{"id":264547,"date":"2025-11-05T15:26:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T15:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264547\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T15:26:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T15:26:30","slug":"released-tiger-lands-chance-at-nrl-lifeline-with-sydney-rival-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264547\/","title":{"rendered":"Released Tiger lands chance at NRL lifeline with Sydney rival – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Wests Tigers<\/a> forward Justin Matamua<\/a> has reportedly landed an opportunity to impress at the Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a> during the 2026 NRL<\/a> pre-season.<\/p>\n

Matamua was not offered a new deal by the Tigers at the end of 2025, joining a list of departing players from the joint-venture club as Benji Marshall<\/a> continues his rebuild at Concord.<\/p>\n

Matamua may have been the most disappointing of the list for fans of the outfit given the enormous potential he arrived on the scene with a few years ago.<\/p>\n

The middle forward who has spent the bulk of his time wearing the number 13 jersey, at just 22 years of age, has 14 NRL<\/a> games under his belt, having debuted in 2022, but he didn’t get onto the field at first-grade level in 2025.<\/p>\n

Matamua, who also represented Samoa<\/a> once in 2023, has now reportedly taken up a train and trial contract with cross-town rivals the Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a> for the 2026 pre-season per a Wide World of Sports The Mole report.<\/p>\n

The deal will see him earn just $1200 per week throughout the pre-season, but train full-time with the top squad and push for one of the remaining spots at Belmore.<\/p>\n

Zero Tackle’s 2026 NRL squad tracker<\/a> shows the Bulldogs have just four spots open for their 2026 Top 30, but with minimal salary cap wiggle room, there is a better than even chance their remaining spots will be filled by internal promotions.<\/p>\n

Logan Spinks<\/a>, Jack Underhill<\/a> and Jethro Rinakama<\/a> could all also be in line for promotions, with the trio all currently part of Canterbury’s development list.<\/p>\n

Matamua, at 187 centimetres, has plenty of ability and potential, and if he realises it at Belmore, could push for a spot in the 17 throughout 2026, with the club’s starting middle to be bolstered by Leo Thompson<\/a>. Max King<\/a> will join him in the front row, but the remaining spots are up in the air.<\/p>\n

Kurt Mann<\/a> and Jaeman Salmon<\/a> will fight it out at lock, while Josh Curran<\/a>, who is reportedly looking at a departure from the club after 2026, Sitili Tupouniua<\/a>, Harry Hayes<\/a>, Samuel Hughes<\/a>, Jack Todd<\/a>, Daniel Suluka-Fifita<\/a> and Finau Latu<\/a> could all be in the mix for spots on the bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Wests Tigers forward Justin Matamua has reportedly landed an opportunity to impress at the Canterbury Bulldogs during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-264547","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\/264547","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=264547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}