Super League clubs have spent the weekend pondering their recruitment options as the saga surrounding Salford Red Devils continues to play out. On Wednesday, clubs were updated on Salford's current plight and were encouraged to start putting offers in for their players in anticipation of a fire sale.

There has been no update issued to clubs since then, with neither Salford or the Rugby Football League providing an update at time of publication. The Reds had a meeting with investors on Friday afternoon and discussions regarding the club's next steps have continued to take place over the weekend.

One of the key points raised about a potential fire sale was that salary cap and quota dispensations would be considered. Clubs have been told informally that a meeting regarding those dispensations will likely take place at the start of next week, though no official date or time has been set as it stands.

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But with Salford seemingly moving closer and closer to an exodus, clubs have been considering their options and a number of potential moves have been speculated. Rugby League Live has revealed Hull FC's interest in Deon Cross and Marc Sneyd while Castleford Tigers are keen on Jack Ormondroyd.

Elsewhere, Love Rugby League revealed that Hull KR were among the clubs keen on Nene Macdonald while also suggesting Leeds Rhinos had lodged an interest in securing a return for Kallum Watkins.

And while on the face of it, dispensations provide a golden opportunity for clubs to enhance their squad beyond the usual restrictions, it's not quite that simple and any deals done have to come with extensive consideration. That's because if dispensations are to be approved they are only likely to remain in place for this season only.

So taking Rovers' reported interest in Macdonald as an example, they could add him to their squad for the coming season with no implications. But come 2026, he would then take up one of their quota spots and his salary would also need to be factored into their salary cap. That, on the face of it, would leave Rovers in a tricky position, given CEO Paul Lakin admitted in a Q&A with Hull Live that the club was already feeling salary cap pressures.

Rovers do have quota players off-contract at the end of the season in Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Tyrone May and Sauaso Sue and if they were to depart, it would free up salary cap space too. But on the flip side, you would suspect that if they were to leave, the Robins would want direct replacements. Macdonald, an outside back, isn't an obvious replacement for any of them.

Similarly, Leeds never replaced Rhyse Martin so their interest in Watkins isn't particularly surprising. But they too are all-but up to salary cap right now and also going through a process of retaining players, with Mikolaj Oledzki the most recent to put pen to paper.

Signing Watkins would be problematic now but it would almost certainly have an impact on their plans for 2026, and all of those recruitment strategies need to be considered and potentially altered if they are to do a deal for Watkins now.

Clearly, those problems don't apply to clubs who have salary cap space or quota spots, but for clubs that don't have luxury, the dispensations aren't quite the free hit many believe they may be.

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