Rumoured and Confirmed Signings Part2

[umina panther]

Because if we somehow only have half the injuries of a normal Penrith year then we will be top 4 no doubt in my mind. Surely we are due for a good year injury wise.

I'm happy with every player we have let go (I like Brown but its a right move) and I'm stoked we arent just buying players for the sake of it like in the past

 

[Caged Panther]

So we've lost Brown and Korisau. Will lose Manu and Docker... and the only first grade player we have signed is Trent Merrin.

Our roster for 2016 is looking a lot weaker then it was this season, and the depth is going to be weaker aswell. Unless we're holding a few signings back, we have gone backwards bigtime. The same injuries in 2016 and we're as good as wooden spoon certainties

edit
Ontop of those, there's Nigel Plum, Brent Kite and David Simmons retiring.

Seriously are you ever anything but negative. In all the time I've seen you posting here I don't ever recall you seeming positive.

 

[umina panther]

MX hits the mark most times

 

[mxlegend99]

Seriously are you ever anything but negative. In all the time I've seen you posting here I don't ever recall you seeming positive.

We lose 7 established first graders, replacing them with a single established first grader and there's something wrong with me being disappointed with this? Even the Eels gains and losses for 2016 is better looking than ours, and they're an absolute basket case.

This is exactly the sort of gains and losses list we had in the good old days when we missed the finals most years.

As for me always being negative, have a read of this thread.
http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/showthread.php?t=447160

I was positive about the club as a whole. Although looking exclusively at the first grade side of things next season, I am very concerned. If we have even half the injuries we have had this season, we are in nowhere near as good a position to cover them... and we haven't exactly covered them successfully this year.

When the club does good things I am positive about them. When the club lets first graders go and replaces them with inferior players I am not going to praise them for it. If one of those inferior players ends up being a good first grader I will be absolutely stoked and praise Gus for signing them and Cleary for developing them. But so far we haven't really had that success with any of the lesser names we have signed.

 

[MaxPower]

This is all part of the plan. Gus said years ago the goal was to have 80% of our squad come through our junior systems. Can't do that if you keep buying established players.

 

[betcats]

Agree with max we can't have it both ways continually signing fg players from outside and keeping all of our talented juniors. How many of these kids have we got signed up? thats where the money is going. If we lost a Cartwright or rcg or Jennings or dallin we would blow up. As has been mentioned the plan has always been to bring these kids through. Our improvement will come through natural progression of our young squad, and adding Merrin of course. We have brought 'depth' players such as docker clay and that Frenchie, also Kikau from the Cowboys is killing it, he will be a player pushing for a run next year plus we have more young guys coming through our system.

 

[umina panther]

Exactly. Cartwright will be the best 2nd rower in the world and RCG will be a rep player. DWZ is also showing improvement

 

[betcats]

Docker is a loss now? If he got picked this week there would be so much complaining.

 

[mxlegend99]

Docker is low in the pecking order from what we currently have. But he would be higher than all of our new signings except for Merrin.

Surprised so many people are happy to lose so many players and sign so many no names. It's exactly what we were doing before Gus signed. Likewise we were hoping our young stars would step up. Only a couple did.

 

[umina panther]

No what we were doing was signing any old dud like Purtell.....Walsh........ect.

Tell me who was off contract that we should have signed?

 

[mxlegend99]

Lewis Brown should have been kept. We should not have released Korisau early either.

The same season we signed Adrian Purtell, we also signed:
David Simmons
Kevin Kingston
Nigel Plum
Travis Burns
Sandor Earl
Daine Laurie

Not superstars, but some great servants to the club. We lost a couple of juniors who were expected to be stars, but in the end Simmons has been better then those highly rated youngsters we lost that year... Junior Tia Kilifi, Geoff Daniela , Jarrod sammut,Paul Aiton,Adam Woolnough, Keith Peters, Junior Moors and Joel Romelo not one of them went on to make us regret it. Not like Blake Austin... a superstar player in a position we were weak in and we just let him go.

 

[mxlegend99]

Anyways each to his own. Time will tell. I think it's a huge step backwards, but if other people think it's a good move I will pray that they are right and it's not just blind faith.

I'll gladly admit I was wrong if he develops a half a dozen solid first graders to replace these guys. Seems like wishful thinking though.

 

[MaxPower]

mx, how many of those 7 who are leaving would make your top 17?

 

[Pomoz]

MX, I understand what you are saying about depth, but I think you are being unrealistic. As Cartwright, DZW, RCG and the like progress they need to be paid more or we lose them. We can't possibly keep all the players you mention and also upgrade our good junior's contracts.

