Orford, Riddell, Tahu, Kite, Pritchard and Kurt Gidley

[The Colonel]

I will say that I agree with Phillips on one thing and that is in regards to Jake Webster. Defensively he is very sound and he does know his way to the tryline. He is only young and would add depth to our backline. I know we have picked up "depth" in the past that has been just that but this kid has a BIG future mark my words.

As for the take on Tahu, the big statement a lot have made is IF IT WASN"T FOR INJURY he would have played Origin. Yes, no doubt the kid is extremely talented and any club would be stupid not to chase him however he seems to have very fragile legs - in particular the ankle and hamstring.

Riddell and Morris in a hooker rotation would be fantastic. Its clear that Riddell while extremely talented is not an eighty minute player. Off the bench in 10 - 15 minute bursts late in the half he would be extremely difficult to contend with while Morris adds his ability to fill in about every position in the backline and even at lock.

Frank Pritchard. I will not rave more about this kid because I have seen him play some fantastic games in recent weeks. He busts tackles, makes great metres and hits hard in defence. I hope the rumours that I have heard of him already signed on the dotted line are true......

 

[Eels Dude]

Here's my say

I think the club are rating some of these players higher than they should be rated.

Mark Riddell is a good player, however he is not worth 270K per season. He hasn't played rep football, and is far from an 80 minute player. 270k for a player of non representative standard is far too much.

The same goes for Orford. Great player, but 400k? That's a joke. There should only one player max at a club being paid that much, we already have 2 or 3. Purchasing Orford will result in us losing 5 or 6 good young juniors

Brent Kite has played origin this year and he's been in impressive form. However after half a season of good football shouldn't mean big money is thrown at him. He has been patchy in the past. Kite could turn out to be a buy like Adam Dykes

Tahu is a good player, the club are looking at him as a centre and that's a good thing. I think he'd like to get back into playing in the centres like he did at the start of his career. If is willing to accept a reasonable offer he's worth a shot.

Pritchard would also be a good buy if he comes at a decent price. A good bench player he could add a lot to our side.

Kurt Gidley? I don't know why we're looking at him to be honest. With Tim Smith coming along nicely i'd rather wait and see what he has to offer rather than go out and buy Kurt, who could be a great player, but could also not. Witt and Dykes can do in the halves until Smith is ready.

 

[Stagger eel]

Here's my say

I think the club are rating some of these players higher than they should be rated.

Mark Riddell is a good player, however he is not worth 270K per season. He hasn't played rep football, and is far from an 80 minute player. 270k for a player of non representative standard is far too much.

The same goes for Orford. Great player, but 400k? That's a joke. There should only one player max at a club being paid that much, we already have 2 or 3. Purchasing Orford will result in us losing 5 or 6 good young juniors

Brent Kite has played origin this year and he's been in impressive form. However after half a season of good football shouldn't mean big money is thrown at him. He has been patchy in the past. Kite could turn out to be a buy like Adam Dykes

Tahu is a good player, the club are looking at him as a centre and that's a good thing. I think he'd like to get back into playing in the centres like he did at the start of his career. If is willing to accept a reasonable offer he's worth a shot.

Pritchard would also be a good buy if he comes at a decent price. A good bench player he could add a lot to our side.

Kurt Gidley? I don't know why we're looking at him to be honest. With Tim Smith coming along nicely i'd rather wait and see what he has to offer rather than go out and buy Kurt, who could be a great player, but could also not. Witt and Dykes can do in the halves until Smith is ready.

do you suggest we should persist with the up and comers!! and hope they shine and maybe purchase a few bargain buys??..especially with our current status, in the comp.

 

[Eels Dude]

I think we should recruit WISELY. Like not throwing away 270K at a player who is not worth it. I rate Riddell as a player but he is not worth that amount of cash. We've lost quality players in the past because things have not been thought through thoroughly.

I'd love to see some of those players at the club but it has to be done sensibly.

 

[AlexTheEel]

I dont think its worth saving 270K just for the sake of it. Quality players are hard to get on the market. If we've got it, lets spend it.

 

[Stagger eel]

Ok!!

you've obviously thought about this! what would be your "wise" buys and who would you retain and let go??

bare in mind that we are in a situation where allthough we may have the funds for a couple of class players we need to offer "over the odds" for players to come to us.

 

[Eels Dude]

I dont think its worth saving 270K just for the sake of it. Quality players are hard to get on the market. If we've got it, lets spend it.

It's not being done just for the sake of it. We may have enough money under the cap for next year, but what about the year after that? Our best and most experienced players are all coming off contract next year so the more room we have under the cap the better. In 2001 when the club had room they went out and spent 350K on Adam Dykes. It was fine for the 2002, but then we couldn't afford to retain Ryan, Hindmarsh, Donald, Drew etc. The money should have been spent to upgrade some of their contracts, rather than buy a top class player just cause the club could afford to.

 

[Stagger eel]

I dont think its worth saving 270K just for the sake of it. Quality players are hard to get on the market. If we've got it, lets spend it.

It's not being done just for the sake of it. We may have enough money under the cap for next year, but what about the year after that? Our best and most experienced players are all coming off contract next year so the more room we have under the cap the better. In 2001 when the club had room they went out and spent 350K on Adam Dykes. It was fine for the 2002, but then we couldn't afford to retain Ryan, Hindmarsh, Donald, Drew etc. The money should have been spent to upgrade some of their contracts, rather than buy a top class player just cause the club could afford to.

