Sport Confidential: Wests Tigers teen’s Jonah Lomu demolition, Souths silence Wayne Bennett coaching rumours
Footage of 16-year-old Wests Tigers phenom Heamasi Makasini bulldozing fellow schoolboys like Jonah Lomu has sparked the club into action. WATCH the incredible vision.
The Wests Tigers have been locked in talks to tie down teenage centre Heamasi Makasini and their efforts are set to intensify after his performances for Newington College in recent weeks.
Sport Confidential has obtained footage of a rampaging Makasini toying with his high school opponents in a game against the The King’s School, highlighting why the Tigers have tabled a deal to keep him at the club beyond next season.
There are shades of All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu in the way he swats aside opponents (watch the side-by-side video above). Makasini is still only 16 but there are some who believe he is so talented, the Tigers could seek an exemption to have him play at some point before his 18th birthday, ala Sydney Roosters star Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii.
He has attracted interest from some of the biggest clubs in the NRL but the Tigers are quietly confident that they can convince the teenager that his future lies with them.
Makasini, meanwhile, is set to be a star of the Australian schoolboys carnival to be played in a fortnight at Coffs Harbour.
RABBITS SILENCE BENNETT WHISPERS
South Sydney boss Blake Solly has hit out at suggestions that Wayne Bennett was leading the Rabbitohs’ revival this year with Solly heaping praise on interim coach Ben Hornby.
Hornby has helped lift the Rabbitohs from the bottom of the competition ladder to now people discussing their top eight prospects.
South Sydney have won four games in a row under his watch. Despite their winning streak, there have been suggestions that incoming coach Wayne Bennett had helped with the resurrection while balancing his commitments with the Dolphins.
While Bennett is naturally having an active say on South Sydney’s roster for next season he is having nothing to do with coaching the side in 2024.
“Clearly since Wayne’s appointment he has had some influence on what happens (with the playing group) this year and next,” Solly said. “Ben is doing a tremendous job as a head coach. He is calm and consistent. The team is performing for him and his coaching staff.”
It is a surprise the Eels did not reach out to Hornby given how impressive he has been since stepping into the role.
He has committed to be part of Bennett’s coaching staff next season but Solly knows Hornby has the traits of a long-term NRL coach.
“He has been super impressive,” Solly said. “I said it this time last year when his name was mentioned as a potential coach at the Dragons that if he isn’t a head coach already he is going to be a very good head coach.”
Bennett’s fingerprints are all over South Sydney’s team for next season. He will bring Euan Aitken from the Dolphins while impressive young Manly half/hooker Jamie Humphreys has also agreed to a two year deal to join the club from next season. Bennett told Damien Cook he is free to leave to join the Dragons.
They remain on the look-out for a cut-priced prop but the likes of Royce Hunt and Jack de Belin are expected to be too expensive.
The Rabbitohs have bumped up outside back Richie Kenner to a top 30 contract for the rest of this season as their injury toll continues to grow. They have also added Fletcher Myers immediately until the end of next season.
Myers joins South Sydney from Newcastle on a development deal for the next two seasons.
The outside back joined the Knights from Manly this year.
Campbell Graham, Tevita Tatola, Lachlan Ilias and Isaiah Tass aren’t expected to be back this year. The Rabbitohs are also likely to take a conservative path with young flyer Tyrone Munroe who is also set to miss the rest of the season after suffering multiple collarbone injuries.
Munroe could return if South Sydney play finals.
CLUBS TARGET STORM GREAT
NRL clubs are circling another Wallaby with Suli Vunivalu set to be the next target from the 15-man game.
Vunivalu has attracted interest from a host of clubs already after the former Storm flyer missed out on Australia’s latest squad. He has 12 months left on his deal with the Queensland Reds but given Rugby Australia’s financial constraints they would consider letting him go to help free up some much needed funds.
Vunivalu is still only 28. He scored 86 tries from 111 games during a decorated stint with the Storm before his high profile cross-code switch.
He flirted with an NRL return previously before re-signing with Rugby Australia last year. Vunivalu could also opt to play overseas should he not want to make his NRL comeback despite there expected to be a strong demand for his services.
Vunivalu joins the likes of NRL bound players Mark Nawaqanitawase (Roosters) and Carter Gordon (Titans) to fail to make new Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt’s first squad in charge.
MULTIPLE CLUBS FIGHT FOR CHOOK
Manly have emerged as a strong contender for Roosters back-rower Sitili Tupouniua who has been given permission to talk with rival clubs despite three years left on his deal.
It is understood the Sea Eagles have met with the 27-year-old who is expected to leave the Roosters at the end of the season.
Canterbury and the Dolphins are the other clubs in the mix. Despite reports this week that Tupouniua had already agreed to join the Bulldogs it is understood that a deal is far from done.
