{"id":391414,"date":"2026-04-22T02:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T02:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391414\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T02:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T02:35:09","slug":"transfer-whispers-contracts-signings-apa-twidle-joins-perth-bears-parramatta-eels-news-videos-highlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/391414\/","title":{"rendered":"Transfer Whispers, contracts, signings, Apa Twidle joins Perth Bears, Parramatta Eels, news, videos, highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rising Eels star Apa Twidle has made the shock decision to join the Perth Bears, signing a three-year deal to join the NRL\u2019s newest franchise.<\/p>\n

According to Code Sports<\/a>, the 21-year-old considered the Bears\u2019 offer too good to refuse, becoming the 18th player to sign on to play under Mal Meninga.<\/p>\n

As it stands, Twidle is reportedly in his 10-day cooling off period, meaning the Eels can still make a play to retain his services.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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His preference was reportedly to remain at the club, however Parramatta powerbrokers were only able to table an $80,000 development deal for the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

The offer of security in Perth was difficult to ignore for the rising star, who caught Meninga\u2019s eye after scoring a double inside three minutes of his NRL debut on Easter Monday.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs were also reportedly interested in Twidle\u2019s services, being a versatile star with the ability to play all across the backline and in the halves.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Twidle could be a starter in the outside backs or provide back-up for Meninga\u2019s current first-string halves pairing of Toby Sexton and Tyran Wishart.<\/p>\n

Twidle has played 21 NSW Cup games to date, having scored 12 tries.<\/p>\n

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Get all the latest NRL news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\n

With just under half an NRL roster to fill, Mal Meninga made it clear his franchise are willing to \u201chave a crack at people we want\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t be having a crack at just anyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have our pillars and the type of player we want because that\u2019s what we will build our foundations on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some standards we want to uphold, so we won\u2019t have a scattergun approach and throw big money around willy-nilly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re set on players that we believe are going to fit the DNA of the Perth Bears and we\u2019ll go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rising Eels star Apa Twidle has made the shock decision to join the Perth Bears, signing a three-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-391414","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\/391414","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=391414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}