{"id":382343,"date":"2026-04-16T10:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/382343\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T10:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T10:58:10","slug":"eels-second-rower-exploring-options-in-the-wake-of-sua-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/382343\/","title":{"rendered":"Eels second rower exploring options in the wake of Su&#8217;A signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/parramatta-eels\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Parramatta Eels<\/a> second rower <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/kelma-tuilagi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kelma Tuilagi<\/a> will test his worth on the market after the signing of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/jaydn-sua\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jaydn Su&#8217;A<\/a> indicates the club is moving in another direction with their edges.<\/p>\n<p>The signing of the Red V forward, along with the emergence of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/kitione-kautoga\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kitione Kautoga<\/a>, has left Tuilagi in a vulnerable position, with the Daily Telegraph reporting that the off-contract forward is looking at other options beyond this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tuilagi burst onto the scene in 2021 for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/wests-tigers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wests Tigers<\/a>, showing promising glimpses of a damaging back rower with silky ball-playing skills.<\/p>\n<p>After being a breakout talent in 2022, playing 22 games in the top grade, he was poached by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/manly-sea-eagles\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manly Sea Eagles<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>They picked Tuilagi up for one season in 2023, starting the season on the left edge, but lost his spot to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/ben-trbojevic\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Trbojevic<\/a>, with Manly giving him the option to secure his future elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>Since his 17-game stint on the Northern Beaches, Tuilagi has called Parramatta home and starred in their victory over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/brisbane-broncos\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brisbane Broncos<\/a> in round two, recording two tries and two-line breaks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, Tuilagi has only made three appearances in the blue and gold this year after failing to lock down a starting spot, and is ready to secure a new home.<\/p>\n<p>Tuilagi, 27, would be an ideal fit for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/nrl\/teams\/perth-bears\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Perth Bears<\/a>, who are looking to beef up their forward stocks ahead of their introduction into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ironically enough, with a young crop of talented stars coming through the Dragons system, he would add value as an effective bridging option between Su&#8217;A&#8217; and the young guns coming through, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/dylan-egan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dylan Egan<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerotackle.com\/players\/jacob-halangahu\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jacob Halangahu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parramatta Eels second rower Kelma Tuilagi will test his worth on the market after the signing of Jaydn&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-382343","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\/382343","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=382343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}