NRL star set to sign long term deal with Super League club

Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves and Hull KR have all turned to the NRL for signings and this is an avenue almost every club will turn to as well. In fact we have seen Leeds Rhinos linked with former Huddersfield Giants star and current Canberra Raiders hooker Danny Levi in recent times and Hull FC linked with Newcastle Knights halfback Adam Clune as a replacement for Jake Clifford in 2024 as he moves to North Queensland Cowboys.

But these NRL signings have to hit the jackpot if they are going to live up to expectation because an NRL signing always arrives with lofty expectations and that is just inevitable.

The right NRL signing can change a team for the better but the wrong recruit can be quite damaging, that is for sure.

But in an era dominated by one club in the shape of St Helens, signings are even more key.

Thus signings are key to success and Super League history can show us this especially when it comes to overseas players like Pat Richards at Wigan Warriors, Jamie Lyon at St Helens or Adam Cuthbertson at Leeds Rhinos.

Cuthbertson made his name with his amazing offload game but he wasn’t the first NRL signing Leeds made to catch the eye through his offload skill. The first was Ali Lauiti’iti and now his nephew could be headed to Super League.

Lauiti’iti was in many ways the final piece of the puzzle for Leeds in 2004 as they looked to end a 32 year wait for a title under Tony Smith.

Smith already had Leeds playing like world beaters but Lauiti’iti made the Rhinos unstoppable scoring and creating tries for fun helping Leeds equal the record for the least number of losses in a Super League season and becoming the first and only side to only lose two games in a Super League season longer than 22 games.

He would feature in the 2004 Grand Final, score five tries in one game against Wakefield Trinity in 2005 which is a record for a forward and he scored in the 2007 Grand Final win over St Helens.

He ended his Leeds career with exactly 200 appearances and five Grand Final wins before a stint at Wakefield Trinity and now his nephew Herman Ese’ese is set to follow in his footsteps and make the move to Super League himself in 2024 according to the notorious Mole of Wide World of Sports.

There are reportedly three or four Super League clubs interested in the forward who is likely to accept a long term Super League deal over staying in the NRL.