Warriors show no interest in Israel Folau, Brandon Smith
THE Warriors have no interest in signing Israel Folau or Brandon Smith with the salary cap money available from Roger TuivasaSheck’s departure to rugby.
It was confirmed yesteday that Tuivasa-Sheck has signed with the Blues and Auckland Rugby, switching codes once the Warriors’ season is over.
His exit frees up a reported $1.1 million of salary cap space and there are several options on how to spend this money but Warriors CEO Cameron George says going after the controversial Folau won’t be one of them.
‘‘Israel’s not even on our radar,’’ George said. ‘‘We’ve got our own plans and we’re working through those now.’’
Although Folau played centre for Catalans last season in Super League, he was a fullback during his rugby days.
The Dragons said last week that they were looking at bringing Folau back to the NRL, before getting cold feet, while the Broncos and Titans were approached before this.
Coming to the Warriors would have allowed Folau’s wife, Maria Folau, to return to Auckland. However, George confirmed this won’t be happening, with the club already having a short list of targets for the No 1 jersey for next year. ‘‘We’ve got our own strategy around our squad, with what we’re doing and where we’re going.
‘‘We’ve had that in place for a while. The Roger news wasn’t a bombshell for us, so we’re
sticking to what our plan is and working through it.’’
The Dragons’ Matt Dufty and the Cowboys’ Scott Drinkwater are believed to be two players the Warriors are looking at and it will be coach Nathan Brown and recruitment and retention manager Peter O’Sullivan who’ll decide which way the club goes.
‘‘You always have contingency plans in place,’’ George said. ‘‘We don’t sit with the squad and think, that’s it, we’re done.
‘‘You’ve always got to have contingency plans about if a certain player was no longer here, who we’d go for.
‘‘We have those discussions at the club all of the time. Players become better players over time, so you’re always looking two or three years down the track anyway.
‘‘Then, with the Roger situation occurring, we’ve been keeping an eye on some player movement and will keep chipping away on what we’ve got in mind and we’ll see where we’ll end up.’’
Whoever the Warriors get for fullback next year, it’s unlikely they’ll pay the new player the same as what Tuivasa-Sheck is getting. So they will have money to improve the squad elsewhere.
However, Sunday News understands they won’t be making a pitch for Kiwis hooker Brandon Smith.
The 24-year-old from Waiheke Island has been granted permission to talk to clubs about a move away from the Storm at the
end of the year, but there’s no chance of him moving back to New Zealand.
Although he is a talented player, the Warriors have faith in Wayde Egan, with Brown believing he can become an 80-minute hooker for the club.
However, the salary cap space does give the Warriors an opportunity to strengthen their squad where they best see fit.
‘‘No one wants to lose a player of Roger’s stature and quality and his legacy at our club is fantastic,’’ George said.
‘‘But we’re dealing with someone who wanted to live a dream of his and it was his own inner passion to do that and you can’t negotiate that stuff.
‘‘With things about money, you can sit down and talk about it, but with this, you’ve got to be a realist about it, which we are.
‘‘But it now allows us to rebalance our salary cap spend, find a suitable replacement and there could be a number of different options we’d look at.’’