{"id":131456,"date":"2025-09-10T00:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T00:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/131456\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T00:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T00:10:08","slug":"kennedy-wants-new-sharks-deal-not-r360-code-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/131456\/","title":{"rendered":"Kennedy wants new Sharks deal, not R360 code switch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cronulla fullback Will Kennedy says he has no real interest in joining rebel rugby competition R360, with the off-contract ace still hopeful of staying at the Sharks.<\/p>\n

Kennedy will enter Saturday’s elimination final against the Sydney Roosters with an uncertain future, having been stuck in a contract stalemate throughout the season.<\/p>\n

As things stand, the Sharks do not have enough money in their 2026 salary cap to meet Kennedy’s asking price, having re-signed a swathe of players this year.<\/p>\n

Neither Cronulla nor Kennedy have given up hope of the fullback staying at the club, with the possibility of an agreement being reached in the off-season.<\/p>\n

Kennedy confirmed this week his management had met with officials from the breakaway rugby competition, as one of several NRL players linked to the lucrative league.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old played a limited amount of school rugby and sevens football while in Bathurst, before joining Cronulla and making his NRL debut in 2019.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

Kennedy’s management has met with officials from breakaway rugby competition R360. (Joel Carrett\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

“I’ve watched a couple of rugby games and it looks pretty fun for the outside backs,” Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

“Maybe not towards the middles.<\/p>\n

“It looks like a good game. I’ve only played it in school and stuff.”<\/p>\n

But asked by AAP if there was a genuine interest in leaving the NRL to play in the R360 competition, Kennedy responded: “No, not really”.<\/p>\n

Kennedy has also ruled out a move to England, saying staying in the NRL is his priority given his partner is due to give birth to their second child in December.<\/p>\n

But he said he was not stressed by the situation, while still holding some hope a deal would be reached at Cronulla.<\/p>\n

“Some other people, they’d be pretty stressed out about it,” Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

“But I’m a pretty cruisy fella and I just think whatever happens, it’ll work out and whatever falls in place, I’m a happy man.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully by the end of the year we can sort something out because I want to stay here at the Sharks.”<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

Cameron McInnes is one of several Sharks players off-contract at the end of next year. (Dean Lewins\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Cronulla do have decisions to make after re-signing centre KL Iro and hooker Blayke Brailey long term in the past week.<\/p>\n

Cameron McInnes, Jesse Ramien, Toby Rudolf, Braden Hamlin-Uele and Siosifa Talakai remain among a host of talent off contract at the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

Talakai has declared a preference to stay, with Cronulla adamant he has not been given permission to look elsewhere after speculation that was the case last month.<\/p>\n

“The club reassured me, Fitzy (coach Craig Fitzgibbon) reached out. They said it’s just all speculation,” Talakai, a former NSW State of Origin representative, said.<\/p>\n

“I’d be more than happy to stay here. This is my home, this the team that gave me the opportunity in the NRL. I owe a lot to them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cronulla fullback Will Kennedy says he has no real interest in joining rebel rugby competition R360, with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,26958,761,762,158,91145,85,87397,84793],"class_list":["post-131456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cronulla","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-rugby-competition","tag-sports","tag-the-sharks","tag-will-kennedy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}