Veteran playmaker Kieran Foran has reportedly begun talks over a new contract as he enters his 16th NRL season this year.
Many fans and critics expected this season to be Foran's last as he aims to enter the 300-game milestone club.
However, The Courier Mail reports that he has opened talks with the Gold Coast Titans as he looks to extend his career for the 2025 season.
Gearing up for the 2024 season, Foran will reunite with ex-Manly Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler, with whom he won the 2011 NRL premiership with but insisted that he has not put a date on his retirement or when he will hang up the boots.
“I'm not putting an endpoint on it,” Foran said via The Courier Mail.
“With the pre-season I've had and numbers I'm pushing on the gym and field, I don't feel like I'm slowing down at all or getting weaker. I feel as strong as I've been in the last five or six years and I'm running as well as I've ever run.
“I've put the work in and I don't want to put an endpoint on it. My footy will do the talking at the end of the day. It will come down to results and form.
“If I'm playing the sort of footy I know I'm capable of playing and we're getting the results, I don't see why I'd look at finishing up.
“I've had initial conversations with the club around my future and I think we're of the same view. If form warrants it and I'm feeling good physically, then why not keep going?
“I'll more than likely make the decision once we've got a few games under our belt. I don't need to get something done now for 2025.
“Once I see where I'm at we can sit down and get something done. They're happy to do it that way and I'm feeling pretty optimistic about it.”
Off-contract at the end of the season, Foran admitted last year after the Pacific Championships final victory over Australia that he has likely played his final game in the Kiwis jersey.
A premiership winner with the Manly Sea Eagles, Foran made his international debut in the 2009 Four Nations tournament in the surprising position of centre.
He would later become the longest-serving current Kiwis player by seven years and has been a mainstay of the nation's lineup for the past two decades.
Mainly accompanying the likes of Benji Marshall or Shaun Johnson in the halves, he slowly transitioned into a utility player under Michael Maguire since he took over in 2021.