Brisbane Broncos head coach Michael Maguire has confirmed the club is making a play for off-contract Newcastle Knights veteran Dane Gagai.
News first broke of the potential play for Gagai earlier this week, with the veteran not offered a new deal in the Hunter.
Gagai had been up in the air about whether he wanted to play on, and has been swapping jerseys with other veterans this year in an apparent sign he was considering hanging up the boots.
That evidently isn't his preference though, with Gagai believed to have been offered a one-year deal by the Broncos worth around $300,000.
It will see him return to the club where it all began back in 2011, with Gagai playing just six games for the outfit before moving to the Knights for the first of two stints.
Maguire, quizzed on Gagai's potential moved, confirmed a move is on the table, and said his experience would help the club in 2027.
“He's a veteran across every part of the game,” Maguire said when quizzed by News Corp.
“He's probably playing some of the best footy of his career at the moment.
“It's still a work in progress, nothing is done at this stage, but if it eventuates, we'd be getting a highly experienced player, a family man, a great human and someone with high standards.
“That's why he's stayed at the top of his game for so long and he's still performing at a very high level.
“What I'm chasing is the culture of what the Broncos are about and he understands that.”
The move for an experienced outside back doesn't come as a great surprise at Red Hill.
While the club's salary cap is stretched by a number of top heavy deals, they are set to lose all of Jesse Arthars, Grant Anderson and Gehamat Shibasaki at the end of the year.
As it currently stands, either Antonio Verhoeven or Phillip Coates would be in their starting back five for next year, indicating exactly how much work they have to do if they want to head into the new campaign with plenty of depth in the outside backs as they do this year.
Gagai would likely walk straight into the Broncos' starting back five in the centres alongside Kotoni Staggs, with Deine Mariner and Josiah Karapani the most likely options to start 2027 on the wings.
Gagai has played 328 NRL games, with 230 of those coming for the Knights, 92 for the Rabbitohs, and 6 for the Broncos, while he also has 23 State of Origins for Queensland and 7 Tests for Australia under his belt.
It's understood a medical is the final piece of the puzzle for, passing that, a deal for 2027 could be announced in days with the Knights simply not able to extend their salary cap any further to compensate an extra year of the outside back who will go down as a club legend regardless of where he hangs up the boots.
