{"id":407158,"date":"2026-05-01T19:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T19:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/407158\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T19:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T19:05:16","slug":"toby-rudolf-makes-hilarious-pitch-to-png-chiefs-live-on-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/407158\/","title":{"rendered":"Toby Rudolf makes hilarious pitch to PNG Chiefs live on-air"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cronulla Sharks<\/a> forward has made a playful appeal to PNG Chiefs<\/a> general manager Michael Chammas as he seeks to be part of his inaugural squad in 2028.<\/p>\n

One of the NRL’s great personalities, Rudolf, appeared on Nine’s Today Show, where he humorously expressed his interest to the studio that he is ready to sign with the expansion franchise if he’s offered a contract.<\/p>\n

Upon hearing the news that Chammas was appearing on the program after Rudolf, he took it upon himself to talk up a potential offer.<\/p>\n

“I’ve heard, actually, that the PNG manager is coming on board a little after my chat. So Karl (Stefanovic), if you don’t mind putting in a good word for me, maybe let him know that he looks amazing today and I’ve heard he smells fantastic,” Rudolf jokingly said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the Today crew asked Rudolf how he would pitch himself for a spot in the top 30 Chiefs roster, he responded with his cheeky signature humour.<\/p>\n

“I’m a really fun guy, I like to play rugby league. I’m a good listener, I really like to get a team together, I also love to travel,” Rudolf responded while having the Today studio laughing hysterically.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“So if you could please pass on those kind sentiments on behalf of me, that would be great.”<\/p>\n

When asked about accommodation living arrangements in PNG, which would see players and families live in resort-like conditions, Rudolf remained on board with the idea of a move to the Melanesian country.<\/p>\n

“I can’t see how it wouldn’t be amazing, to be honest,” he added.<\/p>\n

“In all seriousness, I’ve been to the country a couple of times in my life already, I’ve played a couple of games there.<\/p>\n

“This country needs this, and I do think that the game can build an amazing place, it’d be amazing community over there.<\/p>\n

“They’re rugby league worshipers and I couldn’t imagine how being a part of it wouldn’t be a fantastic thing, especially being a part of the first team there, and yes, there is an incentive to go there, of course.”<\/p>\n

Since his NRL<\/a> debut in 2020, Rudolf has been an integral part of the Sharks’ engine room, offering a high work rate and great leg speed when starting at prop or coming off the bench.<\/p>\n

Whether the Chiefs view Rudolf as a legitimate option for their squad in 2028 is unknown.<\/p>\n

With the historic signing of Jarome Luai<\/a> on Wednesday, the domino effect is expected to trigger many star players to commit to signing with the Chiefs in the next 18 months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cronulla Sharks forward has made a playful appeal to PNG Chiefs general manager Michael Chammas as he seeks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-407158","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\/407158","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=407158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}