Hull FC boss drops Liam Knight future hint amid Jack Ashworth and quota change comments

Hull FC boss John Cartwright has confirmed that Liam Knight is in his plans for next season as he continues to wait for clarity surrounding Super League’s quota situation.

Super League clubs find themselves waiting changes to be passed through regarding how many overseas players they can have within their organisations next year. At present, sides are allowed seven players from the Southern Hemisphere, but the suggestion is that figure could rise to eight or potentially even more, allowing more players to make the move to Super League from Down Under.

If that proposal is given the green light, it would allow Hull to formally re-sign Knight for next season after impressing over the last few months in black and white. Hull Live have already reported a deal is in place to secure the Australian, with the club pre-empting the quota changes.

But, Cartwright insists any plans remain on ice until the alterations are made official.

“We’d love to keep him and we haven’t hid from that.,” Cartwright said about Knight in his pre-match press conference on Thursday afternoon. “He’s in our plans if and when we get the call around quotas.”

Asked if he’d heard anything about the overseas rules, he added: “Not really. Until you hear something official, I’ve heard all the things you’ve probably heard but until you get something official you just can’t do anything.

“We have things in place ready to go but we just have to wait for the official word about what the quota will be.”

Hull FC head coach on re-signing players and salary cap

Until the rules are changed, Hull won’t be re-signing any more players, with the likes of Jack Ashworth and Tom Briscoe still off-contract. The former has been linked with a move to Castleford Tigers, but Cartwright was unable to provide any information on his future.

“It’s like anyone mate, anyone off contract, there’s always a bit of noise around what’s happening there,” the head coach said. “We’re just in stalemate until we find out about the quota spots.”

He added: “It’s hard to re-sign anyone at the minute. There’s a long way to go between now and next year and you need to keep your options open. We’ll just have to sit tight and wait until we have clarity on that.

“It’s real tough on the players, tough on the clubs, tough on everyone.”

With an increase in overseas players on the table, there could be a reasonable argument to raise the salary cap to account for those changes. The Hull FC boss admits that would make for a better competition, but he stopped short of saying he would be for that alteration being made.

“The last thing you want to see is clubs try and keep pace with the wealthy clubs and not be able to sustain it,” he said. “That’s a question for the clubs and the game itself.

“The better the salary cap, the better quality of player we’re going to get and the better quality of competition we’re going to get, but that’s perfect world stuff, it’s what we can afford to pay at the end of the day.

“If you raise it, it would be fantastic for the competition and the quality of the competition will go up but we don’t want club’s going broke.”