I am going to disagree with you about the juniors coming through and say that RCG, Cartwright and DZW are going to be rep first graders and better than any of the players we are losing. I think Blake will get there as well. It is too early to tell for R Jennings yet but George looks like he will be as good a winger as Simmons, once he gets regular playing time.

We are top of NSW cup, top of U20's and have continually brought juniors through in the last few years. This is nothing like it was when ME and the the brains trust (I use the word "brains" with my tongue in cheek) were ignoring junior development and haphazardly throwing players in first grade. The fact we are top of the other two competitions after the injuries we have had, is absolutely amazing. We didn't even make the semi finals in Holden Cup last year and here we are back amongst it again.

You are comparing two completely different scenarios. I acknowledge that the current management hasn't delivered sustained success in first grade yet, but the signs are good everywhere else in the club. I want to keep Api and Brown to, but the salary cap gets everybody in the end.

 

[Copperhead]

Docker is low in the pecking order from what we currently have. But he would be higher than all of our new signings except for Merrin.

Surprised so many people are happy to lose so many players and sign so many no names. It's exactly what we were doing before Gus signed. Likewise we were hoping our young stars would step up. Only a couple did.

If losing those players gives opportunities to BMM, JFH and Chris Smith, then I'm fine with that. I'd like to see if the big plan of promotion from within the club works, because the constant turnaround of journeymen first graders hasn't.

 

[Nealo 12]

Clubs that pay excess of a million dollars for a player are taking a huge gamble on them staying healthy.
I think our club philosophy is good, mixing established players with junior talent. Seems to of payed off quickly in the lower grades... now we just need to give it a bit longer before we see it manifest itself in the top grade.

 

[chrisD]

Should have kept Api, he is better than Segs, but he wasn't lost for Merrin. Merrin is a fair trade for what we lost and better spreads the talent pool over more positions. We will still be weak up front.

 

[betcats]

Docker is low in the pecking order from what we currently have. But he would be higher than all of our new signings except for Merrin.

Surprised so many people are happy to lose so many players and sign so many no names. It's exactly what we were doing before Gus signed. Likewise we were hoping our young stars would step up. Only a couple did.

So far off base. When did previous management ever sign an origin and international player in their prime? When did they ever sign a youngster as highly rated as kikau?

As for young stars stepping up i think a lot of us have unrealistic expectations. Also our previous coach and investment on developing our young players was garbage. Bryce, RCG, Dallin and Yeo are all coming along nicely imo. Gennings looked great too. Waqa and Rennings have a ways to go but im confident they will come on, those first 3 will all be international in a couple seasons, Dallin already should be.

At full strength Api doesn't even make our top 17, he is a back up for us though undoubtedly a FG talent. Even i cant fit docker into our 17 and manu hasn't been in it for a while either. I really am struggling to understand the criticism of our signings, all along Gus has said we want to be a team of players who mostly came through our system which we all loved, now we are obviously transitioning to that and people start complaining we aren't bringing in enough established FGers :crazy:

The only concerns I have is the halves, and as long as the plan is to move Moylan then i am fine with that. Front row i admit is a worry aswell but we will have to wait and see what they do there.

 

[mxlegend99]

Off Contract 2015: Sam Anderson, Rodney Coates, Adrian Davis, Adam Docker, Isaac John, Leilani Latu, Sika Manu, Ben Murdoch-Masila, David Simmons, Will Smith, Shaun Spence

We really need to lock up atleast one of those front rowers now. Merrin is supposedly playing second row and our front row at the moment is Lats, RCG and Mckendry. Unless the Merrin rumours are false and he is that 4th member. Although we still need some experienced depth. Can't expect to replace McKendry and Latimore with rookies should they get injured.

Hopefully we offloaded Korisau to sign an established or promising half or front rower. Otherwise it makes no sense to release him after he has proven his value. Segeyaro has gone down a couple of times and his form has been way off also. Having Korisau start and benching him for a bit might be the kick in the bum he needed.

 

[betcats]

It certainly does seem like we need to re-sign some of those players you have mentioned which still might happen. I'd love to keep Api but he has been offered a better chance at FG and a longer contract and we have Seggy who has been great for us up until he got injured this year, lets not forget Seggy was the form hooker of the comp after the opening few rounds by a long way. Since he got hurt he has struggled but he should be right. We have junior kiwi hooker coming up behind him aswell and Docker clay has a bit of potential there, he is a junior kiwi himself i think? Its not and ideal situation having to lose players like Api and brown but the salary cap forces clubs to make tough decisions. We are losing Api for basically the same reason Souths did.