Salford coach confirms fresh departure as Nene Macdonald future addressed
Salford coach Paul Rowley has addressed speculation some of his players refused to play on Sunday.
Salford Red Devils coach Paul Rowley has confirmed that Tim Lafai will be leaving the club to return to Australia: but he hopes Nene Macdonald will remain.
Lafai is one of several players linked with an exit from the Red Devils following their high-profile and well-documented financial situation.
And Rowley has confirmed that he leaves with Salford’s best wishes to return Down Under to be with his family. He was in attendance on Thursday night but will leave in the coming days.
“I knew that for a little bit now,” Rowley said.
“His family is back home and at the back end of last year that was the plan, for them to stay home and we almost knew that wouldn’t end well. He goes with our best wishes.
“We thank him because he’s been good for us, and we’ve been good for him. But we’ve got Nene Macdonald, Esan Marsters and Chris Hankinson: we’re alright there.”
However, Rowley stressed that he wants Macdonald to remain amidst growing speculation of a departure.
He said: “He’s trained all week. It’s just cap space.”
When asked how Salford fit him back into their plans, he said: “We fulfil our obligations and have our cap raised or take two players out.. God knows.”
Rowley was quick to praise the impact of pivots Chris Atkin and Jayden Nikorima after the game.
“Chris Atkin is a senior player and while you speak about other halves with certain attributes, Chris has been a quiet achiever for a long time. He built his game on defence and both of them complemented each other very well.”
“The group has been great. There’s so much noise around them but they’ve been good pros. They’ve done the job and they’ve been consistent in their actions. You can’t control distractions because they take your focus off the job at hand.
There was a blow for Salford though, Harvey Wilson failed a HIA against the Giants – ruling him out of next week’s game.
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