{"id":448552,"date":"2026-01-31T01:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T01:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/448552\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T01:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T01:31:10","slug":"jack-bird-secures-new-deal-ahead-of-2026-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/448552\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Bird secures new deal ahead of 2026 &#8211; NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>The circus of transfer whispers around premiership winner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/jack-bird\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jack Bird<\/a> are set to come to its fateful close.<\/p>\n<p>The versatile edge has reportedly signed with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/super-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super League<\/a> outfit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/super-league\/british-teams\/leeds-rhinos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leeds Rhinos<\/a>, bringing an immediate end to his one-year tenure at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/wests-tigers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wests Tigers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Bird, who had been reported earlier this month to be weighing up a move to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/rugby-league\/international-teams\/england\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a>, will link up with former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/parramatta-eels\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Parramatta Eels<\/a> coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/coaches\/brad-arthur\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brad Arthur<\/a> ahead of the Rhinos&#8217; 2026 campaign, according to the\u00a0Daily Telegraph.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26318\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"NSW Origin Side: Who will be picked vs who SHOULD be picked\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/547058332.jpg.webp.webp\"\/>SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA &#8211; JULY 13: Robbie Farah of the Blues, Jack Bird of the Blues and Wade Graham of the Blues sing the national anthem before game three of the State Of Origin series between the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons at ANZ Stadium on July 13, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>The 30-year-old was initially believed to be part of a potential <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> swap deal that would have seen Bird move to Manly in exchange for front-rower <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/nathan-brown\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nathan Brown<\/a>, but negotiations fell through before progressing.<\/p>\n<p>Despite expectations Bird would remain at the Tigers, it has since emerged he had been in discussions with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/super-league\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super League<\/a> clubs, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/super-league\/british-teams\/london-broncos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">London Broncos<\/a>, before settling on Leeds.<\/p>\n<p>Bird fell out of favour at the Tigers midway through the 2025 season, missing the club&#8217;s final six rounds before being granted permission to explore opportunities elsewhere at year&#8217;s end.<\/p>\n<p>He attended the Tigers&#8217; season launch just days ago but is expected to begin training with Leeds in the coming weeks, officially closing the chapter on his time at Concord.<\/p>\n<p>        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n        &#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; The circus of transfer whispers around premiership winner Jack Bird are set to come to its&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-448552","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\/448552","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=448552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}