MINOR premiers St George Illawarra face being torn apart by the salary cap, with more than $2.5 million worth of talent off contract this season.

Worrying signs ... 16 Dragons stars will come of contract this season. Source: The Sunday Telegraph

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal coach Wayne Bennett faces the onerous assignment of negotiating new deals for 16 of his top 28 players.

It means today’s trial in Perth against Parramatta is virtually the start of a job interview for the bulk of the St George Illawarra squad.

Heading the star-studded list are captain Ben Hornby, Dally M five-eighth of the year Jamie Soward, NSW Origin prop Michael Weyman, Queensland Origin forward Neville Costigan and Kiwi international Jason Nightingale.

Further complicating the puzzle, emerging forwards Matt Prior, Jarrod Saffy, Michael Greenfield, Trent Merrin and Nick Emmett are free agents.

Dragons chief executive Peter Doust stressed the high number of players on the open market was always part of the club’s second-year plan under Bennett and labelled the process “a 365-day mosaic”.

“The roster is a work in progress activity that is conducted 365 days a year, it never stops or starts,” Doust said. “I’m happy with the way the progress is coming along, but I’ve got nothing to report of significance at this point in time.

“It’s fair to say that when Wayne joined the club we took steps at that time to sign people for periods of time – one, two or three years. And we recognised that there would be a couple coming off (contract) in year two. So it doesn’t concern us, but it’s just part of the process of managing your roster.

“There’s days gone by when we’ve had as many if not more coming off contract, when we had Luke Bailey, Jason Ryles, Mark Gasnier and Matt Cooper. You’ve just got to keep all of the elements of the puzzle moving forward so that you can fit it together as you need to make it all work under the cap.

“They all fit within the mosaic.”

From the team who hoisted the JJ Giltinan Shield last September, Wendell Sailor, Justin Poore and Chase Stanley have moved on.

The Dragons have opened talks with captain Hornby, with Bennett meeting agent George Mimis twice in the past three weeks.

Under NRL rules, rival clubs are free to approach off-contract players before round 13 provided the current club is given final right of reply on any offer tabled.

Asked about the prospect of Gasnier returning to the club, Doust said: “We were very unhappy that Gaz elected to use a clause in his contract but we understood why during 2008.

“If he was to be interested in coming back to rugby league then we would certainly be interested in talking to him.”