{"id":764599,"date":"2026-06-27T22:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T22:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/764599\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T22:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T22:52:15","slug":"nrl-news-2026-bronson-xerri-early-release-canterbury-bulldogs-melbourne-storm-craig-bellamy-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/764599\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026 | Bronson Xerri early release; Canterbury Bulldogs; Melbourne Storm; Craig Bellamy comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Storm<\/a> coach Craig Bellamy<\/a> has admitted the club is pushing for Bronson Xerri<\/a> to join immediately as the June 30 deadline approaches for clubs to sign players for this season. <\/p>\n

Nine\u2019s Danny Weidler revealed on the weekend that Xerri will join the Storm on a three-year deal, rejecting the Eels\u2019 offer. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bronson Xerri.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Xerri has had a troubled year at the Bulldogs after he was dropped following the Las Vegas opener<\/a> before reports he was looking for a way out of the club<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Weidler reported that the Bulldogs were considering releasing Xerri before June 30 but could be interested in a player swap. <\/p>\n

After Melbourne\u2019s 30-4 loss to Manly<\/a>, Bellamy was asked where negotiations stand for an early release with the club also looking at Dolphins forward Oryn Keeley. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d love to get a couple of new players in to bolster our depth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not quite sure what\u2019s happening with both those guys or any other guys for that matter. Obviously June 30 is not far away … hopefully in the next couple of days we\u2019ll find out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bellamy was excited by the prospect of bringing Xerri to the club as he tries to rejuvenate his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah (it\u2019s exciting), if we can get him. I\u2019m not quite sure, anything can happen, I\u2019ve been concentrating on this week,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019ll be good if we can get a player or two for the rest of the year, it\u2019s been a horror injury toll. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t get them, we\u2019ve got to get back up and be more consistent. This afternoon, I\u2019m not sure why we couldn\u2019t do in the first half what we did in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Storm\u2019s inconsistent season continued at Brookvale Oval with Manly leading 24-0 at half-time. <\/p>\n

Melbourne\u2019s defence kicked into gear after the break, conceding only one try from Ben Trbojevic while Will Warbrick was the only tryscorer for the Storm. <\/p>\n

The Storm\u2019s need for an outside back was clear before the season started when they pursued Zac Lomax after his R360 deal didn\u2019t come to fruition. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Craig Bellamy and Harry Grant after Melbourne’s loss to Manly.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Lomax\u2019s move was blocked by the Eels, leaving Melbourne short of a strike player on the edges. <\/p>\n

Injuries haven\u2019t helped the season either, with Eli Katoa ruled out before it started due to concussion. <\/p>\n

Xavier Coates will miss the whole season too after an Achilles injury while Tui Kamikamica played four matches before a medical episode ruled him out as well. <\/p>\n

Currently, Nick Meaney, Jack Howarth and Manaia Waitere are on the injury list too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy has admitted the club is pushing for Bronson Xerri to join immediately as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-764599","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\/764599","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=764599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}