Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett says the club will pay more than $1million for Canberra playmaker Jack Wighton if they think he is the right fit.
Wighton has informed the Raiders that he will test the market for the 2024 NRL season and beyond despite having an option that he can take up for next year if he so desires.
Bennett said he wouldn’t reveal how much the Dolphins had in their salary cap but gave an indication of their cash clout when asked if he would pay $1million for Wighton.
“If we thought he was the right fit for the club and brought the things that we need then we would probably pay more than $1million,” Bennett said.
“That’s not the issue. The issue is, ‘Does he fit our needs? Do we suit him?’ They are the things that we’ve all got to talk about and work out.
“He is a very competitive player, highly skilled and has been a great servant of the game. He plays a number of positions.”
Wighton has played most positions in the backline in his 224-game career. He spent four seasons at fullback at the Raiders before moving to five-eighth in 2019.
In representative football for Australia and NSW he has played mostly as a centre and sometimes as a bench utility.
Jack Wighton of the Raiders (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
The Dolphins have Sean O’Sullivan, Anthony Milford and rookie Isaiya Katoa on the books in the halves.
They have fullback well covered with Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow starting the season on fire.
When asked if the Dolphins were just looking at Wighton in the halves, Bennett said: “No, we are just looking at him.”
Bennett said he was yet to make an arrangement with Wighton and his management to hold official talks.
“But we will go down that path,” he said.
The Dolphins have significant room in their cap for a playmaker after missing out on targets such as Kalyn Ponga and Cameron Munster. It is a situation that has unfolded due to circumstances and by design.
“It is just the position we have found ourselves in,” Bennett said.
“We’ve approached someone and they haven’t wanted to come here, so it is a bit of both. We will not be buying players that can’t meet the pressure test here I can tell you.
“We will play with 15 or 13 if we have to, if we can’t get the right 17.”
Bennett said he was delighted to get regular hooker Jeremy Marshall-King back from suspension for Saturday night’s clash with St George Illawarra in Wollongong. The former Bulldog has re-signed until the end of 2025.
“We are really pleased with what he has done here. He fits our culture and I hope it was a really easy decision for him to want to stay,” Bennett said.
Anthony Griffin insists the pressure mounting on him is not a distraction for St George Illawarra’s players, or an extra weight on his own shoulders, with his job as an NRL coach on the line.
The Dragons took another hit on Friday with five-eighth Jayden Sullivan ruled out of Saturday’s clash with the Dolphins with a minor shoulder injury. Talatau Amone has been recalled.
In better news for the club, Jack de Belin is expected to make his long-awaited return from a calf injury from the bench in Wollongong.
The Dragons have lost two of their opening three games, and the situation feels particularly pressing given their 40-8 flogging at home to Cronulla last week.
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Captain Ben Hunt admitted afterwards he felt sorry for his coach, who was told in the pre-season the club were canvassing their options for possible replacements next year.
Ben Hunt speaks to his team during the Charity Shield thumping in Mudgee. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
But regardless, Griffin was adamant when asked if he had to address players to ensure the situation does not snowball.
“Not really. We just had a bad performance which we weren’t happy with,” he said.
“Cronulla probably had their best performance of the year and they were too good for us.
“We had a really good week of training this week, and we are looking forward to getting out there tomorrow.
“The short turnaround is a benefit for us, it has been a short week.”
Griffin also disagreed with comments from halfback Moses Mbye this week that the team’s year was already at a crossroads.
The coach insisted he had not been impacted by suggestions he is a “dead man walking” in the final year of his contract. “It doesn’t weigh on me at all. It’s got nothing to do with me,” he said. “At some stage in the season you have one or two real stinkers – and we had one last week.
“You have two or three good games where you don’t know where they came from either. There is no panic, it’s just about getting back to what we do.”
Dragons coach Anthony Griffin. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Griffin rejected concerns over the Dragons’ culture, after Moses Suli claimed this week he did not want to join the club when he moved in late 2021. Suli said on Wednesday his situation was similar to that of forward Viliami Fifita, who left Manly to join the Dragons this week.
“It’s not a worry. We didn’t arrest him. We didn’t force him to come here,” Griffin said. “They are grown men who make decisions. My dealings with them have been nothing but positive about why they want to come here. It’s a free world, they wanted to come here, they are here.
“I don’t think (Suli) would do something he doesn’t want to do. He always has a smile on his face and he played his best football here last year.”
Melbourne fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen has resumed running on grass in the clearest sign yet he is approaching a long-awaited return from his knee injury.
But coach Craig Bellamy is still hesitant to confirm when the 24-year-old will be back on the park.
Papenhuyzen has not played since mid-July, when he fractured his kneecap in a tackle with Canberra five-eighth Jack Wighton that left him in significant pain. Papenhuyzen began a lengthy recovery process that took him to Philadelphia to consult with Bill Knowles, the reconditioning specialist who worked with Latrell Mitchell and Tom Trbojevic on their own injuries.
He had originally been expected to return between NRL rounds six and eight and began running on a treadmill again before graduating to sand. The fullback started running on grass this week, which Bellamy said boded well for a Storm side in the midst of a personnel crisis.
“He’s made a little progress. He’s actually started to run on land,” Bellamy said. “I think that’s a progression, I’m not quite sure how much of a progression.”
Bellamy was reluctant to confirm a timeline on his fullback’s return to play, however. “Obviously we don’t want to take any chances,” he said. “It’s been a long process. There’s still a little bit of work to go, I would imagine.
“But you’d like to think that’s a real positive step forward. We’ll just have to see how we go from there.”
Melbourne are also missing Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Tepai Moeroa and Dean Ieremia to injury, while halfback Jahrome Hughes is suspended until next week.
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