Friend on way out

[Mixmasterreece]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10888943

Hooker Nathan Friend looks set to leave the Warriors at the end of the season as the picture around halves and hookers becomes increasingly congested.
The 32-year-old has been a fixture at Mt Smart Stadium for the past two seasons but is off contract at the end of 2013.
The club have been in talks about his future and it appears he has been told they won't be offering him a new deal.
"I maybe looking for a new home in 2014," Friend tweeted last night, which came two days after telling his followers he was due to find out his fate from the club.
The Warriors are on the verge of signing Cronulla five-eighth Chad Townsend for 2014 and they already have Shaun Johnson, Thomas Leuluai and Harry Siejka on their books.
It's expected Leuluai will move to hooker next season and Friend's departure would free up some room in the salary cap for the club to sign England fullback Sam Tomkins.
The Warriors are reportedly taking up an option to retain Pita Godinet next season but Alehana Mara is expected leave.

Friend is a hard-working player who has averaged 43 tackles a game this season. He's played 161 NRL games since his debut for Brisbane in 2002 but has had issues with his shoulders over the past couple of seasons.

I’d assume the eels would be pretty keen to pick up him considering they are letting both of their hookers go and are only left with 3 game veteran Kaysa Pritchard.

Sooooo : Tommy will be starting hooker with Godinet on the bench and Havili in the wings (not sold on that guy – too fat in my opinion).

Id say Friend's service out of dummy half is been a bit poor this year, but he’s still our best tackler. With Lowrie not being as effective as id have liked, and the other tackle bot taylor leaving, it weakens our D considerably.

Add to this we’re also getting rid of our other hooking options Mara and Bishop who are both defensively sound, leaving us with Godinet who cant tackle and Havili who will quite likley be shown up at NRL level due to his size – this decision is seeming a little crazy.

All seems to be in aide of getting Tomkins here which im starting to get less enthusiastic about. If we’ve bought Townsend so that Johnson can play six then where do Tomkins and Locke fit in? Only one can play FB, and if neither are playing #6 then we cant fit them both.

If this whole Tomkins thing is meaning we are going to lose locke due to it, id rather we had turned our attention towards buying a mongrel prop from the ESL.

 

[spear tackle]

Shame he's a great player, it'll be the age thing not working in his favour I'd still try keep him though one thing our squad lack (among many other things) is experienced players.
If signing Tomkins means getting rid of Locke I'm not for that at all, i dont belive Locke has really hit his straps as yet and he will come back and bite us on the arse if you ask me.

 

[Meth]

He's a good player. A great clubman. I am not devastated by this though. Leuluai out of the halves and into hooker isn't bad.

 

[vvvrulz]

Friend got us back on track after a woeful start and has given us a good year.

That said I'm not too upset to see him go, with Leulaui to hooker and Mara/Godinet as backup we should be covered. Better to look towards the future.

 

[hitman82]

Friendy on the radio today saying he wants to stay and is happy to take it year by year. We'd be stupid to let him go if he's that keen to remain.

I only want Leuluai moving to hooker if we have a proven better option. Townsend is not this, neither is Godinet or Siejka. Tomkins or Locke would be - if we do indeed get Tomkins.

Otherwise, quite happy to persist with TL playing in the halves. His better position is hooker, but his combination with SJ is getting better every week imho.

 

[Scott]

Friendy on the radio today saying he wants to stay and is happy to take it year by year. We'd be stupid to let him go if he's that keen to remain.

I only want Leuluai moving to hooker if we have a proven better option. Townsend is not this, neither is Godinet or Siejka. Tomkins or Locke would be - if we do indeed get Tomkins.

Otherwise, quite happy to persist with TL playing in the halves. His better position is hooker, but his combination with SJ is getting better every week imho.

Fully agree.

 

[Philip_Smith007]

The only issue I have is he moved his family over and we give him 2 years, do other potential Aussie recruits look at this as an issue? Its hard enough as it is to attract people over.

