Chief says Leeds Rhinos 'still in the market' for signings after landing Brodie Croft and Andy Ackers

Hetherington has described this week’s double swoop for Salford Red Devils half-back Brodie Croft and hooker Andy Ackers as “the biggest single investment in players the club has made since the signing of Iestyn Harris 26 years ago”.

The transfer fees are undisclosed, but Salford say the money they received for Croft is a club record and Hetherington confirmed Rhinos have made a “significant investment” in the two players.

The latest arrivals take Rhinos’ number of signings for next year to six, after full-back Lachie Miller (Newcastle Knights), centre Paul Momirovski (Sydney Roosters) and half-back Matt Frawley (Canberra Raiders) from the NRL and Super League forward Mickael Goudemand (Catalans Dragons).

Hetherington stressed: “We are still in the market, still looking at refining certain positions in the squad, but the major signings have all been made now.”

Looking back on the process of rebuilding Rhinos’ side for 2024, Hetherington insisted: “Since the beginning of the year it has been a very exhaustive search, particularly in the NRL.

“Our due diligence now is probably greater than at any other time, in terms of the information and feedback we get, not only on players’ abilities, but also their desire, character and influence within the group.

“They are all key components which we absolutely need to get right and obviously [coach] Rohan Smith is at the head of all that.”

The signings of Croft and Ackers came less than two weeks after Rhinos announced a multi-million pound partnership with AMT Auto, who have acquired naming rights at Headingley Rugby Stadium for the next 15 years.

And earlier this week main backers Leeds Building Society extended their sponsorship of the club, which began in 2007, for another three seasons, until the end of 2026.

Both deals have given Rhinos a financial boost at what Hetherington admitted is a “challenging” time and the money is being invested in improvements on and off the field.

“All sports clubs, not just in rugby league, are challenged,” the Leeds chief admitted. “It is a challenging environment.

“The central distributions will be less than they have been in the past and the costs have all significantly increased. Our energy bill, for example, has gone up by £300,000.

“Every one of us is challenged, but we believe we have the potential to attract even more fans and corporate sponsors to our business and organisation.

“We are very much ‘team Rhinos’ - it’s not just the men’s team, but also the women’s and wheelchair and disability teams.

“It is very much a family affair and we are looking at improving all aspects of our operation and in particular, all aspects of our performance.”

The chief conceded: “This year’s performance, coming eighth in Super League, clearly was a disappointment. The time to reflect on all that is the end of the season and that exercise has been done very thoroughly and has thrown up quite a number of areas that need to improve throughout our operation.

“All those areas have been addressed and I am pretty confident we will have a very well-functioning rugby league operation going forward.”