South Sydney head of football Shane Richardson has rejected notions the club is light on forwards, but admits they’re still holding out hope of getting Gold Coast star Jai Arrow early.

The Rabbitohs have been public in their wish to secure Arrow this season on top of the four-year deal he’s already signed from 2021, but their chances appeared to go up in smoke last week after Titans forward Ryan James ruptured his ACL.

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While Richardson admitted Arrow’s addition for 2020 would be “a huge bonus”, he said the club were well situated around recruitment and retention in coming seasons.

Round 19

Jai Arrow of the Titans has signed with the Rabbitohs from 2021. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images

“We’re in a really strong position for both this year and next year,” Richardson said via a Rabbitohs Q&A video.

“If we can get Jai this year, it’ll be a huge bonus for us, but if we don’t, we’ve still got the strength in the middle to cope with that, no doubt whatsoever.

“We’re very strong in 2021 and we’ll be gearing toward ‘22, ‘23 as part of our transition program and make sure everything’s in place.”

The Rabbitohs lost experienced campaigners Sam Burgess, George Burgess and John Sutton at the end of last season leading to concerns from fans over the club’s forward stocks.

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“Obviously Jai would be great if we can get him, but the reality is we’ve got some really good middles,” Richardson said.

“We’ve got Tom (Burgess), Junior Tatola, Liam Knight, Mark Nicholls, Tom Amone, they just go on and on … Cam Murray’s playing in the middle at the moment but where he plays this season is something for the coaches to decide.

“I think we’ve got really good depth. We’ve got a State of Origin backrower in Ethan Lowe. I think Jayd Su’A is going to be a State of Origin backrower. Cam Murray’s just a champion.

“We’ve got Keaon Koloamatangi who is coming on in leaps and bounds. He was probably our best forward in second grade until he broke down with injury last year.

“We’ve got guys like Kurt Dillon who missed a lot of football last year with injuries, so I think we’re in a good space with the depth in our forwards and we’ll be competitive this year.”

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While the club farewelled three mainstay forwards, plus a couple of handy backups in Kyle Turner and Dean Britt, a number of outside backs have instead been recruited in the off-season.

Richardson said the club made a conscious decision to recruit in that area following last year’s backline crisis when a number of stars were sidelined through injury which lead to players like Turner playing out of position.

Shane Richardson with Latrell Mitchell. (DAILY TELEGRAPH/Simon Bullard) Source: News Corp Australia

“Last year from the beginning we also felt we were light on outside backs and it proved to be correct because we were struggling at many stages during the season,” he said.

“We wanted to get some depth in the outside backs.

“We lost Adam Doueihi now but we replaced him with Latrell Mitchell so that’s a spot like-for-like.

“We’ve got some really quality depth in our backline now. A great backline needs quality depth and I think we’re in a really strong position.”

Richardson said the club would take its time filling the remaining spots on their roster for 2020.

“We’ve got two spots open at the moment,” he said.

“We don’t have to fill one until March 31 and then the second by June 30.

“Last year, a couple of players popped up which were pretty good for us so we’re just going to sit back, wait and see.

“We’ve got some good train and trialists and we’ll make that decision over the next few months.”