They sat perched at the back of the grandstand overlooking Queensland University's athletic track as the Brisbane Broncos trained this week.

They said they were Japanese students studying at the St Lucia campus.

But when one pulled out a high-tech video camera and pointed it at the players and the other a leather-bound black book and started scribbling notes, alarm bells rang.

"We not interested in the players, we just studying the physical side," spluttered one as he kept videoing the players on the field.

It didn't take long before the two "students" were noticed by the Broncos.

"Japanese spies," came the cry from one of the club's coaching staff, pointing into the stands as star fullback Karmichael Hunt - linked to a $1 million-a-season offer from Japanese rugby union interests - trained along with Darren Lockyer and other Brisbane stars.

The men videoed a little more before disappearing out the back of the stand.

If it weren't for recent reports of Japanese rugby preparing to raid the NRL it would have been a comical situation.

The league and its clubs though would be powerless to compete with the mighty Yen.

It's been rumoured wealthy Japanese teams like Suntory, which has former Wallaby coach Eddie Jones as a consultant, have a hit list of Australian rugby league stars headed by Hunt, Melbourne's Billy Slater and Wests Tigers Benji Marshall who was keen to sign up before registration threats from the NRL emerged.

Cronulla first-grader Fraser Anderson, not one of the NRL's big-name players, has already secured a release from his Sharks contract to accept a Japanese deal reportedly worth three times more a season than he makes playing rugby league.

Hunt, 23, who is off contract this year is re-assessing his future.

The Queensland State of Origin and Test custodian is known to be in the sights of rival NRL clubs, Japanese rugby and also the Australian Rugby Union looking for talent.

New Brisbane coach Ivan Henjak, who is desperately hoping to retain Hunt and Lockyer, saw the funny side when asked about the two "spies" in the stands.

"They looking at Karmichael are they? ... Anyone else they're after you can tell me about," he laughed.

"I'll send our standover men up there next time to get rid of them."

Brisbane chief executive Bruno Cullen has been negotiating with Hunt and Lockyer's agents this week but is unlikely to have any news on their futures until next week at the earliest.

The club held its season launch at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night with Henjak, who has the unenviable task of replacing Wayne Bennett, still weighing up several selection options for the club's first game of the season against North Queensland next Friday night.

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