The Story Of 2023
Having made the playoffs and been one game away from Old Trafford in 2022 the Red Devils just missed out on the post season party last term.
They finished seventh, just two points behind Warrington who claimed sixth spot and the final ticket for the end of season dance. Paul Rowley’s side had a record that American analysts annoyingly refer to as below 500, winning 13 and losing 14 of their 27 regular season games. There’s a good argument that any team which loses more games than it wins throughout the campaign does not deserve to extend their season, however close they get in terms of points on the table.
That win one, lose one pattern was followed slavishly in the first eight rounds. An opening week win at Leigh was quickly followed by defeats at home to Hull KR and at Warrington before the Salford of 2022 made a brief appearance in running in 60 points at Hull FC. A one-point win over Wakefield was less impressive but there was much to be encouraged by in a 20-16 loss at Wigan in the final league outing of March.
A home loss to Huddersfield wasn’t a great way to start April but then a spell of consistency was finally found with four wins in a row as Leigh, Castleford, Catalans and Leeds were all defeated. Saints ended that run with a 26-12 home win in mid-May, but success against both Hull clubs and Castleford had Salford on a run of seven wins in eight games.
A 26-6 loss to Wigan brought the Red Devils back down to Earth without really giving cause for panic. It was only when they were unceremoniously dumped 32-6 at soon to be relegated Wakefield that alarm bells may have begun to ring. Salford had gone out of the Challenge Cup to Rovers a week before that Wigan loss so had only the playoffs to play for. Yet you might not have sensed that motivation was present as Leeds, Leigh, Catalans and Saints all inflicted league defeats on Salford in a wretched spell throughout July and into August.
The break offered by the Challenge Cup final weekend refreshed Rowley’s men enough to record wins over Huddersfield and Wakefield but they soon ran into Wigan again and went down 26-8. It was a third league loss to Matty Peet’s side. It preceded a 24-20 win over Warrington which offered a sniff of the top six but the 2019 Grand Finalists produced a shocker of a performance in losing 12-0 to Hull KR in their next assignment. A final day 19-8 loss at home to Catalans meant that Rowley and his men would spend the winter reflecting on what might have been.
The 2024 Recruits
The three-quarter line at the AJ Bell Stadium could have a different look to it in 2024. There are some departing stalwarts in that area as we will see so in come Ethan Ryan from Hull KR and Nene McDonald from Leeds Rhinos. Twenty-seven year-old Ryan didn’t always feature for the Robins in his four seasons there but he still managed to score at a rate of better than one in two with 23 tries in 42 games. Meanwhile MacDonald can destroy any defence if he is on his game but the former Leigh man - who has racked up almost a century of NRL appearances across spells with five clubs - has a tendency to go missing. Both figuratively and literally.
Stand-off Cade Cust and back rower Joe Shorrocks struggled to hold down a regular place in Wigan’s title-winning team but could still be useful acquisitions. Cust is still only 25 and it should be remembered that he made semi-regular appearances for Manly in the NRL for three seasons before joining Wigan. He eventually lost his place there with the emergence of Harry Smith and the need to accommodate both Bevan French and Jai Field in the side.
Shorrocks spent some time on loan at Leigh last season but has made 72 appearances for Wigan since 2019. That’s not an awful record given that the Warriors’ back row has included the likes of Liam Farrell and the NRL-bound trio of Kai Pearce-Paul, John Bateman and Morgan Smithies at different points.
Another ex-Wigan man is Joe Mellor. The halfback was part of Leigh Leopards’ sensational 2023 campaign which brought Challenge Cup glory and a playoff berth. He will add great experience to the midfield after the seismic loss of Brodie Croft and his eight-year contract. More on him later. For now the ex-Warrior theme doesn’t stop there as centre Chris Hankinson jumps on board after spending last year in the Championship with Featherstone on the back of a year in Super League with Toulouse in 2022. Hankinson is a useful goal-kicker, and is certain to be needed at some point during the year if MacDonald has anything to do with it.
Salford have also added a couple of promising former academy products from two of Super League’s bigger fish. Eighteen year-old halfback Kai Morgan arrives from Leeds Rhinos - though whether that was any sort of sweetener for the transfer of a certain ex-Man Of Steel in the opposite direction is doubtful.
