ACT Brumbies centre Irae Simone swaps contract talks for Super Rugby Pacific title mission

The 26-year-old says "there's a lot of options on the table" as the Brumbies begin to piece together their roster for 2023 and beyond in the midst of a salary cap squeeze.

The Brumbies are preparing for domestic and international rivals to come knocking for their talent with Simone's ball-playing ability making him an enticing prospect.

But right now Simone's focus is on maintaining an unbeaten start to the Super Rugby Pacific campaign with the Brumbies, who travel to Melbourne to face the Rebels on Friday night.

"I am keen to stay. There's a lot of options on the table," Simone said.

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"There's people behind the scenes who look after that, at the moment I just want to play some good footy. If it's my last year, I want to put my best foot forward. If it's not, I still want to do the same and win the title.

"It's all about winning, turning up each week and delivering that. I'm not worried so much about contracts, in the meantime I just want to play some good footy and have fun."

The 26-year-old is refreshingly honest in a world of clichés where athletes are seemingly always just taking it one game at a time, outlining his desire to lift the Super Rugby Pacific trophy and send Brumbies coach Dan McKellar out on a high.

McKellar will leave the Brumbies at season's end to join the Wallabies staff in a full-time capacity, with incoming coach Stephen Larkham poised to return to Canberra following his time in Ireland.

Simone knows a mountain of work is still ahead of the Brumbies who have been below their best despite an unbeaten start to the season which has them trailing only the Canterbury Crusaders on points differential.

A scintillating try to help the Brumbies to retain the Dan Vickerman Cup against the NSW Waratahs is the kind of highlight reel play that offers a timely reminder of his ability.

However Simone says there remains plenty of room for improvement from an individual and team standpoint.

"We're not happy with how we're going at the moment but there's a lot of learnings we're taking each week to try and improve as a collective," Simone said.

"The boys are doing well at the moment but it's all about living, learning and trying to adapt each week to get better.

"The collective goal is just to win the comp, so it's all about winning week in, week out, not letting other teams get a sniff, not letting them recover or breathe. It's all about us trying to build that pressure and enjoy it at the same time.

"Especially for our coach, he's well respected among all the players and the rest on the outside as well. To send him off on a high note would be pretty special. To do that, there's a process in between.

"We haven't really spoken about [sending McKellar out a winner]. Everyone knows it, it's behind everyone's head. We're just trying to focus on getting better as a collective and as an individual.

"We're winning games but we're still not happy with how we're going so we can't be complacent. There's a lot of room for growth and learning. We've just got to keep winning."

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