Brown goes from grub to gun at Eels
Jun 26, 2017 - 7:14 AM It's been just over a year since Nathan Brown was labelled a grub, and even his current Parramatta teammates couldn't disagree.Eels players have hailed Brown's transformation from sinner to saint this year and have anointed him the team's new NRL enforcer in the absence of injured hitman Beau Scott.
Brown was a walking headline last year following a series of unsavoury acts that included stomping on an opponent's groin and flooring current teammate Mitchell Moses with a late shot.
And his behaviour didn't go unnoticed by rival players.
"We played him ourselves, and he was the biggest grub. Everyone knows when you face Browny, you know he's a competitor and a tough bloke," Kenny Edwards said on Monday.
"Corey (Norman) hated him before he come here, he took Corey's legs out about five times."
But when the Eels signed Brown last year, Edwards said he couldn't wait to play alongside him.
"We done a promo pre-season and one of the fans threw a question out and it was, 'What new player can you not wait to play with?" Edwards said.
"My first answer was Browny. Playing against someone who you know is a tough competitor... you always want to play with them, and that's what I wanted to do with Browny."
Edwards credited Brown's career upswing to a summer under coach Brad Arthur, who is now looking for a new leader following a season-ending injury to co-captain Scott.
"His form's gone to another level this year under Brad's coaching. He's really stepped up and he's one of our leaders now," Edwards continued of Brown.
"Beau's a big loss to us, but Browny brings another dimension. He's an awesome ball-player and he shoots out of the line and puts shots on blokes. When we see that, he lifts us."
Brown, who is currently averaging 115 metres and 28 tackles in 62 minutes a game, said he had brushed off the criticism last year but admitted he needed to clean up his act on the field.
"It's pretty funny, but you don't want to be known as those things that they said. You've just got to learn from it and move on," he said.
Source: AAP
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