Albury has continued its busy off-season.

By far the most prolific mover in Group Nine so far, the Thunder have made another change to their roster.

However it isn’t all good news with Shannon Rupapere heading back to Queensland Cup side Mackay Cutters.

Rupapere added a real creative spark when he returned from injury midway through the season.

Albury president Rick O’Connell admitted it would be a loss for the side, but confirmed they are in the market for another playmaker.

“At this stage I think we are just going to go with what we have available in terms on homegrown talent,” he said.

“Hopefully that is good enough for us.”

Triple premiership winner with the club and former coach Ben Jeffery already has returned to the border after two seasons as Kangaroos coach and will help limit Rupapere’s loss.

It comes after the Thunder brought on English prop Brad Nicholson and Bombala forward Luke Ingram to help boost their impact up the middle of the park.

“It will add a bit more up front so we can get the go forward and hopefully our backs can work off the back of that,” O’Connell said.

The Thunder have also lost Jon Huggett (overseas) and Joe Silafau (retired) from the team who finished seventh in Adrian Purtell’s first year as captain-coach.

However they were much more competitive than the ladder position suggests with eight of their 10 losses by 10 points or less and they trashed eventual premiers Gundagai 48-16 in the last round of the season.

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