{"id":206144,"date":"2025-10-11T19:39:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T19:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/206144\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T19:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T19:39:12","slug":"nrl-new-boys-set-out-ambitious-recruitment-plans-with-super-league-targeted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/206144\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL new boys set out ambitious recruitment plans with Super League targeted"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"NRL\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

NRL new boys Perth Bears will begin their first cycle of recruitment in three weeks ahead of their 2027 launch and Super League talent isn\u2019t off the radar.<\/p>\n

The Bears will become the NRL\u2019s 18th team <\/a>when they join the competition ahead of the 2027 season and with free agency set to begin November 1st, they\u2019ve set out bold plans.<\/p>\n

NRL free agency marks the date at which players who are off-contract at the end of the season can begin negotiations with new clubs and for Perth, they\u2019ve got a full salary cap to spend making them an attractive prospect for plenty of players.<\/p>\n

Despite that, they can\u2019t afford to pay over the odds for everyone so some recruitment will have to be savvy and that means Super League could also be an avenue for players.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the\u00a0Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>,\u00a0the club\u2019s recruitment manager Dane Campbell has outlined the aggressive approach the club will take, stating that he wants ten players signed by Christmas.<\/p>\n

Signing ten players in such a period is very aggressive but given Perth are starting from zero, it\u2019s a necessary evil and Campbell has outlined his plans.<\/p>\n

Perth Bears targeting 10 signings by Christmas<\/p>\n

Perth will have $11.95 million to spend on a roster of 36 players and day by day top recruits are falling by the wayside, with England centre Herbie Farnworth the latest man to sign a new deal<\/a>, taking him off the table for the Bears.<\/p>\n

Despite that, stars such as Payne Haas, Luke Metcalf, Josh Addo-Carr and Harry Grant are just a few who will be out of contract at the end of 2026 and therefore available for Perth to sign.<\/p>\n

Campbell explained they\u2019ll also consider contracted players, stating: \u201cThere might be players who aren\u2019t off contract per se who may be given permission to negotiate given the club\u2019s current position, needs or they may jigsaw something themselves in terms of a cap perspective. There\u2019s a lot of complexity to it, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having stated that signing ten by Christmas would mean the club had done \u2018incredibly well\u2019, Campbell argued that it was feasible: \u201cIn my brain, that\u2019s possible. That\u2019s across the whole squad, that\u2019s not necessarily the top 10 players, that could be from player one through to 36.\u201d<\/p>\n

Super League clubs at mercy of huge NRL salary cap<\/p>\n

Campbell admitted that a move to Perth, located on the West of the nation and away from the NRL hub, might be a hard sell but with Mal Meninga as head coach<\/a> and a brand new project, there are plenty of positives.<\/p>\n

For Super League players, it could also create a huge opportunity and Campbell revealed the English comp to be one of several talent pools being explored.<\/p>\n

Naming South Africa as an \u2018area of interest\u2019, he added: \u201cEngland will be somewhere we look, the Super League,\u201d and with a host of stars without deals for 2027, certain clubs will be wary.<\/p>\n

Super League clubs have a salary cap of just \u00a32.1 million which pales in comparison to the NRL\u2019s $11.95 million, or just under \u00a35.9 million. Minimum salaries in the NRL reached $130,000 in 2024 with an additional $5,000 per annum until 2027 meaning the Bears\u2019 lowest earners will be taking home around \u00a370,000, far more than what most earn in Super League.<\/p>\n

Serious About Rugby League has launched a brand new podcast which can be watched in full on our\u00a0YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NRL new boys Perth Bears will begin their first cycle of recruitment in three weeks ahead of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-206144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206144","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=206144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}