{"id":380969,"date":"2026-04-15T16:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/380969\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:52:10","slug":"papalii-hopeful-for-new-penrith-deal-amid-salary-cap-juggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/380969\/","title":{"rendered":"Papali’i hopeful for new Penrith deal amid salary cap juggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Penrith Panthers<\/a> are approaching a potential change of guard when multiple stars become available to speak with rival clubs on November 1 this year if the club doesn’t move to re-sign them.<\/p>\n

Nathan Cleary<\/a>, Isaah Yeo<\/a>, Liam Martin<\/a>, Brian To’o<\/a> Isaiah Papali’i<\/a>, and Paul Alamoti<\/a> are all headliners contracted until the end of 2027.<\/p>\n

Although Penrith will no doubt be looking to secure most of those names, it will be hard to juggle a salary cap of stars whose prices keep inflating because of their x-factor and talent.<\/p>\n

Papali’i has confirmed that he wants to stay put at the foot of the mountains, with The Western Weekender reporting that he wants to continue his time at the Panthers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m happy here \u2013 I’ve really enjoyed my year and a bit here and personally I’ve seen myself grow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d like to stay \u2013 I’m just leaving it up to my manager and making sure that I’m performing week-to-week so I have the opportunity to stay here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wary of the threat of a lot of stars off-contract, the Panthers have made moves to lock down young gun talent that is excelling through their pathways.<\/p>\n

It includes the re-signing of Ryan Cloey, the succession plan at hooker for Mitch Kenny<\/a>, with the young gun signing on for three more years.<\/p>\n

Alongside him is Cordell Arama, a barnstorming enforcer who is progressing through the Panthers’ elite pathways, signing on until 2029.<\/p>\n

With players such as Jarome Luai<\/a>, Nathan Cleary<\/a>, Stephen Crichton<\/a>, Brian To’o<\/a>, and Spencer Leniu<\/a> all progressing through their junior nursery, it’s no shock that the Panthers are looking to replicate that magic with a new generation of talent.<\/p>\n

The Panthers looked indestructible to start 2026 until they met the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs<\/a> on Thursday night, suffering their first loss of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cImmediately after, we were pretty gutted, especially given Nat (Nathan Cleary<\/a>) had his milestone game,\u201d Papali’i told The Western Weekender.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo not get the result was disappointing for us as a playing group \u2013 to not be able to celebrate that milestone with a win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came in Monday, did our review, talked about how we felt out there and what was going on \u2013 and moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n

They will be looking to rectify the poor result with a big performance against the Dolphins<\/a> when they travel to Darwin this Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing off the back of a tough loss and a bye, we’re expecting a hard game against them. They’ll be fresh and ready to go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe start will be really important to us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t mind going up there to Darwin. It’s quite hot but that’s just a given.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are expecting it to be humid. It’s been a few years since I’ve played there. It’s a good track and the field is well-maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Papali’i has spent time at the Warriors, Eels and Tigers before making the trip out to Penrith, where he has been a consistent edge back rower for the Panthers, playing 28 games since the move in 2025.
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Penrith Panthers are approaching a potential change of guard when multiple stars become available to speak with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-380969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380969","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=380969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}