Assessing Leeds Rhinos' recruitment options for 2025

Yorkshire Evening Post

YEP rugby league writer Peter Smith reveals whether there'll be significant changes to Leeds Rhinos' squad for next season.

Transcript

00:00So we're three games away from the end of the season and the big question is

00:05what's happening with Leeds Rhinos recruitment for 2025? What we know so far

00:11is that one player is coming in Ryan Hall who's rejoining the club from Hull

00:17KR on a one-year deal which I understand has an option for a second season. He'll

00:23replace David Fusitua, the New Zealand wingman is set to leave Leeds when his

00:28contract expires at the end of this season though that hasn't actually been

00:31confirmed by the club as of yet. I'd expect them to make an announcement on

00:35that in the next few days. Also leaving is Rhys Martin who we know is joining

00:41Hull KR on a two-year contract he's going to be very difficult to replace

00:45and James Donaldson the forward who's joining Bradford Bulls. He wants to go

00:51part-time. He was offered a new deal by Leeds but he's got a job away from the

00:56sport and he's going to play for his first professional club Bradford Bulls

01:00on a two-year deal. I also expect that they'll announce that Lewis Roberts and

01:06Corey Johnson, two players have been on the fringe of the first team, they've both

01:10made first team appearances this year but haven't been regulars. They'll both

01:13be leaving when their contract expires at the end of this season. So that leaves

01:17Leeds with a little bit of room for manoeuvre however the problem they've

01:21got is that there isn't much room on the salary cap from what I'm hearing.

01:26They do have a couple of quota spots available with Rhys Martin and David

01:31Fusatua moving on. One of those I think will probably be used to bring in a prop

01:36coach Brad Arthur has said he wants to strengthen in that department and it's

01:40clearly an area where Leeds have struggled this season. That said they've

01:45had obviously injury problems and Tom Horroy has played only six games this

01:49year he will be hopefully back in contention next year after his

01:54concussion issues so he'll be sort of a bit like getting a new player in the

01:58squad and they're bearing that in mind. Ditto with Morgan Gannon who hasn't

02:02played at all this season after being concussed twice in preseason. He'll also

02:07be available in 2025. I understand he's impressed Brad Arthur in training. He's

02:13able to train just not doing contact work and he's looked very good

02:17apparently. Also Max Simpson he's not played for two years with an knee injury.

02:22He's due for more surgery shortly and he's also due to be back in

02:29contention. What Leeds are looking for is a prop as I've mentioned and also

02:33someone to add a bit of competition for places in the backs. The salary cap

02:41limits it. I don't think you can expect to see many signings coming in next year

02:45certainly not wholesale changes but there will be at least one I think

02:49pretty big overseas addition and possibly another from from overseas and

02:57there might be one or two others coming from domestic clubs but I think largely

03:02that Leeds will be looking to fill the gap in the squad with some of the young

03:06impressive young players they've got coming through people like Ned McCormack

03:10and Riley Long who weren't in the first-team squad officially at the start

03:15of the season and Ben Little is another one who've come in and done a decent job

03:19in the first team and they'll all get an opportunity I should think for a squad

03:24number next year so it's gonna be interesting few weeks for I know if

03:28you're hoping for a lot of signings I think you'll probably be disappointed

03:31but there will certainly be one or two over over the period between now and the

03:37start of preseason

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