Widnes coach Allan Coleman has called on the club to strengthen his squad, after three recent departures from the DCBL Stadium.
Australian utility Cameron Brown and youngsters Reagan Sumner and Adam Jones have all left in recent weeks without featuring in a competitive game this season.
Brown immediately headed to Cumbrian side Whitehaven, while Sumner and Jones have also both ended up in League 1 with Swinton.
That has left the Widnes squad down to 24 in number – and that includes long-term absentees Jordan Johnstone and Lewis Hall.
For the cup game against Warrington, Joe Edge, Liam Kirk, Aiden Doolan and Brett Bailey were the only others, apart from 18th man Rhys Williams, that didn’t feature.
Speaking after the Wolves game, Coleman said: “Hopefully we can get a couple in now. We’ve hopefully got some pennies in the bank.”
As well as the three that left recently, Mackenzie Buckley departed in the off-season without playing a game, while Max Wood and Alfie Johnson have both featured on dual-registration from Warrington.
The smallest squad in the Championship
In light of those departures, Coleman’s comments after the Batley game perhaps came as a surprise to fans.
He said: “We desperately need some reinforcements. We need some bodies in. We need challenging in certain positions. I’ve got no competition in any department and that’s not great, because there are some players today, if there’s competition, I need to talk with them.
“But they know there’s no competition and I’m not throwing players under the bus. It’ll help them play better because when that competition is there, you’ve got that fight. I’ve got 21 fit lads and two of them are not really fit.”
Not standing in the way of players wanting to play
When pressed about the exits of Brown, Sumner and Jones, Coleman revealed he didn’t want to stand in their way in the search for regular playing time, with Widnes likely unable to afford to keep them and simply loan them out.
It’s one of the challenges brought about by the part-time player pool, as much as fans want to see squad depth – players want to play, and it makes little commercial sense for cash-strapped clubs to pay players who aren’t playing.
Coleman added: “They went just because they want to play. They’re young lads, they want to play rugby, it’s part of their development. I cant give them that, I cant guarantee them that, and so I’m certainly not stopping a young man from playing the sport that we all love.
“They go with my blessings. But we’ve got to do something somewhere. Somebody’s got to do something to get some bodies in.
“I think we’ve got to bring our own players in, we’ve got to strengthen. We’ve got the smallest squad in the championship, that says it all.”
What positions Coleman will look to remains to be seen. Centre appears to be the most obvious, and potentially some further dummy half cover for Fozard in the absence of Johnstone. More bodies in the pack is always a welcome.
However, the performance of his current squad against full-time Warrington is unlikely to aid the argument that he needs more bodies – they took the Super League side all the way in Saturday’s cup tie.
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