Tumut unveils first recruit as they look to cover heavy losses

After losing some of the best players in the competition, including former Weissel Medal winner Lachlan Bristow, reigning best and fairest winner Jacob Sturt, premiership-winning co-coach Adam Pearce and representative forward Michael Fenn, Tumut coach Zac Masters is pleased to have Danilczak on board.

Joining Tumut from Canberra Raiders Cup outfit Yass, Masters believes Danilczak will be a boost to Tumut's forward pack.

"He's a big forward, not a massive unit or anything like that but a real hard worker and can certainly add a fair bit to our pack," Masters said.

"He's played quite a bit with the Raiders in the junior system and went back to Yass to play first grade when he was 18 and has been playing first grade there ever since."

Danilczak made contact with Blues utility Jacob Toppin after the pair played together at Yass in 2018.

The former Canberra Raiders junior product was looking for a change and the Blues were more than happy to welcome him to the club.

"It's been well documented we've had a lot of boys leave and not many wins in the off-season so far but it's good to finally get one," Masters said.

"We've got a good, young squad with some boys coming through reserve grade and under 18s and hopefully we can develop them into full-time first graders.

"Just having Kyle will add to that.

"We're still looking and hopefully we can add a few more pieces to the puzzle and we will certainly be competitive."

While most of Tumut's losses were expected the Blues were surprised by star fullback Mitch Ivill's switch back to rugby union after being installed as co-coach of Tumut in Southern Inland.

With six players set to be missing from last year's grand final side before Ivill's news, Masters admitted it was a tough one to take.

"That one hurt a little bit when Mitch said he wanted to leave as obviously he's been a massive part of what we've done over the last few years," he said.

"He's really come into his own as one of the better fullbacks in the competition.

"Mitch was a Tumut Bulls junior, he came across to league when he was 16 years old and his reasons for going back I can certainly understand, he wants to go back and lead his junior club to a little bit of success as well.

"By no means is there any grudges there, Mitch is a great fella, we're great mates and he's doing something that means a lot to him.

"Obviously it would have been nice to have him out the back this year but we've got a few fellas there that can possibly fill that role as well."

However Ivill admitted he didn't want to stay at the club just because they had lost some much of their premiership side.

Instead he's hoping to guide the Bulls to their first.

"I thought about it quite a lot but I think in the end, not that I would be staying out of pity for the Blues, but I thought I've only got a few more years left of footy and I wanted to finish off what I want to do," he said.

"I had a good few years with the Blues, don't get me wrong, and I had a big chat to Zac before making my decision, but I thought to finish off my career this would be the cherry on top if I could pull this one out of the bag."