Is Hudson Young’s ‘market value’ whatever a club is willing to pay? Not in the NRL

September 4, 2026 — 5:00am

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After hobbling down the blue carpet that led to the Brad Fittler Medal presentation on Monday night, Hudson Young stopped to address a media scrum that had assembled to quiz him about his playing future.

Canberra had granted Young, who was still wearing a moon boot after rupturing his Achilles tendon in July, early permission to negotiate with the PNG Chiefs. The plan was for Young, once he had sufficiently recovered to fly to Port Moresby, to decide whether to join the NRL’s 19th team or accept the three-year, $3.3 million contract with the Raiders.

“It’s one of those things, I just want to see [PNG] for myself first,” Young said at the time.

“There’s been a lot of media around it and certain players going over there and saying certain things, so I just want to go over there and make the decision myself on what I feel.”

That opportunity will never come. On Wednesday, the Chiefs pulled their three-year, $900,000-a-season offer. It was a response to what happened at Rugby League Central just a few hours earlier.

NRL executive chairman Peter V’landys, during a fortnightly teleconference with club bosses,........

© The Age