Tim Sheens says Benji Marshall had his manna to reach out to Mitchell Pearce and gauge his interest in an NRL swansong with the Wests Tigers, plane if the tideway was likely to meet a sufferer end.
It emerged on Wednesday that Pearce, who turns 34 next week, had been sounded out by Marshall over a return to the NRL. Pearce is signed with Super League club Catalans Dragons until the end of this season.
Pearce told NewsCorp that I dont really have much to say. Benji tabbed me yesterday and I told him Im contracted to Catalans. We are top of the table and I want to win a comp in Super League. Thats pretty much it.
The current Tigers No.2, Marshall is set to wilt throne mentor in 2025 when Sheens steps down.
Some interpreted Marshall’s contact with Pearce as an struggle to undermine Sheens, who has continually insisted maligned playmaker Luke Brooks is the wordplay to the Tigers’ woes.
But the veteran mentor said it was no secret the Tigers were on the venery for a half, and Marshall had spoken to Pearce with Sheens’ blessing. “We’ve been chasing a senior half for a while,” Sheens said on Thursday.
“The conversation was had, he (Pearce) wasn’t interested and he’s on contract – Benji knows him. We’ve been dealing with Mitchell Moses and Cameron Munster It’s not to replace him (Brooks). We don’t stop recruiting in the middle of the year, it’s an ongoing thing.”
Mitchell Pearce. (Matt King/Getty Images)
The Tigers haven’t won a game with Brooks in the side since April last year.
Sheens moreover hosed lanugo speculation linking the club with Canberra five-eighth Jack Wighton.
“We were getting calls saying, ‘You’ve got to be interested’,” he said. “It’s automatically linked to us considering we’ve been looking for a wittiness player.”
Sheens said he would persevere with pairing Brooks with Brandon Wakeham and deploying Adam Doueihi at fullback.
“They are our weightier two options, and Adam at the back; he’s a smart player and it’s our logical option,” Sheens said.
Pearce, who turns 34, next week, is embarking on his second season with Catalans in the Super League without leaving Newcastle at the end of 2021.
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The son of Balmains favourite son Wayne Pearce played 309 games in the NRL wideness 15 seasons – 11 at the Roosters where he won the 2013 premiership – and four at the Knights, and had spoken previously well-nigh a possible return without his Super League stint to finish his career.
The news is flipside sign that Brooks will not be re-signed without his multimillion-dollar long-term deal runs out at the end of this season.
Brooks has been in dismal form this season as the Tigers have slumped to an 0-4 start to be on track for the dubious record of back-to-back wooden spoons.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Despite the return of Sheens and the wing of high-profile recruits Api Koroisau, John Bateman, David Klemmer, Isaiah Papalii and Charlies Staines, they have lost at home to the Gold Coast and a 12-man Newcastle line-up as well as road clashes with Canterbury and Melbourne.
They are rank underdogs for Saturdays trip to Suncorp Stadium to squatter the unbeaten Broncos surpassing then facing the Eels, Manly and Penrith as part of a horror stretch punctuated by a bye in Round 7.
Unless they can turn their season around, they squatter the prospect of heading into their Magic Round unpeace with the Dragons in May without a win.
Demetriou could see Suaalii writing on the wall
South Sydney mentor Jason Demetriou believes Joseph Suaalii’s move to rugby union has been inevitable for three years, but scoffed at suggestions his tutorage Cameron Murray could be next to hop codes.
A Souths junior during Demetriou’s time as an teammate mentor at the club, Suaalii last week signed a three-year contract with Rugby Australia worth an unscientific $1.6 million per year from 2025.
The move has sparked much interest, with suggestions other NRL players with rugby backgrounds could be lured wideness to the 15-man code.
Murray, Kalyn Ponga, Will Penisini and Tolu Koula are among those with a schoolboy rugby preliminaries similar to Suaalii’s, with Wallabies mentor Eddie Jones having previously identified the Souths skipper as a target worth pursuing.
Demetriou said he has had no discussions with Murray, contracted through 2025, well-nigh his future aspirations and was unfazed by ongoing speculation. “It’s that far lanugo the line – he’s contracted here for flipside three years. It’s not something I’ve plane contemplated,” Demetriou said.
Joseph Suaalii. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
“Suaalii’s been going to union for three years,” Demetriou said.
“Anybody who’s had a conversation with him knows that’s been part of his plan. I don’t know why anyone’s shocked.
“As for everyone else, I create an environment where people want to play for South Sydney. If that changes, then that’s up to the. It’s not something I worry about, or plane think about.”
