2020 R15 Sat - Titans 16-36 Raiders @ Cbus Super

[The_Frog]

I don’t mind this ref. Barely noticed him today.

I guess your side must have won.

 

[BadnMean]

Where in Canbrah does starling park his trailer?

I used to live near Bruce Stadium. There's actually really a trailer park at the back road off Dryandra Street, 15/20 minute walk from the stadium. Plenty of punters park out that way & walk into the game.

I believe Ricky found Starling busting into some cars parked there for the game & was impressed with the leg drive he showed launching himself in through the busted windows.

 

[BadnMean]

A big little man. But not as big as the Raiders big little men

Kevvie has a system.

It's like fast medium is faster than medium fast.

Revolutionary stuff from Kevvie.

 

[BadnMean]

Every time he does something awesome I try to tell myself that it’s ok, any winger can do the same thing.

It doesn’t work.

I hear so many deluded fans saying "he didn't do much last year" or that Rapana will get his toe back & fill the void. Nah, Cotric is rep for a reason. He's literally our ONLY outside back up near the top of the charts in attacking stats (line breaks, tries, tackle busts, you name it). And he makes the least errors.

Our back 5 next year without him is sheer plodderville if we don't recruit. We should have paid it.

Lost BJ, Bateman & we still can't keep our best outside back? Our only attacking threat? Not like we broke the bank on the fullback, he's at bargain rates.

 

[nick87]

You don’t keep squads together like ours by paying wingers that kind of money
It sucks, he’s a great player and we’ll miss him but life goes on

we can find someone that does 75-80% of what Cotric does for 50% of what it would have cost to keep him

the club is doing right thing

 

[BadnMean]

You don’t keep squads together like ours by paying wingers that kind of money
It sucks, he’s a great player and we’ll miss him but life goes on

we can find someone that does 75-80% of what Cotric does for 50% of what it would have cost to keep him

the club is doing right thing

I'm going to quote this every week next year while we watch Scott ignore overlaps to make a cheap 10 yards for his tats & Semi Valemi plod on breaking up to 6 tackles per season.

 

[Pete Cash]

Cotric wanted to go to Sydney for lifestyle reasons. We can't compete with that

It's just gonna be a massive massive loss.

 

[Pete Cash]

I hear so many deluded fans saying "he didn't do much last year" or that Rapana will get his toe back & fill the void. Nah, Cotric is rep for a reason. He's literally our ONLY outside back up near the top of the charts in attacking stats (line breaks, tries, tackle busts, you name it). And he makes the least errors.

Our back 5 next year without him is sheer plodderville if we don't recruit. We should have paid it.

Lost BJ, Bateman & we still can't keep our best outside back? Our only attacking threat? Not like we broke the bank on the fullback, he's at bargain rates.

Our fans are famously reactive because we have been sent insane by the club

But cotric is a machine and suddenly our outside backs are looking shaky. Rapana is still good but age is catching up to him and he is slower. The rest are questionable. Croker is pretty solid but no game breaker

 

[BadnMean]

Our fans are famously reactive because we have been sent insane by the club

But cotric is a machine and suddenly our outside backs are looking shaky. Rapana is still good but age is catching up to him and he is slower. The rest are questionable. Croker is pretty solid but no game breaker

Exactly. No bad players there, just not much attacking threat tho. Rapana has a great attitude but just isn't a running threat any more. He's fine on one wing IF you have strike elsewhere. (PS. Rapana is finishing 1 from 4 chances so far on left, that's poor, he's a right winger no matter what he says).

It's compounded in that CNK is a great defensive FB but also just a C+/B- attacking FB, same as Croker in attack or later era Rapana. Toots can kick & defend quite well these days, all have good points, just not attack. Scott is a flat C on a good day. You need one ace in the back 5 to really trouble teams- Roosters have multiple, Storm have Papenhuyzen, Ado carr. Pamfers have Crichton + Naden/Staines killing it (oops). Eels have Sivo + Gutherson making points, even Jennings having a renaissance.

