Vikings will have to do some digging for recruits (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Vikings will have to do some digging for recruits

2:38pm Wednesday 24th August 2011 in Vikings news By Mike Critchley

VIKINGS director of rugby Paul Cullen says the club will have to do a lot of “digging and delving” to recruit the calibre of player needed to make the team tick in the top flight.

Cullen was speaking after he revealed that the club had told the latest batch of players that they would not be getting Super League contracts for next season.

The remaining players will be told of their fate by the end of the week, which then opens up for the fourth phase of the exercise – further recruitment.

However, Cullen said the process is getting harder with quality players, in key positions, all nailed down by their respective clubs both here and in Australia.

Speaking of the latest players being released, without naming them, Cullen said: “So far we have made our decisions as professionally and as genuinely as we could do – it was never going to be pleasant.

“Phase four will be recruiting – but it is a bit like climbing Everest; the higher you get to the top, the air gets that little bit more refined and it becomes more difficult.”

With quality players in short supply in the 14-strong top flight, Vikings will find the going tough - especially since the strength of the Australian dollar has made England a less attractive proposition than it was three years ago.

Cullen said: “We are possibly four, five or even six players short of where we want to be. The more money you spend, the more you have to get it right.

“We are now talking about the key pivotal positions that the short term future of the club depends upon. These players are much harder to find.”

The club has a budget of around the £1.5m mark - but Vikings won’t simply splurge what is left of that cash.

“That money won’t be squandered. If we can’t find players to justify those salaries to reach those figures then it won’t be spent.

“The Widnes war chest will not be spent for the sake of spending it.

“If we consider the leading play makers in every NRL club and every Super League club you can guarantee every one of them is signed up on a two, three or even five-year deal.

“Finding those players in the current market is nigh on impossible and we will have to do a lot of digging and delving to see if we can free up players who are contracted at other clubs,” Cullen said.