preferred source on Google<\/a> and ensure you never miss our exclusives and breaking news!<\/p>\nLiam Knight<\/p>\n
The Hull FC forward was linked with a move back to Australia this off-season, though that was in part due to his personal relationship with Channel Nine presenter Danika Mason! But he is now back in England with Hull and building into 2026 with the Black and Whites.<\/p>\n
But there would be no doubting he is targeting an NRL return at some stage, and if he performs once again for Hull in 2026, he\u2019ll have plenty of interest.<\/p>\n
Brodie Croft<\/p>\n
Another player who has perpetually been linked with a return to Australia, the Leeds Rhinos half-back is now entering the final year of his contract in West Yorkshire.<\/p>\n
There is one slight complication: Croft\u2019s long-time agent, Chris Orr, is beginning a six-month ban imposed upon him by the NRL meaning he may not be able to negotiate his future for a good while yet. But it does feel like at some stage, Croft will go back home. Could it be with Perth alongside Newman?<\/p>\n
Bailey Hodgson<\/p>\n
With so many Leigh players off-contract, it\u2019s inevitable that some of the Leopards\u2019 standout players will be targets elsewhere. Their owner, Derek Beaumont, admitted just this week there may be some tough decisions to make.<\/p>\n
And the reality is that Leigh have two brilliant fullbacks in their squad for 2026, with Hodgson competing alongside a now fully-fit David Armstrong. He\u2019s still only 23 and his tried his arm Down Under before \u2013 could he have another crack now he is a much better and more mature player with experience under his belt?<\/p>\n
Lewis Dodd<\/p>\n
It remains to be seen whether the half-back would fancy another crack at the NRL after a difficult stint with South Sydney Rabbitohs: but it\u2019s fair to say he didn\u2019t get a fair run at it under Wayne Bennett.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s quite telling that he only signed a one-year deal with Catalans to keep his options open and before he\u2019s even started at the Dragons, he is free to negotiate elsewhere. Could a return to the NRL be on the cards?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perth Bears are in the process of building their inaugural squad for their entry into the NRL in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-361124","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\/361124","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=361124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}