2009 players off contract

[cgee221]

For a start I'd be looking at the following:

Michael Mongahan (if the rumours are true and he wants to come back, use him as a halfback and as the likes of Mortimer start to come through use him as a half/hooker type role)

Tom Learoyd-Lahrs

Justin Poore

Ben Creagh

Matt White

Shane Shackleton

Realistically I agree with Colonel it's unlikely unless big money is thrown at them that we'd get a package, if any of these big name players but more so people like Matt White and Shane Shackleton.

 

[Phillips]

I'd re-sign Joe Galuvao, Tim Mannah and Junior Paulo

Scott Logan would be a good buy, would add some aggression to our pack.


I'd be looking at Kevin Proctor, Jayson Bukuya, Alex Glenn, Patrick Ah Van..

Chris Hicks would be a decent pickup, although he's abit old now.​

 

[oldmancraigy]

I'd re-sign Joe Galuvao, Tim Mannah and Junior Paulo​

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I'd also re-sign MoiMoi for the same money he's on now.

That leaves Robson, Lowrie, Cordoba, Latimore, Tautai and Finch as players not on the books for next season.

So 850k buys 2 really good players, or 3 pretty good players.

I'd go for:
Monaghan (250k x 3 years) - the small risk is that he might be completely crap in the NRL after a few years away, but he's only 29 next year and would be 31 at the end of his 3 year deal.

Lima or Manu (300k x 3 years) - it's overpaying just a little bit, but these 2 guys are machines of go forward and rocks in defense. The Storm can't possibly afford to pay them that amount - surely one of them would jump at the cash?

Shackleton (150-200k x 3 years) - If that money could make Shackleton budge then we ought to be all over it. Super worker with good size.

That's 750k well spent, the extra 100k would have been used to top up Mannah and leaves 50k for a minimum contract player.

Those buys would give us 2 props and a halfback for the next few seasons - combine that with Hindmarsh, Mateo, Hayne, Reddy, KeatingS, Inu and you have the nucleus of a decent team right there. Then Big money comes off the books at the end of 2010 (Burt, Cayless, Hindy, Hayne, Inu, Mateo = over $1.8million!) which can be used to salvage those in form, re-sign some youngsters, or go farming for new talent!

 

[cumberlandcozza]

poore/creagh....no idea of the balance sheet on them but would only add value

 

[Eelementary]

Do yourselves a favour and stop thinking we'll score big names. We're a mess and nobody in their right mind would come here to such a depressing place, hundreds of thousands of dollars a season or not.

 

[yy_cheng]

Do yourselves a favour and stop thinking we'll score big names. We're a mess and nobody in their right mind would come here to such a depressing place, hundreds of thousands of dollars a season or not.

weren't the dogs in a similar mess not too long ago?

 

[Eelementary]

Big, big difference between the two clubs, unfortunately.

The Bulldogs are seen as a proud and successful entity; a bad year for them is nothing as they will bounce back.

Parramatta has been seen as by many now as a joke; even when we have a successful season we screw up; take 2005 - Minor Premiers and on paper we SHOULD have dusted the Cowboys. We choked massively. In 2007 we didn't choke but our season, overall, was a joke. Yeah, we finished 6th and 1 game shy of a Grand Final. But we lost to teams we should have beaten, barely scraped home in matches where we looked good for large portions and basically were an inconsistent mess.

Rightly or wrongly, I believe that our club's image has suffered a battering over the past few years due to both incompetent on-field showings and off-field dramas.

The Bulldogs have their share of off-field and even on-field crap, true. But you can't deny their success - they cheated the cap in 2002 and got caught, but 24 short months later won a title. They had a miserable 2008, but given the circumstances it's understandable.

The Bulldogs recruited very well for 2009 and beyond, and I bet most of that was on the back of the club's proud history of success. They needed new stars to move forward and signed: Eastwood, Stagg, Ennis, Kimmorley and Morris, to name but a few.

I fear that, in a somewhat similar situation, we won't be able to make a similar impact simply because we've become a laughing stock. The last huge signings we made were Tahu, Morrison and Pig, and they were all when Brian was at the helm and we weren't in that bad a mess. Since then we've screwed up finances, our CEO has managed to alienate just about everyone, boardroom dramas have escalated and off-field issues have tainted this once proud club.

Again - I, like all of the people here, bleed Blue and Gold. But I have to face reality - in terms of professionalism and on-field success, we've become a joke. I mean this with all due respect, but would Melbourne, Manly, Brisbane or the Roosters, for example, offer Krisnan Inu, Jarryd Hayne or Nathan Cayless such exorbitant amounts of money given what they have produced thus far? I would lean towards 'no'.

Unless we offer a player $400,000, which won't happen under Anderson unless it's a Lockyer, a Thurston or an Asotasi (and rightfully so, in my eyes), I can't see the appeal from a player's perspective to joining this circus.

 

[cumberlandcozza]

ouch, that hurts....gotta agree with a lot of what you say, but you you also have to stay positive otherwise i may as well start following the waratahs or the swans (kill me now)