As Tom Dearden weighs up a three-year contract extension tabled by the Cowboys, the shortage of high quality playmakers available on the market might see the 22-year-old command $1 million or extra per season from rival golf equipment.
Dearden has gone from energy to energy every season he’s been within the NRL and has been one of many main catalysts behind North Queensland’s resurgence in 2023.
Dearden is already signed by to the tip of 2024, however will hit the open market on November 1 if he doesn’t put pen-to-paper on the Cowboys’ $2 million extension supply by then.
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The Daily Telegraph’s David Riccio believes the scarcity of first rate playmakers in free company throughout the following couple of years might inflate Dearden’s price ticket, in flip giving the Cowboys five-eighth extra incentive to check himself on the open market.
“The situation is this, the ability to find a quality half on the open market, it’s not around next season but there are quality halves like Tom Dearden that are about to hit the open market if they don’t re-sign,” Riccio mentioned on NRL 360.
“He hasn’t re-signed. The Cowboys have submitted a significant play for Tom Dearden but at this point he hasn’t put pen-to-paper and I just wonder whether he’ll go to the open market because at what point does he not become a million-dollar playmaker.
“There’s not a great plethora of quality halves on the open market.”
NRL 360 co-host Braith Anasta thinks that Dearden has the attributes to be a full time halfback sooner or later however at this stage, doesn’t consider he’s worthy of being the NRL’s subsequent million-dollar man.
“I think he’s one of those five-eighths who has the ability to play seven. He’s got good control, he plays similar to a seven with (Chad) Townsend, he has a great running game and solid kicking game,” Anasta mentioned.
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“To me I don’t see him as a million-dollar player for some reason, I can’t pinpoint why right now. I think he would get a million dollars because of the lack of depth and availability in the halves at present.
“But if you are the Cowboys you are keeping him because Townsend doesn’t have much longer up there.”
The Daily Telegraph’s Paul Crawley has loads of confidence in Dearden’s potential, and says the playmaker will deservedly have loads of different suitors.
“He hasn’t really had the opportunity at the Cowboys to prove that he is the million-dollar playmaker because he’s playing with Townsend,” Crawley mentioned.
“If it wasn’t for Cameron Munster, he is the Queensland five-eighth. He came in on Origin debut in Game III last year and had the game of his life.
“Every single week he plays, you walk away so impressed with his effort and desire. He makes things happen by having a go.
“There will be a lot of clubs that will be desperate to get this guy because in 2025 if you have a think about whom may be looking for someone then, well the Roosters are a standout.
“Keary comes off contract at the end of next year, and Tom Dearden is an elite five-eighth.”
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If Dearden indicators the Cowboys supply, he’d be incomes roughly $650,000 a season from 2025 by to 2027.
However, he’d doubtless command way more than that from different golf equipment.
While a home-town low cost is probably going, the quantity of curiosity elsewhere might the pressure the Cowboys to up their supply.
Considering how extremely they price Dearden, and the optimistic affect he’s had on the membership since arriving from the Broncos in 2021, it wouldn’t be an enormous shock in the event that they do.
“He is only young so we’d love to have him here for another few years. With a longer-term deal for a younger player, you want to make sure the deal is good for both club and player,” Cowboys General Manager of Football Michael Luck mentioned.
“Sometimes they take a bit longer to work through. We feel North Queensland is a good club for Tom, so hopefully he agrees on a deal and we can keep him here for a long term.”
Source: www.foxsports.com.au