SHEFFIELD EAGLES coach Mark Aston says the club will be in a far better position to compete in the Championship next season.
Last year the club was scrambling around for players well into the close-season, with Aston away at the World Cup with Ireland and uncertainty over their home ground.
But now the Eagles boss is well down the line with plans for his 2019 squad and work to build a new stand at the Olympic Legacy Park is set to start early next year.
Aston said: “We’re massively in front as a club, both on and off the field. “We’re in a lot better place all round now.
“I said at the beginning of this year that this season would be all about staying in the Championship, and we’re close to confirming that.
“The stadium won’t be completed when we start next year but it should be by the finish, and we then need to make sure we’ve got a decent squad in place to move into a brand new stadium at the start of 2020.
“We’re looking at a much better pre-season and season next year.”
American international Cory Makelin – among more than half a dozen Eagles players already contracted for next year – could be out for the remainder of this season with a shoulder injury.
