The 202-game, 11-year relationship between Luke Brooks and the Wests Tigers is set to finally end when the final ball is kicked at the joint venture club this season with the 28-year-old halfback on the verge of signing a deal with the Manly Sea Eagles.
Brooks, still just 28, knocked back a Tigers extension earlier this year. The deal would have seen him paid a smidge over $1 million to continue leading Wests around the park until at least the end of 2025.
Now, several months later, he’s set to walk away from the club entirely. The deal, The Sporting Base understands, will see the 2018 Halfback of the Year earn around $670,000 a season. The Daily Telegraph has reported he will be locked in for two years with a further season boiled into a 2026 option for the club and player to activate.
Update June 26, 5.12pm AEST: Manly has since unveiled Brooks on a four-year deal from 2024 alongside Jaxson Paulo (three years) and Tommy Talau (two years).
The plan for the Silvertails, who are chasing their first premiership since 2011, will be to plug Brooks into the halves alongside veteran commander Daly Cherry-Evans. The exiting Tiger has played some five-eighth but is mainly a halfback.
Brooks joining the club would see Josh Schuster move back to the forwards.
The Sporting Base has heard, however, that Schuster is quite against the idea and has pushed back against the suggestion several times. If he sticks by his guns, Manly could be forced to shop the 22-year-old to other clubs. That would be one extreme, with the other being he accepts the positional switch—it would likely be into the second row, but could be into lock too—and takes up a $2.4 million, three-year offer that’s already on the table.
For Brooks, the move would mark the first time he has played NRL footy for any other club since he was 17. He first donned Tigers colours in the top flight in 2013 and has gone on to make 202 appearances.
In 2014, the then-youngster was named Dally M Rookie of the Year.
Brooks actually carries the ignominious record of the most games played in the premier Australian rugby league competition without a single finals appearance.
The Tigers are 3-11 so far this NRL season. The 13th-placed Sea Eagles are 6-1-8.
