Raiders superstar Jack Wighton is reportedly set to make a decision regarding his future in the coming days and it has been revealed how the Rabbitohs can afford to sign the Origin gun.
As it stands, the Dolphins, Raiders and Rabbitohs are fighting for his signature with the Canberra club the first to table an offer worth a reported $4.4 million over four seasons.
Meanwhile, Wayne Bennett reportedly met with Wighton and tabled a four-year offer said to be worth $1 million-per-season.
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With a plethora of superstars on the Rabbitohs’ books, including Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker and Damien Cook, questions were raised over the Redfern club’s ability to table a competitive offer.
While Wighton will have to take a pay cut to join South Sydney, The Daily Telegraph’s David Riccio has revealed how the club have money to spend on another marquee star.
“A lot of discussion around South Sydney’s salary cap and just a bit of insight I can give you is that they didn’t sign a player from outside the club this season,” Riccio said on Triple M.
“They have gone with the same squad, they also never replaced Dane Gagai who was on significant money in that marquee centre spot.
“They’ve basically been going with the likes of Isaiah Tass, Izack Thompson, Lachlan Ilias, they are not $500k players so there is money there.
“The other key ingredient is that through all that CBA negotiating and the guessing game of what the salary cap would be over the past eight to ten months.
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“Well South Sydney undercut themselves, they went lower than the predicted figure so they actually have surplus cash because they set the bar much lower than what it ended up to be.
“That’s where they can find some extra cash to go after a marquee like Jack Wighton… there’s suggestions (he will make his decision) over the next couple of days.
Riccio also revealed Wighton’s outdoors lifestyle is set to play a major role in his contract decision.
During the Rabbitohs’ pitch to their potential recruit, Jason Demetriou along with club powerbrokers were said to have explained you can “have the best of both worlds” in Sydney.
“Jack spent a number of hours within the South Sydney set-up and also looking at locations as to where he may live should he go down the path of moving to Sydney,” Riccio said.
“Because that is the big move for Jack, once the footy is over on the weekend he likes to switch off. Go fishing, he’s an outdoors man.
“That’s where the allure of moving to Sydney is one that South Sydney were keen to impress upon is that you can have the best of both worlds here.
“Beautiful locations… they certainly spoke about that to Jack.
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“I believe South Sydney think it is 50-50, no more than that and they have put their best case forward,” Riccio said.
“He has strong relationships not only with Latrell, but also a lot of the Origin representative players he has spent time with in camp.”
Wayne Bennett is also only signed on to be the Dolphins’ head coach for 2024, meaning Wighton only has one season under the master coach.
That could also prove to be a sticking point in the 17th franchise’s bid according to Riccio.
“There’s ties there, but the catch is whether he wants to move to Brisbane for what I am talking about off the field,” Riccio said.
“But Wayne Bennett is only going to be there for potentially 12 months, so what does Jack think about going forward without Bennett who is basically the selling point.
“The Raiders are still there, definitely still an option for Jack, no way in the world are they out of this race.
“So it all comes down to what Jack wants.”
