{"id":665216,"date":"2026-05-12T03:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T03:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665216\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T03:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T03:50:11","slug":"warriors-make-surprise-luke-metcalf-contract-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665216\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors make surprise Luke Metcalf contract call"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand Warriors<\/a> halfback Luke Metcalf<\/a> has been given permission to explore his options away from the club, with a potential transfer looming.<\/p>\n

The star half is contracted until the end of 2028 after putting pen to paper on a new deal with the Auckland-based outfit in the days leading up to November 1 last year.<\/p>\n

At the time, it seemed the smartest bit of business the Warriors could have possibly made.<\/p>\n

Metcalf was the best halfback in the game during the first half of 2025, and led the Dally M Medal count by a considerable distance before an ACL injury ended his season.<\/p>\n

That injury saw him unable to take to the field during the opening rounds of 2026, and Tanah Boyd<\/a> not only stepped into his place, but stepped up, becoming the form players of the competition over the opening rounds.<\/p>\n

So good was Boyd that Metcalf, once fit, was slotted into five-eighth upon his return, a position he played as he came through juniors at the Cronulla Sharks<\/a>, and again when he first arrived in Auckland with Shaun Johnson<\/a> still playing at that stage.<\/p>\n

His move to halfback came as a surprise, but a well-made one for coach Andrew Webster,<\/a> with Metcalf excelling.<\/p>\n

His return at five-eighth wasn’t good though. The Warriors lost two on the bounce before he injured his thumb and hasn’t been sighted on the park since, playing as part of the six-man bench in their last start against the Eels, but not making it onto the park.<\/p>\n

News Corp have now reported that internal meetings between the Warriors and Metcalf have seen the club allow the halfback to explore his options on the open market with a return to Australia<\/a> potentially looming.<\/p>\n

It’s understood Metcalf will not leave the Warriors before the end of this season, but could be wearing different colours in 2027, with Tanah Boyd<\/a>, who is understood to have re-signed with the club, now the lead option to wear seven in Auckland into the future.<\/p>\n

The Warriors also have youngsters Jett Cleary<\/a> and Luke Hanson<\/a> in their system, further complicating matters for Metcalf, who is now 27 years of age.<\/p>\n

It was believed the Perth Bears<\/a> were interested in Metcalf before he decided to re-sign with the Warriors, and given their skinny recruitment to date, they could well come back into the play for the half.<\/p>\n

Tyran Wishart<\/a> and Toby Sexton<\/a> are currently seen as their likely starting halves, but Metcalf would be an upgrade, while other clubs in Sydney like the St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> and Canterbury Bulldogs<\/a> could also push to grab his services.<\/p>\n

Metcalf has made no secret of the fact that he wants to play halfback, telling SEN Radio in the lead-up to his return as much despite being named at five-eighth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand Warriors halfback Luke Metcalf has been given permission to explore his options away from the club,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-665216","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\/665216","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=665216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}