St Helens are definitely in the market for a new centre after the departure of Will Hopoate but one of the centres they were reportedly set to sign appears to be no longer on the cards.

The Mole of Wide World of Sports previously reported that the Super League Champions were set to sign Melbourne Storm star and Papua New Guinea centre Justin Olam for the 2024 season as a replacement for Hopoate after his move to Warrington Wolves never materialised with the Wolves instead signing Rodrick Tai.

However, Olam now looks set to join Wests Tigers with the centre having a meeting with Tigers boss Benji Marshall.

This is one of many big transfer targets Marshall has with Penrith Panthers star Jarome Luai linked with the move to the Tigers as Marshall looks to find a long term replacement for Luke Brooks.

“All players that come into the market, you’ve got to have a look at, especially if they’re marquee players,” Marshall said to the Australian.

“But again, we’ve signed halves, we’ve got four halves for the season going into it. We’ll prioritise that at the moment. Whatever happens with recruitment, when we make a decision or learn about it, we’ll tell you guys.

“One thing I’m not going to do is talk about recruitment publicly. The guys we have recruited I will talk about but what happens with the players we’re trying to sign, we’ll keep that as in-house as possible.”

He also highlighted the arrival of Aidan Sezer from Leeds Rhinos.

“Aidan Sezer’s been a really good buy for us for a couple of reasons; he obviously brings experience and he’s played a lot of footy,” his new coach said.

“I think his last game in the NRL was at Canberra where he played a grand final. Just seeing how he operates, not only as a person off the field but the way he trains and goes about his business is going to be great for us to help these young guys learn.

“Everyone’s got ideas about what I should do (with the halves) but one thing I’ve made really clear with the players is no one’s guaranteed a spot.

“In our team, you have to earn that through hard training in the pre-season and if you earn it, you’re playing. I don’t care how old you are, how experienced you are, if you earn it through hard training in the pre-season, you’re more than likely going to play.”