Manly CEO Joe Kelly has vowed to spend big to lure some of the NRL’s best players as his NRL club reels from losing star halves Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry-Evans.
Foran on Monday confirmed that he’s agreed to join Parramatta in 2016 on a four-year deal, his announcement coming 10 days after Cherry-Evans revealed he was bound for Gold Coast at the end of the season.
Kelly, who joined the club late last year after a stint as South Sydney chief financial officer, acknowledged to AAP earlier his month he’d already compiled list of targets should Foran and Cherry-Evans walk away.
He can now start putting that work into practise with James Maloney, Trent Hodkinson, Todd Carney and Chris Sandow among the players likely to be targeted with the big money now freed up.
“The club is now in a position of having the resources necessary to recruit some of the best talent in the marketplace, to ensure that the Sea Eagles remain a dominant team in the NRL,” said Kelly.
He attempted to ease the fears of jittery Sea Eagles fans.
“We have an extremely bright future here at Manly,” he said.
“There is some prodigious young talent rising through our junior ranks. We have increased our resources in the football department, and we are investing in state of the art training facilities.”
Sydney Roosters five-eighth Maloney is one of several players battling for a new deal at that club along with Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Dylan Napa, Blake Ferguson, Daniel Tupou and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves who are all off-contract after this season.
NSW State of Origin-winning halfback Hodkinson left Manly for Canterbury in 2010 and although keen to stay, the money potentially on offer at Manly could make it hard for him to turn down a return.
“It’s early days in terms of talking at the moment,” Hodkinson told AAP last week.
“I’d love to stay at the Bulldogs, I’ve found a home here. I love playing under Dessie (Hasler) and that would be the ideal situation.
“But there is a lot things that have to happen before then. All I can do is park it and just play as well as I can.”
Carney is currently playing in Super League with French side Catalans having been sacked by Cronulla last year following yet another off-field escapade involving alcohol.
However, the Sharks were deemed by the NRL appeals committee to have failed to follow due process before sacking the controversial former NSW playmaker after a photo of him apparently attempting to urinate in his mouth appeared on social media last year.
This could open a door for a return to the NRL and Sea Eagles coach Geoff Toovey told Fairfax Media on Monday the former Canberra and Roosters star would be a player he’d be interested in signing.
PLAYERS OFF-CONTRACT IN 2016 WHO COULD INTEREST MANLY
Halfbacks
* Trent Hodkinson, Canterbury
* Chris Sandow, Parramatta
* Jeff Robson, Cronulla
* Mitch Cornish, Canberra
* Robert Lui, Nth Qld
Five-eighths
* James Maloney, Sydney Roosters
* Todd Carney, Les Catalans (France)
* Aidan Sezer, Gold Coast
* Kane Elgey, Gold Coast
