NEWCASTLE THUNDER are being inundated with players keen to join the League One club ahead of the 2024 season.
Thunder’s struggles have been well documented since the club withdrew and were then re-admitted to the third tier following financial issues.
However, the north east side now face a race against time to build a competitive squad for their 1895 Cup opener against York Knights on January 27.
That being said, Newcastle chairman Keith Christie has revealed that the club have been – and continue to be – in talks with a plethora of players, both in the UK and overseas.
“We’ve got a list of names agreed, quite a lot of lads agreed we are in talks with a few other guys and there is an opportunity for dual-registration with a couple of clubs – there is nothing official yet but we have had a good response,” Christie told League Express.
“We will be tapping into university students. We used quite a lot of students last year in terms of playing in the Championship and we have managed to retain a few of them. We have a couple of new guys in there too. The universities will be used in League One which I think is a suitable level for them.
“Chris Thorman (Thunder head coach) hasn’t stopped, both him and the medical team have been getting everything prepared. We got it official yesterday, but the Christmas period delayed a lot of things.
“We are full steam ahead at the minute and Chris has never stopped and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing ever.
“We have got players promoting themselves from overseas as well who are in contact with us and who we have relationships with so we do have options.
Newcastle go up against York Knights on January 27 – and Christie is just hoping that the club can be competitive.
“We think the 1895 Cup games we have will probably come too soon for us but we hopefully will have a team that will be competitive against York and Wakefield and we can concentrate on the league come March.
“We’ve got to be honest with each other, the game against York will come far too soon for us but the focus is to use it as a matchday experience, trial the matchday, trial the new players and get Chris to have a good look at what he is working with in a performance-based game.
“We are not going to face tougher teams than York or Wakefield so it will give us an idea of where we are, where our strengths and where our weaknesses are.”
Christie has revealed that Thunder will try and get just over 30 players in a competitive squad for the 2024 season.
“Ideally, we will have 30 to 33 players which will be based around having competitiveness so we can play 13 on 13 in training. That is realistic which will include dual-registration. We have got around 24, 25 players at the moment.
“We have got to understand which players we’ve got can step up to the mark and invest with the right attitude, make something of themselves and put on the shirt.
“There hopefully will be a lot of guys who want to do that but until we get them on the paddock, we don’t know.
“Standards aren’t going to drop, Chris’ standards aren’t going to drop, Chris’ expectations have to be managed properly and that’s being realistic.
“He will demand everything out of the players and so he should as he’s a professional coach.”
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