Sport Confidential: Wayne Bennett’s tattoo pledge, Broncos hunting for an outside back
The Brisbane Broncos are looking for one last recruit for 2024 as injuries leave them thin in one position, Wayne Bennett’s tattoo pledge and more in Sport Confidential.
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The Broncos are scouring the player market for an outside back amid the injury crisis that threatens to derail their title campaign.
Brisbane signed Jack Gosiewski from the Cowboys a fortnight ago and have one vacancy left on their 30-man full-time roster to fill before the NRL’s June 30 transfer deadline.
The Broncos haven’t ruled out signing Tevita Pangai Jr, who is returning for feeder club Souths Logan, but Brisbane are more concerned with outside backs after losing Jesse Arthars and Tristan Sailor to injuries.
Arthars is gone for the next two months with a broken jaw, while Sailor could miss up to six weeks after undergoing surgery on his ankle.
Should the Broncos fail to secure an attractive signing on the open market, Brisbane can promote from within.
Late-blooming playmaker Josh Rogers is off-contract at season’s end and could be promoted from Brisbane’s development list.
The 27-year-old Perth-born playmaker did a fine job in last week’s win over the Eels and could warrant a full-time deal after impressing with feeder club Burleigh.
Teenage halfback Coby Black, 17, is also on Brisbane’s development list this season and on track for a full-time contract.
BENNETT DOUBLES DOWN ON TATTOO PLEDGE
Wayne Bennett has vowed to get a tattoo of a Rabbit if he can steer South Sydney to another premiership.
Dolphins super coach Bennett is in negotiations with South Sydney officials and hopes to finalise a three-year contract on Monday when he again meets with Rabbitohs boss Blake Solly.
In his last stint at Redfern in 2021, Bennett made a promise to then halfback Adam Reynolds, now at the Broncos, that he would head to the tattoo parlour if Souths won that year’s premiership.
Souths fell just short in the 2021 grand final after the heavily-inked Reynolds failed to land a last-minute conversion and Bennett has never let him forget about it.
But if he returns to Redfern next season as expected, the 74-year-old says his bet with Reynolds will be back on.
“I will get a rabbit tattoo (if Souths win the title),” Bennett said with a laugh on Ben Dobbin’s Rural Queensland show ahead of Magic Round.
“He is a great little guy, I loved coaching Adam. He has a lot of tattoos himself and he said to me one day why don’t get you a tattoo coach and I said never.
“But then we talked about it and I did remind the last time I saw him … I said, ‘Mate, I would have my tattoo on now if you kicked that goal’. He laughed and I laughed and we moved on.”
Bennett is in the advanced stages of talks with Souths but made it clear he needs the right conditions to return.
“I haven’t finalised yet what I’m doing, but wherever I go I will make the team the best I can. I am confident in that,” he said.
“If they don’t (meet his requests), I won’t be going.
“It’s not just me, it’s the club. You need the chairman’s support, you need a good CEO and good people around you, and after that you can get things done.
“The Dolphins haven’t interfered at all.
“That’s really important. Let me do my job and if I can’t do it, we’ll make other arrangements, but don’t interfere with me.”
PHIN NEEDS BOOTS
Dolphins cult hero Mark Nicholls has scored a contract extension and now the try-scoring sensation is chasing another deal.
Nicholls has been in hot form this season for the surging Dolphins and has even scored two tries – a rare feat for a front rower.
His form has triggered a one-year contract extension for 2025 and Nicholls is hoping a sporting wear giant is taking notice of his efforts.
“I’m yet to hear. It’s been crickets from Nike,” he said.
“You know where to find me – @markynico on Instagram if you want to give me some Nike boots.
“I’m a try-scoring machine.”
PVL’S SUCCESSOR EMERGES
Is this the clearest sign yet that former Queensland politician Kate Jones is being groomed to replace ARLC chairman Peter V’landys?
About 20 of Queensland’s most prominent media figures were treated to dinner at the NRL-owned Gambaro’s on Wednesday night.
The dinner is an annual event on the calendar in the week of a Magic Round and an opportunity for the NRL’s Sydney-based executives to catch up with media supporters of the game in Brisbane.
Dubbed The Chairman’s Dinner, it’s usually hosted by V’landys. But the powerful boss of the game wasn’t able to make it to Brisbane in time for this year’s dinner.
Instead, ARLC commissioner Jones took charge of hosting duties and spoke in the absence of V’landys.
The rest of the ARLC board was at the dinner apart from long-serving Tony McGrath and former chairman Peter Beattie.
Jones is the frontrunner to replace V’landys when he calls time on his stint and she is presenting a case for the game’s top job.
CARRIGAN’S CAPTAINCY SNUB
Stand-in Broncos captain Pat Carrigan is happy to fly under the radar after being ignored by Sydney media last week.
Carrigan has stepped into Brisbane’s leadership role for at least the next three months following a biceps injury to Adam Reynolds.
Carrigan is a natural leader who presents well, but he didn’t receive one question during last week’s five-minute post-game press conference following the win over the Eels.
