Tigers great Benny Elias believes a move back to Leichhardt would be an impossible sell to his nephew, gun Eels halfback Mitchell Moses.
Moses played his junior footy in the Parramatta system, but his uncle Elias was on the Tigers board when he originally signed with the Concord club in 2011 – three years before his NRL debut in 2014.
Moses spent three seasons playing for the Tigers before he signed with the Eels for the 2018 season. He was then granted an early release midway through 2017.
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Now the 28-year-old’s playing future is again under the microscope, off-contract and baulking at a million-dollar offer from the Eels.
“I should be screaming from the roof for the Tigers, but I once upon a time got him over to the Tigers, and they let him go,” Elias told Wide World of Sports.
“How do you sell that back to him? I’ve been there, done that. Move on.
“It wasn’t a pretty exit, you know, he left with Aaron Woods and James Tedesco – all three of them left together … and it’s hard to go back.
“Fool me once, I can cop that, but fool me twice.”
The Eels on Monday morning announced they had resigned No.6 Dylan Brown until the end of 2025, with player options that could see him in blue and gold until 2031.
The deal could end up being one of the longest in the club’s history.
Eels chief executive Jim Sarantinos said there was no deadline on the club’s offer to Moses, or danger of Brown’s new deal tipping his halves partner out of the club.
“Keeping Dylan doesn’t have anything to do with the offer we have for Mitch, not from our perspective,” Sarantinos told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Mitch and Dylan have both been priorities for us and that remains the case. Our desire is for Mitch to stay, we’ve made that very clear to him and his manager and hopefully he does stay.”
Moses has also fielded interest from the Bulldogs. Elias said while a halves combination of Moses and Matt Burton would be formidable at Canterbury, re-signing with the Eels was his best option.
He said Brown’s re-signing is a massive boost to Parramatta, which lost this year’s grand final to Penrith.
“I strongly believe that whether it be in the working environment or the sporting environment … if you’re happy, you stay there. And it’s easy to stay there if you’re happy,” Elias said.
“He’s been very happy. They’ve been very good to him, and he’s been very good to them. It’s been a very good two-way relationship.”
“(Moses with Brown) they’ve got a great combination. They know each other’s personalities, they know each other’s play.
“His No.6 is going to be there for a long time – he’s signed a long-term contract … he’s put his shoes under the bed.
“We haven’t seen the best of (Moses) yet.”
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