Canterbury Bulldogs favourites to sign St Helens prop Luke Thompson
You might not know his name yet but this English super League hard man is one of the game’s rising stars, and Canterbury lead the race for the highly rated St Helens prop.
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Canterbury have emerged as outright favourites to land the prized signature of the Englishman rated the “best prop in the world”.
In what would be a massive boost for the rebuilding Bulldogs, St Helens hard man Luke Thompson is expected to make an announcement on his future in the coming days.
Gold Coast is the other club in the chase while the New Zealand Warriors have come in late and hard with a big offer.
Initially 11 NRL clubs expressed some interest in signing Thompson for the 2021 season but it is now down to three with the Bulldogs said to be leading the charge.
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In the Titans’ favour is that Thompson also has a close connection with new coach Justin Holbrook from their time together at St Helens.
The talk is Thompson is set to earn in the vicinity of $700,000 a season which is massive money but understandable given teammate Alex Walmsley’s huge rap last year.
Walmsley declared that Thompson was the world’s best prop following a man of the match performance in the Super League grand final.
Thompson is only 24 but has already made more than 150 Super League appearances for St Helens.
He has also earned tremendous respect among his English Test teammates, with the Canberra Raiders’ Pommy connection in particular trying their hardest to get him to the Raiders.
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In the end Canberra simply didn’t have the salary cap space to match the offers elsewhere.
Thompson would be a huge acquisition for the Bulldogs who are trying to fight their way back into finals contention.
Although Thompson is contracted to St Helens for the 2020 Super League season, there has been some talk he may come to Australia early.
St Helens have stated categorically that they won’t let that happen but it could possibly change if an NRL club was willing to cough up a significant transfer fee.
Although it is unlikely to eventuate regardless, it is worth noting that any money paid for a transfer fee is not included in the NRL salary cap.
While the Bulldogs have had some tough recent years following Des Hasler’s departure they showed some strong signs of improvement at the backend of last season, finishing as one of the comp’s form sides with seven wins out of their last 10 games.
Dean Pay is really building some commitment and resilience in what is still the NRL’s youngest and least experienced roster but adding a front rower of Thompson’s reputation is exactly the type of addition that could help attract more quality players.
They also added Kiwi international Dallin Watene-Zelezniak last year and have signed Melbourne forward Joe Stimson, Dean Britt from Souths and Sione Katoa from Penrith for 2020.
Originally published as Canterbury Bulldogs favourites to sign St Helens prop Luke Thompson