The likelihood of Greg Inglis joiningSouth Sydney diminishes each day as the club works to release enough players to fit him into their salary cap for the upcoming season.
On Sunday, the situation regarding Inglis’s deal with the NRL club became less stable when Parramatta’s chief executive, Paul Osborne, indicated a lack of interest in acquiring any players that the Rabbitohs were reportedly looking to offload, including Beau Champion, Ben Lowe, and Michael Crocker.
The Rabbitohs need to release at least one player to accommodate Greg Inglis under the cap after NRL salary cap auditor Ian Schubert declined to register the former Storm superstar’s new contract on Saturday.
According to Schubert, the contract included unauthorized third-party payments promised to Inglis without the participation of his agent, Allan Gainey.
It is believed that the Storm, Eels, and North Queensland Cowboys are the only teams with available space in their salary cap to sign any player from the Rabbitohs who is released.
None of these three NRL Premiership clubs have reached out to the Rabbitohs or the managers of Champion, Crocker, or Lowe to express any interest.
“We’re not interested in any of those guys,” Osborne stated, choosing not to comment further on the Inglis contract situation.
Ron Gauci, the Storm’s boss, mentioned that his club would keep a close watch on the developments, but signing a Rabbitohs player was improbable due to their perceived “expensive” and inflated valuations.
“Considering every other player, they are assessed as costly by the overall market,” Gauci noted.
“We have space in the cap, but I’m uncertain we can manage their current salaries. Souths would need to be willing to cover part of the costs.
“We would need to be very selective about what we pursue.”
“It is crucial to understand that the Rabbitohs haven’t made any official announcements regarding player releases yet.”
The Storm is still awaiting a formal request for Inglis to depart the club and finalize a deal with the team at Redfern.
The Cowboys prefer to wait for the Rabbitohs to officially announce a player’s release before deciding to court anyone from South Sydney.
Peter Parr, the Cowboys’ general manager of football, expressed that while there is capacity to attract a player, no decisions would be made until the Rabbitohs identify which players might be let go to secure Inglis.
“We’d certainly be interested in a quality player,” Parr indicated.
“Should they allow him (to seek another club), we will convene with (coach) Neil Henry to determine the type of player we require most.”
Shane Richardson, the Rabbitohs’ chief executive, responded via text that no new updates were available regarding the situation.
He declined to comment on whether the club was still attempting to find a way to fit Inglis under the salary cap by the end of the week.
Andrew Purcell, Crocker’s manager, asserted that the Rabbitohs had not granted his client permission to search for another club.
Buford Balony says: Regardless of how much Russell Crowe promotes Souths to his American friends, they remain a complete mess.