South Sydney ready to table a formal offer to boom young forward
Paul Crawley, The Daily Telegraph
December 8, 2019 6:39pm
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South Sydney’s bold bid to lure Jai Arrow to Redfern will come to a head at a meeting on Monday with a formal offer expected to be tabled to the boom young Gold Coast forward.
It follows the NRL’s decision on Friday not to lump the Rabbitohs’ with Sam Burgess’ $1 million-a-season contract payout on their salary cap.
What this has done is immediately open up an opportunity for these negotiations to go to the next level.
Souths are expected to blow the Titans out of the water in respect to the money they can direct at one of the game’s most exciting middle forwards.
Rabbitohs general manager of football Shane Richardson has been handling all the negotiations so far with Arrow’s agent David Riolo, but Bennett also returns to training this week and will be eager to know where his squad stands going forward.
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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 07: Adam Le Fondre of Sydney celebrates scoring a goal during the round nine A-League match between Sydney FC and the Brisbane Roar at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium on December 07, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
Titans star Jai Arrow is one of the game’s most exciting middle forwards. Picture: AAP
The Titans have made no secret of their intention to do all they can to keep Arrow.
But while they haven’t given up hope, they are restricted by the fact they are already forking out huge money for several underperforming stars who they just can’t offload.
The Rabbitohs see Arrow as the perfect replacement for Burgess given what he brings on and off the field.
Bennett even took the unusual step of coming out last week and speaking publicly about his desire to coach Arrow.
Bennett rarely gets involved in the player market circus but the fact he chose to make
Make no mistake, this could ultimately be a critical play in respect to Bennett’s lasting legacy at the Bunnies.
While the opportunity to play under Bennett would be a huge attraction to any young player, the Rabbitohs also need to regenerate their roster after losing the team’s two superstars in Burgess and Greg Inglis in the space of one season.
There is no way Bennett would have anticipated that would be the outcome when he took on the job to replace Anthony Seibold.
Bennett still has two more years to run on his current deal at Souths, but given he turns 70 in the New Year the most successful coach in the game’s history will be motivated to make next year count.
Jai Arrow shapes as the perfect replacement for Sam Burgess. Picture: Getty Images
Jai Arrow shapes as the perfect replacement for Sam Burgess. Picture: Getty Images
Souths did extremely well this year to finish one game short of the grand final given Inglis’ retirement and the fact Burgess was injured for much of the year.
But bringing on board a player like Arrow could really reinvigorate the pack alongside youngsters like Cameron Murray and Liam Knight who showed tremendous improvement in 2019.
Bennett knows better than anyone you don’t win premierships unless you have the right players and right now Arrow is the best forward on the open market along with Brisbane’s David Fifita.
While Arrow’s current deal at Gold Coast runs for next season there is a chance he could gain an early release if he was to settle his future in Sydney.
It would also potentially open up the salary cap space needed for the Titans to have a red hot crack at Latrell Mitchell.
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I continue to believe he is a man of his word. Loyalty, sticks by his mates, his hometown and will embrace doing something extraordinary with Holbrook
Seems like they have nothing new to report and are just rewriting a story on whatever they think is correct to fill in pages.. it’s starting to get old.. i think he will stay.. but we shall see
I’m down at training and can’t see Jai Arrow
I don’t like it
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Proctor not here either so maybe it’s just to do with how they both played international’s long after our season ended??
#TitansThruNThru #WeAreReady
Proctor got married over the weekend so that's probably why he's not there, Jai missing is a worrying sign after the report that he is meeting with Souths today.
Didn’t arrow have Aussie commitments.. I wouldn’t start thinking his not training because his talking contracts with souths...no club would allow someone to miss training for something you can do later, especially with another club, maybe he has an injury or his on holidays. I think arrow will resign with us, if not, it’s not the end of the world.. we got big moe, he did awesome last year
I get the impression with Holbrook that he’s happy to Coach whoever is given to him and he would not lose a wink of sleep if Arrow cut and run.
