NRL: Anasta staying put

Braith Anasta. Photo / Getty Images

The manager of Sydney Roosters captain Braith Anasta has hosed down speculation his star client is heading to NRL rivals North Queensland.

Rumours linking Anasta to the Cowboys have been bubbling away since late in the NRL season - when the classy playmaker helped the Roosters to a memorable grand final appearance.

Last September North Queensland skipper Johnathan Thurston asked the club to throw the chequebook at Anasta in order to lure him to the battling club.

It emerged on Tuesday that Cowboys CEO Peter Jourdain had confirmed his club had formally requested permission from the Roosters to start negotiations with Anasta.

It is believed Anasta's manager Greg Willett approached the Cowboys about buying out the final season of the former NSW Origin star's contract at Bondi Junction.

But a prompt "thanks but no thanks" from the Roosters appears to have scuppered any deal, according to Cowboys football operations manager Peter Parr.

"There is nothing to say about it unless the Roosters give us permission," Parr told AAP.

And Willett said there had been no progress in talks with the Cowboys since the end of the season.

"This is all old news," Willett told AAP.

"All I could say is that yes there was some interest (near the end of the NRL season), but there's nothing really gone more than that.

"(North Queensland) did want to know if he would go there but this was two months ago and it's never really gone on from there."

Willett said the deal would only eventuate if the Cowboys presented the Roosters an offer they couldn't refuse.

"If anyone wants to give me a million dollars, I'll wrap him up in cotton wool and drive him there myself because that's my job," Willett said.

"If someone says they're interested (in Anasta), you're always going to be interested in an offer.

"That's your job. But there have been no offers or anything like that."

Meanwhile, the Cowboys announced they had re-signed young five-eighth Michael Morgan on a three-year deal to 2013.

Morgan made his NRL debut for the Cowboys in 2010, playing four first grade games before returning to lead the successful Toyota Cup side that went on to finish the season in fourth place.

- AAP