{"id":431594,"date":"2026-01-23T06:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T06:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/431594\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T06:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T06:05:09","slug":"rudolf-opens-up-on-managing-himself-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/431594\/","title":{"rendered":"Rudolf opens up on managing himself &#8211; NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/cronulla-sharks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cronulla Sharks<\/a> cult hero <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/toby-rudolf\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toby Rudolf<\/a> has revealed he is managing his own contract negotiations in a pivotal year for both himself and the club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Rudolf enters the 2026 season off contract, with a staggering 15 Sharks players also due to hit the open market at the end of the year, a reality that has heightened the sense that the club&#8217;s premiership window is closing fast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">One of the most popular figures in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a>, Rudolf plays many roles at the Sharks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Known as the team&#8217;s chief morale booster and resident larrikin, the front-rower is also a key pillar of the Sharks&#8217; forward pack as they look to finally get over the hump after back-to-back preliminary final exits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Speaking to Fox Sports, Rudolf revealed he has recently taken on a new role, player manager, with himself as his sole client.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI had a manager in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/luke-lewis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luke Lewis<\/a> and I was paying him a percentage, but then he decided to go into coaching, so he just sort of went away from it,\u201d Rudolf said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cAt this age I&#8217;m somewhat established now, I feel like I know what I&#8217;m worth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-165655\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"NRL Rd 1 - Sharks v Rabbitohs\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1706\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-1471135368-scaled.jpg.webp.webp\"\/>PENRITH, AUSTRALIA &#8211; MARCH 04: Toby Rudolf of the Sharks looks on during the warm-up before the round one NRL match between Cronulla Sharks and South Sydney Rabbitohs at BlueBet Stadium on March 04, 2023 in Cronulla, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">He said working as his own agent is a personal goal, however he&#8217;s not naive to the difficulty of the position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI just wanted to test myself on the market and see if I could do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cAnd if it gets too difficult, I might get someone on board.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI&#8217;m not completely opposed to it, but so far it&#8217;s gone pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Despite fielding interest and having conversations across the competition, Rudolf stressed his priority remains staying at Cronulla.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe priority is to stay here, I&#8217;ve loved every year I&#8217;ve had here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cIt can be a dangerous formula when you try to fix something that isn&#8217;t broken, but we&#8217;ll see how the year plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cronulla Sharks cult hero Toby Rudolf has revealed he is managing his own contract negotiations in a pivotal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-431594","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\/431594","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=431594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}