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The Dolphins, Wests Tigers and Parramatta have emerged as the most potent threat to Canberra’s hopes of keeping Jack Wighton.
The former Dally M winner has dropped a bombshell on the Raiders by informing the club he is placing himself on the open market for the first time in 14 years.
Fox Sports’ James Hooper revealed Wighton has already spoken to Dolphins officials about the prospect of joining the NRL’s 17th team in 2024.
Wighton, 30, joined the Raiders as a teenager before developing into one of the world’s best footballers.
This is the first time since making his NRL debut with the club in 2012 that the NSW State of Origin and Kangaroos representative has gone down the path of contemplating leaving the Raiders.
The shock decision has surprised even some of Wighton’s closest supporters, who were of the belief the star five-eighth would take up an option in his current contract that immediately triggered an extension for 2024.
The contract clause states that Wighton has until round 10 – five more rounds following this weekend- to trigger the automatic extension for 2024.
However, Wighton has told Raiders CEO Don Furner and head coach Ricky Stuart he plans to test his worth on the open market.
The Raiders are willing to fight to keep their hugely influential playmaker.
“Jack’s quite within his rights to test the market,’’ Furner told The Daily Telegraph.
“He’s been incredibly loyal to us for 14 seasons, he’s never once gone out and tested the market.
“He has our full support. He knows that we’re going to do everything we can to keep him and extend him.
“But being possibly his last contract, he has to do what is right for his young family and we fully understand and appreciate that.”
Wighton’s bold decision quickly reverberated around the game on Tuesday and it’s the Dolphins, Tigers and Eels that took immediate interest in the development.
Wighton’s availability for 2024 comes after a matter of days after that the Tigers failed with their mega-offer to sign Mitchell Moses from Parramatta.
They have shown they are willing to invest in an elite five-eighth with Moses’ value of around $1.3 million similar to what would be required to pull Wighton out of Canberra.
Key for the Tigers is, their salary cap has flexibility with only one member of their spine contracted beyond next year, which is dummy-half Api Koroisau.
Both their halves Luke Brooks and Brandon Wakeham are off-contract, so too is fullback Daine Laurie, while Adam Doueihi has a one-year deal.
