Broncos player admits to likely exit after teammate scores contract extension

Yahoo

29-05-2025

Cory Paix admits his future could lie away from Brisbane, despite insisting he wants to stay at the Broncos long-term. Paix is the only Broncos hooker in the top-30 squad without an NRL deal for 2026, following news promising young rake Blake Mozer is set to sign a contract extension with the club until the end of the 2027 season.
Fellow hooker Billy Walters is contracted until the end of next year and another one of Brisbane's rakes Tyson Smoothy will join English Super League side Wakefield Trinity next season. Injured veteran Ben Hunt - who is tipped to slot into the hooker role when he returns from a hamstring injury - is also on a deal with the Broncos that runs until the end of next season.
Brisbane have yet to officially confirm Mozer's extension, but it's understood the 21-year-old's management met with Broncos officials over the last week and were told that the club plans on keeping him. No offer for Mozer has yet been tabled but his future at the Broncos seems all but assured, raising fresh questions around Paix.
The 25-year-old is set to return to Brisbane's starting side for the first time in five matches, when the Broncos travel to play Manly on Saturday night. The move will see Walters revert back to his bench role. Paix began the year as coach Michael Maguire's first-choice hooker, starting in the opening six games of the season, of which the Broncos won four.
But he's had to resort to a bench spot behind Walters for the previous five games, which has coincided with a massive dip in form for Brisbane. Paix will get another chance to press his claims for a permanent starting spot against the Sea Eagles on Saturday night, but admits that the contract situation could be out of his hands.
"I would love to be a Bronco for life but sometimes in life you don't always get what you want," the 25-year-old said. "I need to go out and play some good footy first before I get a contract. That's at the forefront this weekend."
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Paix was reportedly close to agreeing an extension at the club earlier this year and Maguire indicated that he wanted the hooker to stay. However, those negotiations appear to have been put on the backburners even though the 25-year-old Broncos junior has made it clear that he doesn't want to leave the club that "means the world" to him.
"I came here straight out of school and even during school I was part of the junior academy," he said. "I have got my family close by and obviously the Broncos have spent a lot of time on me developing me into the person and player I am. Brissie is home to me."
The Broncos have won four games when Paix has started this season and only one when he hasn't. And Brisbane will be hoping the return of the hooker to the starting side against Manly will help get their stuttering season back on track.
"I spoke with Madge (coach Michael Maguire) and worked on a few things in key areas he thought I could get better at," Paix said. "I thought I went away and done that. Now it is time for me to step up. We haven't been getting the results lately.
"If we can fix up little minor things that we have identified then I think we will give ourselves enough energy at the back end of games to really compete and go after it." Brisbane have lost five of their past six matches and second half collapses have let the team down badly.
They've only won twice at Manly's home ground in the last 33 years, although the teams haven't played at Brookvale Oval since 2014 due to a financial agreement that saw the Sea Eagles play "home games" against Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium. But Maguire's men will fancy their chances against an equally inconsistent Manly side that have lost three of their six home games already this season and will be without injured superstar Tom Trbojevic.
with AAP