Parramatta great Nathan Hindmarsh has called for the immediate release of Dylan Brown, saying the playmaker's form and fragile mindset are now hurting the team more than helping it.
With the Eels languishing at 0-3 and Brown's $13 million move to Newcastle already sealed for 2025, Hindmarsh believes there's little to gain by dragging out the inevitable.
“We spoke the other week about Dylan Brown and possibly, is it better to just move him on?” Hindmarsh said on Triple M's Sunday Sin Bin.
“I'm getting to that point now where it makes sense.”
Brown's contribution in the absence of injured halfback Mitchell Moses has been tepid at best, raising eyebrows among commentators and fans.
“He's not offering much at the Eels,” Hindmarsh continued.
“I've never been in that position before. I've never felt that pressure before. It was easy for me to do my job, cart the ball up, tackle someone. Where he's got to organise the whole shit show that it is at the moment.”
Brown's decision-making and body language have drawn sharp criticism, with former England international James Graham describing him as paralysed by fear of failure.
“Honestly, I feel watching him that he's scared to fail,” Graham said.
“And scared to make a mistake.
“Nathan Cleary, the best halfback in the game, he makes mistakes. He's not afraid to make mistakes. Where I feel Dylan Brown has gone into his shell and he's shitting himself about making a mistake.”
Brown's lucrative Knights deal has only heightened the expectations, but Hindmarsh insists the pressure would have existed with or without the pay packet.
“Yeah the pressure has come in now that he's signed with the Knights on that huge deal,” Hindmarsh said.
“But I think regardless anyway, the pressure would've been there without the huge price tag for next year.”
With every quiet performance, the case for an early release grows stronger. Hindmarsh, a club legend with 330 games under his belt, isn't calling for scapegoats but he's seen enough to suggest that keeping Brown around may be doing more harm than good.
“I want to see more from him,” he said.
“He's on a good wicket now, you kind of need to be showing a little bit more.”
If I were in the Recruitment and Retention team at at Parramatta, I’d be reading his contract very closely to see if there are any grounds for terminating the contract immediately.
Failing that, if I were the coach, I would :
a) drop him to NSW Cup and give some youngster a run, or see if I can borrow on loan a second-string half from some other club. or
b) tell Newcastle they can have him _free_ right now – Parramatta will keep paying him – all the Knights have to do is find a squad-spot for him
Let’s face the obvious – Parramatta aren’t going to make the eight, so forget this year and go 100% into rebuild mode right now. Dylan Brown will not be part of that future, so there is no point in playing him any more.