Melbourne Storm signs Ricky Leutele on NRL contract
He helped crush Melbourne’s premiership dream in 2016 but the Storm has officially signed Ricky Leutele, the former Sharks star stranded in the UK, just minutes before the NRL’s deadline.
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Melbourne Storm has sealed a deal for stranded Toronto Wolfpack star Ricky Leutele just 10 minutes before the NRL’s 5pm deadline on Monday.
The Cronulla Sharks premiership centre Leutele, who ironically made the last tackle in the 2016 grand final win over Storm, will arrive in Brisbane at the end of the week to start mandatory 14-day isolation.
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The signing ends a week of uncertainty for both Leutele and Storm, who moved to sign the 30 year-old Brisbanite to bolster injury-depleted centre stocks.
Like Wolfpack marquee-turned-Rooster Sonny Bill Williams, Leutele was due to play for the now collapsed UK Super League club this season.
The Storm contract breakthrough came on Monday after days of on-again, off-again NRL negotiations.
The league rejected the Leutele move under rules forbidding players from holding two contracts at once.
But once the Roosters signed Williams the NRL had little choice but to approve the Leutele transaction.
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Storm football director Frank Ponissi said Leutele was the ideal candidate for the last spot on the roster.
“He’s a premiership player, played over 100 games for the Sharks, if you’re going to bring anyone in (it is him),” Ponissi said.
“We were only ever going to bring in someone that could make a difference, rather than just fill a shirt.”
Leutele expressed his frustration on Sunday night before the NRL cleared the way for Melbourne to sign him.
“I’m frustrated more than angry. It’s been such a rollercoaster ride.
“My wife is trying to sort out our flights and we hope to get out of here in about a week.”
The footballer is a quietly spoken Polynesian who is not into controversy.
He points out others are doing it tougher than him.
“Everyone is struggling during coronavirus,” he said, “so I can’t complain too much.
“It’s been hard though. I just hope Sam can sort it out and I can come home to play football.
“I’ve been training and I’ll be ready.”
Storm hopes to get left centre Justin Olam (ankle) back this week, with Tom Eisenhuth to line up on the right edge.
Brenko Lee (broken hand) is likely to be out for one more week, while Paul Momirovski (finger) faces a three-month break.
Marion Seve is also unavailable after going in for plastic surgery on his ear.
The centre sustained the graphic injury late in the win over Newcastle.
“He collided heads,” Ponissi said.
“(When the trainer came back said) half his ear is just about hanging off.”