Officials from the Canterbury Bulldogs and Parramatta Eels have met with Lachlan Galvin and tabled offers of around $750,000 a season to the 19-year-old playmaker.
The Bulldogs and Eels held meetings with Galvin on Wednesday as he prepares to make a decision on his future as early as this weekend.
The offers from the powerhouse Sydney clubs are for considerably less than the salary Wests Tigers chief executive Shane Richardson was willing to pay Galvin when he prepared a contract upgrade and extension worth close to $6 million over five years. It’s believed the offers from Parramatta and Canterbury are for a shorter duration.
Galvin’s decision to turn down Richardson’s offer and potentially accept $3.5 million less to move across town speaks to his frustration with his development at the Tigers.
The Tigers have attached a transfer fee of close to $165,000 to Galvin’s release before November 1 – a sum Parramatta and Canterbury are willing to pay. It is considerably less than the fee of close to seven figures the Tigers initially sought to impose.
The Bulldogs have long maintained a strategy of only signing players who want to play for the club. Sources with knowledge of the situation talking on the condition of anonymity told the Herald Galvin has a strong desire to play under Cameron Ciraldo at the Bulldogs.
Increasing the appeal of the Bulldogs is Galvin’s relationship with assistant coach Luke Vella, a close friend and Galvin’s former high school teacher.
Galvin has also struck up a relationship with Parramatta halfback Mitchell Moses, who has been in the playmaker’s ear about joining the Eels to wear the No.6 jersey set to be vacated by Dylan Brown when he joins Newcastle on a record $13 million deal next year.
Galvin’s future at the Bulldogs wouldn’t be as straightforward, with Matt Burton the incumbent five-eighth at Belmore. Galvin’s potential arrival would all but end Toby Sexton’s time at the club and put Ciraldo in a position where he has to develop a No.7 from within.
Galvin last month informed the Tigers of his desire to depart at the end of his contract, which runs until the end of 2026.
Parramatta haven’t hidden their desire to lure Galvin, a childhood Eels supporter. Parramatta coach Jason Ryles sees hims as the ideal replacement for Brown.
“I made my [interest] clear a couple of weeks ago. That hasn’t changed, so we’ll wait and see what happens,” Ryles said. “The rule is you can’t negotiate until they get permission to, so until that happens we’ll keep our position there. Lots of strange things happen in footy [though], but we’ll make sure we do the right thing with the NRL.”
Replies
How can dog fit him under there caps cheats you cant have that many big name players under your cap and still be under
If you grew up dreaming of being an Eel and your entire family are hard core Eels fans it would be difficult to walk away from living out your dream. I reckon we get him.
Personally, myself being a hard core Eels fan,I would find it extremely difficult to represent the Bulldogs. But, when your future is on the line, especially when you're career is short, making the correct decision is far more important. You would think if the Eels offer is equal with the Bulldogs offer, Galvin will be in Blue and White. The Eels will need to offer more money, contract length or future opportunities (captaincy after Moses) to sweeten the deal.
If it was me I would play for the eels for less without hesitation but you could imagine the pressure his manager would be putting on him to take the more attractive situation at the dogs.
I think if he was coming to the eels we would know by now, all the talk is confident it's the dogs, so be it but now the club has to get on the front foot and start making some significant signings.
You can't trust the media noise HKF, it's all politics and PR now. Galvin and Moses want/need a battle for him otherwise he won't get top dollar. Even if Galvin said "100% Eels" his team would still be feeding the media this narrative of "could go either way".
In fact the more noise that he's going to the Dogs the more I'm getting convinced that it's a ploy to up the Eels offer by applying pressure.
If we don't get him then MON needs his marching orders immediately.
With Brown leaving both cap space and Galvins favoured position open, one of the world's best halves to grow beside in Moses and his entire family being lifelong Eels supporters if we manage to screw this one up it would be monumentally shocking.
Getting Galvins signature should have been like sinking a putt 2 inches from the hole.
I still say we get this done and he is an Eel by mid next week. But if we don't....oh boy...
It's without a doubt that if he doesn't land him , this fuckwit MUST go.
Over his tenure he's missed so many signings that were virtually done. If only people knew how much he'd ballsed up the Connor Tracey situation. We had him for next to nothing too , he just wanted a regular spot and 3 years.
When your coach is going around your head of football and getting guys like Lomax and Tracey over the line without his knowledge until it comes to signing time , you know the head of football needs to go.
I reckon winning a comp would have been a bigger dream than playing for The Eels. When his 80 I don't think the great grandkids would be all that impressed with him saying "i won fuck all at Parramatta " .
Just watching all the shit that gets thrown at Hindmarsh on the Clown Johns Show would be enough to deter young players.,
Bloke in a Bar seem confident that he is going to dogs. like 99% confirmed the way they are talking
I mean if Gus turns up the Galvin party take notice.
MoN turns up and it's like who the fark are you 😂
Am I surprised if he's already not in the door at Belmore no I'm not.
I mean this is getting worse by the minute.
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