{"id":486402,"date":"2026-03-20T20:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T20:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/486402\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T20:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T20:03:15","slug":"leeds-rhinos-recruitment-update-as-search-for-mikolaj-oledzki-replacement-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/486402\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds Rhinos recruitment update as search for Mikolaj Oledzki replacement begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Leeds\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Leeds Rhinos are \u201clooking at every option\u201d as their search begins to replace England forward Mikolaj Oledzki.<\/p>\n

The front-rower announced this week he will leave the club at the end of the current campaign to take up a three-year deal with new NRL outfit Perth Bears, alongside Leeds teammates Harry Newman and James McDonnell.<\/p>\n

Oledzki was contracted at Leeds until the end of 2028 \u2013 under terms signed in January last year \u2013 and, with Keenan Palasia and Cooper Jenkins both having penned new deals in pre-season, Rhinos\u2019 front-row situation appeared to have been settled for the next few years.<\/p>\n

That has now changed and sporting director Ian Blease confirmed the club are on the look out for a new prop, along with a second-rower to take over from McDonnell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are collating lists for next year,\u201d Blease said. \u201cWe are not discounting anything. There\u2019s a whole host of names being thrown at me at the moment and it wouldn\u2019t be right to comment on any of them, but with Mik leaving and potential gaps in the squad going forward, we are looking at every option, both in the UK and abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blease added: \u201cWe obviously now need a prop, but with Mik, that has just happened this week so we are at the very beginning of it all. But we are always on the look out and in contact with agents and we\u2019ll go through it methodically and hopefully out of that comes a couple of decent players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resolving stand-off Brodie Croft\u2019s future is also high on Rhinos\u2019 to-do list. The Australian was Man of Steel in 2022 and joined Leeds from Salford Red Devils at the end of the following season on a three-year contract.<\/p>\n

He and reigning Man of Steel Jake Connor are the only two experienced halves in Rhinos\u2019 current squad. Leeds\u2019 management have high hopes for George Brown, who has played three times so far this term, but at 19 he is still seen as one for the future and a replacement will be needed if Croft decides to move on.<\/p>\n

A new deal for the 28-year-old would be a major boost and Blease said: \u201cWe are in negotiations with Brodie and his agent so hopefully we can look at him staying, but that is up to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hull FC under pressure, Huddersfield Giants in crisis and shock Super League predictions \u2013 click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds Rhinos are \u201clooking at every option\u201d as their search begins to replace England forward Mikolaj Oledzki. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-486402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}