JACK Wighton isn’t the first player to sacrifice money for the chance at trying to win a premiership.
Wighton’s great mate Latrell Mitchell also went down a similar road when the Wests Tigers offered him more than $4 million to join the club back in 2019.
Latrell ultimately joined the Rabbitohs to play under Wayne Bennett on a deal worth far less.
It was a similar story for Queensland and Australian champion Cameron Munster at the end of last season.
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Raiders file complaint over Wighton move | 04:46
The Dolphins offer of $1.4 million per season over four years was $400,000 per season more than the Melbourne Storm could put on the table.
The Wests Tigers even threw a Hail Mary of $1.5 million over five years for a $7.5 million deal.
Ultimately Munster opted to stay in Melbourne because he believed it was his best chance of adding to the two premiership rings he’s already accumulated.
Brandon Smith is another recent example. Smith has gone on the record stipulating how he took less money to go to the Roosters because he believed it was his best chance of winning a premiership playing no.9.
The same goes for Mitchell Moses who recently left a decent amount on the table when he rejected Wests Tigers to remain at Parramatta.
None of this makes it any easier for the legion of Canberra Raiders members and fans who feel cheated by the way the NRL system is currently set up.
The Raiders are entitled to demand the NRL scrutinises Wighton’s South Sydney contract.
They can demand the NRL insists the governing body makes Wighton’s deal worth $1 million on South Sydney’s salary cap.
But in reality it’s not going to mean the Raiders star backflips and remains in the national capital.
It also doesn’t change the fact the Raiders agreed to give Wighton the clause in his contract allowing him to test the market.
The NRL Integrity Unit is expected to interview Wighton in the coming days about the South Sydney deal and his reasoning for accepting it.
Call me a dribbler but it might be as simple as he wants to enjoy the final four years of his NRL career at a club he believes is a genuine chance of winning the comp.
At the Raiders, Wighton is understandably the main man. You’ve only got to go back to the 2019 grand final when he won the Clive Churchill Medal in a losing side.
At South Sydney, he’ll be relieved of a lot of that responsibility by playing left centre. Latrell Mitchell, Cameron Murray, Cody Walker and Damien Cook will assume the majority of the playmaking responsibilities.
That’s probably also part of the Rabbitohs appeal.
Wighton is still going to be extremely well paid – even if taking a hair cut to switch clubs has caused numerous powerful figures within rugby league to call BS on South Sydney.
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MOMENT THAT SOUNDED ALARM BELLS FOR RAIDERS
THESE are the $3.3 million reasons the Canberra Raiders are infuriated about Jack Wighton leaving the Green Machine for South Sydney leading the club to push the NRL to launch an official inquiry.
The South Sydney Rabbitohs have landed Wighton on a four-year contract from 2024.
Fox League has learned the contract the Rabbitohs have signed Wighton to is believed to be worth $700,000 in the first season, $750,000 in the second season, $900,000 in the third season and $950,000 in the final year.
The Raiders offered Wighton, 30, a four-year contract worth $4 million at an average of $1 million per season.
So the World Cup-winning centre has knocked back $700,000 over the course of four years to link with the Bunnies.
Take the tax out of it over the duration of the deal and it works out as $350,000.
Divide it over four years and it crunches down to around $87,500 per season.
This is the way the Rabbitohs sold the red and green vision about the price of possibly winning a premiership with South Sydney.
The Raiders have challenged the NRL to force South Sydney to make Wighton’s value $1 million per season on their salary cap.
They’re not the only club blowing up about Wighton signing with the Bunnies, either.
Souths arch-rivals the Roosters have been going nuclear all over town about how South Sydney can possibly fit the ex-NSW and Australian centre into the red and green roster for 2024.
The Rabbitohs are adamant they’ve signed Wighton to play left centre. They’re also adamant they’ve got the latitude to do so in the salary cap with Liam Knight and Blake Taaffe off-contract and the salary cap increasing to $12.3 million next season.
We feel for the Raiders. Their CEO Don Furner personally picked Wighton up from an ACT police station when the Raiders five-eighth was arrested over the summer.
The Raiders have invested an enormous amount of time and money into making Wighton the player and the person he is.
But the alarm bells began ringing when Wighton removed himself from Canberra’s leadership group a couple of months ago.
Triggering the option in his contract to test his value on the open market was the next step.
While most of us thought it was a race in two between the Raiders and the Dolphins, South Sydney quietly plotted a secret approach.
There’s also been some very direct home truths delivered to the club from Wighton about some of his frustrations in the national capital.
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RUGBY’S STAGGERING HAAS OFFER
THE Melbourne Storm landed a major coup by convincing Kiwi Test forward Nelson Asofa-Solomona to remain at the Purple Reign until the end of 2027.
Big NAS was all but out the door to go and have a crack at playing for the Wallabies in rugby union until late last week.
We’re still finding it hard to picture proud Kiwi NAS in a Wallaby jumper but the 120kg NRL enforcer confirmed how close he was to going after the Storm’s cracking Anzac Day win over the Warriors.
The Storm have done brilliantly to convince the Kiwi international to remain as the corner stone of the Melbourne forward pack.
The next target for Rugby Australia is Broncos front-rower Payne Haas.
We’ve been told the rah-rah types have been talking up offering Haas a three-year contract worth $1.6 million per season.
Given money talks all languages, a $4.8 million three-year deal is going to be hard to knock back.
Haas is currently signed with the Broncos until the end of 2025.
The Broncos will be doing everything possible to retain him but if the rugby deal becomes real Brisbane risk being blown away.
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ROOSTERS HUGE CALL ON VETERAN
THE Sydney Roosters have got a major decision to make around champion front row forward and Alpha leader of the pack Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
JWH might be turning 35 in January but there’s a strong argument the Roosters still need their spiritual leader as much as ever.
It was clear against the Dragons on Anzac Day when Jared left the field the Roosters lost their edge when it comes to the intimidation factor.
The challenge for the Chooks will be balancing Jared remaining at the club for one more season given they’ve also got Panthers prop Spencer Leniu and Knights winger Dom Young arriving next season.
We can’t recall another front-rower going as well as JWH is at the same age after chalking up 285 NRL games. It’s a phenomenal achievement playing the toughest position on the field.
BIG SHIFT IN BELLAMY CALL
THREE-TIME premiership-winning coach Craig Bellamy will utilise the Melbourne Storm having the bye to contemplate making a call about his head coaching future.
Bellamy is a champion coach who earlier in the season was making noises as though 2023 was a good chance of being his final season at the helm of the Melbourne Storm.
Since winning the top job at Melbourne in 2003, Bellamy has coached 531 games, winning 369 and losing only 160 for a 69.5 per cent win ratio.
It’s a phenomenal record over 21 seasons even when you factor in some of the challenges the Storm faced when two premierships were stripped from the club.
A month ago it seemed as though Bellamy was firming to move into a director of coaching role at the end of this season with Jason Ryles being strongly tipped to face the enormous challenge of taking over at the Storm.
But over the course of the last few weeks there’s been a sense the Storm coach is leaning more towards going around again in 2024 and then reviewing how he’s feeling off the back of that.
At 63, Bellamy has clearly still got his coaching mojo.
His players trust and respect him and the results are there for all to see.
With a lack of elite class NRL coaches, there’s plenty of people pushing for Craig to continue at the Purple Reign in 2024.
