NRL 2024: Corey Oates has five games to save his Brisbane Broncos career
After 12 seasons in the NRL and 121 tries with Brisbane, Broncos fan favourite Corey Oates now has just five games to cement a future at Red Hill and save his NRL career.
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Broncos fan favourite Corey Oates has five games to save his NRL career.
After 12 seasons in the NRL with Brisbane and 121 tries in 214 games, Oates is playing for his future at Red Hill.
Oates doesn’t have a contract beyond this season and at this stage there is no guarantee he will be offered a new one by the Broncos.
He has deferred making a call on his future until the end of Brisbane’s 2024 campaign but the decision could be taken out of his hands.
Despite being a tremendous performer for the Broncos over more than a decade, Oates has fallen down the pecking order in recent years.
He couldn’t get a spot in last year’s finals team and was overlooked for selection at the start of this season by coach Kevin Walters.
At 29, Oates isn’t old in NRL terms but the brutal reality is the game has taken a toll on his body over the years.
He still packs a punch with his backfield carries and can finish a try, but can’t match the speed of the emerging generation of wingers.
Selwyn Cobbo’s unavailability has opened the door for Oates to return to his favoured position on the left wing against the Titans on Saturday and mount a final case for a contract extension.
A father of two, Oates told Sport Confidential recently that he hadn’t made a decision on his future, but would find it hard to play for another club if he was unwanted by the Broncos.
“I’m going to leave it until the end of the season. I want to perform for the rest of the year,” he said.
“I hate having the noise around a contract in the background. I’d rather leave it alone. We haven’t even asked the Broncos.
“I’ve got to look at how I’m going and also my family. It’s all about the kids. They bloody love going to the games. It’s what they look forward to every week.
“If that’s an indication of what I’ll be doing, I won’t really have a choice (but to play on). Something I’d like is for the kids to remember me playing.
“The last thing I want to do is go anywhere else. If the Broncos don’t offer me something then that will probably be it.
“It’d be pretty hard to go anywhere else. I’ve spent my whole career here and there’s no point just going to another club to add numbers.
“I’ve always made it clear that this is where I want to finish my career. I want to be a one-club player.”
While Reece Walsh and Pat Carrigan may be the rock stars of Red Hill, Oates is arguably the most popular among Brisbane’s long-term fans.
His affable personality makes him hard to hate and he still receives an enormous cheer from the crowd when he enters the game at Suncorp Stadium.
If Oates does call it a day he will walk straight into an off-field job with the Broncos and pick up numerous gigs in Brisbane.
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Originally published as NRL 2024: Corey Oates has five games to save his Brisbane Broncos career
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