Barrow Raiders believe they are due compensation for centre Stargroth Amean, who is set to join PNG Hunters after he announced he wouldn’t be returning to the club.

Papua New Guinea international Amean cited family reasons for staying in his homeland after becoming a key figure in his one and only season with the Raiders, who had actually booked his flight back to England for him before he told them his decision.

He is now believed to be on the brink of joining the Hunters, who play in the Queensland Cup in what is the second tier of Australian rugby league, despite him being technically still under contract with Barrow.

It is for that reason that his now former club are looking to be reimbursed, as the money would also come in handy when it comes to looking for Amean’s replacement.

Head coach Paul Crarey said: “We can’t do anything about it and it happens at every single club - it’s nothing new that somebody drops out at the last minute or decide they don’t want to play, or whatever.

“But it’s a big blow because we’d paid for his flights, paid for visas and we’d given him more time when he wanted more time with his family, and now he’s gone.

“We don’t know whether the Hunters have signed him, but it’s all over Facebook, so I don’t know how that can work, with him being contracted to us. Whether they pay us a fee I don’t know.

“I think Steve [Neale] has been in touch with the RFL about that, but we’ve been left real short by his decision not to come.

"I just think that if he’s going to sign for another club then I think we should be compensated for the amount of effort that we’ve put in and the money that we’ve outlaid.”