Parramatta coach Jason Ryles admits he's not surprised Dylan Brown took the $14 million on offer to move to Newcastle, all but conceding the 10-year deal would have been too good to refuse.
Five days after Brown confirmed he would walk out on the Eels to take up the richest deal in NRL history, Ryles said he was happy the matter was now decided.
The first-year Eels coach also insisted Brown's decision to not to take up his option to stay at Parramatta until 2031 was not an indictment of his rebuild of the club.
"My reaction, I wasn't surprised when I heard what the deal was," Ryles said ahead of Sunday's clash with Wests Tigers.
"It is what it is in the end. We put our best foot forward in regards to our offer and the length of it. You can't win them all unfortunately.
"I think it was important that he took as much time as he needed."
Brown's move to Newcastle looms as one of the biggest contract gambles in NRL history, with the five-eighth to earn $1.3 million a year from the start of next season.
The five-eighth's looming exit has also left the Eels in a predicament, with the club already losing talented young halves Ethan Sanders and Blaize Talagi before this year.
And while Brown's future has dominated headlines all week, Ryles was confident his decision to leave at year's end would not be a distraction ahead of Sunday's match.
"For Dylan and the club it's just good to put it to bed, make a decision and we'll move on and he'll move on at the end of the year," Ryles said.
"Dylan is good, he's all right. He's all locked away now. I would imagine it would be much more relieving for him inside.
"But he's a pretty casual guy. He trains well, he has trained well through the whole process and nothing has really changed for him."
Ryles was also insistent his team could take positives out of last Sunday's 56-18 walloping from Melbourne, which included a 46-6 half-time deficit.
They will meet a Tigers side on Sunday that is set to welcome back Apisai Koroisau and Jahream Bula, in what looms as a hard-launch of the club's Jarome Luai era.
"We got a lot of lessons in that round-one game," Ryles said.
"We got in, we reviewed and moved on really quickly. The players have responded great, trained really well this week and ready to go again.
"Definitely the first half, they (Melbourne) really came out fast and got us there in the first half but the second half was a lot better and got ourselves back in the game."