“The first two weeks I was getting smoked (with questions),” Carrigan said.
“I liked how it was on the weekend. The more of that, the better.”
TINO CONTRACT CLAUSE COULD TRIP UP TITANS
Des Hasler is facing an $8 million contract circus surrounding captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui as another controversial deal threatens to haunt the Gold Coast Titans.
Maroons star David Fifita delivered a dagger to the Roosters on Wednesday when he reneged on a four-year deal to remain with the Titans.
The Fifita backflip ensured Gold Coast retained one of its best players until the end of 2026.
However it may not be the last time the Titans are forced to deal with a farcical contract situation.
Fifita was allowed to walk out of a three-year contract at the Titans following one season after his management negotiated a round 10 clause that included a two-year option in his favour worth $2 million. Essentially, Fifita had all the power.
Now the Titans are facing a similar situation with their No. 1 player in Fa’asuamaleaui, who has a similar clause in his NRL record $12 million, 10-year contract.
Fa’asuamaleaui has a player option following the third season of his deal – coincidentally from 2027 onwards. That means the final seven years of Tino’s 10-year contract, worth more than $1 million-a-season, are in limbo.
While it is not a round 10 clause, it gives Fa’asuamaleaui the power to quit the Titans after three years and he will have no shortage of suitors lining up for him.
Fa’asuamaleaui and Fifita are both technically off-contract at the end of the 2026 season and will become free agents from November 1 next year if the Titans don’t extend them before then.
Titans CEO Steve Mitchell said the club would no longer agree to player option clauses and he was confident Fa’asuamaleaui wouldn’t create a circus like Fifita.
“It has been a distraction and it is something from a best practice point of view you want to move out of,” he said.
“Tino is up and about and coming back with his ACL recovery. He is at the club a lot and excited about the future and talking about delivering the club our first premiership.
“I don’t believe (he will cause issues).
“Tino is amazing. He drives a large part of our vision. He talks about us being the first team to win a premiership on the Gold Coast out of any sporting team.
“He is front and centre as our captain, our on-field leader and our spiritual leader. He has got an extraordinary connection with the local community.
“He is excited about the future of this club.”
Fifita and Fa’asuamaleaui are not the only Titans players coming off-contract at that time either in what is shaping up to be a huge retention period for the club.
Hasler is facing a delicate salary cap juggling act with AJ Brimson, Beau Fermor, Alofiana Khan-Pereira, Jayden Campbell, Keano Kini, Brian Kelly, Phil Sami and Sam Verrills also off-contract at the end of 2026.
The Titans would be well served beginning long-term planning now, extending their key players and ensuring they don’t have so many coming off-contract at the same time.
Fifita and Fa’asuamaleaui both had clauses in their previous contracts relating to former coach Justin Holbrook which made them free agents last year.
They’ve secured player options in their following contracts, but Mitchell denied the Queensland duo wielded too much power at the Titans.
NEW DEAL FOR TEST STAR
The Dolphins are ramping-up their retention drive with star hooker Jeremy Marshall-King set to ink a new deal to remain at Redcliffe.
Sport Confidential can reveal Marshall-King is closing in on a two-year extension as he prepares for Sunday’s Magic Round clash against the Wests Tigers team coached by his brother Benji Marshall.
‘JMK’ has become one of the most improved hookers in the league and has been a revelation for the Dolphins since joining the club as a foundation player from the Bulldogs.
The 28-year-old is off-contract at the end of 2025 but is in talks on a two-year upgrade to remain at the Dolphins until the end of 2027.
The 125-game NRL veteran played two Tests for New Zealand in 2022 and is banging down the Test selection door after his sizzling performances for the Dolphins.
Marshall-King is due to become a free agent from November 1 this year but the Dolphins have moved swiftly and hope to have the crafty hooker’s signature within the week.
DOLPHINS GURU IN DEMAND
The Dolphins are facing a major battle to retain recruitment chief Peter O’Sullivan as a bidding war heats up.
Sport Confidential can reveal four NRL clubs are eyeing off O’Sullivan, one of the code’s best recruiters who famously spotted Queensland Origin legend Greg Inglis and Souths superstar Latrell Mitchell.
Speculation is rife the Gold Coast-based O’Sullivan is on the verge of signing with the Dragons, but three NRL rivals have also expressed interest, including the Knights.
It is understood O’Sullivan has yet to ink a deal with the Dragons, whose son Sean was the Dolphins’ foundation halfback for their history-making first game against the Roosters last year.
Off-contract at season’s end, O’Sullivan has been offered a new deal by the Dolphins, but the Dragons’ offer is believed to be more lucrative.
O’Sullivan has played a key role in the dawn of the Dolphins, with the former Storm, Warriors and Roosters recruitment chief working closely with Wayne Bennett in constructing Redcliffe’s first NRL roster that is already in the mix for the finals.
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Originally published as Sport Confidential: Wayne Bennett’s tattoo pledge, Broncos hunting for an outside back
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