{"id":328343,"date":"2025-12-05T00:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T00:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328343\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T00:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T00:53:13","slug":"dolphins-forward-set-for-club-switch-but-blocked-from-immediate-move-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/328343\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins forward set for club switch, but blocked from immediate move – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Melbourne Storm<\/a> have reportedly secured the signature of Dolphins<\/a> second-rower Oryn Keeley<\/a> from the start of the 2027 NRL<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

The forward had something of a breakout season in 2025, playing 16 games for the Dolphins<\/a> amid a heavy list of injuries, ensuring the Dolphins<\/a> virtually never played at full strength in the forwards.<\/p>\n

His talent caught the eye of the Melbourne Storm<\/a>, and reports from News Corp suggest the now 22-year-old has agreed to the club switch for the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

Keeley is due to be off-contract at the end of 2026 with the Dolphins<\/a> and has been able to negotiate with rival clubs since November 1.<\/p>\n

The Melbourne Storm<\/a> reportedly opened dialogue with the Dolphins<\/a> over the prospect of bringing Keeley to the club immediately, but so far, those advances have been knocked back by the Dolphins<\/a>, who still see Keeley as a big part of their plans for the coming 12 months.<\/p>\n

While the Dolphins<\/a> will welcome back Tom Gilbert<\/a> from injury, Keeley will likely still have a role off the bench each week on the edge behind Gilbert and ex-Cowboy Kulikefu Finefeuiaki<\/a>, who spent his first season at the Redcliffe-based outfit in 2025.<\/p>\n

The Storm’s push for second-row talent to join immediately is obvious.<\/p>\n

Eliesa Katoa<\/a> will miss the entirety of the 2026 season after suffering a traumatic head injury while playing for Tonga<\/a> during the 2026 Pacific Championships, and it was already an area they were looking to upgrade.<\/p>\n

Katoa’s future is unclear, while Shawn Blore<\/a> has also been linked with a return to Sydney at the end of 2026 in recent days, which would leave another hole in the side.<\/p>\n

Melbourne have already signed Jack Hetherington<\/a> for 2026 from the Newcastle Knights<\/a>, but could continue to look for further reinforcements as the commencement of the campaign draws near, with Craig Bellamy’s side looking to break a string of two straight grand final losses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Melbourne Storm have reportedly secured the signature of Dolphins second-rower Oryn Keeley from the start of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-328343","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\/328343","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=328343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}