Brisbane Broncos star forward Payne Haas has been the talk of the NRL in the last 24 hours after news broke that he would test free agency come November 1.
Haas has flirted with a move away from Red Hill on a few occasions since his emergence as one of the game’s elite forwards but has since re-committed until the end of the 2024 season.
With reports emerging that every NRL club has declared interest in the representative star, The Courier Mail has suggested that the Melbourne Storm have held talks with Haas’ management over a potential move.
Melbourne Storm General Manager Frank Ponissi shed light on the situation, confirming the club’s interest in Haas and the extent of the conversations.
“I think it’s a little bit of journalistic license there,” Ponissi told SEN Afternoons.
“He’s such a wonderful player and he’s one of the leading front rowers in the game at the moment, he comes off contract at the end of next year.
“I think the club would’ve got a message from the players’ agent to say, ‘Would you be interested?’. Like the other 16 clubs in the competition we put our hands up, that’s as far as it got to, in terms of any meetings or anything.
“I think there’s a little bit of poetic license used by the journalist to make the story a little bit stronger than it probably is.”
Ponissi admitted that the club thought they had signed Haas when he was a teenager, acknowledging their prior relationship as a probable reason that the story linked them.
“It was 2016 I think, we thought we had a really good chance, but it was the move away from the Gold Coast and the family home was just too big of a decision to make,” Ponissi added.
“I suppose that’s where the connection comes from… he’s the type of player that lots of clubs put their hand (for), the story did surprise us to in terms of how strong the interest was.
“It was certainly an expression of interest at best, at this stage.”
According to the report, Haas has already informed the Bulldogs, Dragons and Tigers he has no interest in joining them in 2025.
With a significant strain already on the club’s salary cap, Melbourne would likely have to re-adjust the contracts of million-dollar stars, Ryan Papenhuyzen, Jahrome Hughes, Harry Grant and Cameron Munster, in order to fit Haas in.