{"id":163356,"date":"2021-11-21T19:16:50","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T20:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=163356"},"modified":"2021-11-22T00:59:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T00:59:06","slug":"smith-narrows-choice-down-to-final-two-clubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=163356","title":{"rendered":"Smith narrows choice down to final two clubs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>And then there were two.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/brandon-smith\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Brandon Smith\">Brandon Smith<\/a> &#8211; the most sought-after player in the rugby league world for 2023 &#8211; has narrowed his choices down to two clubs.<\/p>\n<p>The dynamic Melbourne hooker has been chased by half the clubs in the NRL, but is close to deciding his fate, with the Roosters and the league&#x27;s new franchise, the Dolphins, the teams still in the hunt.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/motorsport\/f1-lewis-hamilton-wins-qatar-grand-prix-max-verstappen-comes-second\/0cee3c32-cd8e-4e75-b0c1-f966776fb231\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Fresh championship blow for Verstappen\"><strong>Fresh championship blow for Verstappen<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/tennis\/peng-shuai-hold-video-call-speaks-with-olympic-officials-ioc\/231011ea-4cf6-4cee-910b-aae84a608433\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Missing tennis star holds video call\"><strong>Missing tennis star holds video call<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/cricket\/liz-ellis-accuses-cricket-tasmania-of-victim-blaming-amid-tim-paine-sexting-saga-resignation\/5983646e-7b45-4f42-bec5-327acec4e055\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Cricket Tasmania accused of &#x27;victim blaming&#x27;\"><strong>Cricket Tasmania accused of &#x27;victim blaming&#x27;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&quot;He has spoken to a lot of clubs and narrowed it down to those two,&quot; a source close to Smith told Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Brandon still has another meeting with the Roosters coming up and that will probably decide which way he goes.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"1c1ab99f-d3d1-47cf-bbeb-b1f1f2442b1c\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/1c1ab99f-d3d1-47cf-bbeb-b1f1f2442b1c\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Storm are still hopeful of retaining Smith, but simply won&#x27;t be able to match the type of money being thrown at him by the big-spending Roosters and Dolphins.<\/p>\n<p>Melbourne also has an outstanding back-up hooker in <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/harry-grant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Harry Grant\">Harry Grant<\/a>, who will move into the starting side should Smith move on once his contract expires at the end of next season.<\/p>\n<p>The Roosters see Smith as the perfect long-term replacement for Jake Friend, who retired midway through last season.<\/p>\n<p>And the Dolphins want Smith as a marquee signing for their debut season to attract other big names.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/login.nine.com.au\/login?client_id=wwos&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwwos.nine.com.au&amp;newsletter=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!\"><em><strong>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>And then there were two. Brandon Smith &#8211; the most sought-after player in the rugby league world for 2023 &#8211; has narrowed his choices down <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=163356\" title=\"Smith narrows choice down to final two clubs\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163356"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163358,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163356\/revisions\/163358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=163356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=163356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}