BY DAN

Just two days in and 2025 already sucks. It has been confirmed by multiple outlets that Leo Thomspon has signed with the Canterbury Bulldogs for 2026 and beyond.

Never have we so quickly had to rewrite a story. Just yesterday we were basking in the hope (copium?) that the off-season grind was likely the reason Leo Thompson hadn’t signed with the club. We argued this would change over the next couple of days as people returned back from break (at least we got something right *laughs maniacally then starts crying*).

Rumours swirled last night that was possibly about to change, but in the absence of authoritative reporting on the matter, we were still of the position that he would be coming, as previously reported by the Mole (I guess there’s a lesson for us that we should have learned by now about trusting him).

That has since changed, with the Sydney Morning Herald leading the reporting. This is different for two reasons. One, that’s an actual paper with actual sources. Two, it’s not the Mole, who’s reputation as a source of rugby league wisdom is now about as good as ours. Maybe we should invite him to write for these pages.

Make no mistake this is devastating for Canberra. It’s a bad outcome because it fails to be a step forward. They miss out on a representative forward and fail to establish themselves as a contender in the free agent market. They lose their preferred replacement for Josh Papalii’s likely retirement. It’s not a minus in that they’re already stacked in the middle and they already weren’t a destination club. But it represents a continuation of a status quo we’d hoped had been overcome.

Apart from not getting Thompson, there’s also the matter of the club effectively putting on notice it’s emerging props like Ata Mariota and Trey Mooney without actually gaining anything from the process. Confidence is a weird thing, and players can sometimes take a slight like this and turn it into the motivation that drives a career. It can also dismantle and distract a mindset. It was a risk to engage in this player chase. Now Canberra gets the downside without the silver lining.

The upside for the club is that they’re avoiding the opportunity cost and gamble of putting big resources into yet another middle. As we noted above Canberra are stacked at the position, and the were offering essentially elite money for a prop that while good, has yet to display he’s worth the money. That money can now go elsewhere, hopefully for more efficient and effective use.

But while that’s nice, it would have been nicer to have a new rep middle to play with. A pack that included Horse, Taps and Thompson would have a been menacing for teams to play. It would have provided a degree of certainty of output for a club that has embraced uncertainty like Karl Popper.

Alas it is not the case. We’ll just have to go back to hoping the club can sign a hooker.

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