Former New Zealand Warriors coach Nathan Brown might be done with head coaching, but he isn't finished with involvement in the NRL after he reportedly landed a new role in the Parramatta Eels' pathways system.
Brown was let go as Warriors' coach earlier this season after he was unable to commit to a fulltime permanent move across the Tasman next year, owing to a change in personal circumstances with his family.
He isn't the only Warriors'-employed Australian to make the call, with all of Reece Walsh, Euan Aitken, Kodi Nikorima and Matt Lodge either departing, or set to depart for the same reasons.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Brown is now set to link up with the Eels in what the club are understood to be describing as a short-term fix to their battered pathways system.
The club have struggled to hold onto junior talent, with former club forward and Parramatta legend Ray Price last year blasting the club in an open letter.
“They’ve all got to be sacked. They haven’t got a clue. When they get a good person there, they do their darnedest to get rid of them. The part I can’t understand is why we have so many of our juniors playing for other clubs," Price said at the time.
All of Luke Keary, Daniel Tupou, David Klemmer and Alex Twal are Parramatta local juniors, just to name a few who have exited the junior system at the Eels.
Brown has a reputation for roster management, having built a squad at the Knights after Wayne Bennett left. While he couldn't take them to the finals, Adam O'Brien did with the bulk of the team Brown had put together.
The former Warriors' boss would have no sway over first-grade coaching in the role, instead working with the Eels on putting pathways systems in place so that the best juniors in the local area wind up playing for the blue and gold, instead of at other clubs across the competition.
