As the ink dries on the richest contract in NRL history, Newcastle are gambling everything on Parramatta standoff Dylan Brown.
DYLAN Brown is a good player. But is he A$13 million (£6.3 million) good?
That’s the question the Australian rugby league world is asking after Newcastle landed the 24-year-old Parramatta standoff on the most expensive contract in NRL history.
For a decade from 2026, Brown will be earning the kind of money normally reserved for Dally M Medallists, World Cup winners and veteran club captains … before he’s established himself at that level.
Brown has spent his career as a deputy, not a sheriff.
Since making his first-grade debut in 2019, Brown has ridden shotgun while Mitchell Moses was calling the shots from the number seven jumper.
Regardless of what number Brown wears on his back, Newcastle will expect the Kiwi international to be their playmaker-in-chief for the sort of coin they’re forking out.
The Knights are paying a small nation’s GDP for Brown to steer them around the park for a decade — a skill he’s yet to demonstrate.
Brown deputised for Moses at halfback 10 times before inking his princely deal, for just two wins.
Brown is demanding Andrew Johns money to fill Andrew Johns’ old jumper.
And he’ll be judged by whether he can deliver what Andrew Johns did twice: premiership success.
The club’s greatest ever player was stunned by the 10-year, $1.3m-a-season deal.
“I nearly fell over when the initial contract was put up there,” Johns told Channel Nine.
“But there’s no halfbacks around, so I understand.
“Is he worth that money? No, not as a five-eighth. But they’ve bought him as a halfback and they’ve gone chips all in.
“This is a huge gamble because he’s untried at number seven.”
With Moses sidelined by a foot injury for the first six weeks of 2025, Knights fans will get a little glimpse of what they’ve purchased.
The star recruit insisted he was up for the job, when he fronted the media after the contentious deal was announced.
“Numbers on the back haven’t really been discussed,” Brown said.
“But if that happens, I’m willing to learn, I’m willing to take on the challenge.
“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but I’m the one on the footy field.”
Brown’s recruitment looks like a bid to also retain star fullback Kalyn Ponga beyond 2027.
Ponga ended a marathon contract saga by inking that extension in 2022, but it always felt like the Knights were keener on Ponga than Ponga was on them, with the prodigiously talented Queensland and Maori representative never struggling for suitors.
And rumours of a big-money move to glamour club the Roosters have only grown louder since Brown signed his deal.
Put simply, the Knights seem desperate — a point made by Andrew Johns’ brother and title-winning halves partner Matthew.
“It’s a crazy deal,” Matthew said on Fox League.
“It’s got to the point now that to get a player like Dylan to Newcastle, we’ve got to offer him 10 years of that sort of money.
“It breaks my heart — and a lot of the old boys I’m speaking to — that we have to offer that much to get players to Newcastle.”
Brown’s challenge is to break Newcastle free of mid-table mediocrity.
Gone are the dark days of three straight wooden spoons from 2015 to 2017, but they’re a long way from the premierships of 1997 and 2001 with Andrew Johns at the helm.
Adam O’Brien has coached the club since 2020 — and qualified for finals four times.
But they’ve never finished higher than fifth, and have won just one of five play-offs, never seriously threatening the top teams.
The coach’s cagey response to Brown’s signing — refusing to discuss the coup with media before the round two clash against the Dolphins even after the news broke — hardly inspired confidence.
Ponga’s deal is worth a reported $1.4 million a year, meaning next season, the Knights will have invested roughly a quarter of their salary cap in two men.
Such a lopsided roster management strategy lumps a ton of pressure on the two marquee men.
In the club’s defence, the deal may look better as the economics of the NRL shift.
With a Papua New Guinea side joining the competition in 2028, and further expansion to Perth mooted, the market for in-demand playmakers will only heat up.
The growth of the game will ensure the players’ slice of the pie continues to swell.
Plus, there’s plain old inflation — $1.3 million in 2035 money won’t look the same as $1.3 million in 2025 money.
Besides the cash, the length of the contract is another major question mark.
While Daly Cherry-Evans (36), Ben Hunt (35) and Adam Reynolds (34) prove that veteran playmakers can age like fine wine, it’s no guarantee.
The New Zealander made his first-grade debut aged 18 in 2019. By 2035, he’ll have spent almost half his life as an NRL player.
With 123 games under his belt heading into this season, if Brown stays fit, he’ll be nudging the 400-game mark by the end of his Newcastle deal — a mountain only Cameron Smith has climbed.
While the contract is long and pricy, it’s not every day your club lands an international playmaker, so the news should add a spring to Newcastle’s step this season.
And for Brown’s current club Parramatta, his impending departure is a crushing blow.
The timing couldn’t have been worse, announcing the exit days after beginning the Jason Ryles era with a capitulation at the hands of the Melbourne Storm.
While the Eels were always going to have a different look under their new coach in 2025, their star number six was a key part of their plans.
Parra still have Moses locked away until the end of 2029, by which time he’ll be 35 himself.
With the veteran halfback nursing his foot until round seven, Brown will take over the playmaking reins — a dress rehearsal of the high-pressure job he’ll be doing for a decade from next season.
Will the gamble pay off? Brown holds the cards.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 507 (April 2025)
