Parramatta Eels legend Luke Burt is confident his former club can turn their fortunes around despite injuries to key players Mitch Moses and Clint Gutherson as well as an inconsistent start to the season.
The Eels sit 12th on the ladder with just three wins from five games and will be without their skipper in Gutherson for at least another month with a knee injury while Moses remains out but could return from a broken foot for Magic Round.
To make matters worse, Brad Arthur’s side will take on a Brisbane Broncos side looking to bounce back from a disappointing loss to the Sydney Roosters when they host last year’s runners up at CommBank Stadium on Friday night.
But Burt, who played 264 games for Parramatta including the 2001 and 2009 grand finals, is looking for Kiwi playmaker Dylan Brown to lead the side back to form.
“It is tough to see how they’re going, I think it’s shown the importance of Mitch Moses, his loss to the side, its unfortunate that he has that effect on the side… they aren’t playing as well as they should but it’s not through lack of effort,” he said on Mornings with Ben Davis.
“I’m sure they’ve got things in place, they’ll come out of it they’re good a quality of a squad and staff and not to come out of it so I’ll be super confident that the right time of the year they’ll come good.
“(Gutherson) is a big loss too, obviously Mitch does all the controlling but Gutho’s got that energy around the side and does a lot of work, so there’s going to be a few boys who’ll have to pick up the slack.
“In saying that it gives some boys an opportunity to stand up and take that leadership role on that Gutho sort of does. I’m really hoping that Dylan Brown stands up and takes control of that spine now.”
Burt, who currently coaches the Burleigh Bears in the Queensland Cup, said his allegiances were split this weekend with his five-eighth in Josh Rogers replacing the injured Adam Reynolds in the Broncos side.
“Its going to be a tough one with Joshy Rogers out there… I might have to sit on the fence and enjoy the game for what it is,” he said.
Brisbane won both meetings between the two teams in 2023.