The Brisbane Broncos could be set to lose another young gun, with forward Brendan Piakura considering leaving the club after he was seen touring the Canterbury Bulldogs facility on Wednesday, reports The Courier Mail.
The Bulldogs have reportedly offered Piakura a two-year deal worth around $500,000 a season, and there is now growing pressure on the Broncos to make a serious play to retain him as well as trying to retain other out of contract stars such as Kotoni Staggs.
At this stage, it's believed the Bulldogs, Titans and Broncos are all in for Piakura, withย The Courier Mailย reporting the Bulldogs are leading the race at this stage.
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Former Broncos captain Corey Parker says Piakura is a great talent and can see why the Bulldogs are chasing hard for his talents.
โIโve watched Brendan for some time and he is outstanding,โ Parker said.
โIn my mind Piakura is physically ready for the NRL now and he would be the perfect replacement for Alex Glenn in the back row next season.
โI really hope the Broncos can keep him because he is a brilliant back-row talent.
โI can see why the Bulldogs would be going hard for him ... thereโs no doubt for me that he is NRL quality.โ
Parker also added Piakura has the talent to represent Queensland at Origin level.
โBrendan has all the skills,โ he said.
โPiakura is a different style of back-rower to David Fifita (ex-Bronco who defected to the Titans this season) ... he is a damaging ball-runner but I also like the fact he has mongrel in defence.
โHe is a quietly-spoken sort of kid but he has a great attitude, Iโm not surprised clubs are lining up to sign him.โ
He might be a good player and up and coming but $500k per season for a kid with a handful of games is silly, stupid actually. You have Nathan Brown playing rep footy and he is offered $600K
If all these reports on the doggies and what they are paying (overs for most of them) are true they will find themselves in cap trouble again in a couple of years.
I really don’t think the Dogs should be trying to buy a whole new team, it just won’t work. Majority of the recent successful teams have had the same core of players for 3-4years already playing together and buy as required.
I know they Dogs needed to do something but they should have only bought 3-4 players and infused with the best local talent
Ummmm….a 2 year deal worth 500 thousand, isn’t 500 thousand a season. ๐คซ๐
shovog, article clearly states ‘a two-year deal worth around $500,000 a season’