DEREK BEAUMONT has revealed that the Leigh Leopards are up to the salary cap for 2024 as of now.
The Leopards brought in Brad Dwyer from Warrington Wolves on a permanent deal earlier this month, but it’s unlikely that any more potential recruits will head through the doors at the Leigh Sports Village unless there is movement in Adrian Lam’s side.
That being said, recruitment and retention never stops and Beaumont has revealed that work is continuing for 2025.
“The salary cap is restricting us somewhat now, the little bit of a buffer we had we used on Brad Dwyer. So, we are pretty much capped up,” Beaumont told Leopards TV.
“Chezzy (Chris Chester, Leigh’s head of rugby) is active in recruiting for next year and squad retention of those that are coming up that we want to retain before the 1 May deadline.
“He is very busy, we have got an injury there to Gaz O’Brien at fullback which is a key area and it is a bit disruptive putting our six there. That is something we have been going on with.
“It was widely spoken about Tristan Sailor and David Armstrong which has been ongoing but with Kalyn Ponga suffering a long-term injury, that kind of scuppers that.”
During his time as Leigh owner, Beaumont has overseen a number of deals signed, sealed and delivered. But it’s a deal that he wasn’t involved in that continued a clause that he has described as the “weirdest” one he has seen.
“You can only use an official RFL clause bank, if a clause didn’t exist in there then there isn’t much chance of it being successful or getting in there,” Beaumont continued.
“We’ve got an issue with one at the moment where an agent wanted to make a decision irrespective of what the player was saying which clearly wasn’t acceptable.
“The weirdest one wasn’t one of mine but I found it in a contract that if the head coach left then the player would be allowed to leave which was widely reported at the time as Paul Rowley and Ryan Brierley.
“That was probably the strangest one and it isn’t one I would have agreed to but it was agreed to at the time.”
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