Ben Hunt contract: Gold Coast Titans respond to links with St George Illawarra, QLD Origin star
Is one of Queensland’s State of Origin heroes headed to the sunshine state? One suitor has weighed in on speculation linking them with a move for Ben Hunt.
Gold Coast coach Justin Holbrook has responded to speculation he is courting Maroons star Ben Hunt and declared the race to play in the Titans’ halves next year is wide open.
The Titans have identified Hunt as a potential recruitment target for 2024 if the Dragons halfback decides to hit the open market on November 1 this year.
Hunt, 32, has entered contract extension negotiations with St George Illawarra, but could secure a bigger payday if he leaves the Dragons at the end of next season.
A Rockhampton product and former Broncos No. 7, Hunt told The Courier-Mail last month his preference was to remain at the Dragons but he was open to a return to Queensland, with the Dolphins touted as a possible destination.
However, with major holes at halfback and hooker, the positions Hunt thrives in, the Titans have entered the frame for the Queensland Origin hero.
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The Titans lost to the Dragons in Wollongong last Sunday, with reports emerging in Sydney in the following days that Holbrook had met with Hunt.
Holbrook denied that was the case when asked on Thursday.
“No,” he said when asked if he had met with Hunt.
When probed on whether Hunt was on the Titans’ radar, Holbrook said: “There’s that much speculation around things like that.
“He’s got another year down there anyway. Nothing’s going to change for next year.
“Like anyone else, if players are off in 2024 then you naturally look at them.
“It’s nothing more than that at the moment.”
Holbrook has signed Manly veteran Kieran Foran on a two-year deal to solve a glaring lack of experience in his playmakers which has contributed to the Titans’ crash into 15th spot on the ladder.
Rookie Toby Sexton has been put on ice for the remainder of the season, unable to force his way into the 17 for Sunday’s final home game against Newcastle at Cbus Super Stadium.
Instead of shifting utility Tanah Boyd from halfback to hooker to accommodate Sexton’s return, Holbrook is persisting with makeshift dummy-half Sam McIntyre.
Sexton, 21, struggled in 19 NRL games this season without an experienced halves partner, hence the signing of Foran, and is no certainty to be the Titans’ first-choice halfback next year.
With Roosters hooker Sam Verrills headed to Parkwood, and AJ Brimson expected to return to fullback, the Titans’ fractured spine is set for an overhaul next season and Holbrook said spots were up for grabs.
“It’s a competition for spots but that’s no different to any other position. We need that, that’s exactly what we want to have,” he said.
“We want to have guys competing hard in the pre-season for spots. That’s a good thing.
“Once you get closer to the rounds you want your side settled. The good sides are very settled in those key areas and not deciding who to play each weekend.
“You want to be set and have that connection and cohesion pretty clear. In terms of early in the pre-season, we want competition for spots for everyone.”
KENT: DRAGONS PLAYING WITH FIRE IN HUNT STANDOFF
Paul Kent, column
This is not particularly new information to the Trained Spotter but it does seem to be a message that bears repeating, namely that halfbacks win competitions.
And as an extra piece of advice, the trick is just when you believe you have it cemented down, remind yourself again.
That said, a given on most street corners, it makes you wonder why St George Illawarra would even contemplate low-balling Ben Hunt as they continue to negotiate a contract extension to take him to the end of 2025.
Unless it was some misguided bargaining ploy.
He is at the Dragons for next season but wants two more.
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Some weeks back Hunt and coach Anthony Griffin, Hunt’s manager Col Davis and the Dragons chief executive Ryan Webb and general manager Shane Flanagan caught up for dinner in Cronulla.
The business chat was swift.
The Dragons wanted to keep him and Hunt wanted to stay. It was all decided before the toothpicks came out.
But as often happens it appears there has been a breakdown in the details.
The reports say the Dragons are in the ballpark of $700,000 a season for his final two years and Hunt was preferring somewhere up around the high $800,000s, nudging $900,000.
The business of contracts is never easy.
For years Hunt was his own private soap opera.
His million-dollar salary was the first of the NRL era and with it brought enough criticism to weigh by the kilo.
Justifying the price tag almost got to the point where it buckled Hunt, while a few careers at the Dragons suffered as they tried to justify the spend.
He has come through, though, and this season Hunt is worth all that he is being paid if not more.
He is on the shortlist for the Dally M Player of the Year award, with Nicho Hynes and Dylan Edwards the chief rivals, and of the Dragons’ 10 victories this season you could attribute at least half directly to their number seven.
He has the ability to control a game, to steal back momentum, to make the play when the play is needed, all of which are the trademarks of all the good halves.
Griffin, say club insiders, was unaware of reports that Hunt and the club had hit a hurdle in negotiations.
A man not prone to hysterics — he’d prefer to settle things with a grunt than a complete sentence — how much he cared about the reports remains unclear.
He had a spectacular fallout with a weighty NRL figure some years back and since then the odd regular shot still comes from his representatives in the trees in a bid to unsettle him.
The feeling at the Dragons on Tuesday was that maybe the reports had more to do with that.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
The way business is done at St George Illawarra is the way the game is heading, with a heavy emphasis on the general manager to get the contracts done.
In the past, contracts were always negotiated with club bosses, with a heavy contribution from the head coach, working together to land the player.
The Dragons were one of the first clubs to move towards the more American model of a general manager, who is right across the roster, being responsible to do the deal, when Ian Millward was put in the job.
Phil Gould did a similar job at Penrith and now does it at Canterbury while Frank Ponissi and more recently Ben Ikin have similar roles at Melbourne and Brisbane.
Its advantage is it stops clubs being vulnerable to coaches essentially coaching for the duration of their contracts, risking long-term success for short-term wins and a new contract.
The general manager is responsible for succession planning, salary cap management and a vision that usually extends longer than the coach’s contract, whether he might re-sign or not, while the coach coaches the player he is given.
While you wouldn’t exactly call Griffin and Flanagan peas in a pod it is a collaboration and they work solidly together.
What does not change, and what they both know, is that every club is searching for a franchise halfback.
If their value needs any reminding, a quick look at teams from the top of the ladder to the bottom is almost a true ranking, except in the odd circumstance, of the halves as well.
The three clubs who sacked their coach this season all struggled at some point in the halves.
Everyone at the Dragons knows the way to avoid that.
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