Ben Barba is set to sign with Cronulla as a replacement for exiled playmaker Todd Carney as soon as next week, after being told he was unwanted by returning Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett.
Bennett has swept a broom through Red Hill since returning after six years away with Barba the latest profile player to be shown the door, alongside Ben Hannant and Martin Kennedy.
The seven-times premiership winning mentor has told the 2012 Dally M winner he couldn’t guarantee him a spot in the Broncos side next NRL season.
The Sharks are desperate for a playmaker to join Jeff Robson in the halves and Barba had been linked to a move to the Shire, even before Bennett confirmed the former Canterbury fullback wasn’t in his plans to The Courier-Mail.
“I have given permission for Ben to negotiate,” Bennett said.
“I don’t want to lie to Ben and I don’t want to lie to the fans. I could have made out that it would be all rosy for Ben Barba next year but the reality is it might not be so rosy.”
It would be Barba’s third club in three years, after he joined the Broncos as a highly touted recruit this year from the Bulldogs.
But the 25-year-old endured a lacklustre year first as a fullback and then after being shifted into the five-eighth role.
He still has two years to run on his NRL contract with Brisbane, but with Anthony Milford joining the Broncos from Canberra and Darius Boyd having been released from Newcastle, but not yet confirmed as a Red Hill recruit, Barba has been squeezed out.
“At this stage, Milford is going to play five-eighth and I can’t guarantee Ben a place in the team,” Bennett said.
“I’ve spoken to Ben and he accepted my position.
“It was hard telling him that, of course it was. But I’d rather do it this way than him not playing in the NRL at all and then there’d be a lot of grief for people.
“I can’t guarantee Ben would even play off the bench. He did well defending in the frontline last season but the reality is he would have to defend in the ruck if he played off the bench and that’s a big ask.”
The move is appears a win for all parties, with the Broncos set to create salary cap space by Barba’s departure, Cronulla securing a player capable, at his best, of making them a finals force, and Barba able to keep his NRL career alive.
The Sharks have looked thin in the playmaking ranks, since losing Carney to Catalans after a lewd photo of the former NSW pivot went viral on social media and he was sacked by Cronulla in June.
