{"id":374435,"date":"2026-04-11T11:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T11:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/374435\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T11:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T11:15:09","slug":"what-if-every-team-could-steal-one-player-for-the-rest-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/374435\/","title":{"rendered":"What if every team could steal one player for the rest of 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Five rounds into the 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> season and the ladder is already beginning to take shape.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/penrith-panthers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Penrith Panthers<\/a> have returned to the top of the pedestal, while the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/wests-tigers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wests Tigers<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/newcastle-knights\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newcastle Knights<\/a> have shocked everyone by sitting in the top four.<\/p>\n<p>Surprisingly, last year&#8217;s minor premiers and premiers, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/canberra-raiders\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canberra Raiders<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/brisbane-broncos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brisbane Broncos<\/a> respectively, both find themselves outside of the top eight.<\/p>\n<p>Then languishing at the bottom are the winless <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/st-george-illawarra-dragons\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But what would happen if every club could hit the reset button on one position, just for this season?<\/p>\n<p>No salary cap, no contract negotiation, no release clauses, just a free pass to draft in any rugby league player to their team.<\/p>\n<p>Not necessarily the best in the game, but the right player for the right team.<\/p>\n<p>So, here&#8217;s who every <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> team would be stealing right now, if they could.<\/p>\n<p>Brisbane Broncos: Stephen Crichton<\/p>\n<p>The first place to look in any team is the spine, but with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/reece-walsh\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Reece Walsh<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/ezra-mam\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ezra Mam<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/adam-reynolds\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Reynolds<\/a>, Corey Paix and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/ben-hunt\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Hunt<\/a> on the bench, the Broncos are sorted.<\/p>\n<p>But, one position that could instantly be bolstered is left centre.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/coaches\/michael-maguire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Maguire<\/a> began the season with Gehamat Shibisaki there and is now opting for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/deine-mariner\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Deine Mariner<\/a>, neither have been very impressive.<\/p>\n<p>So, it would make the most sense for the Broncos to target a specialist left centre who is reliable in attack and defence.<\/p>\n<p>More specifically, the Broncos would draft in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/stephen-crichton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stephen Crichton<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>One of the best centres in the league, Crichton would seriously improve the Broncos&#8217; backline and increase their strike power on the left edge.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, most of their tries are being scored right edge by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/kotoni-staggs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kotoni Staggs<\/a>, so bringing in &#8216;Critta&#8217; would provide more attacking options going forward.<\/p>\n<p>        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<br \/>\n        &#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; Five rounds into the 2026 NRL season and the ladder is already beginning to take shape.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-374435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}