According to reports, the Wests Tigers are prepared to spend an incredible $900,000 to remove a player connected to the Super League from their roster.
One year into his four-year contract, Jayden Sullivan is surplus to requirements after the Wests Tigers recruited Jarome Luai from the Penrith Panthers for an estimated $5 million and saw the emergence of young prodigy Lachlan Gavin.
The issue for Wests is that, according to recent sources from The Daily Telegraph, the club is willing to pay half of the remaining $1.8 million to remove Sullivan off their books, even though the deal is reportedly worth $2.4 million over four years.
Any team interested in acquiring Sullivan would have to pay $300,000, or roughly £150,000, which is within the means of several Super League teams.
Wests just won one of the 23-year-old’s eight games in 2024, and Sullivan fell far behind players like Aiden Sezer on the depth chart. Wests’ willingness to pay half of his salary after being previously connected to the Super League may cause half-back desperate clubs to take notice.
Is Jayden Sullivan able to make it to the Super League?
Hull FC was one of the teams mentioned when it first surfaced that Sullivan was not getting along at Wests and would be able to find a path to the Super League.
Since then, Sullivan’s colleague and former Super League player Aiden Sezer has been signed by the Black and Whites. It was John Cartwright who gave Sezer his NRL debut at Gold Coast.
Salford Red Devils was one of the other teams mentioned, but they won’t be in the market because Jayden Nikorima fell into their lap following his signing with the Catalan Dragons.
There are just a few Super League teams with available quota places, and Sullivan would obviously fill one of them. However, one of those teams recently lost a playmaker.
The Leigh Leopards have a quota and a playmaker position to fill after Matt Moylan retired, which might provide Sullivan a Super League option if he can’t find a lifeline in the NRL.
Wests’ decision to let go of Sullivan may have come at the ideal moment, since Derek Beaumont previously discussed the challenges of recruiting so late in the season.
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