EVALDS LEAVING
SALFORD STAR’S EXIT CONFIRMED
SALFORD director Paul King has confirmed fullback Niall Evalds will leave the club when his contract expires at the end of the season.
The news was first reported in the League Express trade paper and responding to questions from fans on Twitter, King admitted it was true, despite the club’s best efforts to keep hold of the player.
“We made him a fantastic offer,” said King. “[But] he has chosen to go elsewhere for 2021.
“Disappointing, but that’s sport. We move on.”
Halifax-born Evalds is believed to have signed an initial one-year deal with Castleford Tigers.
The 26-year-old came through the youth ranks at the AJ Bell Stadium and has become a key part of Ian Watson’s Red Devils side.
Earlier this year, he was named in the initial group of players invited to meet up under new England coach Shaun Wane, having starred for England Knights in recent years.
Although the sport is on shutdown and many clubs have been forced to put recruitment and retention on the back burner as they wait to see how the Covid-19 pandemic ultimately impacts their finances, the May 1 negotiation deadline remained in place.
It has meant players who are out of contract at the end of the year have been able to enter discussions with potential new employers from the start of the month. It has made for a difficult situation for Salford in particular, who again have a number of key men whose contracts expire at the conclusion of the 2020 campaign.
Speaking last month, Watson addressed the situation, including the attempts to keep hold of Evalds.
“Again, we’ve got quite a few off [contract],” he said. “That’s what we’ve been talking about, myself and (Ian) Bleasey, we don’t want that every year.
“We don’t want 12 players coming off contract and having to bring 12 new ones in. We want to build a bit of consistency. It takes time to dilute that, to get people in and stagger those contracts, but it’s something Bleasey is well aware of and it’s something he can use this time to look at.
“We started in pre-season. We spoke to Niall, he’s a big player for us. He’s been with us for the full four or five years I’ve been there. Bleasey’s put a contract offer towards him, but the situation has stopped everything and held that up.
“We’ve got people like Lee Mossop off-contract as well and Joey [Lussick], there’s quite a few, so we need to get on top of it.
“The good thing is that we’ve got quite a few players who are still on-contract, good players, in Tui [Lolohea], Ken Sio, people like that.
“Dan Sarginson and Kev Brown too we’ve got those players signed up past the end of this year, so we’re not having to worry about those big-hitters.
“What we want to do is add more quality of players like them in for the next following few years.”