According to Canterbury’s head of football Phil Gould, the club has reached an agreement with front-rower Samuel Hughes before the NRL season begins.
The 23-year-old has emerged as one of the club’s best young players, impressing with his size and power in the middle during a recent trial victory over the Storm.
Hughes was expected to leave the Bulldogs at the end of the season, but Gould confirmed on Wide World of Sports’ Six Tackles With Gus that he will stay.
“Sammy Hughes is a prospect and I think we’ve just agreed to terms to extend him for another couple of years,” Gould told ESPN.
“Sammy’s a good kid; I’ve liked him since he first walked in the door, but he’s just been injured. Sammy fell over a railing at a rock concert the previous preseason and injured his back.
“He approached us late in the season in 2022, and I thought, who is this? He moved very well; he was a big, tall, aggressive kid… I thought, wow, he’s a hope.
“He was spinning his wheels all year and we left him, but he’s trained brilliantly this off-season and hopefully he’ll stand up.
“He trialled well the other night, but it was virtually only a reserve grade trial.”
Hughes will come off the bench against Cronulla in the side’s second pre-season game on Friday night, edging out Liam Knight, who has been demoted to the NSW Cup by the Dogs to improve his match fitness.
Gould acknowledged Belmore’s engine room’s lack of depth, but is hopeful that young players like Hughes will take advantage of their opportunities.
“I think everyone will point out the fact we are struggling for depth in the middle-forwards area, which is obvious – we know that,” he went on to say.
“We need the ones that are there to stand up. We needed to expose a lot of young fellas last year that weren’t ready for it.”
Leave a Reply