The squad certainly were very relaxed and worked pretty hard at training.
They were doing skills work so I’m not jumping to any conclusions.
When they do an opposed session is when I can contrast where the squad is at in comparison to other Coaches.
They definitely seem to be all enjoying each other’s company staff, coaches and players.
Well apparently we have put talks on hold for Latrell.. Telegraph report has put it on fb a few mins ago but I can’t read what it says.. if anyone can read it can you please post it in here
Why Latrell Mitchell’s face-to-face meeting with Mal Meninga and Gold Coast has not eventuated
Titans’ head of culture Mal Meninga has revealed talks to entice Latrell Mitchell to Gold Coast were put on hold despite the club showing strong interest in the out-of-favour Rooster.
Paul Crawley, The Daily Telegraph
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December 9, 2019 4:16pm
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Crucial meeting to lure Arrow to Souths
Mal Meninga has revealed talks to entice Latrell Mitchell to Gold Coast have been put on hold after deciding the best thing he can do for the young star right now is “give him space”.
Meninga is convinced too many people are putting too much pressure on the 22-year-old to make an immediate call on his future. And the Australian Test coach has urged his Kangaroo centre to give himself time to make the right decision.
“I don’t think so, I know so,” Meninga said in respect to pressure from outside influences, “so I don’t want to be the one who puts pressure on him.”
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Latrell Mitchell with Mal Meninga after a Test match in 2018. Picture: Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty
Latrell Mitchell with Mal Meninga after a Test match in 2018. Picture: Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty
Meninga had hoped Mitchell would travel to the Gold Coast last week to see if there was any legitimate interest from the out-of-favour Sydney Roosters star to head north next season or beyond.
Mitchell instead headed off to an indigenous camp with fellow NRL stars including Jack Wighton, Cody Walker, Ryan James, Braidon Burns and Adam Elliott.
In no way was Meninga disappointed the planned catch-up never eventuated.
“We haven’t pressured him on purpose to be honest with you,” Meninga said.
“He doesn’t need the pressure.
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“He has had a lot of pressure and scrutiny on him.
“He will make up his mind in good time.”
Meninga said when the time was right he still hoped he could put the Titans’ case forward and let Latrell decide, but only after he decides if he wants to stay or leave the Roosters.
“We have just let him know that we are keen to have a yarn when he is ready to have a yarn,” Meninga said.
“He was going to come up last week but in the end we sort of ran out of time and he had the indigenous camp as well so it didn’t work out time-wise for him.
“There is no pressure and hopefully we will get to see him soon but I don’t know when at this stage.”
Latrell Mitchell at an indigenous camp organised by Dean Widders. Picture: Instagram
Latrell Mitchell at an indigenous camp organised by Dean Widders. Picture: Instagram
Meanwhile, the Titans are growing anxious to know where Jai Arrow’s future stands and Meninga was hopeful that can be settled by the end of this week.
So far Gold Coast is the only club that has officially put an offer to the young forward who comes off contract at the end of next season.
But that could well change sooner rather than later with South Sydney ready to strike.
The Titans are adamant they have done their best to try and convince Arrow to stay.
“We have tabled an offer and hopefully that might get resolved this week too, either way,” Meninga said.
“Jai keeps things pretty close to his chest.
“I think he is keen to stay and from a monetary point of view we are where we should be so we will see what happens.”
Arrow’s decision could ultimately dictate exactly what position the Titans are in to make a play for Mitchell given the club has little salary cap space to work with for 2020.
If Arrow was to head to Souths a year early that would mean the Titans would be in the market for a marquee player immediately.
Originally published as Why Latrell’s Titans meeting was put on ice
Thanks for that mate!
Except for our founding years, we are shocking at bagging talent. We have survived on home grown or late bloomers. You know what I mean.
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NRL Universe has stated that Arrow had agreed to join Souths a week ago and was missing in training today.
Pretty piss poor attitude if true considering he is under contract for next year.