NRL: Titans put hand up for Hunt after NRL ruling

Karmichael Hunt. Photo / NZPA

Gold Coast coach John Cartwright hopes his club are given just as much chance as cashed-up rivals to lure Karmichael Hunt back to the NRL.

Hunt's future in the AFL remains up in the air with the former Australia and Queensland representative yet to feature for the Gold Coast Suns this season and his contract expiring at season's end.

The NRL announced this week that chief executive Dave Smith will now have discretionary powers to recruit or retain high-profile players outside a club's salary cap.

Hunt has quickly been identified as one of the players who could fall into that category with former player Gorden Tallis among those urging the NRL to act.

"I'd be going to the NRL and saying 'this guy, we need him back'," Tallis said. "I sense he's at his wit's end in AFL. He's playing seconds. He's a proud guy. I think he is keen to get back to one of the codes he knows a little bit more about and he's more familiar with."

Cartwright said debate over whether a player who turned his back on league should be offered a big contract to come back was academic.

In his opinion, Hunt is a player he's keen to try to bring to the Titans.

"They'll be the people that say he left the code, let's look after the ones in it," Cartwright said. "It's a business, you know. I have no problem getting him back into the code as long as we get a fair crack at him."

Hunt's former NRL club Brisbane have long been linked to their former star. The big-money signings of Ben Barba and Canberra youngster Anthony Milford are believed to have made the chance of recruiting Hunt slim with the Broncos left with little wriggle room in their cap.

But the introduction of the marquee player regulation is believed to have re-opened the door for a return to the Queensland capital for Hunt.

Cartwright doesn't think that would be a fair outcome.

He feels the new rule cannot be used just to allow clubs to flaunt the salary cap and recruit as many big-name players as they can. He thinks it should also be used as a way to bring top stars to less resourced clubs such as the Titans.

"It's going to pretty much make a mockery of the salary cap if the clubs that are held back by the salary cap go out and find third-party money or money from the league to get players like that into their squad," Cartwright said. "It kind of defeats the purpose of the salary cap." AAP