Four-time premiership winner Brett Kenny is the only Parramatta player to win a grand final in the number six jersey and his greatest wish is that Dylan Brown becomes the next.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Brown, 22, will play five-eighth for the Eels in Sunday's NRL grand final against Penrith hoping to help break a 36-year premiership drought.
Kenny says he has enjoyed watching Brown play well this year and when he does, he usually excels.
After winning the 1981-1983 and 1986 grand finals, Kenny is more than ready to relinquish his status as the only Eels five-eighth to have tasted grand final success.
"It's his first NRL grand final and it would be great for me to see Dylan achieve it and win a premiership with Parramatta in my old (six) jersey," Kenny told AAP.
"He has the ability to do it. When Dylan does play well, he goes really well. He's done that most of the year.
"This whole week will be a first for him and hopefully he doesn't get overawed and plays his own game and how the coach wants him to, and with a bit of luck he will come away with the result."
Brown plays each home game at BankWest Stadium where there is a Brett Kenny Stand, a reminder of the Kenny legacy.
"Kenny is a legend of the club," Brown told AAP.
"I've met him a few times. He doesn't try to force anything on us. He's just happy to see us doing well.
"We respect those guys (from the 1980s) a lot. Hopefully we can back their performances up from way back then."
Due to the continuity of the Eels lineup in the 1980s there are other numbers in the backline - the three, four, five and seven - that hold the same exclusivity when it comes to titles.
"From 1981 to 1986 we had the same backline bar the fullback and one of the wingers. We had the same halfback (Peter Sterling), centres (Mick Cronin and Steve Ella) and Eric Grothe on one wing in all of our grand finals," Kenny said.
"If this team can win, it will be the first premiership in 36 years and one that people will remember in the future.
"That is a good way for all the players to look at it - that they can create their own history as we did to win the first."
Kenny said Brown should follow in-form back-rower Shaun Lane each time he runs.
"Shaun Lane can get his arms free and throw a great ball and that's where Dylan Brown comes into it. He's got to back him up on the inside or the outside," Kenny said.
"When they combine like that the team often wins.
"Dylan has played really well this year and what he will realise as he gets older is that the expectation is that you've got to play well all the time. People notice when you don't."
Australian Associated Press
