Around the Grounds

[mozza91]

The Tigers will definitely improve (hard not too from last) but I can’t see them making the finals. Luai and Ali are all class but Bula was pretty quiet last year and Galvin has shown a decent running game and not much more. Big doubts about Benji as a coach too.

I’m pretty confident we’ll finish ahead of them.

 

[Knight Tales]

I don’t know. I think that Tigers spine is pretty exceptional. If it does not motivate the rest of them to find another gear then nothing will.

 

[Burwood]

Luai will do for the Tigers what Crichton did for the Bulldogs.

 

[Frederick]

Cleary to Newcastle in 2028?

 

[Yosh]

The Tigers will definitely improve (hard not too from last) but I can’t see them making the finals. Luai and Ali are all class but Bula was pretty quiet last year and Galvin has shown a decent running game and not much more. Big doubts about Benji as a coach too.

I’m pretty confident we’ll finish ahead of them.

Galvin is like 12 years old and single handed won them games. He is going to be electric I reckon in 2025. Their spine kills ours.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Does anyone else think that Hunt signing with the Broncos is a bit sus?

Supposedly he’s signed for $550K which means he’s taking almost a 50% pay cut voluntarily to walk away from his Dragons deal. Wasn’t there supposed to be an auditing thing with the salary cap to ensure that teams don’t sign elite players for way unders? Kinda like how they blocked Turbo from taking a pay cut at Manly?

Also how on earth do the Broncos have over half a million lying around for 2025 with the squad they’ve got?

Here’s my brief summary of the situation…
- Star 5/8 on massive contract gets in trouble and is stood down/suspended
- That’s ok we’ll just sign an incumbent origin/international playmaker to replace him
- oh and we’ll do it at a discount

Surely the going rate for an incumbent origin + international half is a little higher than $550K…

Have the NRL actually signed off on the deal yet?

For the record, if his motivation is to win a comp at the Broncos, and I’m sure it would be given what happened in 2015, then I’m sure he’ll feel happy with the decision if it pans out. Although the rest of us won’t be given the rest of the league hates the Broncos.

But I’m finding it a little hard to believe that a guy in the twilight of his career is fine with leaving $500K a year on the table, probably costing him $1m over 2 years (pre tax of course) That’s literally a life changing amount of money for most people.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

Its the Broncos

He'd be getting $500k+ in "3rd party" deals

 

[Zoidberg]

Indigenous All stars teams announced.
Ponga, Gags, and Leo for Maori’s and Dylan Lucas for Indigenous.
Hopefully no injuries.

 

[Woody90]

Indigenous All stars teams announced.
Ponga, Gags, and Leo for Maori’s and Dylan Lucas for Indigenous.
Hopefully no injuries.

I think KP wanting to play for the Māori side confirms the main reason he didn’t want to play for Aus…

 

[Zoidberg]

I think KP wanting to play for the Māori side confirms the main reason he didn’t want to play for Aus…

The rules are too confusing. Especially when your parents are of different heritage.

 

[Nuke]

This isn't a test match. It's an exhibition, basically. Not to diminish the importance for those whose heritages are being represented, but I think that's its official classification.

Thus, eligibility for nations / Origin doesn't come into consideration.

All it might do is show what is more important to KP: representing Australia or representing his maori background.

Personally, on that, I tend to think that with his maturity levels growing in recent years and his keenness to win a premiership with Newcastle meant that he wanted to be fresh and uninjured for off-season training, and taking 3-4 weeks out of that (or his holiday time) to play a few games for Australia was going to put that in jeopardy. But this is one week and one game, so less off a hindrance to his Newcastle prep time.