Leeds Rhinos identify new sporting director with Salford Red Devils man lined up for role

Leeds Rhinos are close to completing a deal to make Ian Blease their new sporting director. Rugby League Live can reveal that Salford Red Devils’ Director of Rugby & Operations have been identified as their top target and are expected to secure an imminent deal.

Blease, who held the role at Salford for over seven years, has been credited with overseeing a highly successful recruitment period at the Reds during a time when the club regularly signed players on free transfers and sold them on considerable fees.

Over the years Salford have sold the likes of Gareth O’Brien, Ben Murdoch-Masila, Jackson Hastings, Tyler Dupree, Brodie Croft and Andy Ackers. However, during his time with the Reds, Salford regularly competed at the right end of the table, reaching two major finals despite being one of the lowest spending clubs in the competition.

This has attracted the attention of the Rhinos, who are understood to have made Blease their priority after announcing their intentions to appoint a Sporting Director, a role which will see him oversee the club’s entire rugby department.

According to a club statement, the sporting director “will oversee the operation of Rugby League, providing leadership for the coaching and playing staff in line with the club’s strategy and vision, managing salary cap compliance, recruiting and retaining players and staff and youth. development and medical departments’.

Blease has a long association with Salford, playing almost 250 times for the club in the 80s and 90s. Before taking up his role with Salford in 2016, he worked on the other side of recruitment as an agent.

His immediate objective will be to oversee an improvement at first-team level, with the Rhinos currently outside the play-offs despite a strong off-season recruitment drive which ironically included the signings of Croft and Ackers at Salford.