{"id":468569,"date":"2026-02-09T13:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468569\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T13:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:46:14","slug":"how-south-sydney-rabbitohs-stars-reacted-to-payne-haas-signing-contract-offer-brisbane-broncos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468569\/","title":{"rendered":"How South Sydney Rabbitohs stars reacted to Payne Haas signing, contract, offer, Brisbane Broncos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tallis Duncan was scrolling on Instagram when he saw the Payne Haas bombshell<\/a> break on Sunday, while Jack Wighton had just woken from a nap and thought it was April Fool\u2019s Day when he received endless calls and messages asking if the world\u2019s best prop had joined South Sydney.<\/p>\n

Everyone in rugby league was seemingly blindsided by the news that the Broncos star had lodged a contract to join Souths for three years starting in 2027, with even his new teammates stunned that the club had lured Haas down south.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea. I was sitting at home like everyone else scrolling on Instagram,\u201d Duncan told Newswire, later comparing it in an interview with foxsports.com.au to when the Luka Doncic the Los Angeles Lakers trade broke the NBA world.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI probably didn\u2019t believe it (at first). My family was ringing me and asking if it was true or not, but I had no clue. I was as filled in as everyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really big for the club, but that\u2019s next year and we\u2019ve got a whole year to look forward to now, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wighton woke up to a number of missed calls, with the veteran assuming people were pranking him with a story that seemed too good to be true.<\/p>\n

He can\u2019t wait to link up with the rep star after he helped Brisbane win the 2025 title, but Wighton reminded fans that they can\u2019t get too caught up in the news given Haas won\u2019t be there until next year.<\/p>\n

Get all the latest NRL news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\n

LATEST HAAS TO BUNNIES NEWS AND REACTION<\/p>\n

WHO BRONCOS CAN TARGET: Marquee stars Broncos could recruit with $1.5m war chest<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018VISIBLY UPSET\u2019: Why Haas left \u2018furnace\u2019 for Bennett… and awkward fallout for Broncos<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018GET PAYNE HERE\u2019: Bennett chat that sparked Haas coup… but Broncos \u2018trying to twist his arm\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

“Biggest signing of the decade?!” | 03:11<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, definitely shocked,\u201d Wighton said of his reaction to the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually was having an afternoon nap, I woke up to my phone blowing up and I checked if it was April Fool\u2019s or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of rubbed my eyes a little bit to get my head around it, made a couple of calls and yeah it was real.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m over the moon, obviously.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a job to do, and we\u2019ve got to respect that, and we\u2019ve got a job to do, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re both in the same position, and it\u2019s not until next year, so we will worry about this year first, put our best foot forward for 2026 and welcome him with both arms when he does come.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Souths duo have other things on their mind right now as Wighton prepares for his ninth All Stars appearance, while Duncan is getting ready for his second match for the Indigenous side. <\/p>\n

Both men were at Mascot Oval on Monday afternoon running clinics with local kids, with Duncan stressing the importance of the week and how he learnt to embrace his culture during last year\u2019s camp, and how he\u2019s built on that with senior figures like Wighton, Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker at the Rabbitohs.<\/p>\n

LATEST HAAS TO BUNNIES NEWS AND REACTION<\/p>\n

\u2018FAR FROM THE TRUTH\u2019: How hollow claim let Bennett pinch the Broncos\u2019 megastar prop<\/a><\/p>\n

ANALYSIS: What Haas bombshell means for Broncos, Bunnies<\/a><\/p>\n

Reynolds: “Love everything about Payno!” | 00:24<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just really grateful that I get to do this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was my first time doing it, and I\u2019ve been looking forward to it ever since. It\u2019s something you have to experience to really understand how special it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made some really good friends last year, and connecting with culture is really important.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big one that gets preached is to not be ashamed, whether it\u2019s the cultural dances or anything like that. We should really embrace the culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very lucky at Souths that a lot of our leaders are Indigenous and we\u2019ve got a very strong Indigenous culture there already.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking up to the older boys like Jack, Latrell and Cody (has helped me) because they set the tone and they set a good example for us younger boys coming through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tallis Duncan was scrolling on Instagram when he saw the Payne Haas bombshell break on Sunday, while Jack…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-468569","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\/468569","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=468569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}