TONY SMITH has spoken about Hull FC star Jack Brown’s future at the Super League club after he was linked with a move away.
Rugby League Live reported earlier in the week that Brown was a wanted man with a number of Super League sides keen on bringing in the talented forward.
For Smith, however, he linked the story to mere transfer speculation, insisting that the club will be talking to Brown about extending his deal which runs out at the end of the season.
“We’ll talk to Jack along the way. That’s his manager’s job, to get his name in the news and you guys oblige – you like those sort of stories. So it’s a good marketing tool,” Smith told BBC Radio Humberside.
“We’ll keep talking to Jack and helping to improve Jack and I thought he played one of his stronger games last week for us. His manager probably wouldn’t have said too much if he had a bit of a stinker this week. Now there are clubs interested in him, of course.
“Any player that’s off contract for next year with a manager, their managers are talking to other clubs. That’s from every club. So if you want to go through the list of all the players who are off-contract in our place, their managers are talking to clubs elsewhere.
“All the players that are off contract at every other club are talking to us about their players who are off contract and then you guys go back and say to their club, ‘The reports are that Hull are interested in’ etc. That’s just how it works.
“We could go through each one of our off-contract players and say that there’s clubs interested in for next year. We’ll work through it and we’ll offer contracts accordingly. Some we’re going be able to keep, some we won’t, and some we’ll want to and some we won’t.”
Hull FC have 16 players out of contract at the end of the season with the likes of Tex Hoy, Joe Cator and Cam Scott amongst them.
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