Manly will be looking to fend off any incoming interest in skipper Daly Cherry-Evans from NRL newcomers the Dolphins.
The league's 17th club are set to ignite a whirlwind in the player market ahead of their inaugural season for 2023, with local talent set to be at the top of Wayne Bennett's wish list.
They won't come more local than Cherry-Evans, a Redcliffe junior who played at the club in his youth in following in the footsteps of his father, Troy.
The 32-year-old is currently contracted until the end of the 2023 season on one of the NRL's most lucrative deals, but a move back to his home state could sway the Maroons star from the last year of his seven-figure contract at the Northern Beaches.
Cherry-Evans would join fellow Queensland playmakers Harry Grant, Reed Mahoney, and Cameron Munster in being in the sights of the Dolphins as they look to create the foundations of their first NRL side.
With the wave of interest set to culminate across the next 12 months, Manly owner Scott Penn has expressed his hopes in having Cherry-Evans remain at Brookvale until he decides to hang up the boots.
โItโs definitely our plan to make sure Daly finishes a one-club player,โ Penn toldย The Sydney Morning Herald.
โHeโs our club captain and we want him to win another comp for us and help bring the young guys through.
โOf course there is that [history with Redcliffe], but heโs been with us since he was 17 or 18, his family is well entrenched on the northern beaches and it would be a big move.
โWe have unfinished business, and that will be at the front of his mind. We won a comp 10 years ago, but itโs been a dry argument since. Iโm sure heโs keen to prove a point and make sure he goes out on top.
โWe want him to stay. Itโs only a matter of time before we work through the details.โ
Cherry-Evans was stunningly linked to a Red Hill switch earlier this year, while his famous backflip in opting not to join the Titans in 2015 is another chapter in the Maroons halfback's flirted return to Queensland.
With the Dolphins likely to come calling and the lure of a return to the Redcliffe region a strong desire, could Cherry-Evans look to end his career with the new kids on the block?
Storm coach Craig Bellamy has looked to come out and defend the futures of Grant, Munster, Christian Welch and Felise Kaufusi in recent weeks, with the prospect of a deep-pocket Dolphins front office set to begin their search for star talent.
