BROWN’S LOOKING FORWARD, NOT BACK
EELS superstar Dylan Brown has seen snippets of last year’s devastating loss to Penrith in the NRL grand final, but the recently re-signed five-eighth hasn’t watched the full game and may never do so with his focus on the 2023 season.
Brown was one of Parramatta’s best last year, but not even he could sway the result as the Panthers used their big-game experience to explode out of the blocks to establish an unassailable lead.
The 22-year-old didn’t have much time to reflect on the defeat as he travelled to Britain for the World Cup then spent a few weeks holidaying in Europe before returning home to sort out his contract.
Video analysis is one of the most important facets of postgame review, but Brown and many of his teammates aren’t in any rush to press play on the 2022 grand-final tape.
“I’ve watched the highlights, but I haven’t watched the whole game,” he said ahead of Parramatta’s trial against Penrith on Saturday that he won’t play. “I try not to think about it. We’re in a new year so you can’t really dwell on stuff like that. I like to move on.”
New recruit Josh Hodgson was in the air on his way to England as the Eels’ grand plans came crashing down, but the Englishman knows the feeling, having been on the wrong end of an epic grand final in 2019 when the Roosters outlasted the Raiders.
“Anyone who has played in one and lost one, you know the feeling and it never really leaves you,” Hodgson said. “It never left me and it was a few years ago now. You can sense it here, definitely. They often speak about ‘we could have done this here, or we could have done that there’.
“Last year means nothing going into this year.”