Leeds Rhinos could offer new deals to players who were expected to leave the club at the end of this season.
The departure of outside-backs Ethan Clark-Wood, Chris Hankinson and Jack Smith – along with loose-forward Joe Shorrocks – was announced during Rhinos’ awards evening on Monday.
But speaking at his weekly preview press conference today (Thursday), coach Brad Arthur said “a couple” of them could yet be re-signed.
“There’s still a couple of guys there we are trying to work at keeping,” Arthur revealed.
“The guys that are uncontracted for next year, we had to thank them and [show] our appreciation of what they have done for our club, but there’s a couple of guys on that list we are looking to try and keep moving forward.”
Australian Clark-Wood joined Rhinos in February on a one-year deal and featured just once in the first team before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury at training two months ago.
Smith came through Rhinos’ academy and hasn’t broken into the senior team, spending much of this year on loan at London Broncos.
However, winger Hankinson and on-loan Shorrocks, who both arrived from Salford late in the campaign, are in Leeds Rhinos’ initial squad for tomorrow’s final game of the regular season at Wigan Warriors.
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Arthur said: “Joe hasn’t had many opportunities. He came in for one game and did a really good job, then had a two-week suspension.
“He gets a chance tomorrow with his competitiveness and physical presence. He plays the game nice and tough and Chris has been very valuable for us on the wing in terms of his back-field carries.
“He has been strong; his first game was good, but he had a couple of handling errors. He has really kicked on since then, now he’s comfortable with the team and he can give us a bit of flexibility and depth, covering a few spots – centre, six or full-back.”
