Parramatta playmaker Dylan Brown got the shock of his life on Sunday evening while watching the Wests Tigers overcome the Gold Coast Titans, with the Eels star admitting it was the first time he realised his team was leading the spoon race.
The Eels had locked away two (much-needed) points on the round bye and Brown was watching telly, only to get a whack in the face.
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“I was watching the Tigers game, and the live ladder came up. I knew we were down the bottom, but I didn’t know we were the bottom of the bottom. It sucks,” Brown said on Tuesday.
It’s a fairly funny situation to imagine, unless you’re an Eels fan (or Brown apparently). He’s obviously been watching the losses rack up in 2024, with Parramatta sagging to 10 defeats in 14 matches, but to be that disconnected from where the team is in the standings is worrying.
“I had a fair understanding we were down the bottom, but I didn’t realise we were last,” he admitted, before claiming when he saw the live ladder pop up on Fox Sports’ coverage he commented it was “crazy.”
“Not that it should be an excuse for us to start playing good footy, but… it feels like we’ve been playing all right. We just haven’t been defending points.”
That is one of the biggest sticking points that has dragged the Eels into a battle to avoid the wooden spoon; an ignominious ‘honour’ the blue-and-gold club last suffered in the 2018 NRL season. They’ve beaten good rosters like Cronulla’s and been competitive against Sydney or Canterbury recently, but two points from their last possible sixteen back to round 7 is grim reading.
The oddest thing, Brown continued, is the feeling in the Eels ranks has been that they’ve lifted to the big occasions and looked the goods against the biggest contenders in the league—so to be so far away from even playing finals was a very rude shock.
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“I’m not saying there are bad teams in the NRL, but when we play the top eight teams, we play well,” the five-eighth explained. “When we play the lower teams, it’s not so good.”
