Rumoured targets 2

[perverse]

Rnb11.....please, I beg you.... Please tell us there's some light at the end of the tunnel..... Is there any signings in the near future...... Or are we stuck with this lot for the rest of the year?..... Please give me something to look foward to

I'd be happy enough to know that we're not stuck with this same lot for next year, too. This year is approaching the point of no return very rapidly.

 

[perverse]

I mentioned somewhere else but I'd pay 800k for Fifta. We can save the money to use it more wisely, but we won't... We'll just too up some of the boys again or it'll just sit around in Tink's pocket...

Pretty sure Fifita re-signed with the Sharks in the last day or 2.

 

[Nuffy]

I'd be happy enough to know that we're not stuck with this same lot for next year, too. This year is approaching the point of no return very rapidly.

Not having a dig at rnb11 but I would say any number of the potential signings have blown up for whatever reason.

We are staring down the barrel of the same roster for 2015.

 

[Nuffy]

Pretty sure Fifita re-signed with the Sharks in the last day or 2.

Announced today throughout the media.

 

[perverse]

Not having a dig at rnb11 but I would say any number of the potential signings have blown up for whatever reason.

We are staring down the barrel of the same roster for 2015.

There's still plenty of blokes on the market that are worth a dig, though. Still, it's hard to be optimistic with our track record.

 

[K-Man]

There's still plenty of blokes on the market that are worth a dig, though. Still, it's hard to be optimistic with our track record.

Such as? Genuine question. I haven't seen a list in a while and I'm wondering what's left.

Correct me if I'm wrong but could we not potentially be letting go of Mason, Fa'alogo, Smith, Cuthbertson, Houston and of course McKinnon?

Mason will probably retire, Smith from memory signed a 3 year deal so he could feasibly retire too.

We need to make a big splash in the market for forwards. I'm particularly interested to see how our number 13 is going to be without Smith.

 

[Noname36]

To be honest at the moment I think getting Boyd and Gidley out is just as important as getting some new forwards in.

God, think of all the money we'd have to throw around with just their pay packets alone. To start with I think the side would be a lot better with Mamo at fullback and Clydesdale as first choice hooker, and on top of that the money tied up in their inflated salaries would help us lure some quality forwards to Newcastle.

Devastating that they're the two blokes in the side that are the least likely to get moved along given Gidley's relationship with the club and Boyd's with the coach.

 

[perverse]

Well, Ben Murdoch-Masila is off to Penrith - effective immediately.

We really could have used him right now. What the f**k are we doing? Seriously?

 

[Nuffy]

Well, Ben Murdoch-Masila is off to Penrith - effective immediately.

We really could have used him right now. What the f**k are we doing? Seriously?

Yep, I fear we are going to run into 2015 with a similar roster with a few low quality journeymen thrown into the mix.

 

[K-Man]

Well, Ben Murdoch-Masila is off to Penrith - effective immediately.

We really could have used him right now. What the f**k are we doing? Seriously?

Well that hurts. That just seems like exactly the kind of deal we needed to be coming up with, not the Panthers.

 

[K-Man]

Yep, I fear we are going to run into 2015 with a similar roster with a few low quality journeymen thrown into the mix.

The scariest part is that this was the time to make the big moves because we actually have a lot of forwards coming off contract.

Now we run the risk of looking around the market, realising there's not much left, and re-signing some of the players we could have cleared cap space with just because they're better than the alternatives.

It would be a real shame to extend some of these contracts through lack of better options.

I suppose our moral stance on Packer could actually play a significant role in our contract negotiations. Is he technically still under contract or was it torn up? (i.e. even if he gets parole, is he even a Knights player anymore?)

 

[perverse]

It's just f**ked, we've lost Packer and McKinnon this year... Willie will likely retire at years end... judging on this years form, J. Smith will be way over the hill by 2015. Scott isn't getting any younger, either.

Where are the answers? Tapine and Korbin will probably continue to develop in this time... but that's nowhere near enough to cover what we're going to lose. I've been giving Wayne and the club the benefit of the doubt thus far. Not sure how much longer that can be the case. Every week a player or 2 that we could really use re-signs with their club or moves somewhere else. How can we possibly not be jagging one or 2 by now?

 

[K-Man]

It's just f**ked, we've lost Packer and McKinnon this year... Willie will likely retire at years end... judging on this years form, J. Smith will be way over the hill by 2015. Scott isn't getting any younger, either.

Where are the answers? Tapine and Korbin will probably continue to develop in this time... but that's nowhere near enough to cover what we're going to lose. I've been giving Wayne and the club the benefit of the doubt thus far. Not sure how much longer that can be the case. Every week a player or 2 that we could really use re-signs with their club or moves somewhere else. How can we possibly not be jagging one or 2 by now?

It's pretty ugly, and it's a factor the critics of our dad's army recruitment can point to with a number of these guys reaching their used-by date around the same time. Packer and McKinnon are obviously just incredible bad luck.

