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Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
84,160
Still think having Gutherson play hooker in attack while at fullback was one of the most bizarre coaching decisions I’ve seen.
That's because you're stuck in untested assumptions about player positions. The fact is fullback is only a position in defence, and dummy half is only a position in attack. There's no rule saying how the fullback needs to play in attack, or where the dummy half must play in defence. Any of your defenders could attack at dummy half, though it makes sense that it would be someone more central so that he can get into position quickly on transition between attack and defence.
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
84,160
What we should have done is offered him around $600K way back in April-May and I'm sure that he would have taken the deal after a little haggling. It is pretty obvious to me by way of all the time and wrestling with his conscious he had trying to come to a decision. But by waiting like a bunch of fools thinking that loyalty will trump CASH once there is an open auction and larger offers are waved in front of your face, they totally ballsed it up.

He is a fairly loyal type of guy, so I have very little doubt that around $600K would have made him happy and he would have taken it, but when you are lowballed at a time when your predator competitors are allowed to show you the money, well it changes everything and even the more loyal start to thinks twice, especially when you have a merkin manager in your ear telling you to work the negotiations till you get the lottery size winning offer.

Bottom line is our club blew it back in March-April-May and June when the majority of all our re-signings should have been done. I reckon both Papalii and Mahoney would have signed for around 500K and 600K respectively. By lowballing and letting other clubs serenade and flash lager offers in front of them, which makes them realised actual earnings and losses, then it makes it to hard for the player to ignore and much easier for the manager to persuade him to jump ship.

Bad management strategy in the battle to secure our talent. I hope we have learnt a major lesson here and never let this type of perfect storm shit happen again. We need to be much better at this or these type of headlines and outcomes will never cease.
So what about all the off contract Storm players who weren't in a hurry to re-sign in April or May? Why is it only stupid when our club can't get players to sign for unders six months before they're free to test the market?
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
84,160
Maybe offering 600k in april would have done nothing other than make his manager think he could get 700k+???

Id guess we probably made some attempt to make earlier offers ... but maybe his manager didnt want to hear about it until he could "officially" test the market
You'd have to assume any offer you received 18 months out would be a proper lowball effort.
 

wydtim

Juniors
Messages
2
Suaalii is definitely someone to look at when it comes to replacing Gutho or maybe even Drown but if we think the contract bullshite we’re going through now is rough, it would be a piss in ocean compared to chasing him. Would require serious cap/tpa coinage plus competition from union. Just pray the Goosters don’t come sniffing for Will…
Could be right there.. They have both spoken about in the past of wanting to play together… would not surprise me if you guys are having a sneaky crack.


I personally think it’s Verrilis.. I mean it makes sense surely?
 

lucablight

First Grade
Messages
6,063
That's because you're stuck in untested assumptions about player positions. The fact is fullback is only a position in defence, and dummy half is only a position in attack. There's no rule saying how the fullback needs to play in attack, or where the dummy half must play in defence. Any of your defenders could attack at dummy half, though it makes sense that it would be someone more central so that he can get into position quickly on transition between attack and defence.
It’s not untested. It didn’t work. If it was such a great idea then we would have used that revolutionary setup during our finals matches when Mahoney was out. Having Gutherson at hooker took him away from being first or second receiver and blunted our edge attack. Not to mention the workload became ludicrous for even someone at fit as Gutherson which would in turn affect things like positioning and decision making.
 
Messages
3,464
Could be right there.. They have both spoken about in the past of wanting to play together… would not surprise me if you guys are having a sneaky crack.


I personally think it’s Verrilis.. I mean it makes sense surely?
Well one things for sure if he’s living up to the hype coming into those player option years he will be hitting the open market and going to the highest bidder. He looks like a serious talent but unsure if his motivation is anything more than maximising money and we’ve been through that before with Hayne.
 

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