Paul Vaughan Signed?

[hewi]

Story in the SMH at 8.35pm saying there was interest but had not reached a decision and was contracted to Canberra for next season.

 

[Dragon Revival]

I agree with most of the comments but if we look at this year at any time we would have on average 3 forwards and 3 backs injured or suspended or on Origin duties. We basically had both Creagh and Masoe out all year and then at times had Au Mau, De Belin, Frizzell, Lui, Matthews, Sims, Thompson out. We were therefore on average without 3 forwards for most of the year. On the backs front we had Glyjmin and Farrell out all year and then had Marshall out most of the year and combined with some unavailability of Dugan and Mann and Matautia meant that we were down 6 players out of our top 25.
This may be the reason why we seem to be buying forwards and backs beyond what would appear to be our actual needs.

 

[God-King Dean]

'We need players in other areas......'

There's literally not one area of our roster that doesn't need players

 

[_Johnsy]

I saw on twitter (sorry, no link available) that a 330k per season mentioned. If true I can cop that.

 

[blacksafake]

OK let's see how this purchase would work.
On the premise we have 6 forwards on the paddock and 4 on the bench 1 of which may or may not be a hooker replacement so 10 in total is required.

Maybe a starting pack something like this
Packer
Mc Innes
Lam
Thompson
Frizzell
De Belin

Bench maybe
Simms
Host
Masoe
Havilli

In the wings
Kerr (new signing big body)
Leilua (if retained)
Sele
Wakeman (hopefully would consider an NRL contact as he is worthy)
Mc Crone
Sironen
Lewis

So if Vaughan is purchased he will be a starting player
so someone has to go back to the Cutters from 1st grade.

Logic would say that the form of Packer, resigning of Thompson, signing of Mc Innes & Simms, blooding of Host, retention of Masoe, requirement for Haviili as a hooker / back row rotation makes them all pretty safe.
Comes down to maybe LAM or De Belin.
If either of them goes back then the forward progress of Kerr, Leilua, Sele is again hampered and drops them back in the pecking order.

So why are we holding onto an established 1st grader who is now being dropped to the Cutters? To me it makes no sense.

If people say drop Host back then that flies into the face of all the lets support our juniors posts.

The whole thing is highly illogical to me and should be shelved for a tilt at a half which is more necessary than anything else.

All good points OT, However don't put it past "L plate" to find a spot for Marketo probably at the expense of Havili.

 

[j0nesy]

OK let's see how this purchase would work.
On the premise we have 6 forwards on the paddock and 4 on the bench 1 of which may or may not be a hooker replacement so 10 in total is required.

Maybe a starting pack something like this
Packer
Mc Innes
Lam
Thompson
Frizzell
De Belin

Bench maybe
Simms
Host
Masoe
Havilli

In the wings
Kerr (new signing big body)
Leilua (if retained)
Sele
Wakeman (hopefully would consider an NRL contact as he is worthy)
Mc Crone
Sironen
Lewis

So if Vaughan is purchased he will be a starting player
so someone has to go back to the Cutters from 1st grade.

Logic would say that the form of Packer, resigning of Thompson, signing of Mc Innes & Simms, blooding of Host, retention of Masoe, requirement for Haviili as a hooker / back row rotation makes them all pretty safe.
Comes down to maybe LAM or De Belin.
If either of them goes back then the forward progress of Kerr, Leilua, Sele is again hampered and drops them back in the pecking order.

So why are we holding onto an established 1st grader who is now being dropped to the Cutters? To me it makes no sense.

If people say drop Host back then that flies into the face of all the lets support our juniors posts.

The whole thing is highly illogical to me and should be shelved for a tilt at a half which is more necessary than anything else.

Im with you, we've got Masoe, Packer, Sims, Ah Mau and Kerr all covering the front row positions. Why would we need another prop? I mean give Wakeman a contract ffs and have a crack at a half. I also dont get the Nene MacDonald signing. How many outside backs do we need? Our problem is in the halves.

 

[BennyV]

OK let's see how this purchase would work.
On the premise we have 6 forwards on the paddock and 4 on the bench 1 of which may or may not be a hooker replacement so 10 in total is required.

Maybe a starting pack something like this
Packer
Mc Innes
Lam
Thompson
Frizzell
De Belin

Bench maybe
Simms
Host
Masoe
Havilli

In the wings
Kerr (new signing big body)
Leilua (if retained)
Sele
Wakeman (hopefully would consider an NRL contact as he is worthy)
Mc Crone
Sironen
Lewis

So if Vaughan is purchased he will be a starting player
so someone has to go back to the Cutters from 1st grade.

Logic would say that the form of Packer, resigning of Thompson, signing of Mc Innes & Simms, blooding of Host, retention of Masoe, requirement for Haviili as a hooker / back row rotation makes them all pretty safe.
Comes down to maybe LAM or De Belin.
If either of them goes back then the forward progress of Kerr, Leilua, Sele is again hampered and drops them back in the pecking order.

So why are we holding onto an established 1st grader who is now being dropped to the Cutters? To me it makes no sense.

If people say drop Host back then that flies into the face of all the lets support our juniors posts.

The whole thing is highly illogical to me and should be shelved for a tilt at a half which is more necessary than anything else.

On the surface, that's correct, and we should 100% be targeting a first-grade ready half to be the chief and organiser. However, if we assume that the backrow is set with Friz, Thommo and JDB, and Host covers the backrow off the bench (with Havili as bench hooker) then we need a 4-prop rotation. Packer and Simms are no brainers, but basically everyone else is fair game considering our 2016. If Vaughn is signed on the reported $330k (god I hope so, $650k is too much for potential at his age) then it works well.

