Rumoured and Confirmed Signings and Avenger's Secrets XXVII

[Noise]

Round 13 rule still apply or is that scrapped?

Scrapped. 10 day cooling off period for the existing side to make another offer.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

So our famed academy has produced the following long term stars at Parra:

Semi

It's about producing cheap first graders. There's no guarantee any stars will come through, but if you have cheap first graders you can at least afford to pay (overs) for the stars.

How many of our current squad played in our under 20s?

Folau
Morgan
Radradra
Toutai
Pritchard
Moeroa
Pauli
Tanginoa
Ualesi
Alvaro
Mannah
Paulo
Terepo
Fuimaono (still eligible)

Of those only Morgan, Mannah and probably Terepo are at their peak age. The rest have improvement in them. Certainly too early to judge whether or not they should be stars yet.

Compare this with the reigning premiers. The following members of their premiership squad were at the club prior to turning 20:

Bolton
Cooper
Feldt
Hess
Hoare
Kaufusi
Morgan
Scott
Spina
Taumalolo
Thompson

Now of course this is a better bunch of players, but most of them are in their mid-20s or older. The Cowboys have had their 'academy' for a long time, so should have produced better players than ours which was an afterthought between 2006 and 2011. Our list of homegrown NRL squad members includes 11 under the age of 24. The Cowboys' homegrown list had only 4 players under 24 and a couple over 30.

 

[Twizzle]

Seriously Pooh ?

Accommodation, Training and Paying players for many years before they graduate to the NRL team is not cheap.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

:lol: Yeah it's working great all the top sides continue to find space for players yet we don't play finals in 5 seasons and still lose our best young players.

The cap at work :roll:

You calling Canberra a 'top side' now?

The Roosters, Bunnies, Bulldogs have all had to lose quality players this off season.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Seriously Pooh ?

Accommodation, Training and Paying players for many years before they graduate to the NRL team is not cheap.

Seriously Twizzle?

Accomodation and training don't count under the cap. Paying players outside the top 25 doesn't either.

 

[strider]

Scrapped. 10 day cooling off period for the existing side to make another offer.

and I would assume that 10 day period would be allowed to pass before any club announces any signing in the future

 

[Noise]

It's about producing cheap first graders. There's no guarantee any stars will come through, but if you have cheap first graders you can at least afford to pay (overs) for the stars.

How many of our current squad played in our under 20s?

Folau
Morgan
Radradra
Toutai
Pritchard
Moeroa
Pauli
Tanginoa
Ualesi
Alvaro
Mannah
Paulo
Terepo
Fuimaono (still eligible)

Of those only Morgan, Mannah and probably Terepo are at their peak age. The rest have improvement in them. Certainly too early to judge whether or not they should be stars yet.

.

We don't even have to talk about becoming 'stars'. The only players on that list who are a regular first grader are Semi & Mannah and maybe Moeroa. Pretty f**ken poor.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Not sure if this is correct but read this today, apparently Lafai played on the left in 2014 and was pretty good. He played on the right in 2015 and wasn't so good.

So with Mr T on left already, could he play on the right ? Would we even want to break up Mr T and Semi, or could Lafai play on the right and return to 2014 form?

Maybe we aren't after Lafai as he is more a left side player.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

We don't even have to talk about becoming 'stars'. The only players on that list who are a regular first grader are Semi & Mannah and maybe Moeroa. Pretty f**ken poor.

A fair majority of those players are only 20-22, a lot of players don't really become regulars until mid 20's.

 

[Noise]

Not sure if this is correct but read this today, apparently Lafai played on the left in 2014 and was pretty good. He played on the right in 2015 and wasn't so good.

So with Mr T on left already, could he play on the right ? Would we even want to break up Mr T and Semi, or could Lafai play on the right and return to 2014 form?

Maybe we aren't after Lafai as he is more a left side player.

He certainly is a better left side player. But if Arthur is happy to have a $1.2million half play on the side he has barely ever played on then I don't seem to think he would worry about a 300-400k centre playing on the right when Lafai has actually played there quite a bit. Still think he will end up at Dragons or Titans regardless.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

We don't even have to talk about becoming 'stars'. The only players on that list who are a regular first grader are Semi & Mannah and maybe Moeroa. Pretty f**ken poor.

I reckon next year plenty of them will be in our top 17. the year after there will probably be even more.

You don't want a top 17 full of youngsters. The Cowboys just won the comp with only three players under 24 in their grand final team.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

A fair majority of those players are only 20-22, a lot of players don't really become regulars until mid 20's.

Don't let the facts get in the way of a good whinge.

 

[Noise]

I reckon next year plenty of them will be in our top 17. the year after there will probably be even more.

You don't want a top 17 full of youngsters. The Cowboys just won the comp with only three players under 24 in their grand final team.

The academy can only be deemed successful when we start making the top 8 because that means we are developing solid first graders, not reserve graders playing in 1st grade.

 

[Incorrect]

The academy can only be deemed successful when we start making the top 8 because that means we are developing solid first graders, not reserve graders playing in 1st grade.

This. Not much point having some of these blokes from the Academy ending up in first grade if the team is still coming 12th-16th every year... There's a lot of mediocre guys listed above - guys like Toutai, Tanginoa, Terepo and Folau. And then I look at a guy like Ualesi - he has an imposing frame and what looks to be all the tools a young bloke needs to make it to the next level but he has obviously stagnated...


Starting to think we'd be better off getting Hightower and Tackleberry from Police Academy than promoting some of the blokes from our football academy...

