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Rumoured Targets 3

Knight Tales

Knight Tales

Bench
Messages
3,697
Cogger had every chance to show he had quality but truth is he functions in a high quality side where his instructions are direct and repetitive. He did not straighten Penrith’s game as some sort of tactical brilliance on his part. That is nonsense from people like Cronk, who should know better.
 
Yosh

Yosh

Coach
Messages
12,768
Cogger is a great backup half for the Storm or Penrith. Low wages but does his job well. Also since his team is always also dominating he doesn't get found out in defense either.
 
H

HarVeeGee

Juniors
Messages
858
The Axe of Druss said:
Its 100% his fault that he sucked this year though
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The only way you can say this is if you think it's his fault AOB thought Kalyn Ponga could basically play halfback, and that Cogger should sit on Kalyn's outside shoulder rather than the other way around.

Mysteriously, the attack showed its most signs of life all season when they tore up the "Kalyn hybrid halfback/fullback" playbook, banished everyone's favourite Sharpe to wide out on the right edge, and asked Cogger to play like... a halfback. He didn't suck in those games. 🤷‍♂️

Knight Tales said:
Cogger had every chance to show he had quality but truth is he functions in a high quality side where his instructions are direct and repetitive. He did not straighten Penrith’s game as some sort of tactical brilliance on his part. That is nonsense from people like Cronk, who should know better.
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Either Cleary is lying just to be nice, or Cogger coming on for Luai really did turn that game around: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-02/penrith-panthers-jack-cogger-nrl-grand-final/102923904

In an environment where every player in the 17 is used in their best role and maximised, he made a meaningful contribution to a premiership. The tactical change when he came on won a grand final. That's a fact.

In an environment like ours where the long term planning is terrible and coaching staff has no idea, only transcendent talent can excel, and even then the thing they have to transcend is that they're playing in handcuffs and shackles.

Be mad at the club, be mad at AOB. Don't be mad at a guy who put his body on the line for this club and never shirked his duty.
 
Apey

Apey

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
29,816
Cogger is a plodder and I'm happy he won't be running out for us any more. But while yes, it is definitely easier playing your part in a team like the Panthers, he was better there than people especially our fans gave him credit for. I'm not even talking about the GF. He slotted in throughout the year and did pretty well. They won 4/5 games where he started halfback, 11/13 when he played, 8/10 when he started. He did his job. So I was keen to give him a shot here at the start of 2024 when Hastings was stinking it up. Didn't take long before it was obvious he wasn't up to it in a middling club though.

Anyway it's a win win for everyone. He's a better backup than Schneider for the Panthers.
 
H

HarVeeGee

Juniors
Messages
858
Apey said:
Cogger is a plodder and I'm happy he won't be running out for us any more. But while yes, it is definitely easier playing your part in a team like the Panthers, he was better there than people especially our fans gave him credit for. I'm not even talking about the GF. He slotted in throughout the year and did pretty well. They won 4/5 games where he started halfback, 11/13 when he played, 8/10 when he started. He did his job. So I was keen to give him a shot here at the start of 2024 when Hastings was stinking it up. Didn't take long before it was obvious he wasn't up to it in a middling club though.

Anyway it's a win win for everyone. He's a better backup than Schneider for the Panthers.
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This is exactly it.

He’s a limited player who has some specific things he’s good at, who can provide value to a team if he’s used in a role which suits those things.

Feel like the recruitment manager at that time didn’t really actually put real thought into the signing. Just “hey look at Penrith he played really well and they won a lot”. He came over on a pretty decent wicket too. Just basically hoping that he’d be an easy solution to the halves question marks rather than really thinking about what we needed there and correctly prioritising that in recruitment.

When he was replacing Luai or Cleary they made little changes to the role the other half played to fit what he does well, whereas we put him into some very weird positions like somehow thinking he could be the test pilot for the kind of role we apparently wanted Dylan Brown to play next year.

Anyway, whatever, he’s gone now, and I’m sure he’ll go good back at Penrith. Sandon Smith is more like what we should have been looking for when he was signed, a bit of experience where he’s shown himself to be capable but with dynamism & ability to impact the game in more ways than Cogger has, and scope to grow as a player. Difficult needle to thread & I can’t believe we got him for around $500K given that’s less than what some absolute spuds like Ilias, Dodd, Jayden Sullivan etc got. Might be an element of luck involved in that? ie him coming on the market might have lined up well with limited suitors and teams keeping cap space clear to bid against the Bears for players like Tino and Harry Grant come Nov 1 (and lots of players wanting to wait till then to test their value, vs Sandon wanting to secure his future now).
 
H

HarVeeGee

Juniors
Messages
858
I reckon he's been given certain assurances he's getting a Storm halves jersey in future and they've told him they can definitely loan him in the meantime.

What's maybe missed there is the Tigers only agreed to the Grant loan as a hairbrained plan to try to convince him to sign there. Did not work.

Otherwise what's the incentive? You take on a developing player whose other club doesn't think is ready yet, develop him for them, and they reap the real benefit? Why do that?
 
A

Alex28

Coach
Messages
12,354
slotmachine said:
He's getting great advice, he's adding 50k a year to his next contract with every game at the moment.
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He’s going to be playing reserve grade until he is 27 before getting a permanent first grade spot at this rate. He’s going to waste his prime.
 
H

HarVeeGee

Juniors
Messages
858
I don't think the Storm are gonna get there but it's anyone's guess this year tbh.

But yeah if he has more games like the one on the weekend here are his two most likely futures:
- Melbourne allow Cam Munster to leave in 2027 and Pezet replaces him in the halves.
- He does eventually run out of patience at the Storm and it's realistic he'll get offered a big enough deal for 2027-on by the Bears that he'll more than make up the lost income from not coming back to Newy.

I'm sure he'll live either way. He might have been sold a line about the loan, but that's out of genuine desperation by the Storm to keep him. It's hard to say a kid is wrong for wanting to be a starting half for the Storm. Looks like a sweet gig to me.
 
Nuke

Nuke

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
5,897
slotmachine said:
He's looking pretty likely to be starting halfback in a grand final at the moment, what a terrible outcome for him.
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Knights chasing a half who used to be in the Knights system but is now a backup half at his current club, and is possibly a Grand Final halfback.

What could possibly go wrong ... although I do feel that I've read that story before.
 
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