South Sydney have many big earners including Murray, Latrell Mitchell, Jack Wighton, Brandon Smith, Campbell Graham, Cody Walker, Jai Arrow and Koloamatangi. David Fifita has also arrived on a two-year deal worth about $500,000 per season.
Fifita’s deal has been subsidised by a partial payout from his previous club, just as the Rabbitohs had to offer Englishman Lewis Dodd a financial sweetener to convince him to terminate his three-year contract and return to Super League. Payouts to former players count under a club’s salary cap.
Cameron Murray and Latrell Mitchell, Souths’ highest-paid players, made only 12 appearances between them last season.
Long story short, almost two thirds of Souths’ salary cap invested in one third of their squad, leaving about $4 million to accommodate the remaining 20 members of their top 30.
Eventually, some of the top-end talent was going to be squeezed out, and Koloamatangi’s career-best form last season ensured he was always going to attract outside interest.
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If he hadn’t agreed to join the Dragons, who flew him to Wollongong in a helicopter to conduct negotiations, Parramatta were waiting with a similarly lucrative offer. The Perth Bears are also desperate for a marquee signing as they prepare to enter the NRL in 2027.
Signing Koloamatangi is a coup for Dragons coach Shane Flanagan.
As for the Rabbitohs, Bennett knows better than anyone that, while it’s handy to have game-breakers with a bit of X-factor, consistency is the key to long-term success. And in Koloamatangi, Souths are set to lose arguably their most consistent, reliable player.
Replacing him won’t be as simple pulling another Rabbitoh out of the hat, even for a coach with Bennett’s unrivalled experience.
