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Roosters star set for imminent move to rival Rabbitohs

Tobey Lewis

Roosters star set for imminent move to rival Rabbitohs image

Brandon Smith will undergo a medical with South Sydney on Monday before the club confirms his early transfer from the Roosters.

Smith was already set to join the Rabbitohs for 2026 and 2027, but is now headed across-town to Redfern for the back half of 2025.

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In his Round 11 media availability, Rooster's coach Trent Robinson confirmed that an early release is the plan pending Smith's medical.

"Brandon’s doing his medical this morning, so I think that’s pretty clean," he said.

"I think that should get sorted out today.

"He’ll move over there from I’d say tomorrow, as far as I know."

The 28-year-old has played 41 games for the tri-colours and is currently on a reported $850,000 a year deal.

Per News CorpSouths will reportedly have to chip-in roughly $180,000 to secure the New Zealand international's services for the rest of the year.

Smith is currently recovering from an ACL injury that he sustained in Round 26 of last season, which is one of the reasons both parties are going their separate ways according to Robinson.

"I feel like the first year was difficult and he didn’t hit the form that we wanted in that first year. There were reasons for that," he said.

"He was on a tear last year. There was momentum building, and then he got the knee injury."

The move to a Wayne Bennett led club could offer a fresh start for Smith who has enormous talent but hasn't been able to consistently put that on the field.

Editorial Intern

Tobey Lewis

Tobey Lewis is a content producer for Sporting News Australia, specialising in rugby league and combat. In his spare time, he bemoans being the lone player from his high school rugby league team to not be an NRL star.