- Rising Apa Twidle will leave the Parramatta Eels at the end of 2026 after agreeing to a three-year deal with the new Perth Bears (joining in 2027).
- The deal is in a cooling-off period, but he’s expected to go ahead with it because the offer is significantly better.
- Twidle burst onto the scene with a standout debut (2 tries in 3 minutes), which attracted strong interest from multiple clubs.
- Parramatta reportedly only offered a low-value development contract (~$80k), while Perth provided better financial security and opportunity.
- A key factor: the Bears are offering him a chance to play in the halves, rather than being used as a utility/backline option.
- He becomes one of the early signings helping build the Bears’ inaugural squad under coach Mal Meninga.
Bottom line:
Parramatta unearthed a serious talent, but underpaid and under-positioned him—Perth stepped in with money, role clarity, and long-term security, and likely pinched him.
Replies
This is the model all of the good teams seem to use. I think the bigger problem is parra management not being able to sell the future to the young kids coming through. There's no way the roosters, Melbourne or Penrith lose talagai, sanders, twiddle and others if they want to keep them. They find a spot for them in the team and they work up to their preferred role. If they are no good then they get released down the track.
The Roosters lost Mitchell, Manu and Sua'ali'i and Penrith lost heaps of kids including Isaiya Katoa.
As said above, Penrith lost Hopgood, Iongi, Leniu.
Melbourne lost Pezet.
Tigers lost Galvin and Da Silva.
We have created pathways for Tuivati, Guymer, Ryley, and by the looks of it Lorenzo.
That's my point, you can'd do it to all of them. We will lose more talented youngsters who end up being probably amazing.
Oh well, no biggie
who cares if he signs. There's plenty of other players coming through. One player doesn't win a premiership as we saw with Hayne. The Eels need players who are fully committed not half hearted players who are more interested in themselves and their pocket. I hope it works out for him but under Meninga I Seriously can't see him going to far and it may take a number of years
With new teams coming in and Super League possibly getting "saved" there's more cash going around than clubs have cap space.That also means moving someone on is easier and best way to overperform is to have young players on unders in your squad.
So we don't know if Apa will be the next Tedesco but what I do know is that we should have had him secured before his debut. A 2027 min wage top 30 contract would have cost us 150k and it sounds like he would have signed one a few weeks ago. We could still have released him if we don't need / want him or we need the roster spot. Or even if we swap him for someone we need more, like LPT.
To his credit MON has secured T. Brown long term and Lorenzo and Will Latu for next year. No idea what the deal is with Saxon Pryke and Araz Nanva but if they're not signed then their price just went up. And there'll be some interest for Volkman, Walker and W Penisini too. We don't know what's going on inside the club but they'd better be working overtime to get those deals done!
nanva extended today mat
I saw that this moring (UK time), yes. But we'll never know if he cost us 50k more than he would have a few weeks ago. Same for Apa, I think he would have signed a 1y NRL contract for next year.
I have confidence in our recruitment and retention team to hang on to the right guys. It doesn't seem to have been mentioned that Twidle subbed on for part of his debut game and has been out injured ever since. Not a great return on investment. No point in making huge investments in players who aren't going to be on the paddock.
If Lorenzo T is more promising than Apa T then why are so many comments here premised on "keep both" not "must choose"? It seems the method of critique here, for Apa T leaving, just lazily assumes the club can keep all potential products. Hence the hand wringing about losing one of them, rather than a constructive discussion about the one that is staying (Lorenzo T).
really hope the Eels turn their on-field form around, say many more Dogs games not Titans games, because then at least 1EE is not entirely given over to incessant tirades against club management. Which is entirely boring in its cherry picking partisanship and big vibes of "if I ran the fruit store I'd have the best fruit". Yawn.
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