Bring back Joey!

 

[nick87]

I'm going to quote this every week next year while we watch Scott ignore overlaps to make a cheap 10 yards for his tats & Semi Valemi plod on breaking up to 6 tackles per season.

when you do quote it, be sure to let me know which high level footballer in the team you’re willing to lose to accomodate the 650k a year winger

 

[BadnMean]

I saw a little last week, but Harawira-Naera appeared to have a stormer. Are the Raiders fans on here happy to have him on their roster?

General consensus is that he's a top grade player with ball in hand but sloppy in defence, which still makes you a star at the Bulldogs but will need to be sorted quick if he wants to keep Young, Sia, Guler, Horsburg etc out of a spot for the whole year.

 

[BadnMean]

when you do quote it, be sure to let me know which high level footballer in the team you’re willing to lose to accomodate the 650k a year winger

Well we let BJ & Bateman go.

I'd honestly lose Rapana & Oldfield too & upgrade the juniors or bring in minimum to keep our rep quality player.

 

[t-ba]

That...was a nice pass.

 

[nick87]

Well we let BJ & Bateman go.

I'd honestly lose Rapana & Oldfield too & upgrade the juniors or bring in minimum to keep our rep quality player.

we also need to upgrade George Williams, the CNK upgrade goes live next season on a substantially bigger deal, so too Wighton’s deal, we kind of have to keep Starling on an upgraded deal given Hodgson’s age and his injury, we signed CHN to replace Bateman and have a ton of guys like Guler, Hors, Young who will be knocking on the door and the club seems very high on HSS and Semi

I mean I don’t know what to tell you mate
This is how the cap works. You can sign Cotric and keep him at market rate and lose other players, but’s it robbing Peter to pay Paul

Something has to give and the club, imo correctly, has decided the winger, which is the most replaceable position in the sport is what has to give

 

[nick87]

General consensus is that he's a top grade player with ball in hand but sloppy in defence, which still makes you a star at the Bulldogs but will need to be sorted quick if he wants to keep Young, Sia, Guler, Horsburg etc out of a spot for the whole year.

he gave up a try in his first opening game and the only time his defence has looked a problem otherwise has been when he’s been playing centre to cover injury

he’s a capable centre for a game but you’d never play him there. We’ll see how he goes next year as an 80 minute edge defensively but so far I haven’t seen much to make me concerned about his defence

 

[BadnMean]

we also need to upgrade George Williams, the CNK upgrade goes live next season on a substantially bigger deal, so too Wighton’s deal, we kind of have to keep Starling on an upgraded deal given Hodgson’s age and his injury, we signed CHN to replace Bateman and have a ton of guys like Guler, Hors, Young who will be knocking on the door and the club seems very high on HSS and Semi

I mean I don’t know what to tell you mate
This is how the cap works. You can sign Cotric and keep him at market rate and lose other players, but’s it robbing Peter to pay Paul

Something has to give and the club, imo correctly, has decided the winger, which is the most replaceable position in the sport is what has to give

CNK is on 330k AFTER the upgrade - an absolute bargain FB.
CHN is not on full Bateman offer money- he's on 500k once its kicks, we had substantially more to offer Bateman, +150k more... So that's free.

I know how the cap works. The very fact we HAVE Hors, Guler, Young, CHN etc means we don't have not worry about keeping every single one. One of them can go if they want a high contract, we are stacked for middles if Havilii takes him option too. GWilliams is contracted end 2022- upgrade him when we let SWilliams or Havilii go. We already made room for Wighton- again, 750k is below market rate for a leading rep level half so where is the squeeze coming from? Nonsense we couldn't have found it.


Winger is not the least valuable position. You also have to weigh up what else you have in the back 5. As I said, we have made some sacrifices- BJ, Bateman & are stacked for middles. Keeping 2 ageing wingers past their peak in Oldfield & Rapa would be criminal if we lose Cotric & don't recruit. A strike back becomes vey valuable when the rest of your back 5 struggles to make yards, break tackles, break the line or score tries. Kind of grows more valuable in the absence. I don't think Semi Valemi is the answer, from what I've seen.

