Dog Act! Bulldogs plot to steal Manly’s star Trbojevic brothers from Des
· July 23, 2019 4:44pm
·
JAMES HOOPER@jimmyhooper
· Source:
FOX SPORTS
The Manly Sea Eagles will have a fight on their hands to retain the Trbojevic brothers come November 1 with the Bulldogs confirming an intention to try and bring the NSW State of Origin duo to Belmore.
While the Sea Eagles have talked up a five-year $10 million package deal aimed at keeping the Turbo brothers on the northern beaches, the Silvertails won’t have it all their own way.
The Bulldogs might be battling to avoid the wooden spoon in the midst of an ongoing salary cap mess but by 2021 they’ll have a war chest building to try and sign some of the NRL’s biggest names.
Canterbury-Bankstown CEO Andrew Hill has told Fox Sports the Bulldogs will open talks with Manly’s NSW Origin and Australian duo if they’re still free agents come November 1.
“We’d certainly be interested if they were on the market come November 1,” Hill said.
The Bulldogs have been busily sounding out a variety of big-name players and young gun juniors behind-the-scenes in the lead-up to being able to table formal offers to free agents.
The Bulldogs have a host of club’s highest-paid players off contract at the end of 2020 including Kieran Foran, Josh Jackson, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Will Hopoate.
Other Bulldogs players off contract at the end of 2020 include Adam Elliott, Jack Cogger, Raymond Faitala-Mariner, Kerrod Holland, Lachlan Lewis and Aiden Tolman.
So it’s fair to say Canterbury-Bankstown will have a multimillion-dollar war chest.
At the same time Manly have signaled an intention to try and lock the Turbo brothers up long-term prior to the November 1 open market deadline.
To keep the brothers on the northern beaches, the Sea Eagles are expected to need to deliver both contracts in excess of $1 million per season.
The issue for Manly is the size of captain Daly Cherry-Evans’s contract, which takes up 16 per cent of the Sea Eagles salary cap until the end of 2023.
The Bulldogs play will add a new chapter to the rivalry between both clubs, which stems back to Canterbury-Bankstown poaching Des Hasler after the Sea Eagles won the premiership in 2011.
Hasler then took the Bulldogs to grand finals in 2012 and 2014 before being sacked at the end of the 2017 season after missing the finals for the first time in six seasons.
- PLEASE make this happen as us loyal supporters need something to look forward to and this would also stick it back to Hasler as KARMA is a BITARCH!!!
