NRL transfer news 2023: Almost 100 players remain off-contract for 2024 season

It’s the heartache of the modern day NRL battler, being told there’s no room for them, and being forced to join the almost 100 players without a job for next year. SEE THE FULL LIST.

Almost 100 NRL Players are without a club for next season, and fighting for their futures.

This is the flip side of the NRL Rich 100 list.

Bayley Sironen grew up knowing what it was like to be the son of a rugby league legend.

But today the now 26-year-old represents the hardworking face of the modern day NRL battler.

Because for every rugby league star living the life of luxury that most fans could only dream about, there is literally 100 more players coming off contract at the end of this season who are still without a job for next year.

And the Warriors utility is the epitome of an NRL journeyman whose current predicament explains just how brutal the sport can be, on and off the field.

Ahead of the Warriors’ huge clash against the Rabbitohs on Friday night, Sironen certainly was not complaining as he revealed how he had been told salary cap restrictions would prevent him staying in New Zealand next year.

Salary cap pressure means Warriors' forward Bayley Sironen is on the look out for a new club for 2024. Picture: NRL Imagery.

This is despite playing all but two of the Warriors’ games this season in a revival that has caught the imagination of everyone in the game.

Not that Sironen has an issue with the Warriors because he said new coach Andrew Webster could not have been more upfront.

“It is just the way the footy rollercoaster is I guess,” Sironen said, who only settled down living in New Zealand this season after two years on the road with the Warriors in transit due to Covid.

“The club was really honest and I have a really good relationship with Webby.

“He sat me down and said at the moment there is nothing for me moving forward.

“There is a few young blokes that have a lot of potential and they want to try and develop them in the top 30.

“It is difficult but you just have to keep training hard and keep playing well and hopefully something comes up.

“Look, I am not someone who is very loud or I am not going to draw too many headlines and stuff like that.

“And I understand that, it is all part of it.

“But there are a lot of blokes who every few years are fighting for that sort of 25 to 30 spot in a roster and putting their hand up to try and make it each week.

“I am obviously not the first bloke to go through this and I won’t be the last.”

While some players are battling on minimum wage deals, Titans star David Fifita earns four times as much as the off-contract Sironen. Picture: NRL Photos.

It’s a stunning comparison when you consider the players at the very bottom of NRL teams’ top-30 squads usually earn close to the league’s minimum wage of $120,000.

While the players at the top end earn seven-figure salaries. Gold Coast’s David Fifita earns $1 million a season, four times as much as Sironen is paid to play in his favoured edge forward position.

And across all 17 clubs there is literally 100 more players in a similar situation, and some of the names would surprise you.

From veterans like Martin Taupau, Moses Mbye, Aaron Woods and Josh Reynolds, to Brad Schneider, Braidon Burns, Kyle Flanagan, Oliver Gildart, Brad Parker, Brian Kelly, Kurt Mann, Jordan McLean … you could go on and on.

Old and young, names many would know, and just as many even the rusted-on fans might struggle to recognise.

And for every Shaun Johnson that is still off contract but in no danger of being pushed out, there is a stack of journeyman just like Sironen searching just for any opportunity.

Sironen has lived and breathed the game for his entire life as the son of former Balmain Tigers icon Paul, while his older brother Curtis also played plenty of NRL.

Almost 100 NRL Players are without a club for next season, and fighting for their futures.

But while he has proven to be more than a handy player who has played every position except winger and fullback at NRL level, even that doesn’t guarantee job security as he now searches for his fourth NRL club after previous stints at Wests Tigers and South Sydney.

“Obviously, you saw it with my old man and brother (Curtis) as well, it is something I always wanted to do,” he added, as he prepares to clock up his 70th NRL game in his seventh season.

“But I had a very different path to the NRL than what Curtis did.

“He played a lot of first grade as an 18/19-year-old and I sort of had to play 60 or 70 reserve grade games before I got a crack.

“And even then it was sort of play a game and then play a few more NSW Cup games and stuff like that.

“But I always wanted to do this for a living and I still do.”