Parramatta coach Brad Arthur admits even he is surprised by Nathan Brown's emergence as one of the NRL's premier forwards this season.
After claiming the Ken Thornett Medal as the Eels' player of the season this week, Brown takes on former club South Sydney on Friday for the first time since being shown the door last year.
He sits just outside the top 10 for metres gained this season (3394, 11th) and 14th on the tackle count with 760. Only Paul Gallen, second on metres with 4084 and boasting 735 tackles, can claim similar numbers across both metrics.
"It was part of a plan but maybe he surprised me a touch, yeah," Arthur said.
"We had a bit of chat to him pre-season, set out some things in his game he needed to improve, some goals he wanted to achieve, what sort of footballer he wanted to be."
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But Arthur is adamant this is only a glimpse of what the 24-year-old is capable of, and challenged the club's coaching staff to push Brown to a new level.
"He's only just played 50 games, so he's only scratching the surface of his career," he said.
"And if he's playing his best football at 50 games, well we're not going to be doing our job properly if we can't get some more improvement out of him after this period now."
Arthur also reiterated his stance on departing winger Semi Radradra, who this week left the door open on a possible return to the NRL following his two-year stint in French rugby.
Radradra enters the Rabbitohs clash in red hot form after scoring four tries last week.
"It's simple. If Semi wants to come back, we'll be able to accommodate him and we've got some options there for him. He knows that," Arthur said.
"If Semi's playing in the NRL, he'll be playing at Parramatta."
