Rogers set to sign 2 year extension

[Baron Vo Mandor]

Rogers close to making his play for Knights


BY ROBERT DILLON
06 May, 2010 04:00 AM
MERCURIAL playmaker Ben Rogers is considering a two-year offer from the Newcastle Knights and is tipped to re-sign in the next few days.
The agent who represents Rogers, Steve Gillis, said last night his client was close to agreeing to terms.
"We're just working through it but hoping to have it resolved ASAP," Gillis said yesterday.
"He's happy with the deal. It's just a matter of pulling it all together.
"I'd like to get it completed by the end of the week, if possible."
If he agrees to the extension, it will be the longest Rogers has stayed at an NRL club after previous stints with Penrith (2004-05), South Sydney (2006-08) and St George Illawarra (2008).
The 25-year-old had attracted interest from a European rugby union club but Gillis said Rogers's preference was to stay in Newcastle, "because he's got plenty to achieve here".
Rogers has played in 21 games for the Knights but only two this year, having missed the start of the season with a dislocated elbow.
Knights coach Rick Stone dropped him before last week's win against Brisbane for Scott Dureau, who is also coming off contract and facing an uncertain future.
Dureau has been named as halfback for Sunday's showdown with Gold Coast but it remains to be seen whether he or Rogers starts.
Prop Ben Cross has been biding his time but is ready to kick off contract talks with Knights officials.
Cross said he had held preliminary discussions with Newcastle "but nothing formal yet" and hoped to learn in the next few weeks whether the club intended to retain him.
"There's no guarantees in footy, especially with contracts and that sort of stuff," Cross said.
"I still don't know exactly the direction the Knights want. They might be after somebody else. I'm not sure. So until we start going down that path and start talking to them properly, I'll have to wait and see."
Cross said before the season started that he was willing to be patient to give himself some bargaining power, after a ruptured biceps restricted him to seven games last year.
The 31-year-old has played in seven of Newcastle's eight games this season to cast aside any doubt about whether he could return from last year's surgery.
The only game he missed was when he was stood down, on doctor's orders, after some head knocks.
The former Melbourne and NSW Origin battering ram said he had "a few irons in the fire" but re-signing with Newcastle was his preferred option.

http://www.theherald.com.au/news/lo...e-to-making-his-play-for-knights/1822054.aspx

As long as he is signing for a $100k or under I don't mind this signing..... However ideally I'd prefer his $100k or so to be used for new signings.

http://www.theherald.com.au/news/lo...-to-making-his-play-for-knights/1822054.aspx#
javascript:changeFontSize('story',-1);

 

[aqua_duck]

Oh man, why oh why, if we're going to re-sign rogers, might aswell re-sign Dureau and we can forget about signing a decent halfback.
Also if Crossy wants to think about bargaining power he can get f*cked, he's been on premium money last 2 years and been on the sideline the majority of the time, he should appreciate the support the club has given him and offer to take a paycut if he wants to stay. If he wants the same money I hope the club tell him he's dreaming

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

$200k maximum for Cross I think is fair, and to be honest who's going to pay him more?

I am seriously worried that this Rogers signing is a indication we are looking at keeping all off contract players.

 

[roopy]

We should be able to find a spot for Rogers.
He is a big, athletic guy with skills, and before he came to us he played a lot of positions.
He will never be a better 5/8 than Mullen, so we should be seeing where else he can fill a spot, and i say he could fill most spots in the backline well, and possibly lock off the bench if we named him as bench utility.
He is definately more skillful than Wes or Keith and a more effective ball runner as well, and ask any winger if they'd like Sau or Rogers.

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

Question we need to be asking is will we win a premiership with player X in our side.

Answer for Rogers and most off contract players is a big fat NO.

 

[Mr Saab]

We should be able to find a spot for Rogers.
He is a big, athletic guy

Athletic? Someone like Kurt Gidley is athletic. Rogers has the body of some merchant banker who is glued to his chair

 

[perverse]

i'd say we'll re-sign the vast majority of our off contract players, but i'd say a fair few of them will be lesser contracts. i'd say dodge will get offered pretty much whatever he's on now. we've got more or less exactly what was expected, an enigmatic 5/8th with consistency issues.

judging by what i've read in the papers regarding recruitment and rentention (which, to be fair, isn't a great source of knowledge) - i would say the plan is sign up whoever we can on similar or reduced contracts, and simply add to that roster, rather than mixing and matching with the off contract market. it's really only a couple of these blokes that are on overs for what they provide. the idea seems to be take what we have, and add a bit more quality/marquee on top of it. i'd say we'll take that avenue until we hit a roadblock as far as someone not getting over the line on what we offer them.

 

[aqua_duck]

I hope we sign some elite players, and since that is unlikely, the next best option would be elite youngsters. I'm sick of seeing us pay overs for injury prone journeymen like Reyno and Crossy

 

[Alex28]

Rogers will be a great backup for our top line halfback, except if that halfback is Dureau. No point having 2 back-up quality halfbacks with no top line halfback signed...

