Parramatta is on the brink of securing the futures of six key players in what will be a $7 million coup heading into the pointy end of the season.
The Eels are on the verge of signing stars Michael Jennings and Brad Takairangi after already locking in prop David Alvaro. The NRL club is also believed to be close to extending the contracts of Dylan Brown, Red Mahoney and Maika Sivo.
The Eels will head into Friday's crucial clash against Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium off the back of the news that all six will remain with the club under Brad Arthur's rein.
Brown is believed to be in discussions with the club with a three- or four year extension on the table worth around $700,000 per season, according to the Daily Telegraph.ย
The Eels will also offer Sivo three more years on top of his current contract that lasts until the end of next season, with the new deal worth a reported $1.5 million, while Mahoney faces a similar length for his extension.
Both Jennings and Takairangi are keen on two-year deals, although the club will likely look to settle with one-year extensions.
Alvaro has penned a new two-year extension with the club, keeping him at Bankwest Stadium until the end of 2021.
Both Brown and Mahoney will likely have their contracts secured at season's end.
Sivo and Mahoney are also in advanced talks with the club and have indicated they're desire to remain with the Eels.
Parramatta is likely to offer Jennings a pay-cut from his current contract, where the centre signed as a NSW and Kangaroos star. The Eels will be keen to offer Jennings just the one-year as the club looks to develop it's strong, young centre stocks.
Arthur praised Jennings' season after battling a knee injury in the twilight of his career.
โThe club is dealing with that. Jenko wants to stay, the club wants him to stay, they always sort themselves out," Arthur told the Daily Telegraph.
โMichael had a really good pre-season and he has played accordingly. He is just starting to find his feet again, coming back from his knee injury.
โWeโre expecting his experience in the big games to get us through.โ
The Eels will be without Nathan Brown this weekend, who is serving a two-match suspension, as the club looks to re-find its form after a poor performance against Canterbury.
โWeโre really excited about what the future holds over the next few weeks but, at the moment, we just have to worry about each week, winning every game and seeing where we end up,โ Mahoney said.
โWe will worry about finals then but itโs a good, exciting part of the year. We canโt wait. We just have to keep doing what weโre doing.โ
Winger Blake Ferguson will return from injury after six weeks on the sidelines, meaning Arthur will have every player available, except for Brown.
โBrowny was remorseful and knows he let the emotions get the better of him,โ Arthur said. โHe probably let his mates down a little bit, he has taken it pretty hard. He knows he did the wrong thing.โ
Brown’s a nutcase and will always tread a fine line. High energy, high on emotion and high on the penalty count.
I thought they were trying to unload Jennings??
Looks like a standard Parramatta Puff Piece……very little value until they do actually sign, or not.
I would hardly call resigning two over the hill players in Jennings and Taka and a absolute plodder in Alvaro as a major coup. The resigning of Brown, Mahoney and Sivo is excellent although I don’t think we have seen enough from Brown to justify $700k per season.
Wrong Brown greggo. This is about Dylan Brown not Nathan Brown.
I donโt think Dylan Brown is worth 700k a season. Heโs probably only worth 500k a season he does have a lot of potential
For me D Brown 500k 4 years
R Mahoney 300 3 years
M Sivo 500 3 years
M Jennings 400k one year
B Takarangi 200k one year
Next year line up looks
1: C Gutherson
2: M Sivo
3: M Jennings
4: W Blake
5: B Ferguson
6: D Brown
7: M Moses
8: K Evans
9: R Mahoney
10: Jr Paulo
11: S Lane
12: M Nuikore
13: N Brown
14: S Utoikimanu ( this guy is a beast )
15: P Terepo ( 1 year )
16: O Kaufusi
17: S Faaniga ( big fast 2nd rower coming thru )
18: D Alvaro
19: B Takarangi
20: J Salmon
21: E Parry
We need two big experience props
And another 2nd rower
Would like to get R Campbell Gillard
Some good Juniors coming thru the system atm look out for Stefan Utoikimanu huge prop very good skill full player
700k for Brown is an over pay but thatโs fine. Iโm not a parra fan and I went to school with Dylan so I like it.
Could be good Parramatta fans.
Still Penrith had the same kind of thing a year or two ago. Just about all the squad signed up.
Good as long as you aren’t way over paying many of them.
As long as a couple of future stars don’t come onto the scene quickly. Then they’ll not have the cap space to keep the new players & will be desperately trying to get rid of some longer term players. Or they’ll just lose the new players.
That’s the risk all clubs take..