{"id":651441,"date":"2026-05-05T16:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T16:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/651441\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T16:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T16:23:15","slug":"nrl-news-2026-penrith-panthers-gun-liam-martin-hints-at-png-chiefs-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/651441\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Penrith Panthers gun Liam Martin hints at PNG Chiefs interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panthers<\/a> enforcer Liam Martin has hinted he will explore free agency and admitted being part of the PNG Chiefs<\/a>‘ launch into the NRL<\/a> would be “pretty incredible”.<\/p>\n

Martin is one of six Panthers premiership players, along with Nathan Cleary, Isaah Yeo, Mitch Kenny, Moses Leota and Paul Alamoti, who will become free agents on November 1 unless they re-sign with Penrith before then.<\/p>\n

Yeo admitted last week<\/a> he would go to free agency and said he suspected his premiership teammates would, too.<\/p>\n

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Among the other Panthers stars who could hit free agency on November 1 are Isaiah Papali’i and Blaize Talagi.<\/p>\n

Armed with the luxury of being able to offer tax-free salaries, the PNG Chiefs are posing a mighty threat ahead of their entry into the NRL in 2028.<\/p>\n

Martin was quizzed on his future on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"SYDNEY,<\/p>\n

Panthers gun Liam Martin runs the ball.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“I’m getting towards that age in my career where my next contract could be my last,” the 29-year-old told 9News.<\/p>\n

“It [free agency] is something I want to experience.”<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

PNG landed Wests Tigers co-captain and four-time Panthers premiership winner Jarome Luai as their first official signing last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

South Sydney phenom Alex Johnston \u2013 the greatest try-scorer in Australian rugby league history \u2013 will be announced as an official PNG signing<\/a> in due time.<\/p>\n

Players who sign with the NRL’s 19th franchise will not only be on tax-free club salaries but be able to enter into tax-free third-party deals.<\/p>\n

The tax-free advantages afforded to PNG have infuriated rival club bosses, though the NRL will give all other clubs about $4 million each to soften the blow.<\/p>\n

For some players, it’s not only the rich financial incentives that are appealing but the prospect of being part of a venture as ambitious and foreign as the Chiefs’.<\/p>\n

“It’s certainly an interesting one,” Martin said.<\/p>\n

“To be part of something like that would be pretty incredible, so you obviously can’t rule it out.<\/p>\n

“But I can’t even talk to them till November.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Panthers enforcer Liam Martin has hinted he will explore free agency and admitted being part of the PNG…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-651441","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\/651441","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=651441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}