‘Devastating’: Dylan Brown’s suspected ACL wrecks Spoon Bowl bloodbath

The Eels should have been celebrating dodging the wooden spoon but a brutal blow may have already wreaked havoc on their 2024 season.

Billed as the “Spoon Bowl”, the Parramatta Eels have condemned the Wests Tigers to a third straight wooden spoon in a 60-26 blowout at Campbelltown Stadium.

In a game where the loser would suffer the indignity of finishing last on the ladder, the match lived up to its billing with defence very much taking a back seat in the 11 tries to five result as both sides refused to get into the grind.

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But while ultimately the result didn’t mean much other than the Eels avoiding 15th wooden spoon in club history, a brutal injury may have huge implications on next season already.

In the 50th minute, the Eels’ New Zealand representative half Dylan Brown was left in backplay after he made an awkward tackle on the outside.

While he had his knee strapped and stayed out for another few minutes, Brown was soon brought off the field.

Asked about Brown in the post-match press conference, Barrett said: “We don’t know, obviously they’re a bit concerned.

“Fingers crossed with Dylan because he’s been terrific for us.”

When pressed later, Barrett said: “The think it might be an ACL. We hope it’s not. He’s a tough kid, he doesn’t come off.”

That's as awkward as it gets. Photo: Fox Sports

This could wreck the Eels 2025 season before it's even begun. Photo: Fox Sports

When the comments were discussed on Fox League, Greg Alexander cringed when he saw the replay.

“It takes the gloss of the win out there at Campbelltown,” he said. “Watching him go down, that looked very awkward. Can you imagine Jason Ryles sitting there thinking he may not be available until round 10 or 12 next year?

“That is a blow to the Eels, it really is. I’m hoping there’s a glimmer of hope and it’s not an ACL but if it’s a six to nine month injury, he’s gone for almost half the year next year.

“That is a devastating blow.”

The AAP’s Scott Bailey tweeted the Eels feared Brown had “ruptured his ACL” but would need to send him for scans.

“Would be a devastating blow for Brown if so,” he added. “Last thing Eels need as well after the disruption they have had in the halves this year.”

NewsWire’s Matt Jones commented: “Dylan Brown has a suspected ruptured ACL. If so, he’s out for much of next season.”

Another fan said the injury “sums up Parra’s year”.

The NRL Physio added: “Dylan Brown will go for scans on what the Eels think could be an ACL injury.

“Best case hope more PCL/meniscus with flexed knee into ground + rotation rather than non-contact last step. But hands on tests from medical staff very accurate in these cases. Fingers crossed for him.”

The sight no Eels fan wants to see. Photo: Fox Sports

Brown wasn’t the only injured Eel as the side limped to 15th on the NRL ladder.

Barrett said the Eels had been walking wounded to finish the season, with Kelma Tualagi playing with a broken hand and captain Clint Gutherson has “three broken ribs and a torn quad — and he’s carried that for three weeks”.

“If the club didn’t mean enough to them, they would have turned it up and not played,” Barrett said.

“It’s a credit to him and that’s why he’s captain.”

Asked if there was any point in the three weeks Gutherson wasn’t going to play, the Eels skipper said without hesitation: “No way.”

Asked why, he said: “The team, the club, Baz.

“The way that Baz and the staff have kept us together, I think it’s shown in all our performances. We turned up ready to go — even tonight, we could have just turned up and lost but we wanted to win and a lot of our players do a lot of things to get on that field each week. You want to play, you don’t want to let your team down and it’s those 17 boys that make me want to play.”

After In a relatively close first half, the Eels took a 22-10 lead.

But just 55 into the second half, the Eels forced their advantage when Bryce Cartwright took an intercept before throwing it to centre Will Penisini to finish the play.

The Eels have dodge complete disaster. Photo by Jeremy Ng/Getty Images

And the dam burst when Api Koroisau was sin binned for a lifting tackle in the 51st minute, with Parramatta scoring three tries with the man advantage.

The Eels scored seven tries in the second half as the scoreline ballooned out and seven tries between the sides in the final 20 minutes of the match.

Playing in front of a sell out crowd of 17,311, the Eels showed their class and left Benji Marshall holding the wooden spoon in his first season in charge — the first rookie coach to since Paul Langmack at South Sydney in 2003 to have suffered the same fate.

Defence took such a back seat, there were nine linebreaks for the Eels to five for the Tigers, 46 missed tackles by Parramatta to 39 for Wests and 30 errors between the teams (17-13 to the Tigers).

Marshall said the season was obviously “disappointing”.

“But I just said to them how proud of them I was that every week they turned up and never gave up and showed a lot of spirit,” Marshall said. “Also that we debuted 12 guys and used the most players of any team, so it was a bit of a turbulent season. But you’ve got to take learnings from everything and move forward.”

Marshall said he’d encouraged his players to “play footy”.

While the third straight wooden spoon hurts, Marshall said the Tigers were working towards a plan for success for the long-term.

With Matt Jones, NewsWire

Originally published as ‘Devastating’: Dylan Brown’s suspected ACL wrecks Spoon Bowl bloodbath