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Five-eighth Cody Walker is the latest Rabbitoh hobbled by a long term injury, with the veteran playmaker set for a five-week stint on the sidelines with a calf injury suffered in training.
Missing captain and talisman Cameron Murray for all of 2025, Souths stars Latrell Mitchell and Campbell Graham have also been hampered by injury in a campaign that started surprisingly well but Wayne Bennett’s side are now staring at three losses in a row with a difficult trip to Melbourne looming.
Walker’s absence for the Storm clash will mean another change in the halves for Bennett, but still no first grade start for Lewis Dodd as Jye Gray will partner Jayden Sullivan with Jamie Humphreys still unavailable.
“No he’s not playing. He’s hurt his calf, got a severe tear there training two days ago, three days ago, so he’ll be out for four or five weeks,” Bennett said.
“We’re all disappointed, but he’s most disappointed because it impacts on him personally, but nothing we can do about it. It wasn’t the hamstring, the hamstring is the last one he had, so, different area, opposite leg. It just happens. No reason why they happen, just as you get older I think they become a little bit more vulnerable.
“Jye Gray will come in, and Latrell will be the captain…that was his [Gray] junior position. All his senior football has been at fullback, but I’m confident he can do the job for us.”
Wests Tigers CEO Shane Richardson has fired a broadside at the NRL over the competition’s player transfer system, labelling it “an absolute disgrace” that the league has never been able to institute a designated transfer window.
Richardson is trying to sort out the Lachie Galvin situation at his club after the rising star’s agent raised grievances about the playmaker’s development under Benji Marshall which led to them declining a multi-year contract extension to leave at the end of next year.
“I’ve been saying it for years and years, it’s an absolute joke we don’t have a transfer window,” Richardson told The Bye Round podcast.
“We would solve most of these problems by having a transfer window and honestly I don’t understand at all.
“Transfer windows are in football throughout the world, the NFL, the AFL, everywhere else but we don’t have it here. It’s ridiculous we don’t have it.
“At the end of the day player managers don’t mind moving players in the middle of the year, they don’t worry about the transfer costs and uprooting kids from school.
“When we actually have a proper transfer window, we won’t stop things in the background, but it’ll be a period we know it’s going to happen.”
(Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
Seven days after being dumped to the NSW Cup, Galvin has been named to play in the No.6 jersey as the Tigers’ (3-4) NRL side face Cronulla at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday.
Tigers fans are worried that Galvin’s manager, Isaac Moses, will encourage young fullback Jahream Bula to leave the club following the controversial agent’s feud with Marshall but Richardson is confident that won’t be the case.
“I don’t have any fear about that all. It’s a different situation, different player. Once again we all want to jump at this because it’s a great story,” he said.
Coach Ricky Stuart has conceded Canberra can’t match Manly’s big money offer to Jamal Fogarty but still hopes to get a chance to convince their star halfback to remain a Raider.
The 31-year-old is believed to be on the verge of signing a three-year deal worth $2.1 million with Manly, who need to replace departing captain Daly Cherry-Evans at the end of the season.
Canberra have offered less money and only a two-year deal, which would allow for the development of young playmakers Ethan Sanders, Adam Cook and Ethan Strange.
Stuart was upset that Canberra never got to table their own offer, with Fogarty’s manager Tas Bartlett cancelling a weekend meeting due to illness.
The veteran coach said he could understand why Fogarty would take the Sea Eagles’ deal but, if it wasn’t done, would “love to have him”.
(Photo by Izhar Khan/Getty Images)
“If that (deal) is real – three years at $700,000 – Jamal should take it – I’d love to keep him but we can’t match that,” Stuart told SEN radio on Thursday.
“Jamal is 32 at the end of the year and if he can get three years and that’s real, Jamal’s got to take that as all along I’ve said he has to look after his young family but I would love to have Jamal here for another two years.
“So wow, good on on you, and I’ll say that to Jamal when I see him tomorrow.
“If it’s done. If it’s not done I’d love to have him.”
Stuart said he would look to recruit an experienced half should he lose Fogarty, to keep the pressure off his youngsters.
“I will go and look for another experienced half because it is such a big position,” he said, ahead of the Raiders’ clash with the Dolphins on Sunday in Canberra.
