Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves, Hull FC and Hull KR have all made major signings for the 2024 season but some are also set to have major exits.

There has been speculation that Wigan could lose Cade Cust and Sam Powell with Brad O’Neill emerging as a long term option at nine whilst former Huddersfield Giants and Leeds star Kruise Leeming is headed to Wigan.

This has led to speculation that Powell could head to Huddersfield which was addressed by Ian Watson:

“He’s a great player mate, we’ve got nines in place at this moment in time, but when good English players become available, obviously you do have an interest in them, but obviously it’s whether you can fit them into your squad and that.

“Sam Powell is a good player and a big player and again he’s a champion player as well and he’s somebody who’s a very good leader and holds people accountable, so I think there’ll be a lot of teams that would be interested in but at the moment we’re kind of we’re pretty set where we are.

“Something would have to materialize for us probably to be able to jump into that but he’s somebody that would obviously be an interest just because of the stature of who he is.”

Though a move for Powell seems unlikely, a transfer for Adam Swift from Hull FC to Huddersfield seems on the cards though Watson refused to confirm it despite admitting his interest.

“I think the big one for us is, like I’ve said before, that we would be interested in, like we just spoke about Sam (Powell) there. The big thing that our club will do is they’ll make an announcement shortly in and around what players they’ve signed and who they are and where players are heading.

“I think it’s always the right for the clubs to do that and they work together to announce when a player is leaving or where they’re going as well.

“I know sometimes clubs kind of break that but generally the clubs are pretty good at working together to announce at the right time for everybody as well because there’s obviously a lot of things that go on in and around individual players.

“It’s not just the players themselves and the club to think about, there’s the family issues, there’s relocations, there’s all kinds of things that go in and around contract talks so I think probably at the moment he’s probably just leaving it until the clubs decide to make an announcement on that one mate.”