The Bulldogs however are still well in the hunt to land Tupouniua although the Sea Eagles’ are also circling.
Tupouniua has been told by the Roosters that he is free to leave the club with the Roosters close to re-signing NSW back-rower Angus Crichton for the next two seasons.
The Roosters’ log-jam of forwards means Tupouniua has been reluctantly squeezed out of the club. Manly have some cash available given their decision to cut ties with Josh Schuster who was taking up $800,000 of their salary cap.
While Ben Trbojevic has done a strong job in the matches he has started this season the potential of having Tupouniua and Haumole Olakau’atu on either edges looms as a mouth watering prospect for the Sea Eagles.
Manly have lost Jamie Humphreys (South Sydney) and Karl Lawton (Cowboys) for next season but largely have their roster intact.
TITANIC RE-SIGNING
Klese Haas, the younger brother of Brisbane and NSW star Payne Haas, is expected to sign a three-year extension to remain at the Titans.
Haas has been a mainstay of the Gold Coast side this year, appearing in 13 games for the club and scoring a brace of tries.
At 22, his best years are ahead of him and Haas is set to stay at the Gold Coast until the end of 2027 as he becomes pivotal figures in the Titans’ rebuild under coach Des Hasler.
NRL’S MAY DAY
The players union is watching closely as the legal fight between Penrith star Taylan May and the Panthers threatens to explode, testing the game’s no-fault stand-down policy in the process.
May has been stood down by the ARL Commission since being charged with domestic violence related offences earlier this year, only a matter of weeks after signing a two-year extension worth $1.2 million.
The Panthers were keen to sack May and had planned a show cause hearing for earlier this week where he was expected to be given his marching orders, only for May to take out an injunction in the federal court to prevent the hearing going ahead.
Sport Con understands that the Rugby League Players Association have been keeping an eye on the matter given the no-fault stand-down policy is in effect and dictates that while the player is stood down, he is done so under the presumption of innocence.
The rule also requires that the player continues to be paid while he is out of the game, meaning the Panthers must continue to honour their contract with the 22-year-old.
Penrith were proposing to sack May, which his legal team argued would have gone against the NRL’s own rules. It is understood that they are ready to claim in court that the Panthers may have failed to comply with the NRL rules when they sought to sack him because the presumption of innocence may have been overlooked.
FLASHBACK
Rugby league enforcer Mark Carroll made front page news on this day five years ago. Carroll has pledged to donate his brain once he dies to help with the research of concussion related trauma.
MEETING OF MINDS
Good friends Adam O’Brien and Brad Arthur were recently spotted lunching with their wives at a Newcastle hotel, prompting scuttlebutt that the pair may be reunited at some point in the near future on the Knights coaching staff.
However, it is understood the meeting was more a case of two old mates shooting the breeze rather than any formal discussions over Arthur’s coaching future.
O’Brien and Arthur have known each other for years stretching back to their playing days in Bateman’s Bay. When Arthur was captain-coach of Bateman’s Bay, O’Brien became his assistant.
When Arthur moved to the Melbourne Storm, O’Brien wasn’t far behind. So close are the pair, O’Brien is the godfather to Arthur’s daughter Charlotte.
While their recent meeting was completely innocent, O’Brien has given a helping hand to coaches looking for another chance in the past.
Three years ago, he brought Anthony Seibold on board in a consultancy capacity after the Manly coach parted ways with Brisbane.
He won’t rule out doing the same for Arthur as the ex-Eels coach weighs up his next move, having parted ways with Parramatta only a matter of weeks ago.
Arthur has been linked with Super League side Leeds.
MYSTERY SOLVED
A bizarre email lobbed into our inbox this week with a person claiming they had photographic evidence of a secret meeting with sacked Parramatta boss Brad Arthur and Manly chief executive Tony Mestrov.
The only problem is that the meeting never happened.
Mestrov emphatically denied any photo could exist because there was simply no meeting. And he backed Seibold to remain Manly’s long-term coach.
We flatly rejected the notion of paying for the photo after the person requested a financial windfall for the image. We’re not sure how much he wanted because we politely declined before it even got to that stage.
But now the photo has been leaked and clearly it is not the Manly boss who sat down with Arthur.
It was a simple case of mistaken identity.
Arthur did have a meeting on Monday. However it wasn’t with Mestrov. Instead it was with a Western Australian minister – Peter Tinley – who is in town and has spent the past few days picking the brains of a host of people involved in rugby league.
Arthur was happy to catch up and explain what it takes to run an elite footballing program with Arthur having an eye on potentially taking control of the new Perth side.
Sea Eagles coach Seibold has 12 months left on his deal and is under no pressure at the moment to keep his job. However, talks of an extension have been put on hold for now.
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