Hunt is off contract with the AFL at the end of the year and most expect him to end up back in the National Rugby League.
The Brisbane Broncos, Gold Coast Titans and Melbourne Storm have all been linked to Hunt in recent weeks. On top of that the NRL had brought in a new central contract system that will allow them to negotiate directly with players like Hunt, who is outside of the NRL, to lure them to the competition.
I wrote last week that I do not think Hunt is the type of player that the NRL should use its new central contract system on.
I expect Israel Folau himself will be back playing in the NRL soon enough. He does a good job of pushing out the company line though.
The one thing Folau has probably not considered is that the Queensland Rugby Union, and Rugby Union in Australia in general, is broke. There are born and raised Rugby Union players that are leaving the ARU ranks because the ARU can’t afford to hold onto them.
ARU state teams can not match the money on offer from individual NRL clubs. With the NRL salary cap rising every year the ARU itself has to go above and beyond to hold onto its own test players.
If Hunt wants to return to the NRL and NRL clubs actually want him, there would be little the ARU or any of its teams could do to put together a decent offer that Hunt would even consider.
