{"id":442368,"date":"2025-03-03T18:42:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T19:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=442368"},"modified":"2025-03-03T23:15:52","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T23:15:52","slug":"hurdle-facing-nrl-suitors-as-real-entertainer-wows-slater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=442368","title":{"rendered":"Hurdle facing NRL suitors as 'real entertainer' wows Slater"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Storm legend Billy Slater\ufeff<\/a> has declared Wigan Warriors<\/a> five-eighth Bevan French<\/a> is a "wonderful player" who would be "of value" to an NRL<\/a> club that may want to lure him home.<\/p>\n

The only problem\ufeff is the fleet-footed playmaker is contracted to his Super League<\/a> club until the end of 2028, which Slater hinted at by adding that the 29-year-old is "pretty settled" in England.<\/p>\n

Chatter is again bubbling about the prospect of French reigniting his NRL career after the former Parramatta Eel produced a scintillating man-of-the-match game against Sam Burgess' Warrington Wolves in Las Vegas on Sunday (AEDT).<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Bellamy reveals brutal Slater jibe during salary cap scandal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Bennett weighs up tough selection battle after star's ban<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Slater's blunt reality check amid grim Sharks trend<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The\ufeff 29-year-old crossed for a try, set up a four-pointer, made three line breaks and racked up 209 run metres as Wigan trumped Warrington 48-24 at Allegiant Stadium.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffHe played for Parramatta, then went over to Wigan in the Super League, and he has not looked back," Slater said on Wide World of Sports' The Billy Slater Podcast<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Bevan<\/p>\n

"He's not the first player that has just been hovering around the NRL before going over to the Super League and really succeeding.<\/p>\n

"It is played a little different over there; it's more of an attack mindset and it probably doesn't have the quality of teams across the whole comp.<\/p>\n

"But he's a wonderful player, and not just yesterday. The last couple of World Club Challenges he's really shone, as well, against the Penrith Panthers."<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong> 9Now<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

French was awarded man of the match after the Warriors edged the Panthers 16-12 in Wigan in the World Club Challenge 12 months ago.<\/p>\n

In 2023, he won Man of Steel, the Super League's equivalent to the NRL's Dally M Medal, to join an honour roll that includes former NRL stars such as Jamie Lyon, Brett Hodgson, Ben Barba and James Graham.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

In 2022, he scored a season-high 31 tries from 24 Super League games.\ufeff<\/p>\n

He featured in 47 NRL matches for the Eels across the 2016, 2017 and 2018 seasons, either as a winger or fullback, before establishing himself as a gun playmaker in the Super League.<\/p>\n

"There's no doubt that he would be of value to NRL clubs if they wanted to pick him up," Slater added.<\/p>\n

"But I think he's pretty happy over there, I think he's pretty settled at the Wigan Warriors.<\/p>\n

"… He's a real entertainer and that's what he did [in Las Vegas]."<\/p>\n

French, who hails from the small town of Tingha in the Northern Tablelands of NSW, is a cousin of 2001 Dally M Medal winner Preston Campbell and a nephew of former NRL try-scoring machine Nathan Blacklock.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Storm legend Billy Slater\ufeff has declared Wigan Warriors five-eighth Bevan French is a "wonderful player" who would be "of value" to an NRL club […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":442370,"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\/442368"}],"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=442368"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442371,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442368\/revisions\/442371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/442370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=442368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=442368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=442368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}