Wests Tigers set to up the ante in their pursuit of three off-contract stars
With cash to burn following the double departures of star forwards Ben Matulino and Ryan Matterson, the Wests Tigers have set their sights on three of the biggest names on the player market.
The club announced the immediate release of Matterson, following the ugly fallout from his contract dispute, as well as the retirement on medical grounds of veteran front-rower Matulino on Thursday.
Widespread reports from Friday revealed that the Tigers now have close to $2 million of spare salary cap space to spend after star centre Esan Marsters was also allowed to join the North Queensland Cowboys recently.
Following a year where new coach Michael Maguire was able to transform the side into a defensive force in his first season, the premiership-winning mentor has set his sights on turning the Tigers into a finals threat in 2020.
As such, the club have been strongly linked to Titans star lock Jai Arrow, who they've reportedly already met with.
And The Australian's Brent Read told Triple M on Friday, the Tigers have set their sights on two other big stars to fill major holes in their roster.
"The blokes they've been talking about for a long time are Jai Arrow and AJ Brimson, the two blokes from the Gold Coast," Read explained.
"Arrow's had permission to talk to other clubs for a while now. They're desperate for a fullback and they'd love a bit more strength in their back row.
"The other guy that everyone's talking about is Tyson Frizell. Parramatta looks like they're going to sign Ryan Matterson, perhaps they'll drop off Tyson Frizell, and suddenly it becomes Souths or the Wests Tigers for Tyson Frizell, if he decides he wants to leave the Dragons.
"Arrow, Brimson, Frizell - they're the big ones for the Wests Tigers."
Read further highlighted that the Tigers would find it hard to recruit players for next season, given most of the top talent on the market are still contracted to their respective clubs in 2020.
However, he confirmed they're in a strong position to significantly bolster their roster for 2021 and beyond.
"They're going to find it very hard to spend that money for next season. What they could potentially do is pay some blokes forward, [which] gives them more money for the year after, [and] puts them in a position to go really hard at some guys in 2021," Read said.
It's going to be hard in 2020 because there's not a lot of blokes out there that are currently on the market"
https://www.sportingnews.com/au/leag...71ch3pxgvhh9di
