Leeds Rhinos have been linked with a huge transfer for Man of Steel and Salford Red Devils star Brodie Croft who has been linked with a move to Leigh Leopards.
According to reports the club have offered a fee of somewhere in the region of £200,000 to £300,000.
Despite many believing that the deal is done, Paul Rowley has denied this:
“Well as a coach obviously why would I want to lose a Man of Steel, current Man of Steel, so he’s really important to us and I guess how likely is he to be with us determines finances at the club like everybody else.
“I guess everybody’s for sale if we’re going to look at it that way but again as I said with Tyler the most important thing to the people running our club is that there’s a club to support.
“As I sit here now Brodie Croft is a part of our team and long may that continue. So I’m aware of anything other than that. I’ve not read any of this stuff. Jenna, you’re telling me something there, you’ve caught me on the hop.
“I’ll give Brodie a ring now and see if he knows anything. But no, wait, hopefully he is with us next year.”
This week, as the club revealed a fantastic 15 year partnership with AMT which could be worth an eight figure sum, Leeds Chief Executive Gary Hetherington spoke about the interest in Croft.
“Well I would normally say that we’re always interested in top quality players and certainly he is a top quality player. He’s the current Man of Steel and has had an outstanding time in England.
“So yes, we would be interested in such as him, and indeed a few more as well.”
When asked, ‘Are you in talks with Salford over a deal for Brodie?’ Hetherington said:
“Well, I think you know me well enough to know that I don’t divulge confidences, and so we don’t normally comment on speculation as well. But we are very active in the market, both at home and abroad and have been so for quite a number of months now in that respect.
“We’re quite close to actually putting together the squad that we believe will be an outstanding chance of succeeding next year.
“So yeah, there’s plenty going on, there’s plenty of plates that are spinning and to answer your question, Brodie Croft is a player that we’re showing an interest in.
“He’s not here today, no. Nobody’s seen him, have they?”
Rohan Smith also commented on the possibility of Croft moving to Headingley, saying: “We’re always looking to strengthen our squad. If it turns out to be the case then I’d look forward to that.”
Smith added: “He’s a top of the competition player. There’s not a lot of players in the competition that can dominate games or have been as consistent as him, he’s played a lot. It’s been great to see his progress over the year. I watched a lot of him play at Melbourne and then I was quite close to the Broncos in my time in Brisbane and I saw him playing there, and it’s been great to see his evolution and his love for the game being evident.”
Smith also commented on how Croft could potentially fit into the Rhinos system, saying: “I think as a coach you’ve got to blend the two things, how do you think the game should be played but also who are the players and what are their strengths. So if and when that happens we’ll have a good sit down and work out how it goes but until there’s some news there’s no energy being put into it by me.”
