{"id":851889,"date":"2026-08-11T22:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851889\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T22:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T22:12:13","slug":"nrl-news-2026-storm-legend-billy-slater-praises-rookie-halfback-hayden-watson-cameron-munster-contract-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851889\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Storm legend Billy Slater praises rookie halfback Hayden Watson; Cameron Munster contract, future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Storm<\/a> legend Billy Slater<\/a> has given some enormous praise to rookie halfback Hayden Watson, pushing his case as the club\u2019s long-term future.<\/p>\n

Watson is just two games into his NRL career, filling in for the injured Jahrome Hughes<\/a> over the past fortnight against Canterbury<\/a> and Manly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Hayden Watson has impressed early in his NRL career.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old was part of an under-strength outfit that went down to the Dogs, before showing a glimpse into his undeniable potential last weekend.<\/p>\n

In the upset win over the Sea Eagles, the teenage playmaker scored a nice solo try and set up another, combining nicely with fellow young gun Sua Faalogo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watson looked to take the game on, showing confidence of a player with far more experience in first grade, helping Melbourne to a comfortable victory.<\/p>\n

Now, one of the club\u2019s all-time greats has endorsed Watson as the man who could wear the No.7 jersey for many years to come. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you go and look at Hayden Watson\u2019s try, you will see him score this try a lot more often in his career over the next 10 or 15 years,\u201d Slater told Nine\u2019s The Billy Slater Podcast<\/a> this week. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s his game, he runs the footy, he\u2019s built low to the ground and got really good strength through his hips. He scored a try in the U19s State of Origin game which was of a similar nature, where he used his size and strength. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou mention the word composed and that\u2019s how I see him – whether it\u2019s at training at the Storm, in the dressing sheds or when he\u2019s out on the footy field. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe just looks like he\u2019s really measured and nothing fazes him and he\u2019s got a big career ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson has come through the Storm\u2019s academy program after moving down from Queensland and starting in SG Ball, before climbing the ranks at rapid speed.<\/p>\n

Fans got a first look at Watson in this year\u2019s U19s State of Origin game when he produced a match-winning display for the Maroons.<\/p>\n

Last week, the club announced Watson and fellow teenage talent Jai Bowden had both extended their contracts until the end of 2030 in a huge boost.<\/p>\n

Slater believes that Watson will only continue to develop, learning from the experienced halves tandem of Hughes and Cameron Munster<\/a>, before making a more permanent leap to the top grade in the coming years.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously he\u2019s got a couple of handy halves in front of him in Jahrome Hughes and Cameron Munster, but if you look at the glass half-full, there\u2019s two great players to learn off,\u201d the two-time Storm premiership winner said.<\/p>\n

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Cameron Munster is signed until the end of 2027.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cSpend the next couple of years learning off those two guys and that will actually help your career move forward. We saw it with Harry Grant and Cameron Smith – watch, train, learn from them, pick their brain, add things to your game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he will jump into that position next year that Tyran Wishart has been doing, coming off the bench, he can play dummy-half.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a really good player of the future. Melbourne have done a great job biding their time with him and developing him and now they\u2019re getting the fruits from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it stands, Munster will come off-contract at the end of next season, while Hughes is on the books at Melbourne until 2030.<\/p>\n

Should the case for Watson to assume full-time playmaking responsibilities grow, the Storm may have a difficult decision on their hands – especially after Jonah Pezet already left the club<\/a> due to being stuck behind the current stars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Storm legend Billy Slater has given some enormous praise to rookie halfback Hayden Watson, pushing his case as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-851889","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\/851889","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=851889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}