The reported signing of South Sydney Rabbitohs' teenage prodigy Joseph Suaalii on a massive contract with Rugby Australia has drawn quite a reaction within footy circles.
Months after it seemed the cross-code war for the talented teen's services had been won by the NRL, when he signed a lucrative contract extension with the Rabbitohs, on Tuesday a News Corp report claimed he had made a shock switch to rugby on a deal worth $3 million.
Having extended with Souths last month for an additional three years in a contract worth about $1.7 million, the deal with RA reportedly offered the 16-year-old a whopping $1 million a year, which would make him the richest teenage athlete in the history of all Australian football codes.
Because the Rabbitohs were unable to register Suaalii's contract with the NRL until he turned 17 on August 1, rugby had a window to pounce on The Kings School product, and pounce they have.
But with RA facing financial uncertainty amid the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in world sport, an anonymous Wallabies player called the move to sign the teen as "ridiculous".
"How are they offering a 16-year-old that much money when we're all being forced to take pay cuts?" the player asked for a News Corp report.
No matter his young age, Suaalii could be called upon to represent Australia in Rugby Sevens at the Tokyo Olympics next year.
RA quickly denied the code hop deal was "done yet" and slammed the reported amount offered as "fanciful".
"Financial offers being speculated in the media presently are totally fanciful and are being propagated by the usual suspects whose sole interest it is to inflate and misrepresent contract values," RA interim CEO Rob Clarke told AAP.
"At this stage, there has been no agreement between Joseph, his family or his representation.
"Joseph Suaalii is an upstanding young man and a talented rugby player. We have made it no secret that we would like to keep Joseph within the rugby pathway."
https://twitter.com/SSFCRABBITOHS/status/1217537062620094466South Sydney hooker Damien Cook meanwhile expressed sympathy for the situation the teenager has been put in.
"I'm not 100 per cent sure what has actually gone on," Cook told The Big Sports Breakfast.
"To be honest I feel a bit sorry for the kid. He deserves everything he gets whether it is a long career in rugby union or rugby league.
"But at such a young age it must be a lot of pressure on the kid's shoulders and what is going through his head at the moment.
"As long as whatever decision he makes he is happy with that and just sticks to it and backs himself.
"We have had him here at training and I have spoken to him a couple of times when he was training here and he is a great athlete.
"I know he is going to have a big career in whatever sport he chooses.
"Hopefully he does the old double backflip and comes back to us if that's the case."
Cook said the amount of money being thrown at the teenager may seem excessive, but he does believe it guarantees he will be a success.
"I went in a couple of days in the off-season and jumped in with the boys in a couple of training sessions and we were doing a defensive drill one day and he was just cutting blokes in half and one of them being me," he said.
"Just the way he moves around the field as well at such a young age and he's got great athleticism as well, so I honestly do believe he is going to be a superstar in good time.
"I don't think we should put the pressure on, whatever sport he goes to, early, but he's only 16 and by the time he is 20 I think he will be a superstar in whatever sport he chose."
Former Rabbitohs teammate Sam Burgess was similarly full of praise for Suaalii last month when he re-committed to South Sydney, describing the two-metre tall and nearly 100kg youngster as an "unbelievable" talent that was "better" than Tom Trbojevic, Greg Inglis and Israel Folau.
"I've seen a young Greg (Inglis), I've seen a young Israel (Folau), I've played against (Trbojevic)," Burgess said on Fox Sports.
https://twitter.com/NSWRL/status/1213281733061140480"I'm saying he's going to be Joseph Suaalii. He's going to be his own thing.
"The comparisons are always there but Joseph will be his own thing.
"I hate rapping young kids. It puts a lot of pressure on them and we rap them on potential and there's plenty of kids the same age - but I've seen him play.
"I've seen him first-hand, training with the first team, and forget his athletic ability - what I saw inside Joseph Suaalii that day, I saw (how) we took him to the edge of the cliff and he hung on for dear life and he had the courage of a 25 to 28-year-old man.
"And he was riding contact - this was six months ago - like any other first-grader. I've never ever seen a kid do that and never mind an outside back.
"I've seen him first-hand, he's pretty special."
In December, NSW Blues coach Brad Fittler named Suaalii as a Future Blues star, reflecting how highly-rated he is.
Wallabies coach Dave Rennie last month expressed rugby's interest in retaining Suaalii in the code, having seen how impressive his skills on the field were.
"I met him [Suaalii] when I was here in January, impressive athlete and a very mature kid for 16," Rennie told Rugby.com.au.
"As you get with guys like Joseph, they command a lot of attention and clearly Souths are very interested in him and have thrown some serious money in front him.
"So he's just an example of the type of kids that we want to keep in our game, but it's a competitive market and it's not easy."
Rennie is only new to the role as Wallabies coach but already identified the importance of securing young talent to ensure the national team's success in future years.
"There's genuine challenges in Australia for the good athletes coming out of school," he said.
"16 league clubs and 18 AFL clubs [in Australia]? They're big sports and there's a lot of competition for the athletes.
"So I think that it's a lot of things that we need to do well; we need to identify kids early [and] create relationships with those kids so that when they have got to make decisions, maybe we've already got a foot in the door.
"Money comes into it obviously and some of the money that the league clubs and AFL clubs can throw at them might put them out of reach. I just think connection and communication is a massive part of it."
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