$13m tug-of-war: Mystery club joins Knights in race for Dylan Brown
As the race for Dylan Brown’s services heats up, a second NRL club has reportedly joined the Newcastle Knights in tabling him a $13 million contract to lure him away from the Parramatta Eels.
One of the hottest properties to hit the open market alongside the likes of Adam Reynolds, Cody Walker, Daly Cherry-Evans and Te Maire Martin, Brown’s future has been clouded in uncertainty over the past month.
This comes after he was offered to all 16 rival NRL teams and Rugby Australia and could decide – by Round 10 of the 2025 NRL season – to opt out of his current deal with the Eels at the end of the season due to a player-option clause in his contract.
After Newcastle Knights CEO Phillip Gardner confirmed that the club had tabled a contract until 2035 to poach Brown away from the Eels, News Corp reports that a second club has decided to table him a 10-year contract worth around $13 million.
While this second team remains unnamed, the St George Illawarra Dragons have previously expressed an interest in his services.
If he ends up signing with either of the two clubs, it would be the richest contract in NRL history, surpassing Tino Fa’asuamaleaui. Meanwhile, if he decides to remain at Parramatta, he will be turning down approximately $6.4 million.
The update on the five-eighths’ future comes as The Dolphins, Sydney Roosters, and now the New Zealand Warriors have shut down any previous links to the New Zealand international.
“With all due respect to Dylan, our club is really excited about Luke Metcalf and Chanel [Harris-Tavita],” Warriors chief executive Cameron George told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“We’ve got Tanah Boyd and we’ve got Te Maire Martin all shooting for the halves, and we’ve got some good young kids sitting in behind them.
“We’ve never looked any further than those guys and that’s where we sit. From a Warriors perspective, we’re definitely not in either discussions or negotiations with Dylan Brown or his management.”
Links between Brown and the New Zealand Warriors have existed since 2019, when the club tabled him a long-term contract worth around $3 million before he had even featured in a single NRL first-grade match.
“I remember back in the day when ‘Sully’ [former recruiter Peter O’Sullivan] and Brian Smith were here, they spotted Dylan playing [junior football] – he was of interest back in about 2019,” George added.
“That’s certainly not the case now. No disrespect to Dylan, but we’re backing who we’ve got and what lies ahead with those kids.”
An eight-time international for the New Zealand Kiwis, Brown has amassed 123 first-grade appearances for the Eels since his debut in Round 1 of the 2019 season and formed a formidable partnership with Mitchell Moses, which helped lead the Eels to the 2022 NRL Grand Final.
It is understood that if he agrees to stay with Paramatta, he has another get-out clause in his contract for the 2027 NRL season.
With rival teams offering him up to $13 million to leave his current club, Jason Ryles stated that the Parramatta Eels will support him “100 per cent whichever direction he goes.”
“Dylan’s entitled to do whatever he likes in regards to the situation that he’s in,” new Eels coach Jason Ryles said.
“What I do is just provide the best environment for him to come to footy every day so he can do the best he can be and with me he’s been outstanding and he’s been really good.
“Whatever will be, will be and we’ll support Dylan 100 per cent whichever direction he goes.
“Obviously sooner rather than later it’d be nice but it’s important that he gets his decision right because it’s a really important one for him.”
