Wayne Bennett is set for a face-to-face with the South Sydney hierarchy at Magic Round, according to reports in Newscorp outlets.
His interest in the Bunnies job is well known but contact has been limited to phones for now, but with both club and coach set to share the same stadium in a week and a half, a formal offer will likely be made.
The likeliest option is a three-year deal worth almost a million dollars a year, which would match the current wage on offer at the Dolphins and see Bennett coach until the age of 77 at least.
“We’re all up in Brisbane soon for the Magic Round weekend and we should get a chance to sit down and talk further then with Wayne,” Souths CEO told the Courier-Mail.
“We’re unlikely to catch up with Wayne this week.
“We’re respectful of his role at the Dolphins and ensuring their successful season continues.”
Cashed-up Roosters enter race for Fifita
The Sydney Roosters are trying to swamp Penrith’s attempt to sign David Fifita by offering the Gold Coast star a four-season deal reportedly worth over $3 million.
To remain at the Titans in 2025, barnstorming second-rower Fifita must trigger a player option in his contract by round 10, which begins on Thursday.
The 24-year-old flew to Sydney and met Panthers officials on Sunday evening, with the triple premiers in a position to make a lucrative offer now that James Fisher-Harris is leaving to join the Warriors in 2025.
However, the Roosters are also cashed up following the exits of Joey Manu, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Joseph Suaalii and potentially Daniel Tupou at the end of the season along with the retirement of Liuke Keary.
The Roosters also have the salary cap space to re-sign Angus Crichton, who has been in red-hot form recently, after his negotiations to switch to a French rugby club have stalled.
Penrith are understood to have tabled Fifita a long-term deal worth an estimated $850,000 a season and the Roosters’ offer is believed to be similar.
Fifita re-signed with the Titans last year but had get-out clauses written into the deal for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
With the second-rower keen to win a premiership and Gold Coast running 16th with just one win for the season to kick off Des Hasler’s time at the club, Fifita is considering his options elsewhere.
Cleary wants compo for clubs stealing Panther cubs
Ivan Cleary has renewed calls for Penrith to receive compensation from the NRL when rivals poach from their junior stocks as the Panthers prepare to face Stephen Crichton for the first time.
Canterbury captain Crichton is one of 11 players to have left the Panthers after tasting grand final glory in the past three seasons and that number is set to grow to 14 next year with Jarome Luai, James Fisher-Harris and Sunia Turuva exiting in 2025.
“In my heart I would love all those boys to still be playing here but we’d have about three teams then, so you can’t do it,” Cleary said.
Rival clubs have targeted Penrith players for their premiership experience but the chance to grab bargains from their league-leading junior nursery has proven just as enticing.
The Dolphins famously signed Isaiya Katoa as one of their first recruits before the Panthers had the chance to play the then-18-year-old at first-grade level and he has since blossomed into an NRL calibre half.
Mason Teague, Luke Hanson, Keagan Russell-Smith and Delahia Wigmore are among Katoa’s 2022 SG Ball grand final-winning teammates to be playing elsewhere in 2024.
Cleary’s teenaged son Jett became the latest junior Panther poached when he signed with the Warriors from 2025 last month.
Ahead of the Panthers’ first clash with three-time premiership winner Crichton on Friday evening, Cleary had the revolving door of players on his mind.
The coach did not expect to be compensated for losing NRL talent, but echoed Penrith’s long-held frustrations about rivals raiding their nursery.
“I think we should get dispensation, probably more in a development sense,” he said.
Privately, Penrith management would be in favour of a model that financially rewarded NRL clubs for investing in regional areas, as the Panthers have done so effectively in western NSW.
Under the system, teams would receive varying grants to match the level of development they were undertaking regionally.
Isaiya Katoa passes. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Cleary himself did not suggest a method of compensation when quizzed this week, but did not believe it would need to come in the salary cap.
“We develop a lot of players here that end up elsewhere, so I feel like we should get looked after more by the NRL in that space, apart from the salary cap and how it all works, it’s hard to argue with,” he said.
“But I do think we should be compensated in some way for the amount of players we’ve developed and the status they’ve become throughout the league.”
Turuva said Crichton had been taunting him via text message since last week in preparation for the round-10 clash.
