NRL News: Brooks fires parting shot at Tigers, Roosters confident Manu will re-sign, PNG bid gathers steam from Albo

Playmaker Luke Brooks has fired a withering parting shot at club bosses, warning Wests Tigers will never snap out of their cycle of failure if the front office doesn’t get its house in order.

Brooks will play his final home game for the club against the Dolphins on Saturday before leaving for Manly next year.

The 28-year-old has become a whipping boy for the Tigers’ woes over the last 11 seasons but the fact the joint venture has cycled through five permanent head coaches in that time hasn’t helped his cause.

Benji Marshall is set to step up as head coach in 2024 after current mentor Tim Sheens’ decision to move aside at the end of this season.

But Brooks warned Marshall could only do so much, pointing to the club’s bumbling administration as a reason for the Tigers’ 12-year finals drought.

Brooks’ camp was frustrated they were rushed into a decision over his future earlier this year when he was given a deadline while weighing up between an extension or a move to Manly.

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

“When they did that it made my mind up,” Brooks told reporters.

Asked what needed to change at the Tigers, Brooks said: “Everyone being on the same page and making decisions, and the right decisions, for the club to go forward.

“I don’t know who makes the decisions here, it’s hard to say.

“There’s always something going on. I guess (after) 10 years here, I’m sort of used to it.”

Brooks’ dig at the club’s hierarchy follows an 18-month period of turmoil headlined by the sacking of previous coach Michael Maguire.

The former Souths mentor was axed by Sheens, who had been brought in as the Tigers’ head of football and was then installed as head coach. 

Sheens and Maguire clashed over football decisions before the latter’s sacking and there has been similar friction between Marshall and newly appointed recruitment boss Scott Fulton.

The pair have already clashed over recruitment decisions.

Prop Stefano Utoikamanu said Marshall commanded the respect of the Tigers squad but conceded the rookie coach would be under immense scrutiny. “It’s been pretty s**t this season,” he said of a campaign that looks likely to end with a second successive wooden spoon. 

“He’s been good trying to keep us on track for the year. Anyone coming into the head coach role is going to have a lot of pressure on them.”

Roosters cocky about Manu re-signing

Trent Robinson expects Joseph Manu to have plenty of suitors after November 1 but says he remains confident his star back will stay at the Sydney Roosters for life.

Manu is on contract with the club until the end of 2024, with rivals able to table offers for the 2022 Golden Boot winner from the beginning of November.

The 27-year-old is a rare footballer who can play fullback, centre or No.6 with great impact.

Manu won the 2018 and 2019 premierships with the Roosters and has played all of his 155 NRL games with the club.

“Joey is a pretty easy one for us,” coach Trent Robinson said. “There are guys in our game that will honour him with the right contract but … he is a Rooster.

Joseph Manu. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

“He’s had the opportunity to go at different times but he knows where his heart is. It is really simple with Joey, and that is not underplaying what interest there will be in him, as there should be. But he will be here at the end of his career.”

If Manu stays at the Roosters it will be a magnet for the club to attract players to line up alongside the New Zealand star.

The Roosters have provided careers post-football for a suite of their greats, including recent retired captains Boyd Cordner and Jake Friend. Robinson suggested the same future awaited Manu in a coaching or development capacity with the club, whether that be in Australia or his country of birth.

“He has been walking in these doors since he was 14 or 15,” Robinson said. “I don’t think he will end his career just on the footy field here. He will be a long-termer here at the Roosters – whether it be here or in New Zealand – so his career at the Roosters won’t end when his footy ends.”

Manu will line up at centre for the Roosters on Friday night at CommBank Stadium against Parramatta as the Tricolours aim to keep their finals hopes alive.

PNG bid gaining momentum from PM

The push for Papua New Guinea to become the 18th team when the NRL expands in the coming years is gathering pace on the back of the Australian Government’s push into the Pacific.

PNG is in the process of formulating a bid to coincide with the country’s 50th anniversary of independence in 2025 with a view to being included in the NRL when the competition likely expands two years later. 

Earlier this month the International Rugby League Commission endorsed a five-year plan to grow international rugby league. Critical to that strategy was to create the Pacific Championships.

On Wednesday, the NRL announced in Brisbane a two-year agreement with the Australian Government to contest the tournament which will encompass men and women playing from seven Pacific nations.

The championships will include six international men’s teams and seven women’s teams and a valuable opportunity to grow pathways and nurture talent.

In 2023 the tournament will include two matches in Australia, two in New Zealand and four in PNG in October and November.

The Pacific Cup will include Australia, Samoa and New Zealand and a final, and The Pacific Bowl, also for men, will feature Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Cook Islands, and then a final.

If the Australian government commits to $25 million a year to underwrite a PNG franchise in Port Moresby as reported, it would give the bid team the inside running to get the nod from the ARL Commission ahead of other options like Perth, South East Queensland, Adelaide and New Zealand. 

“We know we have a bit of competitive tension in the region, and engagement, if you like, in soft diplomacy, showing the relationship between Australia and our neighbours, that is so important,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told SEN radio.

“PNG will celebrate the 50 years of independence in a short period of time, in a couple of years, and that would be, I think, a pretty important opportunity to have some symbolic and real support.”

Anthony Albanese watches a South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL game at Accor Stadium, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

Johnson no guarantee for Kiwis despite career-best form

Shaun Johnson told New Zealand coach Michael Maguire last year he wanted another crack at international football and his form this year has put him right in the Kiwis selection frame.

New Zealand will play last year’s World Cup finalists Samoa and Australia in the Pacific Championships in October and November.

Johnson, who played the last of his 32 Tests for New Zealand in 2019, has been in career-best form at halfback for the New Zealand Warriors in their surge into third position on the NRL ladder.

The 32-year-old missed out on selection for last year’s World Cup but Maguire said the playmaker had the desire to play at the highest level again.

Whether that is this year remains to be seen.

Storm star Jahrome Hughes is the incumbent Kiwi halfback while Eels five-eighth Dylan Brown was his halves partner at last year’s World Cup. 

“Shaun is going to assess that when the time comes and see how his body is,” Maguire said at the launch in Brisbane of the Pacific Championships.

“His big focus at the moment is obviously trying to win it for the Warriors but it has been nice to see how he has been playing.

“Shaun was obviously disappointed at the back end of last season and obviously didn’t come away to the World Cup.

“One thing he did say is, ‘I will be back. I want to have another crack at the international space’.”

(Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Maguire said Johnson understood form was the criteria to make the Kiwis side.

“He has obviously backed that up with the way he has been playing,” Maguire said.  Maguire said the Warriors’ surge into the top four of the NRL had been “enormous” for the game in New Zealand.

“I was just talking to (Cook Islands coach) Tony Iro about the number of kids coming through. He said they’ve just had open trials and for each age group they have 400 to 500 players coming through and that’s fantastic,” he said.

“The Warriors have taken the game to a whole new level in New Zealand.”

The Kiwis lost their World Cup semi-final last year to Australia and the pain still lingers. “We had a bit of disappointment over at the World Cup. We had our moments in the semi-final but I think (that loss) sits inside of me, the staff, the players and the organisation,” Maguire said.

“To be able to get the international game back, to get the momentum back and play against Australia and Samoa … we are looking forward to it.”