The St George Illawarra Dragons and Canberra Raiders have been revealed to be among the clubs who will have key decisions to make on optional contracts in the coming months.
At the Dragons, it's Jacob Liddle who could extend his time with the joint-venture, while at the Raiders, immediate contract attention will be applied to veteran half Jamal Fogarty, and star centre Matt Timoko.
As it stands, Jacob Liddle is off-contract at the end of the 2025 NRL season, but a mutual option exists in his contract for 2026.
While some mutual options are represented by a certain number of games, or both sides simply saying yes, News Corp are reporting that Liddle's option can first be activated by the club for a certain contracted amount.
If the club do not pick up the option in Liddle's contract, the dummy half can do so within the next week for a lesser amount.
It's an intriguing situation for Liddle, who may be keen to move on from the Red V if he feels his role becomes stagnant or diminished by the arrival of new club co-captain Damien Cook, who was released by the South Sydney Rabbitohs at the end of 2024 to return to his rookie club where he has signed a two-year contract.
At the Raiders, Fogarty is also off-contract at the end of 2025 with a mutual option for 2026. His option, per the report, is similar to Liddle's in that the club will have first knockback on the contract, and then Fogarty would have until Round 20 to take it up for 2026 at a far lesser value.
Intriguingly, Fogarty may well be forced to fight for his spot in the halves this year as the Raiders move towards youth.
While Ethan Strange was his halves partner last year, the club have signed Ethan Sanders from the Parramatta Eels to potentially become the new halfback for 2025 and beyond, with plenty suggesting the duo will be the future of Canberra's halves.
Timoko too has options in his contract, albeit less pressing. He is contracted with Canberra until at least the end of 2026 either way, and then has a two-year option for 2027 and 2028. It's understood the first year of that (2027) is a mutual option, with 2028 being in Canberra's favour for a contract value increase of around $100,000.
