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
What was true a few weeks ago isn't necessarily true now, situations change.
Having a mate that spends his days at a bowling club drinking scotch playing bingo on a Saturday is not credible.
For 10 or more years we had the great mimds of MON and BA guiding us to fame and fortune.
BA cut loose anyone that was a threat to his sons and only kept players that were friends with them.
Well what did we expect was going to happen.
The dogs were total rabble when Gus came in. And in two years have lapped us twice so to speak.
The fuckwits that run our club have their existence as their highest priority. Evidently not so as the Dogs. And as much as I hate saying it they have proved to be better business men than our mob.
We have the best stadium, best training facilities, are matching what our competitors are paying and have a young bloke who idolised the Eels as a kid and apparently his family are mad Eels fans - we should win hands downs.
Just goes to show success breeds greater success.
One thing is sure, Gus Gould is a freaking LIAR!
Can't trust liars
Gus may be a liar but one thing with gus is he knows success and he makes the hard calls and doesn't tolerate bullshit. He fears no one in the game he doesn't care who's toes he steps on to get what he wants.
Every successful person has to have that arrogance and what ever it takes attitude. Being the mr nice guy gets you nothing. That's why Nick politis is so successful he doesn't fuck around and twiddle his thumbs like our mob which takes a wait and see approach.
Spot on, I don't know why people are surprised that Gus lied, he has runs on the board for doing this exact thing in the past on multiple occasions.
Jack Eelson is going to need to apologise to a few people he yelled at with full caps lock on here.
Everything I've heard suggests he signs with the Eels, even still. If I'm wrong, I will apologise.
No need to appolgise mate if wrong things can change
The one thing in your favour is everything and everyone is saying dogs but the eels side hasn't been vocal. Usually means something is cooking so you might still be right
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