{"id":582029,"date":"2026-04-03T03:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/582029\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T03:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T03:18:18","slug":"sharks-deny-immediate-release-request-for-outside-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/582029\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharks deny immediate release request for outside back"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cronulla Sharks<\/a> are understood to have knocked back an immediate release request for versatile outside back Mawene Hiroti<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The centre and winger has already signed with the Gold Coast Titans<\/a> on a two-year contract from the start of the 2027 NRL<\/a> season, having been retained by the Sharks in recent years on a series of single-season deals.<\/p>\n

The contract will mark an opportunity for Hiroti to become more than a fill-in player that he has been for much of his tenure at Cronulla, but it could have started even earlier.<\/p>\n

News Corp have revealed the Titans recently approached the Sharks in a bid to have him make the move immediately, where he could be in line for NRL<\/a> minutes throughout 2026.<\/p>\n

The move comes as no great shock given Josh Hannay’s opinion of the outside back and the Titans’ struggles, depth wise, in the outside backs.<\/p>\n

The Gold Coast, who picked up their first win of the season, have just a couple of spare players within their Top 30 in the two positions Hiroti can play, and questions have been asked of the group being picked each week by Hannay.<\/p>\n

AJ Brimson<\/a> was recently moved to the centres, while Jaylan De Groot<\/a> who has been overlooked since Round 1, and Max Feagai<\/a> now sit outside the 17.<\/p>\n

Siale Faeamani<\/a>, who moved from the Penrith Panthers<\/a> during the off-season, Jojo Fifita<\/a> and Phillip Sami<\/a> are the other three players on the edges, while Tony Francis<\/a> and another former Shark Jensen Taumoepeau<\/a> sit outside the 17.<\/p>\n

Hiroti meanwhile sits well down the pecking order at Cronulla, with the likelihood that both Michael Gabreal and Chris Vea’ila<\/a> will see mintues before him if the starting crop of outside backs – Sam Stonestreet<\/a>, Sione Katoa<\/a>, Jesse Ramien<\/a> and KL Iro<\/a> – run into problems.<\/p>\n

But the Sharks are unwilling to test their own depth by letting Hiroti walk a year early to the south east corner of Queensland.<\/p>\n

The apparent signing of Phillip Sami<\/a> for 2027 by the St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> will add to the role Hiroti could potentially play on the Glitter Strip next year.<\/p>\n

Josh Hannay<\/a> has spoken positively of Hiroti, labelling him one of the most underrated outside backs in the competition.<\/p>\n

He has played just 34 games since his NRL<\/a> debut in 2018, but has been a consistent performer at reserve grade level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cronulla Sharks are understood to have knocked back an immediate release request for versatile outside back Mawene…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-582029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582029","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=582029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}