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Rumoured Targets 3

Bartwah

Juniors
Messages
459
Griffin going for a second surgery this week. Recovery 9-12 months. Looks like we better add hooker to our recruitment Wishlist. If we’re hesitant to sign Isaac Luke, I’d make a serious play for Api Koroisau
 

Dave_

Juniors
Messages
2,330
We definitely need another hooker but I still have huge Hope's for Levi. His shortcomings are only attitude based and I'm sure he'll get a massive tune up over the off season.
 

Knight Vision

First Grade
Messages
5,066
Yep, if Levi goes down we are stuffed for 2019. It would leave us makeshift hooker or a very inexperienced NRL hooker at best. Who's on the market?
 
Messages
10,887
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/s...e/news-story/161b7d39873a484e22f43fd364a7551d

Off-contract Broncos forward Tevita Pangai Jnr a target for Newcastle
Peter Badel, The Courier-Mail
29 minutes ago
Subscriber only
BRONCOS coach Wayne Bennett is facing a fresh attack from Nathan Brown, with the Newcastle boss revealing he has launched a poaching bid for Brisbane’s best young forward, Tevita Pangai Jr.

Brown confirmed his interest in Pangai Jr with The Courier-Mail on Wednesday, and will ramp-up his pursuit of the off-contract Bronco in the wake of Brisbane’s season-ending 48-18 finals implosion to the Dragons last Sunday.

Brown and Bennett were embroiled in the most explosive coaching feud of the season in April when the Newcastle mentor made a savage remark about the super coach’s personal life during his stint at the Knights.

Now Brown is putting renewed pressure on Bennett and the Broncos, who face a multi-million dollar battle to keep Pangai Jr – a Newcastle junior – away from the Knights.

The Broncos are supremely confident of signing Pangai Jr to a new deal, but Brown has a history of luring Queensland-based stars after snatching Kalyn Ponga from the Cowboys and Herman Ese Ese from Brisbane last year. “I’m interested in Tevita,” said Brown, who met with the Broncos powerhouse a fortnight ago after Pangai Jr flew south to inspect Newcastle’s set-up.

“Tevita is a Newcastle boy and he knows this area well, so he would be a great player for us to get.

“We’re going through the process at the moment. We’ve told Tevita we are definitely interested in him.

“We are prepared to make him an offer, but first we need to know if Tevita wants to leave the Broncos and he is also in a management dispute, so it’s hard for any club to negotiate with him at the moment.

“But we’d love to have him here. Tevita can add some real aggression to our pack.” The Tongan international has fielded $3.2 million offers from Sydney clubs worth $800,000 a season.

Pangai Jr will finalise his future in November, when he formally severs ties with his management group.

The 22-year-old has a history with the Knights. Pangai Jr played local football for South Newcastle Lions before being snapped up by Knights scouts for $1000 as a 15-year-old in 2011 and placed in the club’s junior grades.

Salary-cap pressures will test the Broncos, who have also yet to re-sign Maroons winger Corey Oates and prop Matt Lodge, but Brown concedes it will not be easy to prise Pangai Jr out of Red Hill.


“Tevita is playing great footy at Brisbane and seems like he is reasonably happy, so it will be hard to get him out of that,” Brown said.

“Brisbane will no doubt do their sums. They have so many good players and that’s the challenge for any club to keep their stars.

“We have some room in the cap. We are more interested in the type of player Tevita is rather than the position he plays. I would want him on the field for as long as possible because he is just such an impact player.”

Broncos skipper Darius Boyd urged Pangai Jr to stay loyal.

“The sky is the limit for Tevita,” he said. “He has a great work ethic and football brain and I hope the Broncos can keep him.”
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Still Nutty

Juniors
Messages
867
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/s...e/news-story/161b7d39873a484e22f43fd364a7551d

Brown and Bennett were embroiled in the most explosive coaching feud of the season in April when the Newcastle mentor made a savage remark about the super coach’s personal life during his stint at the Knights.
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Still love the selective memory of the press up north...no mention of Bennett's unprovoked sledge in claiming Brown has stuffed the club after the 'super coach' left it in such a cherry ripe state when he did a dump and run on the Knights?! LOL

Apart from all the other obvious reasons, I just hope Pangai comes here so it gets so far up Bennett's nose it's scratching his tonsils :p
 

Yosh

Coach
Messages
11,245
If Sydney clubs are offering him 800k a season, would we be stupid to offer him $1m? I think a player of his caliber could be worth that much to us for the next three seasons, maybe more.

Would that mean we can't sign two or three players to fill out the roster though?
 

perverse

Referee
Messages
25,828
If Sydney clubs are offering him 800k a season, would we be stupid to offer him $1m? I think a player of his caliber could be worth that much to us for the next three seasons, maybe more.

Would that mean we can't sign two or three players to fill out the roster though?
Huge risk on a bloke who has put together 1 good season.
 

Knight Vision

First Grade
Messages
5,066
800 K would have to be on potential. This season he was a standout but still not an 800K a year standout. Form is temporary and class permanent - is he class ? or is it form ? Huge risk, but man we need some cattle up front or next season will be more of the same.

I'd almost be tempted to take the 800K and throw in another 100k and make Klemmer an informal offer through a 3rd party that would force him to front the dogs and ask for a release. Klemmer is a proven athlete who is still very young for a prop and would be the leader of our pack. .
 

Spot On

Coach
Messages
13,898
They can't keep them all. They definitely can't pay them all a million either.

Something has to give up there.

Pangai was their best player this season imo. When he didn't play, the pack struggled. At times he turned matches on his own with aggro or power or skill. He provided the aggression for the team a lot of the time.

He stood out in what Bennett and many others have called the best crop of juniors the Broncos have had in a very, very long time.
 
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Yosh

Coach
Messages
11,245
800 K would have to be on potential. This season he was a standout but still not an 800K a year standout. Form is temporary and class permanent - is he class ? or is it form ? Huge risk, but man we need some cattle up front or next season will be more of the same.

I'd almost be tempted to take the 800K and throw in another 100k and make Klemmer an informal offer through a 3rd party that would force him to front the dogs and ask for a release. Klemmer is a proven athlete who is still very young for a prop and would be the leader of our pack. .


Just asking but is there any chance in hell we can afford both?
 
Messages
3,663
It isn't only Levi's attitude that needs improving.
He needs to develop the ability to be able to step back when fatigue gets to him. Cameron Smith could do it Levi is far from being in that league.
If Levi could do it we'd be able to shift the emphasis on the bench from a hooker to a genuine utility.
I'd back another hooker to get us through the time Griffin is out though.
 

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