{"id":500305,"date":"2026-02-24T05:22:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T05:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500305\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T05:22:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T05:22:26","slug":"bidding-war-commences-for-the-signature-of-mitchell-barnett-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500305\/","title":{"rendered":"Bidding war commences for the signature of Mitchell Barnett – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A host of NRL<\/a> clubs are said to be eyeing a move for Mitchell Barnett<\/a> after the forward was granted an unexpected early release from the final year of his contract with the New Zealand Warriors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old, who joined the Warriors from the Newcastle Knights<\/a> in 2023 and has since become one of the competition’s more respected middle forwards, sought the release on compassionate grounds for family reasons so he can relocate back to Australia<\/a> at the end of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Courier Mail, Barnett’s agent Gavin Orr revealed there are clubs that are significantly interested in the services of the current Warriors player.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Broncos are certainly one of those teams Mitch would be keen to talk to,\u201d said his agent Gavin Orr of Pacific Sports Management.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve already had several calls from a number of clubs including the Broncos and Eels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s only a short flight from where his family are in Taree (near Newcastle), so they are a genuine option.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone will mention Payne Haas<\/a> leaving the Broncos, but they’ve also got a number of props like Xavier Willison<\/a>, Corey Jensen<\/a> and Ben Talty<\/a> so we need to weigh up all options.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there’s no doubt the Broncos would be attractive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve had a preliminary chat with a few clubs and now we will take things forward and see what teams can afford.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnett is currently recovering from an ACL injury, and along with the recovery process, the Origin forward wants time to go through the process for all of his options, as Orr believes he has years left to play at a high-level.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is still fit so would like to play for another two or three years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wants to have some time to think about things and get it sorted in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cNewcastle could be another option given the proximity to his family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get set for the footy with the FREE Zero Tackle 2026 NRL Season Guide!<\/a> Packed with 130+ pages of player profiles, team previews, insights and analysis, the 2026 NRL Season Guide<\/a> is built for fans who want the full picture. Download your free Season Guide HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A host of NRL clubs are said to be eyeing a move for Mitchell Barnett after the forward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-500305","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\/500305","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=500305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}