We do need an extra big body. At this stage, Mose is an unknown. Ah Mau had a very poor season, Kerr hasnt played a minute of first grade and has been told that he will play the year in Cuttes with the plan to come into 1st in 2018. And while I love the idea of bringing Wakeman up, all signs point to him not wanting to play under Mary (which is a whole other discussion). If Ah Mau does return to form AND Mose kills it, then we look elsewhere in the forward pack for an odd man out - may be Vaughn, may be JDC with Simms to lock, who knows). It's a much better headache to have.

And in the case of injuries (and yes, there will be injuries), I'd much happier calling up the likes of Ah Mau, Leilua and Sele than Marketo and Matthews.

 

[Old Timer]

Benny V
I think we pretty much agree on this and it is definitely a better headache to have.
I was more or less trying to draw the conclusion that if we add a reasonable quality player, then someone has to be discarded form the lower roster particularly when you have journeymen taking up spots that juniors and up and comers should occupy.
If we don't discard when we acquire we will again block juniors pathways and they will leave.
I just see the acquisition policy as being a self fulfilling prophesy of holding onto plodders at the expense of losing potential we never properly harvested.

 

[BennyV]

Well I hope to hell they look to discard the likea of Marketo, Matthews, even Lui before pushing Host and Sele to the back of the line!

 

[Auntie.Gerald]

Vaughan is needed

Our pack got smashed against the roosters pack in our last game against them so we need great depth and genuine depth

yes Packer played injured most of the year
yes we didn't have Mose out there
yes we didn't have Creagh out there
no Sims that game either

and that is why we need another mid 20s emerging prop because we need to have the depth week to week

start the game with our big men and make the metres we struggled to make.
A half back would much prefer a pack rotation such as below so he can control the game via already good field position and Hutch will need these guys to fire !

Packer, Mcinnes, Mose
Sims, Friz
JDB

Vaughan
AhMau
Thomo
Host / Luc

 

[Zucchini]

Didn't I read in here somewhere from a Raiders fan that Vaughan has some off field issues and that was why there was talk of releasing him?

 

[Carlton]

As I said I like Vaughan and think he can add a lot to the squad. At $330K that's fantastic, at $450K par but if its $650K we have lost the plot.

If he is on one of the lower amounts great pickup.

 

[borat]

Vaughan plays his best football off the bench. The times he has started he just doesn't impact the game. I would expect him to play good minutes but start off the bench

 

[hazzbeen]

As I said I like Vaughan and think he can add a lot to the squad. At $330K that's fantastic, at $450K par but if its $650K we have lost the plot.

If he is on one of the lower amounts great pickup.

Carlton we never had plot to loose it . If we go into next year much the same as this year what will change ?

 

[Dragon Revival]

I like your forward pack Auntie.Gerald. I noticed that as soon as Packer and Frizzell
were replaced we had no go forward. Sims improved this situation and so will Masoe and Vaughan if recruited will make a vast improvement. That is why I like Host and Leilua as they have plenty of go forward in times when we had little go forward in the team? We also had both Rein and Marshall making stupid passes when the team could make little headway which resulted in lost possession and opposition tries. I marvelled at the wonderful yardage and go forward of the Cutters pack. By the way whatever happened to Fortae our tower of strength on this discussion forum?

 

[MattoDragon]

I am a big supporter of this signing.

1. He is 25 turning 26 next year. So he is coming into his best years as a prop forward.

2. He averages more run metres (115) than our entire forward pack. And even though he was benched for the second half of the year, he still averaged more run metres than the entire Canberra forward pack (Shannon Boyd, who is in the aus team, included) with the exception of Josh Papalii (118). Even then he had half the game time of Papalii to average 3 less metres.

3. His runs are around 10m per carry which is better than ours and Canberra's forward pack.

4. His tackle efficiency is 92 percent, 3rd best in Canberra and it would be 6th at the Dragons.

5. He has a good strike rate of tries and line breaks for a prop. With some of his tries being pearlers.

I reckon he will prove to be an asset and he could be the lynch pin of a powerful forward rotation next year.

Agreed, but what about our attack?
Mary thinks nothing but defense. The stats showed we already have the go forward to get up the other end of the park (ranked 6th in the comp). Our problem is what we do, or don't do, when we get into the oppositions 20.
I don't think spending $1.75m on Vaughan is going to improve that.
Imo we have the nucleus of a good side. what we lack is a coach capable of taking them to the next level.

 

[Carlton]

Carlton we never had plot to loose it . If we go into next year much the same as this year what will change ?

As soon as I'd written that I thought the same myself. Part of the problem is buying players without a plan and the handing them over to our HC to "develop" them.

 

[MattoDragon]

Wakeman would have been a more prudent signing ... are we not broke?

Wakeman won't play under MacGregor. Clever man, if you ask me.

 

[MattoDragon]

Carlton we never had plot to loose it . If we go into next year much the same as this year what will change ?

Hazzbeen, you seriously think a new prop is going to improve our attack? Mate, we can't score tries!

 

[Pete Cash]

Didn't I read in here somewhere from a Raiders fan that Vaughan has some off field issues and that was why there was talk of releasing him?

There was rumours and what one might call circumstantial evidence to support it.

The rumours were he did something bad in the lead up to the sharks game a few weeks ago after he was told he wasnt playing. The circumstantial evidence was that he was nowhere to be seen at the game. He didnt warm up as 17th man as he was named (Jeff Lima did)

Now, this could just be hogwash because he did play against the Panthers and Storm but that was the word on the street.