidelines after turning down an opportunity to make the mid-season switch to Newcastle.<\/p>\n

But Ryles could only praise Brown’s attitude since telling him the club was now casting an eye to the future.<\/p>\n

\"DylanDylan Brown makes a break against the Dolphins earlier in the season at CommBank Stadium. (Dan Himbrechts\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

“How’s Dylan taking it? He’s been outstanding,” Ryles said.<\/p>\n

“He’s done everything that we needed him to do this week in regards to training and meetings and for the team and that sort of thing.<\/p>\n

“He couldn’t have handled it any better. And I think the clarity around it for him early days was really important.<\/p>\n

“There was an opportunity to go to Newcastle early. He chose to stay with us, which was absolutely fine, but we gave him the opportunity.<\/p>\n

“And then we spoke about what that might look like going forward in regards to now, and this was a possibility, so it’s pretty simple for me.<\/p>\n

“One thing’s clear … he won’t be playing Cup. He’ll either be with us (in the NRL) or with no one.”<\/p>\n

Smith’s return from suspension has given Ryles the chance to see how he and mid-season recruit Tallyn Da Silva work as a combination, with Smith coming off the bench.<\/p>\n

“They’ll be good. It’s something we’re looking forward to,” Ryles said.<\/p>\n

“It’s our future there, so they’ll get the first opportunity to play together this week.”<\/p>\n

The Eels will still be without captain Mitch Moses (calf), but Ryles remains confident their star half is on target to return next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The door remains open for Newcastle-bound Dylan Brown to put on the Parramatta shirt again, Eels coach Jason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,1348,3355,3359,3353,761,762,44,3356,3354,3357,158,85,3358,1346],"class_list":["post-2226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-breaking-news","tag-daily-news","tag-global-news","tag-inkl","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-news","tag-news-app","tag-news-headlines","tag-news-today","tag-nrl","tag-sports","tag-today-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}