After Luke Brooks signed a four-year contract with Manly for the end of the season, there are many possibilities that the Tigers could recruit.
Next season, the Wests Tigers only have one playmaker signed: the injured Adam Doueihi. Set to miss most of the season, it has backed the club into a corner as they currently don't have a fit halves player on their 2024 roster.
Speaking onย SEN, rugby league icons Scott Sattler and Mat Rogers revealed the player they would back the club to pursue.
That player is Michael Morgan.
A 2015 NRL premiership winner with the North Queensland Cowboys and representative of both Australia and Queensland, he hasn't played since announcing his immediate retirement in 2021 due to an injured shoulder.
However, both Sattler and Rogers believe he is the right player the Wests Tigers should go after.
Rogers: โMichael Morgan, (he should) get fit, he would be a revelation.
Sattler: โHe's 31, he's had two years (off), he's had no contact.
Rogers: โYep, he'd be healed up, get him training now for next year, he'll be amazing, imagine getting him there, he's got three or four years of good footy left in him.
Sattler: โHe knows what it takes to be a winner and they sort of lacked that leadership at the club, so they'll get a genuine leader.
โBut also, like you said with sports science these days and recovery, and rehabilitation, you're not asking a guy like Michael Morgan to play 27 games in a season.
โYou may want to get (him) to 20 games and it's enough to register him for the finals and that's when those players go to another level, I like it.โ
I think the Cows management may feel aggrieved that they paid him out on his contract when he retired in April 2021, only to have him return for another club.
We have seen this before when a player quits for whatever reason – and puts his club in a nasty position, because they were banking on him being there – yet after a while he returns to the NRL , and signs for whatever club he wants to.
Think Benji Marshall leaving the last two years of his contract with Wests in 2013, for Rugby Union, and signing for St George in 2014. Think Val Holmes leaving Cronulla in 2018, for American Football, and signing with North Queensland in 2019.
I believe that if a player leaves a club for any reason (other than being sacked), if he wants to come back to the NRL then the club he left should have first refusal on his services, and any payout given to him when he left needs to be repaid.
Of course, if we had a proper transfer system then there would be no problem. Player X quits. Player X wants to come back. His old club says “He was last registered to us. If you want to sign him, you need to pay us a transfer fee to transfer that registration to your club”.
As for Michael Morgan, specifically, I am dubious about whether he could be recruited by Wests (do they have a spot available this year?) and paid by Wests (do they have money available under the cap this year?). If the answer to either question is “No” then they would have to sign him on October 1 and have just three months to get him fit enough for a pre-season. That could be a big ask !