{"id":393351,"date":"2026-01-05T15:17:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/393351\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T15:17:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:17:23","slug":"nrl-2026-brian-kelly-signs-two-year-deal-to-join-the-eels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/393351\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Brian Kelly signs two-year deal to join the Eels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Eels may have found their Zac Lomax replacement after the club signed experienced centre Brian Kelly for the next two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Parramatta needed another strike weapon in the outside backs after they granted Lomax an early release to pursue opportunities outside of rugby league, with the rep star tipped to switch codes to rugby union this year.<\/p>\n<p>While they\u2019ll miss his aerial acrobatics and his goalkicking, Kelly is a handy replacement and brings plenty of big-game experience having represented Country Origin and the Indigenous All Stars.<\/p>\n<p>The hard-running centre has his issues in defence but is a prolific offloader who has scored 66 tries in 190 games for Manly and the Titans. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had an opportunity to strengthen our outside backs which was a positional area of need, and Brian certainly fits that need very well for us,\u201d Eels general manager of football Mark O\u2019Neill said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJason and the coaching staff are looking forward to working with Brian who adds a greater attacking dimension to our game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith nearly 200 NRL games to his name, Brian\u2019s experience will be an added benefit the broader squad.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Kelly spent seven seasons with the Titans and had another year to run on his current deal, but Gold Coast has granted him an early release.<\/p>\n<p>It means they\u2019ve lost the bulk of their left edge from last season with Kieran Foran retired and speedster Alofiana Khan-Pereira now at the Warriors after he dropped in and out of the side.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Titans can confirm Brian Kelly has been granted an early release from the final year of his contract to take up an opportunity with the Parramatta Eels,\u201d a club statement read.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 29-year-old joined the Gold Coast in 2019 and has played 143 games for the Titans, bringing his total to 190 appearances after beginning his NRL career with the Sea Eagles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Titans thank Brian for his contribution over the past seven seasons and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read related topics:<a class=\"topic_tag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/topics\/brisbane\" data-tgev-container=\"story-topic-links\" data-tgev-label=\"Brisbane\" data-tgev-order=\"1\" data-tgev-metric=\"npv\" data-tgev=\"event10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brisbane<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Eels may have found their Zac Lomax replacement after the club signed experienced centre Brian Kelly for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[60068,64,63,689,39344,4560,9124,152333,19061,30241,2105,2485,4612,210384,4484,49979,26596,761,762,673,43961,158,677,192312,16390,9112,701,159,2633,16205,210255,127524,85,210383,22958,36719,22332],"class_list":["post-393351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-aerial-acrobatics","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-blue-shirt-trainers","tag-brian-kelly","tag-chris-hyde","tag-club-statement-read","tag-coaching-staff","tag-eels","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-titans","tag-indigenous-all-stars","tag-kieran-foran","tag-martin-gabor","tag-matt-roberts","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-south-wales","tag-newswire-sport","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-opportunities-outside","tag-parramatta","tag-parramatta-eels","tag-queensland","tag-rugby-league","tag-rugby-union","tag-rule-changes","tag-shirt-trainers-cop","tag-signings","tag-sports","tag-strike-weapon","tag-titans","tag-two-year-deal","tag-zac-lomax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393351","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=393351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}