{"id":291249,"date":"2025-11-17T22:16:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T22:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/291249\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T22:16:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T22:16:25","slug":"fijian-international-inks-new-deal-to-continue-playing-career-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/291249\/","title":{"rendered":"Fijian international inks new deal to continue playing career – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Waqa Blake<\/a>, a former outside back for the Penrith Panthers<\/a> and Parramatta Eels<\/a> has signed a new contract that will see him continue his rugby league playing career.<\/p>\n

Currently playing with the Bradford Bulls<\/a>, Blake will remain with the newly-promoted Super League<\/a> side on a two-year contract until the end of the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

This comes after he scored 14 tries and made 31 appearances for the Bulls in his inaugural season with the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really happy to be staying, I said when I signed I came here looking to enjoy my rugby again and I have done that and I am grateful to the club and the boys for the great year we had together,” Blake said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also said we had one goal which was to return to Super League<\/a> and we have achieved that.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to give Super League<\/a> another crack and help this club get back there, now I am excited to get going and represent this great club and its fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TeamAUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – FEBRUARY 05: Waqa Blake of the Panthers scores a try during the 2017 Auckland Nines quarter final match between the Penrith Panthers and the Manly Sea Eagles at Eden Park on February 5, 2017 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Simon Watts\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A eight-time Fijian international and member of the 2015 NSW City Origin team, Blake previously spent nine seasons in the NRL<\/a> which saw him play 88 matches for the Panthers and a further 77 games for the Eels.<\/p>\n

Blake also had a one-year stint with St Helens<\/a> in 2024 during which he averaged one try every two matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I came on board and Waqa had already signed it was something I was really excited about, he is someone I am really looking forward to working with,” Bradford Bulls<\/a> coach Kurt Haggerty<\/a> added.<\/p>\n

“I studied his game at St Helens<\/a> and I was well aware of the qualities that he has, he has shown he’s a proven NRL<\/a> player and a proven Super League<\/a> player.<\/p>\n

“We need to get Waqa playing his best rugby again and I think next year we will see the best version of him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waqa Blake, a former outside back for the Penrith Panthers and Parramatta Eels has signed a new contract…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-291249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291249","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=291249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}