Parramatta great Peter Sterling believes the best is yet to come for Dylan Brown, who still needs to discover how he can have a “bigger impression” on game day.
Brown, 21, continued to take strides in just his third year of first-grade football, with the Eels this season making it through to week two of the finals before going down to Penrith in a tense battle.
The running five-eighth still has a long way to go in the eyes of Sterling, one of the greatest playmakers in rugby league history.
Sterling said the key for Brown to taking that the next step could be playing alongside halfback Mitchell Moses on the same side of the field.
That past two seasons have seen coach Brad Arthur experiment by switching the playmakers from one side of the field to the other but they rarely link on the same side of a ruck. Sterling said he did notice a slight change in the back end of the season, with Brown on the left edge and Moses roaming the field more.
“I still want to see more [from Dylan Brown],” he told Wide World of Sports’ Eels team review.
“He had a good year, but there’s so much talent there that he can have a bigger impression on games.
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“I’m hoping that Mitchell Moses’ improvement in that area will drag Dylan along with him.
“I’d still like to see more of them playing on the same side… we did see that late in the year.
“But I really think to be a successful halves combination, you have to complement each other so well in all regards, but especially in your combination in being a threat on both sides of the field.
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“That’s something that can be enhanced.”
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