Sheffield Eagles: Trialist trio offered deals

All three have been training with Mark Aston’s side over the past month, and the Eagles chief has now seen enough to put terms to all three as he looks to further bolster his ranks.

The Eagles, who have suffered back-to-back defeats at the start of the new Betfred Championship season, have by Aston’s own admission been forced to play catch up with the rest of the league, after again experiencing a huge turnover of players during the close season.

With an influx of new faces joining just prior to the start of the campaign, Aston has long since confirmed that more is required, leading to the latest round of offers.

“The offers are out there now,” Aston confirmed to The Star.

“We have told them what we want to do, and what we can do. We’ll let them have a think about it, and hopefully this week they will be finalised. We have put offers to all of them.

“Young Blake isn’t the finished article yet. He is still developing. Max Garcia, I really like him but he is also still developing as well. Jordan Tansey can play, we all know that. It is just fitting them all in with what we want.”

Aston has previously stated that he is looking for a squad of around 22, but has been helped through the start of the campaign with assistance from his dual-registration setup with St. Helens, whilst also taking Castleford pair Cory Aston and Garry Lo on one month loan deals.

Whilst the Eagles would be keen to keep hold of both Castleford prospects for longer, Aston is also wary of not falling short on numbers after losing three players to injury during Sunday’s defeat to Halifax.

The injuries to Shaun Pick, Jack Ashworth and Nabil Djalout aren’t thought to be serious, but the scare is a stark reminder to Aston that more bodies are required to cover a future eventuality.

“We are obviously also still looking to what else is available to us,” he added.

It is tough out there at the moment. There isn’t a great deal of players all jumping through the hoops to go anywhere. Every club is in the same position, all trying to find a little bit extra and we are no different.”