Realistically from this year's squad we will probably be losing (or would want to lose even if we're stuck with them one more year):

Packer
McKinnon
Mason
Smith
Fa'alogo
Houston
Tetevano

That's 7 first grade forwards, and so far zero replacements unless you count U20s prop James Taylor from the Warriors.

Where are the players coming from? We need a minimum of 3 decent buys: a lock to replace Smith, a second rower to improve our quality, and a prop or three to replace everyone.

 

[perverse]

Forgot about Taylor... was that ever confirmed? I don't believe there was a release from the club or anything about it, but I could be wrong. He certainly looks like a gun, but will be raw.

I reckon we will end up signing Packer if the NRL will let us next year. Don't really want him after what has transpired, but we might be shit out of options. At least we'd get him bloody cheap, I guess... the problem with that being that we're not really in the market for cheap - we're in the market for quality.

 

[K-Man]

So what are we looking at then?

Cuthbertson
Rochow
Scott
Sims
Clydesdale
Snowden

Gidley
Tapine
Houston
Tetevano/Taylor/Vaivai/Likiliki/?

Not even close to enough quality or depth.

If we added Tariq Sims, McQueen/Te'o and at least one proven prop then we might be getting close.

 

[Nuffy]

The tom toms have gone very quiet and the mail about mid season signatures etc havedisappeared.

I think its fair to say that the club has come up dry, again.

Players who don't serve it are going to get upgrades because the club has no other option.

It does surprise me at how bad we are at genuine recruitment not last chance saloon stuff.

At any well run club, if the recruitment was consistently poor, then heads would roll. Not so at the Knights.

 

[K-Man]

Forgot about Taylor... was that ever confirmed? I don't believe there was a release from the club or anything about it, but I could be wrong. He certainly looks like a gun, but will be raw.

I reckon we will end up signing Packer if the NRL will let us next year. Don't really want him after what has transpired, but we might be shit out of options. At least we'd get him bloody cheap, I guess... the problem with that being that we're not really in the market for cheap - we're in the market for quality.

I'm pretty sure it was confirmed, but I can't remember the source. He looks every bit a future first grader, but really you just don't know how successful he will be until given a chance. He's not a massive guy, that's probably the only worry. The way I'm looking at him right now, we've bought ourselves a young Glen Grief and that's about it. If he could become more of a Ben Hannant (who in some ways he reminds me of, not sure why) then we'd be laughing.

 

[Nuffy]

I'm pretty sure it was confirmed, but I can't remember the source. He looks every bit a future first grader, but really you just don't know how successful he will be until given a chance. He's not a massive guy, that's probably the only worry. The way I'm looking at him right now, we've bought ourselves a young Glen Grief and that's about it. If he could become more of a Ben Hannant (who in some ways he reminds me of, not sure why) then we'd be laughing.

Or we've bought the next Beau Henry.

 

[perverse]

I'm pretty sure it was confirmed, but I can't remember the source. He looks every bit a future first grader, but really you just don't know how successful he will be until given a chance. He's not a massive guy, that's probably the only worry. The way I'm looking at him right now, we've bought ourselves a young Glen Grief and that's about it. If he could become more of a Ben Hannant (who in some ways he reminds me of, not sure why) then we'd be laughing.

Reminds me more of the front-row edition of Paul Gallen because of his build. You don't need to be tall to make good metres up the middle... if anything, a little ball of muscle has a lower centre of gravity and can be extremely difficult to tackle. He's certainly built like a brick shithouse from what I've seen.

You're right, though... you never know how a junior will go when they step up to the big league. There are players that are more likely than others, and I'd put Taylor in that category from what I've seen - but you never know.

 

[perverse]

The tom toms have gone very quiet and the mail about mid season signatures etc havedisappeared.

I think its fair to say that the club has come up dry, again.

Players who don't serve it are going to get upgrades because the club has no other option.

It does surprise me at how bad we are at genuine recruitment not last chance saloon stuff.

At any well run club, if the recruitment was consistently poor, then heads would roll. Not so at the Knights.

We've had some of the best recruitment officers in the business at our club over the past 10 years - not to mention Wayne Bennett himself as coach lately. The club - from an administration and decision making point of view - have done EVERYTHING they could to improve our recruitment record as far as I can see... yet nothing changes. We are met with the same disappointment year after year, regardless of who is pulling the strings at any level.

The only drawcard we EVER had was Joey. Players did want to play with him... but even then, we didn't exactly have a legion of Test stars banging our door down to play at Newie.

I'm pretty convinced - having lived in Sydney again for a while now - that almost any native Sydneysider would probably rather drop dead than play football in Newcastle. Newcastle truly is thought of as a backwater hick town down here, and the pompous c**ks want zero to do with it.

Just the word "Newcastle" would be enough to turn them off... regardless of dollars. Such is the perception. I don't doubt that we made BMM an offer, to be honest... I'm suspect that we did. The question is - how much more are you willing to pay for a fringe first grader than the club down the road? 50k? 100k? 200k? How much more than market rate would they need to leave Sydney for Newcastle?