Luke Garner has reportedly been identified as the Penrith Panthers' target as the club look to replace Viliame Kikau.
Kikau has signed a three-year deal with the Canterbury Bulldogs commencing in the 2023 season, with the Fijian second rower not able to be retained by Penrith as salary cap issues hit the club.
Salary cap issues at the foot of the mountains hardly comes as a surprise given the number of players they have recently re-signed, or have on big contracts, including Nathan Cleary, James Fisher-Harris, Jarome Luai, Isaah Yeo, Moses Leota, Dylan Edwards and Stephen Crichton among others.
The Sydney Morning Herald report that Garner would come to the club as a cheap option in the back row, with the current Wests Tigers back rower off-contract at the end of the year and currently struggling to find a consistent role in Michael Maguire's set up.
Despite having 60 NRL appearances under his belt, he has been replaced on the edge by Kelma Tuilagi, and has played two of his games at centre this year, with the Round 6 clash against the Parramatta Eels seeing him play just 18 minutes from the bench.
A hard-hitting back rower, Garner made his debut under Ivan Cleary when the coach was at the Tigers in 2018, and has been linked with a move away from the Tigers for some time.
He had been formerly linked with a move to the Manly Sea Eagles, however, with Josh Schuster and Haumole Olakau'atu locking down starting positions on the Northern Beaches, and the club also recently reportedly signing Tuilagi, a move to Manly looks out of the question for Garner as well.
Should he move to Penrith, Garner would still be forced to battle for his spot, with Liam Martin locking down one position, and the likes of Scott Sorensen, and young guns Mavrik Geyer and Preston Riki, to fight for spots on the edge.
Garner has been a consistent performer for the Tigers over the last three years, playing 14, 17 and 18 games respectively and averaging over 70 metres per game in each of the three years despite battling with limited minutes at times under Maguire.