Also arriving is Saints own Matty Foster. A back rower by trade he has struggled to make an impact at a club that is now decidedly back rower heavy and so a move away makes sense for the 22 year-old. His one and only first team opportunity came against Salford in October 2020 when Kristian Woolf’s young side suffered a 12-10 defeat which all but handed another League Leaders Shield to Wigan. Not that it worked out all that well for Adrian Lam’s team at Old Trafford a month later.
Foster - who was further hampered by a double jaw break early in his Saints career - now has the opportunity to gain some valuable Super League experience albeit in a squad that looks weaker than it has been over the last two seasons.
So Who’s Out?
Only the best playmaker in the competition in the eyes of many. That’s right, despite his eight-year contract Croft will start a new chapter in his career east of the Pennines at Leeds Rhinos. There were those who said at the time of his unusual deal with Salford that it was a mere safety net for the Red Devils in order to at least receive some financial compensation upon his exit.
Seen in that light his departure was made more likely not less likely despite the fanfare which greeted the long term deal. The Headingley club will be his fourth in eight years including his spells with Melbourne and Brisbane in the NRL. However it materialised, Croft’s exit is a massive blow. The 2022 Steve Prescott Man Of Steel was hugely influential and his creativity brought out the best in the supporting cast as Salford often dazzled in his two seasons at the AJ Bell.
Also heading for Leeds is hooker Andy Ackers. Such has been the form of the 30 year-old he made it all the way into Shaun Wane’s England squad for the World Cup at the end of 2022. Ackers is a consistent performer but now he will have to do it at a club where success is expected rather than hoped for.
Now about those wingers I mentioned. Welsh international Rhys Williams is now 34 and moves down a division to join Swinton Lions. His tally of only 18 tries in 55 appearances in Salford colours is surprisingly low given the attention he often attracted. If we’re talking about the loss of a major try-scoring contributor then Ken Sio may leave a bigger hole. He has managed 78 tries in 102 appearances for the club since 2019.
He played in the Grand Final defeat to Saints that year but unlike Williams he missed out on appearing at Wembley a year later when Salford were edged out by Leeds in the Challenge Cup final. The man who scored 22 tries in 2022 - more than anyone in Super League that year except Bevan French - has been released by Salford on compassionate grounds.
Which might not have been quite as much of a downer had Joe Burgess still been around. The former Wigan man was also released but for very different reasons. Details are still sketchy but a club statement accused him of not meeting club standards. Read into that what you will. It didn’t faze Hull KR who snapped him up almost immediately. They’re getting a player who was once thought good enough for the NRL and who scored over 100 tries in two spells at Wigan.
In other departure news two thirtysomething back rowers drop down to the Championship. Danny Addy has joined Featherstone Rovers while James Greenwood is now with Barrow. Matty Costello signed professional terms with Saints at 16 but only made 26 appearances before moving to Salford in 2020. The centre never really established himself with the Red Devils either. He joins Greenwood at the Raiders for 2024.
What’s The Expectation?
Not that high really. There’s been a lot of negative talk around the Red Devils. Most observers seem to feel that 2024 could be a slog, and that a bottom three finish is a more likely outcome than another playoff push. If there’s anyone happy about the farcical situation London Broncos find themselves in thanks to IMG gradings then it is probably Salford and their fans.
What Will Really Happen?
Despite the loss of a lot of quality Salford still have good players. Ryan Brierley, Tim Lafai and Deon Cross were instrumental in the free-flowing style which got Paul Rowley’s side to within one step of Old Trafford in 2022, while if you want a halfback to control a game with his kicking game there are few better than Marc Sneyd. Cust - a Challenge Cup winner in 2022 - will likely partner the former Hull FC man.
Up front Brad Singleton and Kallum Watkins are veterans of successful sides while back rower Sam Stone has NRL experience with both Newcastle Knights and Gold Coast Titans.
The doom mongering is probably due to a perceived lack of depth in the squad compared with some of the main contenders. A 52-10 friendly walloping by Saints did little to shift the mood. If they can get lucky with injuries the Red Devils are still a capable outfit. If not - and with confidence already looking a bit flimsy - those bottom three predictions could be accurate.
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