{"id":794228,"date":"2026-07-11T21:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T21:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/794228\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T21:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T21:15:08","slug":"bad-news-bears-shock-contract-backflip-leaves-gaping-perth-halves-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/794228\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad news, Bears: Shock contract backflip leaves gaping Perth halves hole"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/south-sydney-rabbitohs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rabbitohs<\/a> star Jamie Humphreys has backflipped on his decision to join the Perth Bears in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a hammer blow to Mal Meninga\u2019s side with the versatile 24-year-old playmaker earmarked to be one of Perth\u2019s key spine players for its inaugural season.<\/p>\n<p>Currently coming off the bench for the Rabbitohs, the Bears had offered Humphreys a lucrative three-year contract\u00a0with every indication the star would sign.<\/p>\n<p>But to the shock of Bears officials the deal has collapsed and now the NRL\u2019s 18th franchise is again scrambling to fill a crucial position just four months out from its first NRL preseason.<\/p>\n<p>MORE:\u00a0<a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/au\/rugby-league\/news\/dolphins-suffer-66-0-home-humiliation-sharks-nrl-kayo-stadium\/af77352d49287d07e13a2ce3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Phin-ished for the season? Dolphins suffer 66-0 home humiliation in Sharks feeding frenzy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The news means Humphreys remains an NRL free agent and is unsigned for 2027.<\/p>\n<p>The Rabbitohs had been previously unable to table a competitive offer to Humphreys given salary cap pressures surrounding the arrival of Payne Haas next season and the retention of other young stars including Jye Gray.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It remains to able seen if that now changes with their man back on the market.<\/p>\n<p>Perth Bears 2027 confirmed signingsApa TwidleChris Vea&#8217;ilaHarry NewmanJames McDonnellJosh CurranLiam HenryLuke LauliliiLuke SmithMavrik GeyerMikolaj OledzkiNick MeaneyScott SorensenSean RussellSiosifa TalakaiToby SextonTyran Wishart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rabbitohs star Jamie Humphreys has backflipped on his decision to join the Perth Bears in 2027. It\u2019s a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-794228","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\/794228","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=794228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}