Newcastle Thunder have issued a major statement of intent after completing the signing of Liam Finn for the 2019 season.
As reported by League Express this week, the experienced halfback has agreed to join the League 1 club after an illustrious career that has seen him play for the likes of Wakefield and Castleford.
Finn, who has notched up almost 400 career games, is spending the end of the season on loan at Widnes from Wakefield, where he has spent the last two-and-a-half seasons.
The 34-year-old had held talks with Bradford among others, but he has agreed to join Thunder while continuing his coaching career at Wakefield.
“I’m not really ready to hang my boots up yet,” Finn said.
“Jason asked if I would be interested in coming to Newcastle and he sold the club to me, what he thought I would bring and what we could do together next season.
“In terms of my role, I’ll be looking to help control the team, help other people to play well and understand their roles and then move people around the field so they don’t have an awful lot to think about when they are playing.
“It’s not something that I’ve really done before, play outside the rugby league corridor so I started to get really excited about it and it is a fantastic opportunity to help some lads from outside the rugby league heartlands to improve and to try and help the club to where it wants to be.”
Payne added: “I’m delighted we’ve been able to sign Liam for 2019, he is exactly what we have been after for a while.
“He is an experienced half who can get us around the field and control the game for us and there’s no better than that than Liam. I genuinely believe that in terms of controlling a game, composure and decision making, all the vital parts of the game, he is still one of the best in Super League so we’re really lucky to have him and really excited for what he will bring.
“Getting him signed for next season has happened pretty quickly. Michael Carter and Chris Chester were both great when we went to speak to them about the possibility of getting Liam here, they were really good about it and understood if he wanted to carry on playing.”
