Grand Final is the catalyst for Salford to build, says Ian Blease

Salford chief executive Ian Blease says it’s a shame their Grand Final team will be broken apart at the end of the year, but that they’ve already done their re-building for next season.

Man of Steel Jackson Hastings and Jake Bibby are off to Wigan, top forward Josh Jones is moving to Hull and George Griffin and Derrell Olpherts are Castleford-bound.

Other departures are expected, but they have announced the signings of Dan Sarginson, Kevin Brown, Chris Atkin, Pauli Pauli, Connor Jones, Jack Ormondroyd and James Greenwood, with other speculated arrivals due to be confirmed soon.

Blease said: “We’ve got over a dozen players leaving us. It’s a real shame that because we’ve got a Grand Final team that we’re having to let go and rebuild.

“But we’ve done that already, I’ve managed to do all the signings for next year, probably got one or two to maybe be done, but like me and coach (Ian) Watson say we’re used to that now, that’s what we’ve had to do for many years. That’s part of it until we get more commercial deals in.

“It’s just a norm to us to rebuild and I’m happy to do that.

“The grand final is a catalyst for us to build on now. If we can’t do it now, we never will be able to!”