{"id":931993,"date":"2026-10-17T23:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T23:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/931993\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T23:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T23:52:14","slug":"two-clubs-monitoring-kangaroos-champs-contract-situation-ahead-of-november-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/931993\/","title":{"rendered":"Two clubs monitoring Kangaroos champ\u2019s contract situation ahead of November 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two NRL clubs are watching what happens with Liam Martin at Penrith in the hope they might be able to sign the Kangaroos forward.<\/p>\n

Watch Australia\u2019s Tour of South Africa Live & Exclusive on Fox Cricket, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

According to News Corp, Brisbane and Cronulla are keen to see if Martin heads to market on November 1 after he put contract talks with Penrith on hold in August.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

WHAT’S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old\u2019s contract with the Panthers ends at the end of next year and his management has reportedly asked Penrith to make him a $1 million a season player.<\/a><\/p>\n

But the Panthers still need to extend the contracts of co-captains Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo who are their main priorities and then there\u2019s Moses Leota to also lock up.<\/p>\n

Martin is thought to be ahead of Leota in terms of priority signings for Penrith, who are very disciplined when it comes to salary cap management.<\/p>\n

Martin wants a three-year extension at Penrith but is asking for big money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping that there\u2019s a spot for me here and obviously there\u2019s a long gap until November 1, so we\u2019ll have to wait and see,\u201d Martin said last month.<\/p>\n

Young Chiefs signing stars for PNG Kumul | 00:54<\/p>\n

ULTIMATE GUIDE: Everything you need to know ahead of the 2026 Rugby League World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n

FIXTURES: Full 2026 Rugby League World Cup schedule… and how it works<\/a><\/p>\n

Martin is currently on about $750,000 so he\u2019s asking for a fair pay rise for a back-rower but he\u2019s still young enough.<\/p>\n

The Panthers will also have to decide what to do with young gun Blaize Talagi who won\u2019t feature for much of next year after snapping his Achilles in the preliminary final loss to the Knights.<\/p>\n

Isaiah Papali\u2019i, Billy Scott and Luron Patea are also off-contract at the end of 2027.<\/p>\n

Leading player agent Steve Gillis said on a podcast last month that he was hearing Martin was closer to re-signing with Penrith than moving on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Liam Martin would like to stay and if they can work a deal I think he will stay, unless someone comes along and has a chomp at him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Panthers are close to re-signing Yeo and are desperate to nail down Cleary for the remainder of his career.<\/p>\n

The Sharks are no doubt keen to see what Martin does given their back-rowers Briton Nikora and Teig Wilton are also set to hit the open market on November 1.<\/p>\n

If one, or both leave, Martin will be a player they look at and is a nice back-up plan.<\/p>\n

The Sharks and Broncos can\u2019t officially offer Martin a contract until the free agency period begins on November 1.<\/p>\n

Brisbane back-rower Brendan Piakura is also off-contract from the end of 2027, like Martin.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Martin, from Temora, is the cousin of Broncos assistant coach Trent Barrett.<\/p>\n

Martin has won four premierships at Penrith and has an incredible 75 per cent winning record art club level.<\/p>\n

Mitch Moses to miss WC with shin injury | 00:24<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also played 16 State of Origin matches and was seen as a key part of the decider victory by NSW this year with his impact.<\/p>\n

Despite his credentials, Penrith don\u2019t offer contracts to their players that are considered \u2018overs\u2019.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re disciplined and their chief executive Matt Cameron revealed on a Bye Round podcast this year<\/a> that the club has only paid one player more than they thought he was worth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about making disciplined salary cap decisions. You can either make disciplined decisions or undisciplined decisions,\u201d Cameron said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think sometimes you can absolutely fall in love with a young man that\u2019s come through your system and has been very successful and we think he\u2019s worth $5, but we get pressed and we\u2019ve got to pay him $7, and then you go, \u2018really, is that really disciplined?\u2019 And I think we\u2019ve been able to manage the cap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got some guiding principles, I suppose, on how we manage it, and we just try and stick to those guidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the guiding principles is the underspend. We ensure that we carry what I think is a reasonably healthy underspend. So we never run the cap up to its limit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two NRL clubs are watching what happens with Liam Martin at Penrith in the hope they might be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-931993","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\/931993","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=931993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}