7 year contract extension with Salford
7 year contract extension with Salford
Brilliant for him, Salford and super league. Take a huge fee to buy him out of that.
If I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor
RFL Championship / Super League (17) - 1931–32, 1952–53, 1958–59, 1965–66, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1974–75, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2014, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Challenge Cup (13) - 1955–56, 1960–61, 1965–66, 1971–72, 1975–76, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2021
World Club Challenge (3) - 2001, 2007, 2023
League Leader's Shield (9) - 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2022
That's a Doug Laughton contract right there.
Is his contract Nul and Void if they get relegated?
some more detail:
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport...ained-26181881
I can only think of 1 contract of more years in Rugby League, Jason Taumalolo signing a 10 year deal with the Cowboys in 2017. Its a massive commitment from Salford in terms of years and money, given their known lack of backer, who knows how this is going to play out. Given their ask for a near world record fee for him i cant see many clubs having the financial clout to go after him should he have another couple of very good seasons, so any potential move would rely on Salford showing some flexibility in their demands or him becoming a problem to keep.
He's a very good player.
Learned comment from The Don
He stood out in a very poor salford team in the latter part of the season. Before that he was anonymous. His armoury consists of "show and go" and a cut out pass. His kicking is utterly terrible.
I really cannot understand this decision by Salford at all. Generational talent players such as Welsby should be the ones getting contracts like this.
That's probably the best bit for Salford, it keeps the predators from both the superleague and the nrl away. I would imagine it's very hard to build a team when your best players are always being poached.By doing this they are saying " we want to build a team and we don't want the big boys to come in and cherry pick the best of the team ". Now IF the can get some decent backing there is a foundation to build on.
But on the flip side, if he has a couple of injuries or a sustained loss of form then it becomes a very costly issue for a club with minimal backing to have someone not performing on major money. It could prove a great decision, it could be a massive mistake, only time will tell, any contract for that length of time is a risk.
If it's true that Salford were demanding £700k for him then I suspect that part of the logic of this deal will be Croft negotiating a release clause with a realistic figure attached to it. I don't believe for a second that Croft would sign a contract with a release clause anywhere near that figure. My guess is that the deal is a double-edged sword in that it allows Croft to look committed and Salford to look ambitious while at the same time securing an easy exit route for the player if/when the NRL comes calling. I'll be amazed if he's still there in 2025, never mind 2030.
Didn't John Wilkin get a 5 yr deal from Saints. That's the longest I can remember?
Jason Taumolona at the cowboys signed a similar deal
I'm with you regarding Croft - he had a few decent games but you expect that from a player so much better than the others around him.
It still grates that he won MOS when Lomax lead us to the LLS and GF playing with one arm. But the whole MOS stuff is a debate for another time and thread.
This is a bit harsh. It's true he got better as the season went on, but it was his first season on these shores and in our competition.
I'd say he was the best in the league at what he does, so being a running half. His place in the Dream Team was deserved and the stats support that.
If you're Salford, they were probably thinking they'd have a very hard job replacing a player of his quality- Dream Team half and MoS. Croft is 25, Sneyd is 32. Harder and harder to get players over from the NRL with a 17th team now in the mix and possibly an 18th within 5 years.
I'd have given MoS to Field as thought he was most consistent over the course of the season, though would've had Croft on the short list nevertheless.
Didn't Welsby sign a new contract last year? The club presumably upgraded his terms as he wasn't out of contract end of year, if I recall correctly. Sure Saints would've liked to have tied him down for longer but there has to be agreement on both sides of course.
Welsby was compared with Sam Tomkins having won the young player award 2 years on the bounce. Think Tomkins went on to win Mos within a couple years. That should be Welsby's target.
*Not to be confused with Mike Stephenson, MBE
Get out clause at the end of every season factored in to the contract