{"id":727255,"date":"2026-06-10T11:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/727255\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T11:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:10:10","slug":"nrl-2026-wests-tigers-seriously-considered-signing-israel-folau-four-or-five-six-nrl-clubs-interested-in-folaus-signature-nrl-news-nrl-360","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/727255\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Wests Tigers seriously considered signing Israel Folau, Four or five six NRL clubs interested in Folau\u2019s signature, nrl news, nrl 360"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been revealed that before the Wests Tigers rejected the approach to sign global superstar Israel Folau, they \u201cseriously considered\u201d bringing him into the club.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday morning, reports emerged that Folau was eyeing a stunning return to the NRL, sending shockwaves through the rugby league world.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports |New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Despite being 37 years of age and last playing in the competition in 2020, it was understood that he was keen to return to the sport where his journey started, following stints in AFL and rugby union.<\/p>\n

This saw him linked to the Wests Tigers, with reports emerging that his camp had approached coach Benji Marshall about a potentially train-and-trial contract – before they shut down the idea.<\/p>\n

However, speaking on NRL 360, Code Sports reporter Brent Read has revealed that although the Tigers rejected his approach, \u201cthey seriously considered\u201d signing him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe Israel Folau or someone close to him reached out to the Tigers about potentially joining them for the rest of the year,\u201d Read said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been playing Japanese rugby over there (and it has) finished and he was looking for a run for the rest of the year. <\/p>\n

\u201cI never got to the bottom of why (he was rejected), but they did seriously consider doing it but I don\u2019t know why they didn\u2019t do it. <\/p>\n

\u201cI seriously think they thought about it and I think they thought that he could come and play NSW Cup and they\u2019d see how he went.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they decided not to go down that path. Maybe it was because of the attention it would have brought to the club, it could have been a distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blues sweating on the fitness of Moses | 02:14<\/p>\n

While Read was unsure of the main reason behind the Tigers rejecting his approach, fellow reporter Michael Carayannis stated that there was a concern that the NRL wouldn\u2019t green-light the deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concern is that the NRL wouldn\u2019t register the deal so you go through the whole circus and there\u2019s no guarantee that he would even play a game for you,\u201d Carayannis added.<\/p>\n

The comments from NRL 360 come as Folau\u2019s brother, David, told Wide World of Sports that a comeback to the 13-man code is still a huge chance of happening.<\/p>\n

And according to David, at least four or five NRL clubs are ready to pounce on his services before the June 30 transfer deadline.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael has a management team and they have received interest from four or five clubs and they have been great to deal with,\u201d Israel\u2019s older brother said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a question of sorting out a few details and hopefully a deal can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael has had several talks with Benji (Marshall) and they have been very positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael is older and wiser now and the great thing about league is we\u2019re a game of second chances – it\u2019s what we stand on as a community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been revealed that before the Wests Tigers rejected the approach to sign global superstar Israel Folau,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-727255","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\/727255","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=727255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}