 

[Poupou Escobar]

The academy can only be deemed successful when we start making the top 8 because that means we are developing solid first graders, not reserve graders playing in 1st grade.

Agreed. However the average age of the homegrown players next year is only 23:

20 Fuimaono
21 Moeroa
22 Folau
22 Pauli
22 Pritchard
22 Tanginoa
23 Alvaro
23 Paulo
23 Toutai
23 Ualesi
24 Radradra
25 Terepo
26 Morgan
28 Mannah

Those are the players' ages in 2016. Of the four who are mid-20s or older, Mannah came through Brian Smith's 'academy', Radradra was a late entry (aged 19) into the Kearney 'academy'. Terepo and Morgan both turned 18 during the years between the two.

Everyone else signed their first senior contracts under the current version of the 'academy', and as you can see, they are all still young. Most of them have shown promise in first grade. All they need to do is find consistency and they'll be first graders. How many 'solid first graders' do you expect to get under the age of 23?

 

[oldmancraigy]

Bummer about Jr Paulo. Writing was on the wall though.

Cannot blame the kid for taking the ca$h.

Tremendous talent, for those questioning his worth under limited interchange, worth noting that he played big minutes for us this year. He is NOT a 6 minute stint guy, he is able to log heavy minutes and be effective. Maybe we can sneak back under the Raiders noses and nab Paul Vaughan for the cheapsies?

As far as captain crankypants goes whinging about it: what do you want to happen? Pay Jr Paulo $700k/ season? A successful club will NOT spend that money on a prop. Every player has their price and their situation. Perhaps big Jr had an affinity for Sticky? Even the good clubs lose outstanding talent to situations and $$$ (see Chooks and RTS). This is not a black mark against the cap management, it is a tick. Don't pay overs for the wrong position! Prop is an essential position, but you need to have 4+ props capable of first grade, not 1 origin prop and crap all else.

I have massive wraps on Twal, before he even played a game of 20s my suggestion was that he would be at least a regular first grader. The kid has all the tools to be an Origin level prop - by 2017 he may well be a better player than Jr, and on 1/4 the coin. Coaching staff now need to make sure he is developed in 2016!

 

[Poupou Escobar]

This. Not much point having some of these blokes from the Academy ending up in first grade if the team is still coming 12th-16th every year... There's a lot of mediocre guys listed above - guys like Toutai, Tanginoa, Terepo and Folau. And then I look at a guy like Ualesi - he has an imposing frame and what looks to be all the tools a young bloke needs to make it to the next level but he has obviously stagnated...


Starting to think we'd be better off getting Hightower and Tackleberry from Police Academy than promoting some of the blokes from our football academy...

Or maybe the 'academy' should be producing older players? :roll:

 

[Parra47]

We could replace him with Fonua Blake or Meehan or Lodge.

What's former Parramatta, Melbourne and Penrith lower grader Mitchell Johnson doing there days?
As for Paulo, it's a shame to lose him but I'm glad the club is being financially responsible after the past few years of salary cap mess. And twal could be ready for nrl by 2017.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Bummer about Jr Paulo. Writing was on the wall though.

Cannot blame the kid for taking the ca$h.

Tremendous talent, for those questioning his worth under limited interchange, worth noting that he played big minutes for us this year. He is NOT a 6 minute stint guy, he is able to log heavy minutes and be effective. Maybe we can sneak back under the Raiders noses and nab Paul Vaughan for the cheapsies?

As far as captain crankypants goes whinging about it: what do you want to happen? Pay Jr Paulo $700k/ season? A successful club will NOT spend that money on a prop. Every player has their price and their situation. Perhaps big Jr had an affinity for Sticky? Even the good clubs lose outstanding talent to situations and $$$ (see Chooks and RTS). This is not a black mark against the cap management, it is a tick. Don't pay overs for the wrong position! Prop is an essential position, but you need to have 4+ props capable of first grade, not 1 origin prop and crap all else.

I have massive wraps on Twal, before he even played a game of 20s my suggestion was that he would be at least a regular first grader. The kid has all the tools to be an Origin level prop - by 2017 he may well be a better player than Jr, and on 1/4 the coin. Coaching staff now need to make sure he is developed in 2016!

Yep is a club better having Paulo and Hasson in their top 17 with a O'brien back up or 2 Mannah type players with a Álvaro / Twal as a back up.

 

[Kornstar]

thanks DA

Gronk,Korny and Ifreak to the rescue!!!!!

This kind of just proves my point to be honest.

DA is whatever you want him to be, no one can change that as you believe whatever you want to believe. I can still have an opinion different to yours and can you to me.

I personally choose to be consistent for both positive and negative signings at the club and that is it would be a team effort and there are many variables of why a player might sign or leave.

If we sign a player on overs the club is ridiculed that we can only attract them with overs, if we lose a player because we won't pay overs they are again ridiculed because they can't keep players.

The reality is that some players want to leave, some players just want money and some players the club just does not want. We do not know the real reasons as we are just fans who have no inside knowledge.

Even when we get whispers we are getting someone involved in the clubs opinion on signing, losing or getting rid of a player. That persons contact could think very highly of a player that the coach does not want, so the opinion you get from them is that the coach is making a mistake. It is also possible that the person who is spreading this info is getting 3rd hand information and has the other peoples interpretations and opinions mixed in along with possibly an agenda.

Ultimately there are a handful of people who know the absolute truth and they are the people directly involved.

Do i want to lose Paulo? f**k NO! Do i blame the club for not paying overs and being held to ransom over a non spine position? Also no. Shit happens and i will continue to support the team.