{"id":939869,"date":"2026-10-25T01:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T01:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/939869\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T01:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T01:22:13","slug":"roosters-respond-to-cooper-bai-player-swap-rumours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/939869\/","title":{"rendered":"Roosters respond to Cooper Bai player swap rumours"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sydney Roosters<\/a> have responded to the rumours about their interest in Gold Coast Titans<\/a> forward Cooper Bai<\/a> in a player swap.<\/p>\n

Less than a week ago, the Titans confirmed Cooper Bai<\/a> will play his last season for the club in 2027 as he explores options for 2028 and beyond.<\/p>\n

The Sydney Morning Herald first reported that the PNG Chiefs<\/a> have tabled a three-year offer to the Titans, while the Melbourne Storm<\/a> and the Sydney Roosters<\/a> were interested in the 19-year-old.<\/p>\n

Related Coverage<\/p>\n

In recent days, reports circulated that the Titans were interested in a player swap if Bai wanted to head to the Roosters or the Storm.<\/p>\n

One of four players would be ideal in a player swap if Bai were released.<\/p>\n

From the Roosters, the Titans would want either Lindsay Collins<\/a> or Nat Butcher<\/a>, and from the Storm, they would consider Alec MacDonald<\/a> or Trent Loiero<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, the Roosters have shut down any possibility of swapping Butcher or Collins to sign Cooper Bai<\/a>, per Code Sports.<\/p>\n

Butcher and Collins have expiring contracts at the end of the 2027 season, and the Roosters would likely want their veteran forwards to finish their careers without leaving.<\/p>\n

The Roosters are simultaneously in talks to sign Joseph Manu<\/a> for the second half of the season.<\/p>\n

Manu is currently playing French Rugby for Racing 92, and his contract runs out in June 2027.<\/p>\n

This would be around rounds 16 to 18 in the NRL<\/a> season, depending on whether his club plays in the finals.<\/p>\n

Manu is expected to sign a three-month deal with the Roosters around $300,000, as the NRL<\/a> salary cap auditor rated Manu’s value over a whole season at $1.2 million.<\/p>\n

He is currently earning $1.4 million per season in France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old centre once considered a return to the NRL<\/a> for the New Zealand Warriors<\/a>; however, Racing 92 had concerns over their centre potentially injuring himself while it was the Top 14’s off-season.<\/p>\n

In three games this season, Manu has scored two tries for Racing 92 as the season has recently begun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sydney Roosters have responded to the rumours about their interest in Gold Coast Titans forward Cooper Bai…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-939869","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\/939869","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=939869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}