Bevan French’s future cloudy as fight to be Parramatta Eels’ No.1 hits overdrive

Bevan French insists he’s fully focused on helping drag Parramatta off the bottom of the NRL ladder, despite reports he’s unsettled and could be on his way out of the club.

The 23-year-old is off contract at the end of 2019 and yet to strike a new deal with the Eels. His 2018 season was disappointing, by his own admission, having been dropped to reserve grade and losing the fullback role to Clint Gutherson.

The speculation around his future at Parramatta began late in the season and continues to do the rounds in the NRL rumour mill.

Canterbury and Gold Coast are said to be two clubs interested in the talented fullback-winger.

French admits he has no idea where his rugby league future lies.

“I’m just focused on trying to get my body right, and right now my focus is at Parramatta,” he told foxsports.com.au in All Stars camp in Melbourne.

“We’ll see how that goes. I’m off contract at the end of the year but I’m loving my time there so we’ll see how it goes.

“I think that’s something that’s expected being the position that we’re in, being a professional footy player you’ve got to expect those things.

“You’ve got to learn to block those things out and just focus on your own game and where you’re at currently.

“As far as that goes I’m just focusing on what I have to do at Parra first and we’ll see what happens from there.”

But no matter where his contract situation sits, French is determined to give his blood and sweat to the club he made his NRL debut with almost three years ago.

His debut season in the NRL was electric, and there was plenty of hype around the Tingha product heading into 2018, as there was around the entire team.

But the Eels fell flat last year and French found himself in the NSW Cup.

He admits he doesn’t know exactly where he fits into Brad Arthur’s plans for 2019.

“We haven’t really spoken about expectations or anything like that,” he said.

“We’re still a month away before Round 1 so everyone is still just trying to get their body right. There’s plenty of healthy competition.”

In an effort to turn things around from the disastrous 2018, coach Arthur has adopted a new approach to pre-season.

The entire squad embarked on a bonding camp as soon as they returned from holiday.

“It’s been an enjoyable pre-season. It’s been quite tough but we’ve done a few extra things that we haven’t done before, relationship building and things like that. Everyone has got to know each other a bit better so it’s been good,” French said.

“First week back in pre-season is sort of testing and seeing where you’re at, (but) our first week we went away on camp.

“We trained hard but then during the night times it was more relationship building, getting to know each other a bit more.

“I think it’s brought us all closer which hopefully brings a bit more trust together out on the field.”