“It’s such a lot of pressure on the halves, I’ve got another young half here in Ethan Sanders, another young half in Adam Cook and another young half in Ethan Strange.
“I will be looking for another player that has the ability to play a couple of positions and/or play halfback, that can help those boys transition and develop in their early part of their career playing NRL.”
Canterbury have secured the signature of promising forward Finau Latu on a long-term deal, according to Nine’s Danny Weidler.
A Sydney Morning Herald report stated Latu turned down a lucrative offer from Newcastle in favour of the Bulldogs, who are riding high on top of the NRL ladder as they take on the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium on Thursday.
With their forward pack already to be boosted by the arrival of Leo Thompson in 2026, Cameron Ciraldo has potentially struck gold with another recruit.
Latu has risen through the ranks to St George Illawarra’s top 30 and is tipped as a star of the future.
A frustrated Shane Flanagan blasted the agent of Latu as he became the latest coach to express concerns about the NRL’s contracting circus.
Flanagan claimed the teenager’s agent, Michael Chebl, handled talks with the club “terribly”.
Latu has yet to play NRL but has been named in the Dragons’ extended squad that will face the Sydney Roosters in Friday’s Anzac Day clash.
“I wanted to keep him and I’m not happy about the negotiation side of it,” Flanagan said.
“It’s been handled poorly, terribly.
“Sometimes you lose them because you’re not willing to pay a certain fee, or you don’t want the player, but we wanted to keep him, and we’re not happy.
“The way that it was handled by his management, was handled poorly, really poorly.
“We’ve brought that young bloke up the last three or four years and we wanted to keep him and never got an opportunity to.”
The Dragons said they made a strong offer for Latu, but no counter proposal was put forward by the player’s camp despite assurances the club would be given a right of reply.
But the youngster’s decision to walk away and join the Bulldogs has left a bitter taste in Flanagan’s mouth.
The Dragons coach pointed to other examples of player movement through the early part of the season where clubs have been left feeling blindsided.
“I’ve got some good relationships with agents, and they’ve all got their pros and cons,” Flanagan said.
“As I said, the handling of this one was poor.
“I’ve read Ricky (Stuart) is not happy to with what’s going on with (Manly’s pursuit of) Jamal Fogarty, we’ve got the Lachlan Galvin situation.
“It’s too big a problem for me to solve, but I’m not happy about it.”
Trent Robinson knows his Sydney Roosters side need to find a new gear as they risk falling to the bottom of the NRL ladder with a loss to St George Illawarra.
But, even while acknowledging they need wins, coach Trent Robinson isn’t ramping up the expectation ahead of Friday’s Anzac Day clash with the Dragons.
The Roosters (2-5) have struggled to start the year and would fall below bottom-placed Parramatta, who receive two points for their bye, if they are unable to beat the Dragons at Allianz Stadium.
The 16th-placed Roosters haven’t occupied last spot this late into a season since their 2016 horror campaign.
“We know we need to pick up wins, but we haven’t really discussed that (ladder position) at all,” Robinson said.
“It’s about how we want to play footy, and we think if we do that, then we’ll pick up wins.
“So that hasn’t been discussed… but how we want to play has been discussed a fair bit.”
James Tedesco of the Roosters (Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)
The Roosters are conceding close to 29 points per game and have lost all three of their home games this season by 18 points or more.
England Test winger Dominic Young was dropped after several poor moments in defence, with Robinson shifting ex-Wallaby Mark Nawaqanitawase onto the wing and bringing Billy Smith into the centres.
But Dragons coach Shane Flanagan is aware that the Anzac Day game – in which Saints were smashed 60-18 last year – could be just the occasion to spark the Roosters into life.
“I know what team is going to come out, with James Tedesco and that club, the history of it, the importance of the day, I know what team will turn up,” Flanagan said.
Flanagan’s side have the chance to claim a third consecutive win for the first time since 2022.
And while the Dragons coach has been satisfied with his team’s 3-3 start, a win over the Roosters would reassure him the Red V are on the right track.
“We’re not going to put our hand up saying we’re a top-eight side, we’ve got to do it consistently,” Flanagan said.
“Last year, we beat Melbourne in Melbourne but we didn’t back it up.
“We’ve got two in a row but we need to put a good month of football together.
“Overall, one more win would probably give it a tick for the start of our season but we’ve got to continue, the job’s not done.”
with AAP
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