Club looks to within in signing up players

THE Cowboys have begun a retention drive through their roster, with the club refusing to look beyond their four walls for talent.

While the club had closed the door on contracts in the pre-season, with the club already showing signs of life to start this season they have begun to shore up the future.

Kyle Feldt was retained on a four-year deal, while backrower Shane Wright was also locked in to the end of 2021. Those contracts came shortly after acting captain Jordan Mclean activated a player option in his contract to remain at the club for the next two years. But Cowboys director of football Peter Parr said that was not the end of their contract drive, with almost a third of their squad off-contract at the end of the season including John Asiata, Gavin Cooper and Francis Molo.

“It has been a difficult time with contracts with the break we have had and then everybody getting back together,” Parr said.

“We will continue to talk to the coaching staff and see where we want to go in retention. It has been a good start with Kyle and Shane recommitting and we will start to have a look at other people and other positions as time goes on.

“We’re not looking at anybody at this stage from the outside. We are happy with how the players were over the offseason and the early part of the year and we were very happy with how they returned physically and mentally from the enforced break.

“There has been a lot to like since the pre-season began so we don’t see any real reason to be looking outside this current group.”

The Cowboys also have one final roster spot left in their top-30 squad, which would normally need to be filled by the June 30 deadline. But with the COVID-19 pandemic throwing a spanner into the NRL season, the Cowboys were waiting for confirmation on the process.

Instead clubs have been required to put together a squad of 32.