Super League club ‘make big offer’ for off-contract NRL forward as 2026 signing mooted

Off-contract Newcastle Knights forward Mat Croker has received a ‘big offer’ from an unnamed Super League club with a 2026 move mooted, according to reports Down Under.

Croker, who came through the Knights’ youth system to make his NRL bow in 2021, was also at the centre of a transfer saga ahead of the current campaign.

With his contract expiring, numerous Super League clubs were interested in his signature and Castleford Tigers were believed to be the frontrunners.

But the 25-year-old instead opted to pen a one-year contract extension with the Knights, and we now find ourselves back in the same situation with a handful of Super League clubs believed to be battling for his signature heading into 2026.

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Super League club ‘make big offer’ for off-contract NRL forward as 2026 signing mooted

Able to slot into the front-row or at loose, Nabiac-born Croker – who is of Chilean descent – has scored five tries in 65 NRL appearances to date.

He will turn 26 in September, and according to a report in The Daily Telegraph, has turned down the offer of a two-year contract extension from the Knights.

Wishing to move on to pastures new, the Australian outlet report that the forward has received a ‘big offer’ already from one Super League club.

Croker has never donned another shirt at first-grade level than Newcastle’s to date, and though it now appears he definitely will do next year, there is the possibility that he could opt to remain Down Under once again.

The report from The Daily Telegraph also details that the New South Wales native and his representatives will meet with an as yet unnamed NRL club in the coming weeks to discuss the potential of a contract offer being tabled his way to stay in the NRL.

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