Manly Sea Eagles coy on future of Kieran Foran as NRL rivals wait in the wings with offer

Manly coach Des Hasler refused to say whether Kieran Foran will be staying with the Sea Eagles following reports the Gold Coast Titans are set to lure him away.

Rumours over the future of Foran have been bubbling away over the last few weeks. There has been talk of Foran moving on to ease salary cap pressure. His exit would also allow starlet Josh Schuster to take the No.6 jersey at Brookvale.

The Sea Eagles face Wests Tigers on Saturday and Hasler was asked about the situation in the pre-match presser. However he was in no mood to give anything away.

“This is not the forum for that discussion,” Hasler told reporters.

Manly braced for interest in Foran

The Titans are struggling in the halves at the moment and Foran has emerged as an option for them. Reports have claimed the veteran five-eighth will be offered a two-year deal on the Gold Coast. It could be worth $750,000 over the two years.

It is thought that Foran would like to stay with Manly and finish his career there. However the decision could be taken out of his hands.

Talks are said to be going on behind the scenes and Hasler is keen to keep them there. “As I said before that is a forum that we will just keep internal. We are working through that now,” he said when pressed again.

Schuster’s management have been pushing for their man to have the No.6 jersey. Apparently he was promised that would be the case. Something that Hasler has denied.

In an ideal world Hasler would like to keep Foran for 2023 with Schuster replacing him at five-eighth in 2024.

Foran in good form

The 31-year-old is injury free and playing good footy this season. Hasler is happy with him and says he deserves a lot of credit for the way he is performing.

“I think it is also the individual player as well,” Hasler said. “Obviously within the confines of what we do medically and how we prepare players and how the HPU (High Performance Unit) [perform].

“It is a huge wrap to our HPU, how we go about managing the players goes a long way to that. But it is also I think being settled and being able to focus on your work, which is good as well.”

It remains to be seen how it will play out. But the Titans are waiting in the wings and Foran will have another option if Manly do move him on.