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
And football wise dogs make zero sense, part of me will laugh if he goes there because it will ruin their lineup and throw players into random positions. They need a genuine 7 not another 5/8.
Ahh sign a target for once.
Well who of note have they landed outside of Lomax, who I suspect had more to do with BA than MON? We only signed unwanted or guys who were cut.
By all accounts this Galvin deal was a lay up and if twiddle dum and twiddle dee stuff it from here, they shouldn't have a job come round 1 next year.
And I'll say there's a reason we let Brown walk. We must've been extremely confident we would be replacing him with Galvin.
I think you both are right Pops and yourself have valid arguments:
1 Our numbsculls shpuld have been all over this deal. Problem is they weren't allowed to move on him.
2 Pops is right there is nothing else they could do to secure Galvin.
Then the Bulldogs go for a 9 and 2 run and the kid sees stars in his eyes. In the backgrounds old Gus is saying publicly he is the best thing he has seen in recent memory. And now the is confused.
Not exactly, whether we wanted to keep Brown or not we were not matching the deal he got from Newcastle. We didn't exactly let Brown walk as he got a deal so obscene for his value not club in their right mind would match it.
Wasn't like he got $100k more and we said see ya later.
Exactly right LB and they gave him 4 extra years also as he's already 2 yrs into his 8 yr deal here.Not only did Newcastle top us there but they gave him a 300 plus k season rise also.I mean very few players would have turned that down.
To our credit common sense prevailed and we wanted no part of that.Now he's Newcastles problem not ours.
To be honest Poppa if the Parramatta hierarchy are not able to sell the Eels to a 19 year old starting his career with all that we offer with our home ground and centre of excellence and are matching the Bulldogs in dollars and contract length the job is beyond their skillset.
I do agree with you that I would love to see Gould taken down a peg especially by the Eels
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1J2D5z64nK/
Based on both teams last performances, the eels looked energetic and happy to be on the field playing with a purpose. The dogs looked like they didn't want to be out there and are lucky that game didn't go 10 minutes longer or dolphins would have put 60 on them. If the dogs don't land Galvin I wonder what the noise of going after him will do to their club. Stupidity from Gus really when the team was running fine.
I think getting him could potentially de rail there season. They have built a "workman" class team lots of cheap signings etc now giving 750k to galvin there will be plenty of star players at that club not on anywhere near that $$ feeling undervalued. The rumours are Burton to fullback so where does Tracey play who defensively has been outstanding for them I doubt Burton will be as good in a position that is so new to him. Bulldogs aren't scoring alot of points they are winning games on defence and talking about possibly dropping one of thier best defensive players madness
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