Bear hunt begins: Marquee star rules out move to NRL's newest outfit
Dolphins star Herbie Farnworth has all but ruled out a move to the NRL's newest club at the end of his 2026 contract, pledging his allegiance to the Redcliffe-based outfit for the long haul.
The unveiling of the Perth Bears as the competition's 18th side from the 2027 season has opened the floodgates for poaching raids across Australia, with Farnworth – one of the most high-profile targets – to hit the open market from November 1.
Payne Haas, David Fifita, Jahrome Hughes and Angus Crichton are among the top names off contract at the end of 2026.
A proud Englishman, Farnworth loomed as a tempting target for the Bears – the 2021 census indicating more than a third of Perth's population had English ancestry, with almost 170,000 residents born in England.
However, the two-time Dally M centre of the year declared he had no desire to leave the Dolphins, and was intent on securing his future under coach Kristian Woolf.
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'It's always nice to be wanted from different clubs, especially teams coming in, but I'm very happy at the Dolphins,' Farnworth said.
'I'd be a bit silly to pass up on the opportunity to play with the likes of Jack Bostock in the next couple of years and Issy Katoa … we've got some great players and some really good young players who are going to kick us on in the future, so I'd love to play with them for the next couple of years.
'I'm just focusing on my footy, that's the main thing – if you keep playing good footy, that [my future] takes care of all that sort of stuff. I'm sure we can get a deal done here.
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News.com.au
26 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Daly Cherry-Evans grabbed by pitch invader, immediately tackled
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News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
Intruder grabs DCE, gets decked by security
A Manly fan ran onto the field and grabbed Daly Cherry-Evans after the loss to the Titans, before getting tackled by security.
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘Don't understand that stuff': DCE responds to Roosters rumour and Qld axing after Manly loss
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Manly enforced injured in big blow In a big blow for Manly, Haumole Olakau'atu suffered a dislocated shoulder and is facing a lengthy stint on the sidelines. 'He dislocated his shoulder there so he'll get scans over the weekend and if there's bone damage then potentially you have to do reconstruction,' Seibold said. 'If it's muscle only or the ligaments only then potentially you can rehab it over six weeks but he's going to be gone for a while. 'But just summed up the night you know he's going for a try and dislocates his shoulder, so we will miss him of course. He is a quality player.' Seibold admitted his side were outplayed by the last placed Titans. 'We were outplayed, defensively we missed far too many tackles, which is an attitude thing,' Seibold said. 'We actually started really well the first 10 minutes, but after that we were well outplayed so we couldn't get ourselves back in the contest.' Seibold was pressed on why his team has been so inconsistent this season. 'I think mate, it comes back to attitude, being consistent individually, collectively, that's not just the players, that's the staff who've got to come up with some answers because we're a really good footy team, right?' Seibold said. 'Like in our first month of footy, outstanding this year, even like two weeks ago, well three weeks ago, very good against the Broncos and a couple weeks earlier they were really good against the Cowboys, but it's the story of our season. I think we missed the jump there, Titans made us pay.' Seibold took ownership of the side's preparation as they currently sit outside the top eight. 'We've done it every away trip this year, we did it up in Townsville, played really well up there,' Seibold said. Moses to miss six weeks with calf injuryNRL: Mitch Moses has been ruled out of the second State of Origin game with a training injury. 'We did it over in Perth, it was a really competitive game. We've tried to do this, rather than travel on our days off, because we've had such a pretty heavy playing load, rather than travel on days off we've tried to train and then travel that evening. 'But when you get beaten there's always going to be questions around, was that the right prep? So I take ownership on that and I thought that's what we needed. 'We planned that way back in November, so it's not as though we just came up with it last week.' Cherry-Evans saved some praise for former teammate Kieran Foran, who was brilliant against his old side. 'He's a good friend and one of the great competitors of our game,' Cherry-Evans said. 'So there was absolutely no doubt he was coming out here tonight to put it over his old side and he did exactly that tonight, he was really good wasn't he?'