“This guy’s already been playing mind games with me,” he said. “He’s been killing it, skipper over there, so it’ll be a good competition.”
with AAP
coastal
Roar Rookie
For the NRL to be discussing expansion of the competition there will have to be culling to reduce the amount of Sydney based clubs. There just aren't enough first grade players available to add more teams without diluting the quality. There will inevitably be more clubs merging, in order to spread and make better players available to any new franchises. That's what I see happening in the next 10-15 years.
Slammin_Sam
Roar Rookie
And this aged very well....
Dwanye
Roar Rookie
Why do you think there will only be five or six Sydney based teams? Do you think some will fold or something else happen?
blacktown leagues
Roar Rookie
In your opinion ,but not necessarily,its possible to be rational and annoyed at the same time
Tim Carter
Roar Pro
I think he's just off-contact in that case, which means he loses the agreed terms of his existing contract. It could lead to the same deal, a pay rise, or a pay cut, just as if the option never existed. I get what you're saying as far as knowing by now if he wants to stay, but both club and player play this game nowadays.
Dutski
Roar Guru
Roosters have cash, but backrow is not where they need to spend it. Unless they want to play Fifita in a centres jersey ala Dave The Coaltrain Taylor... and we saw how well that went.
Slammin_Sam
Roar Rookie
Looks they probably won't get him anyway.....the panthers are very inexperienced at doing this sort of thing and they are up against a couple of blackbelts.....
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
cheers & thanks. probably a message there somewhere
andrew
Roar Rookie
Bennett has no interest in signing Fifita apparently.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
The right coach could get a lot out of him. Love to see what Bennett could do, did Fifita play for him in SOO? Not sure.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
:laughing:
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
I sorta get that, but still it requires him to actively say to stay. What if he procrastinates? Until he actually lets them know what he's doing, it's up in the air. I'd prefer something more definite eg, if he hasn't made a decision by a date it's decided for him. What do the Titans do if he doesn't decide by this round? They have to chase him up. Unless it is an auto activation anyway?
Tim Carter
Roar Pro
That's what this is in slightly different phrasing. If he doesn't find an outside offer he wants, he will say he doesn't want to leave and his contract would continue into next year.
mushi
Roar Guru
Just because you get po doesn't mean it's rational or justified
The Barry
Roar Guru
That’s what you’ve taken from what I’ve written? You’re either a brilliant satirist and I’m starting to really like you or you’re the dum.best person I’ve ever corresponded with… I hope it’s the former but I fear the latter. I mean, what you’re quoting isn’t even in the comment you’re replying to…
Panthers
Roar Rookie
It’s funny how you don’t think that the junior areas should be redistributed. Even though you state: ‘If Cleary wants it fair for developing juniors, then it would only be fair to redistribute Sydney’s junior nursery boundaries’. You don’t want something done , even though you think it’s a fair thing to do? Then you claim someone else is dumb , as it’s not something you want done or that you said it . When clearly from your own comment, you do want the redistribution of junior boundaries, in this case. Again, you don’t want something done , when you can only see that something as being the way to go! Don’t state doing something as being a fair way to go , if you don’t believe it yourself. You didn’t happen to sell the idea of government reservations to the American Indigenous peoples, did you? As you certainly talk with a forked tongue.
The Barry
Roar Guru
For sure, and they’ve had that production line of first grade ready players ticking along for a long time The Panthers have paid guys like Burton, Kikau and Crichton (among others) 200-500 a season and won three premierships. The Bulldogs are playing 700-800k for each of them and a stoked to be sitting in 8th for a fortnight Meanwhile the Panthers have moved onto the next generation of Tago, May and Turuva… for a couple of hundred thousand a season It takes hard work to continually identify that next generation, but I don’t know what to say to anyone that can’t see where the advantages / disadvantages sit in that arrangement
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
There's a pretty decent St-George Illawarra list of juniors doing the rounds at other clubs.... Mind you, I can understand why they hot footed it out over the past few years...
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Why have an activate clause? Surely the Titans should have put in the reverse, eg. if you want out, confirm it by __/__/__ or you stay.
The Barry
Roar Guru
The Dogs have set up junior development in Northern NSW, not Lake Macquarie I’m not saying the Bulldogs have never signed a junior from Lake Macquarie, so you don’t have to google a list