Luke Brooks is likely to bring his 11-year Wests Tigers career to an end after informing the club he will not commit to a new deal.
Key points:
- The Tigers say Brooks wants to “explore the market”
- If Brooks leaves, the move will free up space under the Tigers’ salary cap
- Brooks made his NRL debut for the Tigers in 2013
Brooks, 28, is off contract this season but has told the Tigers this will be his last year at Concord.
The playmaker has been maligned throughout his time at the club but has put together an encouraging run this season, until sustaining a hamstring injury against Gold Coast on Thursday.
The Tigers made a single offer that they deemed to be “market value” only for the halfback, who has yet to play finals football at the club, to knock them back.
“We’re very disappointed, we made an offer but I think it indicates how bona fide and genuine the club was to retain Luke,” Tigers chair Lee Hagipantelis said.
“We made what we believe to be a fair market value offer according to salary cap expectations.
“The offer has been rejected and Luke obviously has decided for his own reasons he wants to explore the market, and he’s perfectly entitled to do that.”
Brooks’s decision to reject the Tigers offer could also play into the club’s hands.
The Tigers have been looking to offload players to create room in their salary cap, and Brooks’s proposed deal — believed to be worth roughly $500,000 per season — gives them even more spending power.
The joint venture has been heavily linked with Manly’s Josh Schuster, while the future of Ben Hunt is uncertain at St George Illawarra.
Hagipantelis said if Brooks had a change of heart, the Tigers would be willing to get back around the negotiating table.
“The door is not closed,” Hagipantelis said.
“We conveyed an offer and, as I say, we believed it to be fair market value, and that offer has been rejected.
“That’s not to say that the door is closed if Luke or his manager came back to the Wests Tigers with an alternative proposal. It would receive all due consideration.”
Brooks made his NRL debut with the Tigers in 2013.
Although representatives honours have eluded Brooks, he was named halfback of the year at the 2018 Dally M Awards.
AAP