Out of favour Brisbane Broncos dummy half Cory Paix has reportedly held talks with the Sydney Roosters over a potential move away from the club.
Despite being contracted until the end of the 2025 campaign, and once rated as one of the best young players in the game at the same time as he became a junior State of Origin player, Paix has fallen well down the pecking order at Red Hill.
After starting the year only behind Billy Walters, he finished 2023 also behind Tyson Smoothy out of first-grade, and could fall even further behind in 2024 with Blake Mozer expected to take a leap into first-grade.
Mozer has been compared to players like Cameron Smith, and the Broncos will be desperate to keep him at the club through an extension of his role.
Brisbane giving Paix permission to negotiate, according to News Corp, also comes as the club looks to take substantial cash off the books.
As it stands, the club are in a delicate battle over their salary cap as they look to re-sign Ezra Mam, Reece Walsh and Adam Reynolds. The simple fact though is that they have signed the likes of Payne Haas and Patrick Carrigan on big-money deals, and the cash for the extensions and upgrades of others has to come from somewhere.
Brisbane are hoping that Paix may yet leave the club, although it's believed no formal offers have been received despite his talks with the Roosters which are understood to have happened during late September and early October.
The Roosters would be an ideal landing spot for Paix, given the tri-colours have lost Drew Hutchison and Jake Turpin to the Canterbury Bulldogs for 2024, leaving incumbent number nine Brandon Smith with little in the way of back-up.
Paix wants to be a starting nine and is also reportedly reluctant to leave south east Queensland, but may do so for a larger role than what he is going to have at Red Hill in 2024.
