Brisbane Broncos and Cronulla Sharks keen on Penrth Panthers forward Liam Martion ahead of November 1, contract, $1 million, negotiations, Matt Cameron

The 29-year-old’s contract with the Panthers ends at the end of next year and his management has reportedly asked Penrith to make him a $1 million a season player.

But the Panthers still need to extend the contracts of co-captains Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo who are their main priorities and then there’s Moses Leota to also lock up.

Martin is thought to be ahead of Leota in terms of priority signings for Penrith, who are very disciplined when it comes to salary cap management.

Martin wants a three-year extension at Penrith but is asking for big money.

“I’m hoping that there’s a spot for me here and obviously there’s a long gap until November 1, so we’ll have to wait and see,” Martin said last month.

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Martin is currently on about $750,000 so he’s asking for a fair pay rise for a back-rower but he’s still young enough.

The Panthers will also have to decide what to do with young gun Blaize Talagi who won’t feature for much of next year after snapping his Achilles in the preliminary final loss to the Knights.

Isaiah Papali’i, Billy Scott and Luron Patea are also off-contract at the end of 2027.

Leading player agent Steve Gillis said on a podcast last month that he was hearing Martin was closer to re-signing with Penrith than moving on.

“I think Liam Martin would like to stay and if they can work a deal I think he will stay, unless someone comes along and has a chomp at him,” he said.

The Panthers are close to re-signing Yeo and are desperate to nail down Cleary for the remainder of his career.

The Sharks are no doubt keen to see what Martin does given their back-rowers Briton Nikora and Teig Wilton are also set to hit the open market on November 1.

If one, or both leave, Martin will be a player they look at and is a nice back-up plan.

The Sharks and Broncos can’t officially offer Martin a contract until the free agency period begins on November 1.

Brisbane back-rower Brendan Piakura is also off-contract from the end of 2027, like Martin.

Interestingly, Martin, from Temora, is the cousin of Broncos assistant coach Trent Barrett.

Martin has won four premierships at Penrith and has an incredible 75 per cent winning record art club level.

He’s also played 16 State of Origin matches and was seen as a key part of the decider victory by NSW this year with his impact.

Despite his credentials, Penrith don’t offer contracts to their players that are considered ‘overs’.

They’re disciplined and their chief executive Matt Cameron revealed on a Bye Round podcast this year that the club has only paid one player more than they thought he was worth.

“We talk about making disciplined salary cap decisions. You can either make disciplined decisions or undisciplined decisions,” Cameron said.

“I think sometimes you can absolutely fall in love with a young man that’s come through your system and has been very successful and we think he’s worth $5, but we get pressed and we’ve got to pay him $7, and then you go, ‘really, is that really disciplined?’ And I think we’ve been able to manage the cap.

“We’ve got some guiding principles, I suppose, on how we manage it, and we just try and stick to those guidelines.

“One of the guiding principles is the underspend. We ensure that we carry what I think is a reasonably healthy underspend. So we never run the cap up to its limit.”