The Warriors have made no formal approaches to any Melbourne Storm players in the wake of the salary cap scandal – but it's thought they do have room under their 2010 cap for another marquee signing.
But while the club has admitted an interest in Storm prop Adam Blair, its priority now is retaining centre Brent Tate, who played his 150th NRL game against North Queensland last night.
The Warriors have no offers on the table to any other players.
Sources told the Star-Times that Tate's former club Brisbane, suggested earlier this year as a potential suitor, hasn't made an offer, and is still waiting on a decision from Israel Folau on his future before investigating other backline options.
Even if Brisbane did want Tate, it is unlikely to match the Warriors financially, with Tate's current contract with the club understood to be worth $400,000 a season.
That leaves the Warriors with breathing space to consider their next move, and they are not rushing into any more recruitment decisions after last week's signings of Feleti Mateo and Krisnan Inu from Parramatta – as predicted by the Sunday Star-Times.
"We're not actively in the market: at the moment, we are not looking at anyone else," said Warriors recruitment manager Dean Bell. However, when pressed about the Warriors' desire to pick up another frontrower, Bell admitted: "I wouldn't rule that one out, especially with losing Pricey [the retiring Steve Price], but we've got to prioritise what we think we need and we won't really know until we make a decision on the ones we currently have off-contract."
The Warriors have 10 players off-contract, but with Tate consuming the biggest chunk of their salary cap, it would make sense to resolve his future first.
Price is among the other nine, with the other big-earners in that list being second row Jacob Lillyman and halfback Brett Seymour, with the club holding options on both, as well as on prop Jeremy Latimore and backrow Ukuma Ta'ai. The others off contract are frontrow Jesse Royal and fringe players Mike Afioga, Alehana Mara and James Gavet, none of whom have yet played first grade. It seems increasingly unlikely Royal and Lillyman will be retained.
"We're currently in negotiations with his [Tate's] agent, with a view to re-signing him," said Bell.
"We've been told [other clubs are interested] but we don't worry too much about what's happening at other clubs. We've just got to make sure everything fits for us."
The Warriors met on Friday to discuss their off-contract players and will talk again next week ahead of a round 13 deadline on having first chance to re-sign their own players.
They also intend to promote at least two under-20s players to full-time contracts, with Bell nominating Wellington hooker Matthew Robinson and ex-rugby wing Ivan Penehe as leading contenders.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/3702762/Warriors-not-in-race-for-Storm-cast-offs