I honestly think it's a big mistake, not some kind of unavoidable necessity. Bloke was in tears in the sheds the other day. Can't have been that far from staying.

 

[BadnMean]

...

 

[Bazal]

Wroing game

 

[Chief_Chujo]

CNK is on 330k AFTER the upgrade - an absolute bargain FB.
CHN is not on full Bateman offer money- he's on 500k once its kicks, we had substantially more to offer Bateman, +150k more... So that's free.

I know how the cap works. The very fact we HAVE Hors, Guler, Young, CHN etc means we don't have not worry about keeping every single one. One of them can go if they want a high contract, we are stacked for middles if Havilii takes him option too. GWilliams is contracted end 2022- upgrade him when we let SWilliams or Havilii go. We already made room for Wighton- again, 750k is below market rate for a leading rep level half so where is the squeeze coming from? Nonsense we couldn't have found it.


Winger is not the least valuable position. You also have to weigh up what else you have in the back 5. As I said, we have made some sacrifices- BJ, Bateman & are stacked for middles. Keeping 2 ageing wingers past their peak in Oldfield & Rapa would be criminal if we lose Cotric & don't recruit. A strike back becomes vey valuable when the rest of your back 5 struggles to make yards, break tackles, break the line or score tries. Kind of grows more valuable in the absence. I don't think Semi Valemi is the answer, from what I've seen.

I honestly think it's a big mistake, not some kind of unavoidable necessity. Bloke was in tears in the sheds the other day. Can't have been that far from staying.

You gonna pay Cotric more than everyone bar Jack? Cause that's the only way he was staying. Don't buy into the "just wanted 30k more" crap. He wanted to go to Sydney and his manager was trying to get the most out of the dogs.

It sucks losing a rep caliber local. But sometimes theyre things at play that can't be sorted without wrecking your squad.

 

[nick87]

GWilliams is contracted end 2022- upgrade him when we let SWilliams or Havilii go. We already made room for Wighton- again, 750k is below market rate for a leading rep level half so where is the squeeze coming from? Nonsense we couldn't have found it.

Stopped there... Wighton is on near close enough to 900k from next year. It's a reported 3.5m deal over 4 years.

And the idea that we can just on George who is drastically underpaid and expect him to see out a contract... have you been living under a f**king rock for the last 5 years?
That's not how this shit works anymore my guy. We'll be upgrading Goerge Williams in the next 6-12 months or he'll be playing for another club. Welcome to 2020. The players have the power and if they want out, they're out. End of story. We're not trying to f**k around with our very good halfback

We could find the money to keep Cotric at 650k but we didnt value him at that, and nor did anyone else in the league but the bulldogs, he went begging to the roosters for a deal close to it so he could be in sydney and party and they said "yeah... nah... we're good"... but in your defence, they've been a beacon of salary cap managemnet in the last 5 years... They've gotten very good value out of contracts, them and the titans, neck and neck on paying huge money for name value players in non essential positons and those contracts working out.

Look at the roosters and storm, the most dominant teams of this period... they dont pay wingers and frankly between Vunivalu, Koro, Addo Carr and Fergo they've had players on the same level, and better than Cotric... and they let em walk.... ask yourself why. They get it.

Its' not that wingers dont matter, it's simple economics. Supply and demand... you can find wingers anywhere. Maybe not as good as Cotric, but as said, you can probably back yourself to get 75% of his output for 50% of less of his contract value. The roosters let Fergo walk and picked up Morris on the cheap because everyone thought he was done... Fergo is a better player but given their wage disparity its hard to argue they didnt correctly assess the situation from a cap position.

And maybe Semi isnt the one, but if he's not, maybe it's HSS, or its Timeko, and if not, we'll find someone because wingers are very important but also the easiest position to find.