The Newcastle Knights head into the 2026 NRL season needing a major turnaround in fortunes, and they have spent the money which has the potential to make it happen.
In what is one of the biggest off-season recruitment plays in competition history, the Knights have made Dylan Brown one of the game's highest-paid players.
It went down like a lead balloon at the Parramatta Eels of course, where the talented New Zealand international spent much of the second half of the year out of first-grade.
Jason Ryles made it clear at Parramatta that you're either with him for the long run or you're not, and Brown was no different, despite being one of the club's most important players over his journey in blue and gold.
Rugby league, like any business, is about risk though, and both the Eels and Knights went down that path with their decisions on and off the field in 2025.
We are here to focus on the Knights though, and their call to make Brown a more than million-dollar player for the next decade is one that will make or break the club, the recruitment team and likely most of the playing roster.
There is no doubting the talent and potential of Brown. In a season where he puts it all together, particularly when he has been playing alongside the experience and quality of Mitchell Moses, there are few players in the game who can produce the kind of output he can.
His footwork, agility, speed and general rugby league IQ have made him one of the game's most dangerous five-eighths.
But therein lies the risk for the Knights.
There is no intention in the Hunter of using him at five-eighth.
Instead, he is set to become the main man wearing the number seven jumper and take over the management of the club's attack.
That's not to say he doesn't have the tools to make it work, or didn't play a major role in Parramatta's attack, but his best rugby league has always been played when next to Moses, who is one of the game's best managers.
The Knights' risk is evident in previous examples.
Maybe the most glaring of them is when the Brisbane Broncos attempted to turn Anthony Milford, then one of the game's most electric players, into a halfback.
It didn't work. No club can win often with two five-eighths in the number six and number seven.
That is exactly where the Knights are heading in 2026, with Brown likely to be partnered by Fletcher Sharpe after recent comments from Justin Holbrook confirmed there was no intention in the Hunter to move him onto the wing.
Sharpe is an out and out creative talent, but as was proven throughout 2025, his kicking game still leaves plenty to be desired.
While he can play fullback, wing or five-eighth, there is no doubt he needs to be in the spine, so the number six jersey will be his unless Kalyn Ponga is felled by the injury bug again at some point throughout the 2026 campaign.
If that happens, and Brown isn't working in the number seven, you could well see him shuffle jerseys as Jarome Luai has done at the Wests Tigers after attempting to change from a number six to a number seven, with Phoenix Crossland the potential replacement halfback.
But the Knights are dealing in possibilities and potentials heading into 2026, and so much of their campaign is going to wind up depending on Brown's ability to manage the team around the park, and to lead with the kicking game.
The Knights are unlikely to be challenging for the top of the ladder, and that means there will be some tough days throughout the course of the campaign.
The kicking game is critical for alleviating that issue, and while Brown's game will undoubtedly develop across the course of the season, there is a fear that, especially early, it could be a difficult learning slope for the Kiwi international at his new club.
It could well work.
It could be that Brown is the greatest piece of recruitment business in rugby league history, to turn a Knights team into a premiership force.
But the evidence and weight of history are stacked against him, Holbrook, and the rest of a playing group that wants to get back to the finals.
