February 8 wasn't circled on anyone's calendar. There were no whispers, no prior speculation bubbling away.
It was, by all accounts, just another day... until it wasn't.
2:20pm strikes and a bombshell shocks the NRL world.
No one believes it. Reports a couple days earlier indicated the Broncos were in striking distance of keeping the star front-rower for another 12 months.
25 minutes later, the Rabbitohs announce they have lodged a contract for Payne Haas that would commence in the 2027 season and finish at the end of the 2029 season.
Almost 15 minutes after the Rabbitohs announcement, the Broncos would reveal that Payne Haas is looking to join the Rabbitohs.
While Broncos fans were sad, Rabbitohs fans were mind-blown, and the rest of the fandom was still processing the news, Rabbitohs teammates Tallis Duncan and Jack Wighton were just as blindsided as everyone else.
Like many in the rugby league world, Tallis Duncan found out about the news of Payne Haas while scrolling through Instagram.
Meanwhile, Jack Wighton was in the middle of a nap and thought April Fool's had arrived two months earlier when he received calls and messages about whether the Bronco forward was really joining South Sydney.
“I had no idea. I was sitting at home like everyone else scrolling on Instagram,” Duncan told Newswire, later comparing it in an interview with Fox Sports to when the Luka Doncic, the Los Angeles Lakers trade broke the NBA world.
“I probably didn't believe it (at first). My family was ringing me and asking if it was true or not, but I had no clue. I was as filled in as everyone else.
“It's really big for the club, but that's next year, and we've got a whole year to look forward to now, and that's what we're going to do.”
“I actually was having an afternoon nap, I woke up to my phone blowing up, and I checked if it was April Fool's or not," Jack Wighton revealed.
“I kind of rubbed my eyes a little bit to get my head around it, made a couple of calls, and yeah, it was real.
“I'm over the moon, obviously."
