Is it just me or does Tepai seem overrated? He came in with huge wraps as a junior. He just hasn’t fully bloomed. It’s like we are all waiting for him to have that break out year. It’s just not happening.
He is a dud. He would be on around 400-500k mostly like you said on potential and the wraps that he was getting coming through the lower grades, but he has lived up to none of them. He is a bit of a defensive work horse and that is about it.
So he is on overs for what he has produced almost from the start. When dose his contract end? I would not offer him more then 200k next time around. For what he offers, virtually nothing in attack and 25-35 tackles a game we can get virtually any palooka to do that from our lower grades on minimum coin.
On that saving, I would seriously see if we could entice Tevita Pangai Junior to our club. He would be worth around 900k to 1 million. This at the moment would be doable for us with so many players coming off contract. If we don't renew the contracts of players such as French, Hofman, Smith, Ma'u, Moeroa, Gower is retiring, Pritchard is gone and M Jennings a reduced offer, we would have more then enough to offer him. Each one of these players would be on around or above 300k except Smith and Pritchard who would be on less.
Yes I know pou, we still have to fill all those places with other players, sure, but that is why we are very fortunate that our juniors are coming to the point of NRL selection. So we can fill those places with minimum pay guys just like the Roosters do. Besides look at the players that I have cut, they are all very expendable or fringe, but would be all on decent coin, so there is a lot of money tied up in them. Like I said we should be able to have a good shot at him and if our team plays well this season, no scandals and we attract huge crowds at our new home, surely our management can somehow attract a TPA or two for such a player.
Yeah I know, clubs aren't involved in TPA's, and then there is the real world. At the very least we can make it very difficult for the Broncs to keep him. But if we could get such a destructive force in our pack, plus the current nucleus of our pack, we would have a very explosive and powerful team with a lot of skill.
But then again, we could wait and see what our young forwards coming through are capable of and go from there. I haven't seen enough of them to know if we have one or two standouts that will give us that type of high quality, SOO or international level player with size, power and intimidation to elevate our pack into premiership contenders.
Maybe others here know the answer to this and can share please?
