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Wayne Bennett is set for a face-to-face with the South Sydney hierarchy at Magic Round, according to reports in Newscorp outlets.
His interest in the Bunnies job is well known but contact has been limited to phones for now, but with both club and coach set to share the same stadium in a week and a half, a formal offer will likely be made.
The likeliest option is a three-year deal worth almost a million dollars a year, which would match the current wage on offer at the Dolphins and see Bennett coach until the age of 77 at least.
“We’re all up in Brisbane soon for the Magic Round weekend and we should get a chance to sit down and talk further then with Wayne,” Souths CEO told the Courier-Mail.
“We’re unlikely to catch up with Wayne this week.
“We’re respectful of his role at the Dolphins and ensuring their successful season continues.”
The Sydney Roosters are trying to swamp Penrith’s attempt to sign David Fifita by offering the Gold Coast star a four-season deal reportedly worth over $3 million.
To remain at the Titans in 2025, barnstorming second-rower Fifita must trigger a player option in his contract by round 10, which begins on Thursday.
The 24-year-old flew to Sydney and met Panthers officials on Sunday evening, with the triple premiers in a position to make a lucrative offer now that James Fisher-Harris is leaving to join the Warriors in 2025.
However, the Roosters are also cashed up following the exits of Joey Manu, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Joseph Suaalii and potentially Daniel Tupou at the end of the season along with the retirement of Liuke Keary.
The Roosters also have the salary cap space to re-sign Angus Crichton, who has been in red-hot form recently, after his negotiations to switch to a French rugby club have stalled.
Penrith are understood to have tabled Fifita a long-term deal worth an estimated $850,000 a season and the Roosters’ offer is believed to be similar.
Fifita re-signed with the Titans last year but had get-out clauses written into the deal for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
With the second-rower keen to win a premiership and Gold Coast running 16th with just one win for the season to kick off Des Hasler’s time at the club, Fifita is considering his options elsewhere.
Ivan Cleary has renewed calls for Penrith to receive compensation from the NRL when rivals poach from their junior stocks as the Panthers prepare to face Stephen Crichton for the first time.
Canterbury captain Crichton is one of 11 players to have left the Panthers after tasting grand final glory in the past three seasons and that number is set to grow to 14 next year with Jarome Luai, James Fisher-Harris and Sunia Turuva exiting in 2025.
“In my heart I would love all those boys to still be playing here but we’d have about three teams then, so you can’t do it,” Cleary said.
Rival clubs have targeted Penrith players for their premiership experience but the chance to grab bargains from their league-leading junior nursery has proven just as enticing.
The Dolphins famously signed Isaiya Katoa as one of their first recruits before the Panthers had the chance to play the then-18-year-old at first-grade level and he has since blossomed into an NRL calibre half.
Mason Teague, Luke Hanson, Keagan Russell-Smith and Delahia Wigmore are among Katoa’s 2022 SG Ball grand final-winning teammates to be playing elsewhere in 2024.
Cleary’s teenaged son Jett became the latest junior Panther poached when he signed with the Warriors from 2025 last month.
Ahead of the Panthers’ first clash with three-time premiership winner Crichton on Friday evening, Cleary had the revolving door of players on his mind.
The coach did not expect to be compensated for losing NRL talent, but echoed Penrith’s long-held frustrations about rivals raiding their nursery.
“I think we should get dispensation, probably more in a development sense,” he said.
Privately, Penrith management would be in favour of a model that financially rewarded NRL clubs for investing in regional areas, as the Panthers have done so effectively in western NSW.
Under the system, teams would receive varying grants to match the level of development they were undertaking regionally.
Isaiya Katoa passes. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Cleary himself did not suggest a method of compensation when quizzed this week, but did not believe it would need to come in the salary cap.
“We develop a lot of players here that end up elsewhere, so I feel like we should get looked after more by the NRL in that space, apart from the salary cap and how it all works, it’s hard to argue with,” he said.
“But I do think we should be compensated in some way for the amount of players we’ve developed and the status they’ve become throughout the league.”
Turuva said Crichton had been taunting him via text message since last week in preparation for the round-10 clash.
“This guy’s already been playing mind games with me,” he said. “He’s been killing it, skipper over there, so it’ll be a good competition.”
with AAP
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