Rhyse Martin: Leeds Rhinos star pledges to secure new long-term contract

The goal-kicking second-rower joined Rhinos from Canterbury Bulldogs midway through 2019 and signed a new one-year deal three months ago.

He admitted “last year probably wasn’t my best year”, but insisted: “I’m just backing myself this season to perform well and hopefully get something a bit longer at the end of this year.

“I do love the club - I do love Leeds, but we need to win games and hopefully win the big thing at the end and that will help my cause.”

Martin will have added competition for his place in 2022, with James Bentley having been signed from St Helens and Morgan Gannon now established as a first-team forward.

“Ganno is a young superstar, he has got the makings to be great,” Martin said. “He’s learning and he’s a really good, hard-working trainer so he’s pushing for a spot in the team.

“Bentley’s another top player so the pressure is on to get those spots and it’s just making everyone else a better player.”

Bentley will be alongside Alex Mellor in the second-row on Sunday when Rhinos face Wakefield Trinity in the Wetherby Whaler Festive Challenge. Martin is not included in Leeds’ initial 22-man squad, but is keen to see how Leeds’ new half-backs Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer perform.

“They have settled in nice,” Martin said of the duo, who played together for a spell at Canberra Raiders in 2018.

“As a combination they look really crisp. We’re still building into the pre-season and getting into our structures and processes, but they are doing really well - they look exciting.”

Martin added: “Just from what we’ve seen at training already, they haven’t done too much teamwork, but we’ve done a few bits and it looks flowy and nice.

“It’s exciting, another year now and hopefully a normal one where we can prepare properly for games and not have the short breaks. Hopefully it’ll be a successful year for us.”

Of Martin’s omission from Sunday’s team, a club spokesman said he has a “minor injury [and is] not being risked”.

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