The St George Illawarra Dragons have reportedly handed Zane Musgrove, Jaiyden Hunt and Jayden Sullivan permission to negotiate with rival clubs.
The news comes as Shane Flanagan looks for a fast rebuild at the joint-venture ahead of his first season in charge.
Flanagan, who will arrive at the club for a third stint from November this time as a head coach following his previous employment at the Dragons as a recruitment consultant and assistant coach, has plenty of big decisions to make throughout the underperforming Dragons' roster.
One of those was which players to cut free, and News Corp are reporting that all of Musgrove, Hunt and Sullivan have been given permission to do just that.
Sullivan has already had interest from a number of clubs, and it comes as little surprise with the former SG Ball premiership winner at one stage seen as the future of the Dragons in the halfback role.
He has struggled to cement any position at NRL level though, stuck behind Ben Hunt and, for last season, Talatau Amone, before being thrust into the number six jumper this year.
The trio of potential releases from the Dragons would open their roster spots available to five. Zero Tackle analysis of every team for 2024 shows that, as it currently stands, the Red V have next to no wiggle room in their squad, with 28 players holding contracts for the 2024 season.
That was set to put the squeeze on which players the Dragons would be able to re-sign out of their currently off-contract players. Debutant Connor Muhleisen is one of those, while Billy Burns, Sione Finau, Tyrell Fuimaono, Nick Lui-Toso and Tautau Moga are also off-contract. That's without even discussing their development players, one of whom in Sione Fainu, has reportedly re-signed with the club according to the publication.
It's understood that the Melbourne Storm made a play at the youngster having lost him to the Dragons originally, but he has decided to stick at the Red V.
While he may be some time off a first-grade debut, the Dragons will also reportedly reach crunch time on Tyrell Sloan over the upcoming off-season as the club look for improvements, having played finals just twice since Wayne Bennett's departure at the end of 2011.
It's believed incoming coach Flanagan sees Zac Lomax as a potential option to play fullback, and the two will duel for the spot over the pre-season.
That also fails to take into account any possible return of Cody Ramsey, who has missed the entire 2023 season with illness but is still aiming for a comeback in 2024, and is contracted to the joint-venture until at least the end of next season.
Ramsey had won the rights to the number one jersey at the back-end of 2022 after some excellent performances, and Sloan, who has been rocks and diamonds at best for much of the year, has failed to rubber stamp his authority on the position.
