Dylan Brown is back! Brad Arthur believes the talented player can lead the Parramatta Eels to the NRL finals.

Dylan Brown, a star who is back, has the support of Brad Arthur to help lead Parramatta to the NRL playoffs, but there is still pressure on the entire team to perform well ahead of a challenging trip home.

Due to an off-field incident, the 23-year-old has been sidelined since Round 13. The Kiwi playmaker was suspended by the NRL after entering a guilty plea to charges of sexual contact.

The Eels’ roster has suffered greatly as a result of Brown’s absence; they have dropped three of their previous four games and are now outside of the top eight.

Brown will also be entering a must-win situation each week after missing nearly two months of play due to upcoming games against the Broncos, Roosters, and Panthers.

Brad Arthur is optimistic about Dylan Brown’s NRL comeback.
Before their Round 23 match against the Dragons, Arthur challenged the five-eighth to learn from his error and repay Parramatta at a media conference.

“We need to move past it, Dylan. I’m sure he knows he let his teammates, his club, and people down.”

Dylan can accomplish it most effectively through his playing. He looks incredibly strong and fit since he’s been working out a lot and getting flogged.

“He’s made a mistake, we’ve got to let him move on and that’s what he has to do this week.”

Brown and Mitchell Moses will be back in the halves, looking to get back to the form that got the Eels to the Panthers final last year.

Brown’s coach, however, isn’t searching for any individual brilliance against St George Illawarra or any other club in the run home, despite the outside noise and pressure Brown is carrying.

“At the end of the day, we don’t want Dylan to overplay his hand and try too hard as well, we don’t want him to fall into that trap… he just needs to be Dylan Brown and that will be enough for us,” Arthur continued.

Since Dylan is a true effort-based player, you should always put up your best effort. A person who is overly ambitious tends to overplay or overexecute, and Mitch and Gutho [Clint Gutherson] will undoubtedly stop him from doing that.

It must fall on us as a staff and as a team. The outcome cannot belong to a single person. We’re all in this together, but he needs to do his part. It’s very straightforward: we just need to play our best football and win.”

Dylan Brown was suspended; why?
After an incident in Double Bay, Brown was charged with sexual touching and has not been allowed to play since Round 13.

The NRL’s no-fault stand-down policy caused Brown to be sidelined at first, but after he admitted guilt to the allegations, the league suspended him for seven games.