8 year offer?
Sport Confidential: Manly Sea Eagles offer Haumole Olakau’atu an eight-year deal
The Sea Eagles have presented the club’s longest ever deal to forward Haumole Olakau’atu in a bid to stave off interest from two other Sydney-based clubs.
Manly have offered rising star Haumole Olakau’atu the equal-longest deal in the club’s history – worth almost $7 million - in a bid to keep the back-rower away from rival clubs.
It is understood the Sea Eagles have upped their deal to re-sign Olakau’atu by tabling a bumper eight year offer worth about $850,000 a season.
The contract length matches the club’s longest ever deal which was given to skipper Daly Cherry-Evans. Cherry-Evans just completed the final year of that mega contract before re-signing with the club for another two years.
Olakau’atu is still not off-contract until the end of 2025, but the Sea Eagles know that other clubs are preparing to entice the Tongan international on deals worth more than $900,000 a season.
The new contract will take Olakau’atu through until the end of the 2031 season where he will be 33. Should he sign he will become the only Sea Eagles player contracted beyond 2027 when the current deals of Josh Schuster, Luke Brooks and Tolutau Koula expire.
The Sea Eagles only extended Olakau’atu’s contract last year through until the end of 2025. During recent talks, they had originally offered a deal to take Olakau’atu through to the end of the 2030 season.
However, Manly has upped the contract length knowing the likes of St George Illawarra and Canberra will swoop should Olakau’atu hit the open market.
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