Paul Rowley says Brodie Croft going nowhere

It would seem Leeds Rhinos are closing in on signing Salford Red Devils star Brodie Croft – the reigning Man of Steel.

Many people forget that Croft announced himself to the world in 2018 against Leeds for Melbourne Storm in 2018.

To draft Croft in would take a lot of money given he signed an eight year deal with Salford at the start of the year.

Thus, Leeds are set to pay £300,000 for him but signing him has been made easier by the fact the club have agreed a ground breaking deal with AMT.

At the press conference revealing this, Gary Hetherington was asked about Brodie 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.”

Asked if the club were in talks, he 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.”

This comes after Paul Rowley said that Croft wouldn’t be going anywhere.

He did admit that finances will determine his future on The Bench:

“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.”

If and when Leeds will confirm the signing of Brodie Croft remains to be seen but it certainly seems that the club are working hard to sign the 2022 Man of Steel ahead of what the club will want to be a drastically different 2024 campaign after missing out on the play offs in 2023 after three consecutive fifth place finishes.