 

[Serc]

Also if Crossy wants to think about bargaining power he can get f*cked, he's been on premium money last 2 years and been on the sideline the majority of the time, he should appreciate the support the club has given him and offer to take a paycut if he wants to stay. If he wants the same money I hope the club tell him he's dreaming

If you read the quote about bargaining power again, another way you could interpret it is that Cross knows he needs to get some runs on the board as he owes the club given his recent history.

Also, while I wouldn't necessarily re-sign Rogers, he would be on still next to nothing so a low risk/low waste of time.

 

[Jobdog]

Must. Keep. Opinion. To. Self. :crazy:

 

[perverse]

I hope we sign some elite players, and since that is unlikely, the next best option would be elite youngsters. I'm sick of seeing us pay overs for injury prone journeymen like Reyno and Crossy

we haven't been reliably linked to a player for a fair while now. we were never interested in barba. i think that can be taken as either worrying, or ominous. i still can't shake the feeling that we're odds on to get finch... but i'd imagine at least 1 or 2 more signings outside of that, too. if we are to get finchy back to newcastle, then we wont hear about it until much later in the year due to the storms salary cap worries... and as has been stated to the point of obsessive repetition - i'm not sure he's the dominant half we need.

who else will be coming in remains to be seen... but i'd wager we haven't seen the start, much less the end of our recruitment for next year. remember, we still have cap space for THIS year that hasn't been dished out anywhere yet (to the best of our knowledge)... and i would imagine front loading contracts to free up even MORE cap space over the next year or 2 will be on the cards if we don't pick up an opportunistic signing along the way this year.

it's not the worst position to be in, really. we have the basis of a very strong squad... and you could only say we're lacking in a couple of (fairly important, i'll admit) areas. in a period of time in the game where the best club in the game has a crapload of backloaded contracts and is almost definitely on the way down, we're at the opposite end of the spectrum with cap space to burn and in a position to FRONT load our contracts to make the equation look even better for the years ahead. to be in this position with a squad that actually made the top 8 last year is a very promising position indeed.

 

[Jono078]

My problem with this is why do we want to re-sign everyone when they are the people to get the job done (win the comp).

I don't mind re-signing them but if it's gonna cost us attracting better players then that's an issue.

 

[perverse]

Rogers will be a great backup for our top line halfback, except if that halfback is Dureau. No point having 2 back-up quality halfbacks with no top line halfback signed...

i do agree with this to a point. the thing is, you could keep scotty on minimum contract just about. he's a local that loves the club and is likely under no illusions to his limited value. i can see lots of positives to keeping these bloeks around, as well as signing a few more up... because not only does it keep the base of our top squad strong, we'll also be able to let a few more of these more experienced bloeks play for the centurians... and try and create a bit more of a winning culture at that level too. having a winning reserve grade team to blood youngsters against biggers boys (and to get them mingling and playing with more blokes that have 1st grade experience) etc is a valuable asset to have.

the fact is - if we can sign this squad back up, as well as adding a marquee... and maybe another fringey or youngster with potential then we're in a very good position personnel wise. obviously the areas to be addressed are the halves, the front row and the centres.

 

[Yosh]

Kinda waste of money/cap space if he is on more than 80k~100k a year. I mean that's not that much and having him as our 18th man isn't bad. Can cover halves and backrow well enough and is nearly FG quality.

 

[perverse]

My problem with this is why do we want to re-sign everyone when they are the people to get the job done (win the comp).

I don't mind re-signing them but if it's gonna cost us attracting better players then that's an issue.

this last sentence is the crux of it i think. if it costs us attracting a marquee, then it's certainly a negative. if we can have it both ways, though... which has been implied by burro on a few occasions in the media... then i'm all for that, too.

re-signing scotty and rogers is only a bad thing if we intend on them being our first choice picks for first grade. most clubs would love to have blokes of this calibre to call up during injury/origin.

 

[Jobdog]

I don't see this signing as being anything overly positive. We've got space to move under the cap, lets do whatever we can to get some high-quality players coming here ...

 

[Rolla]

An ok signing. This will put a rocket up scotty hopefully. Scotty wont attract interest from other clubs so he should stay on minimum wage. Id go for match payments and he can live off centrelink top-ups.

 

[perverse]

I don't see this signing as being anything overly positive. We've got space to move under the cap, lets do whatever we can to get some high-quality players coming here ...

it doesn't have to be overly negative, either. it will only be a negative move if we don't sign up a half from elsewhere by the end of the year.

 

[macavity]

Not upset by this at all - Dodge has been a very good clubman for us, seems to love the place, and maturity (read: consistency) might be the missing link to his game.

I think the naysayers need to give the club a bit more benefit the doubt at the moment - financially we are way under the cap, have most of our squad stitched up, and could put deals together to get one or two top shelf players here, and probably a few promising youngsters too - even accounting for having to make it a sweet deal.

Keep the pitchforks in the barn until all the cards are on the table.