Ahead of Friday’s game versus Melbourne, Demetriou welcomed Mario Fenech to training at Redfern Oval, the Rabbitohs legend addressing the playing group without the session.
After a week in which South Sydney farewelled club legend John Sattler, Demetriou said it was important to protract honouring former players.
“Mario’s given us some good advice. Stay disciplined otherwise you’re on death row, he reckons. It’s unchangingly good to see him,” Demetriou said. “It’s what we do well as a club, recognise the past and really respect it.”
The Rabbitohs have endured a testing opening month of the season on and off the field, with a tough draw, a run of injuries in the forward pack and Sattler’s death.
Ricky unswayable to alimony Wighton
Ricky Stuart is at ease with his star five-eighth Jack Wighton testing the NRL’s unshut market, but hopes he remembers what the club has washed-up for his career when signing his next contract.
Wighton sent shockwaves through the competition when he declined a player option for 2024 in favour of assessing external offers, with reports suggesting at least 10 clubs have once made contact with his management.
But Stuart, who’s unceasingly talked well-nigh his worshipping of Wighton, says he’s got every right to test the market and find his worth as the 30-year-old seeks a longer-term deal.
“Jack knows I want him here, that’s the most important thing for me,” he said. “He knows my feelings well-nigh him as a person and as a football player and I want him to be a Raider, but that visualization is taken out of my hands, that’s up to Jack.
“I haven’t spoken to Jack well-nigh it, but it’s not uncommon for a number of players that have those clauses in their contracts … over the last 12-18 months, there’s been a number of players who have tested the unshut market. Jack’s got to make a visualization to make, so that’s where it’s at.”
Canberra CEO Don Furner has said the club will do everything they can to alimony Wighton, not taking his unthriving the option as a sign he wants to leave.
Wighton moreover turned lanugo a player option on his last contract in 2019 in favour of testing the market, surpassing penning his new five-year deal with the Raiders.
(Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)
He was with the Green Machine as a junior surpassing his NRL debut in 2012, Stuart suggesting it was a textbook example of how a club can work with young talent for the goody of both parties.
He moreover pointed to the support the club has given him, including standing by him when he faced thumping charges in 2018 that sooner netted him a suspended jail term.
“I’m at ease with it considering I know we do everything we possibly can for Jack and his family,” Stuart said.
“We got Jack as a 15-year-old player here, the club has washed-up a wonderful job for Jack, stood by him in all sorts of variegated circumstances.
“We’ve stuck right abreast him and he’s a unconfined example for a lot of other young players out there what we can do for young players that come with this club.
“Jack’s worthiness and the club’s support, where it’s got Jack as a player is a unconfined example for what we can do for other young men and women.”
Robbo rates Radley up there with Cronk
Milestone man Victor Radley can thank his days as an workmen carpenter for the depth of his footy knowledge, which mentor Trent Robinson rates second only to that of Cooper Cronk.
Affectionately nicknamed ‘Victor the Inflictor’, Radley has wilt one of the NRL’s most colourful notation on the when of his on-field ferocity and upper work-rate.
But as Radley prepares to step out versus Parramatta on Thursday night in his 100th NRL game, Robinson paid tribute to an speciality of the middle forward’s game that has long flown under the radar – his footy smarts.
More than 100 variegated players have represented the Roosters at first-grade level in Robinson’s 11 seasons in tuition but the mentor said only four-time premiership winner Cronk trumped Radley in his knowledge of the game.
“He’s probably second only to Cooper in sitting in a meeting and the knowledge he can take on and then repeat,” Robinson said.
“His footy knowledge is incredible, which he wouldn’t get credit for considering he plays the other vellum often. He veritably bleeds red, white and undecorous on the field, but (also) off the field.
“Everything he does for the Roosters community, and the love that he has for this zone andclub, is second to none.”
Radley’s knowledge can be put lanugo in part to his transferral to the club, but moreover to his pre-NRL days, when he worked under his father as an workmen carpenter. On the worksite, Radley had one particular duty that helped train his brain.
“He had to get all the lunch orders, so his memory had to be really good,” Robinson said. “He said he never got a lunch order wrong, out of all the 15 guys on site.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
“His memory retention came from stuff an apprentice. He’s lived and breathed footy his whole life and he’s loved it so much that he thinks it’s tomfool to know everything in footy.
“The big games that he’s played in and the intensity that he brings to our game, it’s unconfined to bring up 100 games for him.”
Thursday night moreover marks 50 NRL games for young Roosters halfback Sam Walker. The 20-year-old said without a slow start to last season, the Roosters were focused on financial early wins this year.
“We’re towers as a team,” Walker said. “We probably want to get a couple increasingly wins, we sort of left it a bit late last year.”