OK!!

so what your effictively saying without going into explicit details that you would use next year as a re-building year for the club!! than start from scratch in 2006 as we both know we have over half the cap off contract at the end of next year!!

 

[AlexTheEel]

I doubt if any of our big guns will be requesting a pay increase. Guys like Cayless and Vella if anything would be on alot less money than that which they were signed to in 01, due to injury and form problems. Hindmarsh is already on a very good contract and any increase in his wouldn't me major. Also Dykes is off coentrast after next year and I doubt if retained he would be requesting more then what he is currently on.

 

[Eels Dude]

Ok!!

you've obviously thought about this! what would be your "wise" buys and who would you retain and let go??

bare in mind that we are in a situation where allthough we may have the funds for a couple of class players we need to offer "over the odds" for players to come to us.

I cannot just name a "wise" buy. It can only be done in relation to what that player is worth. For example, it would be wise to purchase Riddell if we could get him for 200K, however it would a bad decision to pay 270K for him. All the players mentioned would be good aquisitions to the club but only for the right price. I understand the fact we may have to pay more to get certain players to the club, but to pay outrageous funds would be a mistake.

 

[Eels Dude]

OK!!

so what your effictively saying without going into explicit details that you would use next year as a re-building year for the club!! than start from scratch in 2006 as we both know we have over half the cap off contract at the end of next year!!

Well next year will be a rebuilding phase, whichever way we look at it. What i'm saying is if there's any good to come out of the last couple of years it should be the club learning not to make the same mistakes again. We're always going to have good juniors coming through, it would be good to hang onto the quality players this time round.

 

[The Colonel]

Its clear that to buy the quality the club is after that we are going to have to spend the money. Realistically the chances of us securing all of Riddell, Orford and Tahu are regretfully slim. We do however have to show to these players that we are trying to, if not still capable of, bring the likes of Orford and Riddell to the club.

Realistically the club needs to aim both high and low. Hopefully if we can attract Orford we can pick up Pritchard or if we attract Riddell we may see someone like Webster come too.

 

[Misty Bee]

What was missing from last nights performance?

Effort? No.

Guts and courage? No.

Speed out wide? No (Graham excepted)

Organisation? Yes.

Kicking game? Yes.

Decoy running? Yes.

Which of those names can fix those problems? Matt Orford.

Parra's big problem is not strikepower out wide. It's breaking the line. Hindy just doesn't do it anymore. Tooks has gone, so has Drew and Killer. Whose left? Widders when he gets a run, and Dykes kicking game.

We need an organiser who can create line breaks. We need Orford. Ridell, Pritchard etc would be handy, but the halves have always been our achilles heel. Give us a top shelf half, and we'd kill it.

 

[eelsta]

we probanly wont get any of them sorry to be a pessimist but lets all take a reality check here

 

[strider]

I reckon we are a chance at Riddell - he's basically said its Cronulla, Parra or St George (so expect the Roosters to announce his signing some time next week :lol: )...I reckon we are a chance at him - but probably depends what St George can offer.

Pitchard - hehehe, if u believe the "reliable sources" on this forum he is already blue and gold.

Orford - I think he will take a BIG $ 1yr deal with Melbourne to keep his options open.....signing him to a long deal worries me as it may mean waving bye bye to Tim Smith - but maybe thats not a bad thing????

 

[Avenger]

We get Orford and Riddell, we make the 8 every year. Its a no brainer to me. And next year we want to re-sign Hindmarsh and Cayless. Signing the above 2 will help 10 fold.

 

[strider]

yeah it will undoubtedly help big time.....orford and riddell are quality players....it'll cost us big $s tho

I hope future hindsight doesn't say - "you should never give 4yr deals to any player"

 

[Dogs Of War]

Find another prop! Forwards will win you the big games, give your backs some space to work off. You have hindmarsh, cayless and add one top shelf prop, then you will see some results.

 

[Avenger]

Find another prop! Forwards will win you the big games, give your backs some space to work off. You have hindmarsh, cayless and add one top shelf prop, then you will see some results.

We have one. His name is Cannings but he has a broken arm.

 

[Eelementary]

(1) On the point Tahu seems fragile - that may be true, but look at Dykes this year; a bloke who had chronic injuries has been fit for the entire year (and even been in good form); and yes, I know it took Dykes a few years to get over his injuries, but that was not my point; my point is people's injury luck could always change

(2) On the Jake Webster point - would you rather a young talented bloke (of which we have plenty), or a classy, aggressive, game-breaking proven rep player? I'd take Timana anyday. And when we think Ben Smith and co. are ready to step up, we will at least have enough quality players left.

(3) On the money issue - we have clearly got an agenda; we want to sign quality players at the same time as keeping our best juniors; the reality is some juniors will always leave (for instance, would you keep Tonga last year had we signed Vagana? I think not). The only way to attract quality is to pay up.

At some point, if we deem they are asking too much, we will not sign them.

I think Parra has a tactic going, though; I think by offering a mammoth $400 000 deal to Orford (which we could pay), we are trying to put off other clubs so he comes to us.

(4) On the Kite issue - he is hard, fast and strong. Plus he can tackle.

(5) On Riddell not being an 80 minute player - he needn't be; he's a game-breaker. He's like Widders or Moi Moi, except he's a hooker.

And a quality one at that too.

(6) On Pritchard - SIGN HIM.

Imagine this future back-row (I mean in like 10 years from now):

11. Afamasaga
12. Pritchard

Looks good, eh?