Rumoured and Confirmed Signings and General Drivel XIV

[lingard]

Jamie Buhrer is ok, but lucrative deal? give me a break he is just better than average

No, mate. He's better than better than average.

 

[boxhead]

Did we sign someone yet?

 

[lingard]

Never. Just defended him as one of our top 17 last year (and the year before). This year he is fighting for a spot in the 17, and next year he'll mostly play NSW Cup. Possibly elsewhere.

Edit: Here's my opinion of Paulo from 2012.

Joseph Paulo is an exceptionally talented footballer. Similar to Feleti Mateo, if he can learn to be more discriminating in his play he could be a very good player for us. I hope Arthur can do something with him, because he really is a talent.

 

[T.S Quint]

Joseph Paulo is a moderately talented attacker.
He is, however, an exceptionally bad defender.

 

[Craig Johnston]

Joseph Paulo is an exceptionally talented footballer. Similar to Feleti Mateo, if he can learn to be more discriminating in his play he could be a very good player for us. I hope Arthur can do something with him, because he really is a talent.

They're nothing alike

 

[Poupou Escobar]

He's not an exceptionally bad defender or he would never have played first grade.

 

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

They're nothing alike

It's like Danny DeVito and Arnie.

 

[I bleed blue & gold]

Buhrer would be a solid pickup. Ive always thought he was a goer with a great attitude, Arthur must rate him. Better option than Smith and Harrison IMO.

 

[The Elephant In The room]

Idiot. *re-signed*

Resigned to another 3 years with the titans.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Buhrer would be a solid pickup. Ive always thought he was a goer with a great attitude, Arthur must rate him. Better option than Smith and Harrison IMO.

Our recruitment for the past couple of years seems to have been trying to get some better attitudes into the club. Kearney seemed to chase talented players with notoriously poor attitudes, thinking he could get their best out of them, which obviously didn't happen.

Bellamy is now working on Ben Roberts and Arthur isn't even bothering with Chris Sandow. Let's stick with buying some mentally tough players from successful clubs like Manly (Hopoate, Lussick, Harrison, Buhrer) and Souths (Peats, Hunt).

 

[natheel]

the are the players we have off contract:

Folau
Mannah
Sio
Ma'u
Moi Moi

They're my must keeps

 

[Pazza]

the are the players we have off contract:

Evander Cummins, Toby Evans, John Folau, Liam Foran, David Gower, Daniel Harrison, Ben Jones, Luke Kelly, Taniela Lasalo, Lorenzo Ma'Afu, Manu Ma'u, Tim Mannah, Fuifui Moimoi, Joseph Paulo, Api Pewhairangi, Ken Sio, Ben Smith, Vai Toutai, Joseph Ualesi

 

[Pazza]

we should have enough money to recruit 3 or so good quality forwards.

 

[Lemon Squash]

Buhrer is bog average, ask any Manly fan.

Handy as a utility squad player, but little more. Won't be solving any of our issues.

 

[Pazza]

it depends, if Buhrer is one of only say a couple of signings i wouldn't be impressed.

but if we pick up a starting quality front rower and edge forward along with Buhrer then it would be a huge upgrade for our pack.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

the are the players we have off contract:

Evander Cummins, Toby Evans, John Folau, Liam Foran, David Gower, Daniel Harrison, Ben Jones, Luke Kelly, Taniela Lasalo, Lorenzo Ma'Afu, Manu Ma'u, Tim Mannah, Fuifui Moimoi, Joseph Paulo, Api Pewhairangi, Ken Sio, Ben Smith, Vai Toutai, Joseph Ualesi

At least half of them are on second tier contracts. Meaning they will have no effect on how much space is freed up under our salary cap.

The ones who are definitely in the top 25 are:

Harrison
Kelly
Mannah
Moimoi
Paulo
Sio
Smith

Plus possibly a couple of others. I'm sure we will let go of Harrison, Moimoi and Smith, plus probably Joe Paulo. The rest are all a possibility.

Then we will need to upgrade some of the youngsters we want to keep, who are currently on second tier contracts but will be upgraded into the top 25.

I'm sure we'll see a couple of new faces in the squad next year but there won't be a complete magical overhaul. We'll mostly be upgrading and otherwise swapping like for like. The biggest roster change will have happened over the off season just gone.

we should have enough money to recruit 3 or so good quality forwards.

We can't replace 19 players with only three.

 

[Pazza]

Folau
Mannah
Sio
Ma'u
Moi Moi

They're my must keeps

I'd hold onto ualesi and lose Sio. A lot of money is invested in this backline, I think a younger player could do the job and spend is money upgrading the pack.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

it depends, if Buhrer is one of only say a couple of signings i wouldn't be impressed.

but if we pick up a starting quality front rower and edge forward along with Buhrer then it would be a huge upgrade for our pack.

Buhrer would be a good player for any squad that is adhering to a salary cap. At the right price.

The problem is we might have to pay the Parramatta tax unless we can significantly improve our results this year. But if we do that then we will most likely keep most of our squad apart from the retirees (Moimoi, Smith) and the obviously surplus to requirements (Harrison).

If we go shit again and sign a bunch of new first graders you can be assured we'll be paying overs for them. Hopefully we would be able to retain some of our quality youngsters fairly cheaply, which would give us the room to pay overs for established first graders.

 

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

We can't replace 19 players with only three.

We can if we make some of the U20s back up in 1st grade later on the same day.

 

[I bleed blue & gold]

Our recruitment for the past couple of years seems to have been trying to get some better attitudes into the club. Kearney seemed to chase talented players with notoriously poor attitudes, thinking he could get their best out of them, which obviously didn't happen.

Bellamy is now working on Ben Roberts and Arthur isn't even bothering with Chris Sandow. Let's stick with buying some mentally tough players from successful clubs like Manly (Hopoate, Lussick, Harrison, Buhrer) and Souths (Peats, Hunt).

I'd like to add Watmough to that list.