The Wests Tigers are set to fail in a bid to retain exciting second-rower Shawn Blore.
The 23-year-old, who was a Penrith Panthers junior and has been widely rated as one of the best youngsters in the game before injuries derailed the first portion of his career, has 33 NRL games under his belt at the Wests Tigers since debuting in 2020.
Blore is contracted at the Tigers for 2024, but recently was reportedly the player most likely to leave immediately in a potential player swap for out of favour Storm centre Justin Olam.
The Tigers pursuit of Olam - who incoming head coach Benji Marshall travelled to Melbourne to meet in recent times - has been called off in favour of a big-money, all-in chase of Panthers and New South Wales State of Origin five-eighth Jarome Luai.
That left the Tigers potentially in the box seat to come away with an extended signature from Blore, however, News Corp are now reporting that the promising talent will end up in Melbourne anyway from the start of the 2025 campaign.
It's understood he has already put pen to paper on a deal with the Storm, and that it could be announced in the coming week.
The Storm struggled in the forwards at times throughout 2023, particularly in the finals where they failed to keep pace with a rampant Penrith outfit.
It's believed Blore will fill straight into a second-row spot at the Storm, with another promising youngster in Trent Loiero, who was one of the Victorian outfit's best in 2023, moving into the middle third of the park.
The move comes as something of a surprise given not only Loiero's form, but also the fact the Storm have a long-term commitment with Jack Howarth and high praise of Joe Chan, who they'd likely want to bring into the second-row at first-grade level in the coming season.
Adding Blore to that mix could wind up having too many chefs in the kitchen, however, there is little doubt the middle third - following the loss of Jesse Bromwich prior to the 2023 season - is the key area where improvement is needed at Melbourne despite Nelson Asofa-Solomona, Tui Kamikamica and Christian Welch forming their starting rotation across prop and lock.
Loiero, at 192 centimetres and 104 kilograms, has all the attributes to make it as a lock forward, which could mean Welch, Asofa-Solomona and Kamikamica can instead rotate through the prop positions, overall strengthening Melbourne.
