John Bateman set for NRL return with Wests Tigers

Star English back-rower John Bateman is set to return to the NRL, according to News Corp. The Wests Tigers are finalising a deal that will see Bateman leave the Wigan Warriors to join a star-studded Tigers forward pack that includes new recruits Api Koroisau and Isaiah Papali’i.

To do so, the Tigers will have to pay a transfer fee that is somewhere in the realm of $250,000, which is paid directly by the Tigers to Wigan and sits outside of the club’s salary cap. The value of the deal Bateman will sign to play for the Tigers is yet to be confirmed.

One aspect of Bateman’s contract that will be most intriguing to see play out is the length of the deal he signs to join the Tigers. Bateman was famously released from the last year of his Canberra Raiders deal in 2020 to return to England over disputes about re-signing with the club.

Rumours circulated at the time the issue with Bateman’s contract extension was the length of the offer, as Bateman was planning to move his young daughter to Australia from England. These rumours were confirmed last week on the ‘Bloke in a Bar’ podcast interview between host Denan Kemp and Raiders forward Hudson Young.

The return of Bateman to the NRL raises further questions over the job security for Tigers playmakers Jackson Hastings, Luke Brooks, and Adam Doueihi. The trio are all signed to the club until the end of the 2023 NRL season, meaning they are currently free to talk to rival clubs and sign elsewhere.

Not only will Bateman be forming a strong forward pack boasting Koroisau and Papali’i, but he will also be joining Joe Ofahengaue, Alex Twal, and Stefano Utoikamanu. The Tigers have the potential to start one of the stronger, more powerful, forward packs in the NRL.

However, the club has been plagued with poor decisions in the front office that have seen big contracts given to undeserving players, coaches hired and sacked more often than any other club in the NRL, and the apparent desire to destroy themselves from within as rumours are constantly leaked to the NRL media.

The signing of Bateman appears to be one that, as was at the Raiders, could be the on field catalyst the club needs to bring success to the club and the Tigers back to play finals football for the first time since 2019.

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Rob

2 years ago

“coaches hired and sacked more often than any other club in the NRL” is incorrect and false. Do you your research.

Yawwwwwwn.

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