 

[JoeD]

No different than moving your family from sydney to brisbane

 

[unbreaK]

The only 2 options for you blokes next year appear to be -

Without Tomkins ~

1) Locke
6) Johnson
7) Townsend
9) Leuluai

With Tomkins ~

1) Tomkins
6) Locke
7) Johnson
9) Leuluai

I'd say the one with Tomkins is much better, that's a solid spine.

 

[hitro]

Option 2 looks great! Hope it's happening, looks like it's happening...

 

[Fufu Andronez]

Really torn on Friendy, if he was to retire would he be offered a job with the club? Probably has 1 good year left in him. If were replacing him with Godinet then our defence will be taking a massive step backwards, if were replacing him with Leuleuai then not so much.

 

[Philip_Smith007]

No different than moving your family from sydney to brisbane

Here are a few differences for you between the two.
Currency
Weather
Travel time, 1 hour to Sydney from Brisbane by plane with 45min check in vs 3 hours and 2 hour check in.
E's and I's
Another NRL club just down the road about an hour by car.
Partners career?
Job opportunities within league after retirement?

The list could go on.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

The only 2 options for you blokes next year appear to be -

Without Tomkins ~

1) Locke
6) Johnson
7) Townsend
9) Leuluai

With Tomkins ~

1) Tomkins
6) Locke
7) Johnson
9) Leuluai

I'd say the one with Tomkins is much better, that's a solid spine.

Option two makes me bar up a little. So much pace and footwork.

 

[ozenzud]

I think the decision to get rid of Friend makes about as much sense as the decision a few years ago to get rid of Fien. At the time, I did not meet a single person who thought getting rid of Fien was a good idea.

Take a bloke going great guns, with a year or so to go at the top of his career and experience, cut him and send him to another club to win a premiership.

Friend and Fien are really similar if you ask me. Tough, combative little blokes with professional, never say die attitudes. They also bring the Aussie attitude to league with them.

Local players probably respect Dan Carter more than Shaun Johnstone. A lot of Aussie leaguies wouldn't know who Dan Carter is, and if they did, don't care. What I'm saying there is that we have a few players who are league, through and through, known it all their life and are single minded about it.

Dumb, dumb, dumb decision.

 

[spear tackle]

I think the decision to get rid of Friend makes about as much sense as the decision a few years ago to get rid of Fien. At the time, I did not meet a single person who thought getting rid of Fien was a good idea.

Take a bloke going great guns, with a year or so to go at the top of his career and experience, cut him and send him to another club to win a premiership.

Friend and Fien are really similar if you ask me. Tough, combative little blokes with professional, never say die attitudes. They also bring the Aussie attitude to league with them.

Local players probably respect Dan Carter more than Shaun Johnstone. A lot of Aussie leaguies wouldn't know who Dan Carter is, and if they did, don't care. What I'm saying there is that we have a few players who are league, through and through, known it all their life and are single minded about it.

Dumb, dumb, dumb decision.

I do agree that getting rid of Fein was not a great idea, having said that we don't know what was said during contract renegotiations, maybe he wanted too much money or maybe the Warriors staff wanted to cut his paycheck in half, who knows? I asked around about this and no one seems to know why but all said we'd miss him.
Hopefully it'll come out after he retires

 

[Diesel]

Has it been confirmed he's not staying when Elliott wants him to stay?

 

[tangalife]

I think it comes down to Sam Tomkins and the stupidity of the transfer fee having to be part of the salary cap.

 

[Mixmasterreece]

I wonder if Sam's younger brother Logan might be part of this deal as well... in a similar fashion to the Burgess brothers at souths.

He's a hooker.....

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Isn't this obsession with TL playing hooker a bit OTT? I know he's played well there for the Kiwis but wasn't that just a stop-gap and hasn't he actually been a 6 or 7 his whole career? Did he actually have an extended run at hooker in the ESL?

 

[Mixmasterreece]

Not really. Good passing game, solid on D and adds an extra kicking option. IMHO the best games Ive seen him play have been for the kiwis at hooker.