Rumoured targets 2

[Spot On]

Surely the NRL will NOT register a contract in his name for a long, long time.

 

[Knight Vision]

great news, he is exactly what we need. A hardcase up front. With the dearth of available front row talent ant club would be silly not to consider him

 

[Noname36]

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...d-forward-russell-packer-20140922-10k4br.html

no no no no no!!!!!

 

[Noname36]

great news, he is exactly what we need. A hardcase up front. With the dearth of available front row talent ant club would be silly not to consider him

Please tell me you're just trolling now?

Jesus Christ.

 

[Knight Vision]

Please tell me you're just trolling now?

Jesus Christ.

What do Phil Gould and Wayne Bennett have in common???? Come on think for a second :crazy:, obviously not your strong point , besides being men they are WINNERS !! What does Rick Stone want to be .......yippy , he wants to be a WINNER.

I hate losing I just dont complain about it as much as others on here .....We need Packer

And on another point if he has done the time what is the problem? Holier than thou f**kers ruin the world and seriously need to get a life.

Actually doesnt ur little book say " let he who is without sin cast the first stone blah blah blah "

 

[Rod]

Even though what he did was a dog act he's done his time. If the NRL is ok with a team registering his contract I say we should do it. If it's not us someone else will take him. In fact there may even be an opportunity to have the club coming out of this looking good, already in our (NZ) media I've seen a few positive comments about us for sticking by his family while he was inside.

 

[cram]

He won't be back next year...if he comes back to the NRL it won't be till 2016

 

[slotmachine]

According to the lurker merrin wants 600k a year.

Give him boyds money and get him up here.

 

[perverse]

Wow, and people were spewing when we signed Snowy for $350k~.

I'd still have a very serious look at Merrin at that price.

 

[Noname36]

I'd pay that for Merrin. He can play front row, he's young with rep experience and has a great offload which we lost with Cuthbo. And if he really wants to play lock he can take over when Smith retires.

8. Snowden
9. Clydesdale
10. Merrin
11. Scott
12. Sims
13. Smith

That's a great pack. Skillful front rowers and a very tough back row. We'd be nuts not to consider it.

 

[slotmachine]

Current origin front rowers don't pop up that often, and I'm comfortable paying the Newcastle tax to get one to the club.

Our pack suddenly becomes the right age too.

Snowden 27
Merrin 24
Scott 30
Sims boys 22/24
Rochow 24
Vai vai 22
Mataora 23

 

[Frederick]

Big yes to Merrin. Pay him whatever he wants. Quality player

 

[Spot On]

Wow, and people were spewing when we signed Snowy for $350k~.

I'd still have a very serious look at Merrin at that price.

Snowden signed for 400K a season over 4 years starting in 2012. The cap in 2012 was 4.4 mill. Snowden had played 2 games for NSW and 1 for Aus before jumping from Cronulla. He definitely signed the contract of a lifetime, the timing was perfect, and he cleaned up. I believe he's been on overs. Apparently it takes him 12+ rounds to get fit to start to play decent footy. The supercoach was hooking him at times for his poor performances and threatening to drop him to NSW Cup. He has played some decent footy for us but has not returned on the investment made in him. He has also spent considerable time on the sidelines due to suspension. When he was suspended at the end of 2013 people were writing our season off. We went on a winning spree, finally knocked out in the prelim final by the eventual Premiers. It was a similar story this year when he was suspended for performance enhancing drugs.


The cap in 2016 is 6.8 mill. 50 odd% more than when Snowden started at Newy. At this stage Merrin has played 10 times for NSW. Injury has seen him possibly miss out on playing for Aus the past few seasons. His form last season was simply unbelievable. An absolute machine in the middle, almost unstoppable when wanting to offload. A huge work rate. This year was definitely not as good. For whatever reason, he was a long way from the top of his game. If he was given 600K and consistently produced something near his 2013 form then he's a steal and I'm all for it. It won't take him 12+ weeks to get fit and he doesn't have a long suspension record.

 

[perverse]

Not picking out anyone in particular, but Snowden was looking like one of the best props in the game at the time, although was playing with injury (sound familiar?) - and I believe the premise of the argument against his signing was that we were "paying overs for a prop" - full stop. Many people thought this was too much to pay for a prop, regardless of credentials, being a local or otherwise. Now we're looking at paying roughly the same amount (50% more cap, 50% more pay) for a guy who ISN'T at the peak of his powers, who is playing with injury, and with no guarantee that he'll return to the form that has him asking such a price.

The fact that the salary cap was going to go way, WAY up was already well known in 2012 - and was the primary basis for my argument that Snowden was worth the money in the long term. We continue to have similar insight into the future of the cap, the same as we did with Snowden.

As I said, Merrin is worth a look for sure - but there is very little difference to signing Merrin at $600k and Snowden at $400k. It's almost the same signing. I support it, just as I supported the Snowden signing. I can't imagine where we'd be without Snowy over the past few years. Lower on the ladder over that period, for starters.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Snowden may be slow to start the season but he is still a great player and is worth the money we paid.

We should be the first club to offer Merrin 600k as we are short on props and loaded with cash. But it all depends on Boyd, hopefully we can cut him away soon so we don't miss out on Merrin.

 

[Yosh]

How much is bottle of water worth where you're from? A dollar or two? Now, you've just been stranded in the Aussie outback. Same bottle of water offered to you for 600k. Do you take it?

Depending on circumstances Merrin might not be worth the 600k but for us, if we manage to get rid of Boyd, his money can go straight to Merrin where it's much better utilized.

 

[Burwood]

Nice beaches here for Steph.

 

[Matt23]

Nice beaches here for Steph.

Throw joey's house in as a sweetener

 

[Spot On]

Not picking out anyone in particular, but Snowden was looking like one of the best props in the game at the time, although was playing with injury (sound familiar?) - and I believe the premise of the argument against his signing was that we were "paying overs for a prop" - full stop. Many people thought this was too much to pay for a prop, regardless of credentials, being a local or otherwise. Now we're looking at paying roughly the same amount (50% more cap, 50% more pay) for a guy who ISN'T at the peak of his powers, who is playing with injury, and with no guarantee that he'll return to the form that has him asking such a price.

The fact that the salary cap was going to go way, WAY up was already well known in 2012 - and was the primary basis for my argument that Snowden was worth the money in the long term. We continue to have similar insight into the future of the cap, the same as we did with Snowden.

As I said, Merrin is worth a look for sure - but there is very little difference to signing Merrin at $600k and Snowden at $400k. It's almost the same signing. I support it, just as I supported the Snowden signing. I can't imagine where we'd be without Snowy over the past few years. Lower on the ladder over that period, for starters.

All good points. But..... how much would you offer Snowden a season after 2016 when his current deal expires?

 

[perverse]

All good points. But..... how much would you offer Snowden a season after 2016 when his current deal expires?

Well, given that his form has dropped since signing his last deal, I'd imagine he'd be lucky enough to get an extension on his current deal... and if no other clubs are pressuring us, maybe even a bit of a downgrade.

Ultimately we just need to do what the market demands of us to retain him. We can't really afford to lose him at this point in time. I don't think he'll have too many clubs banging his door down for $500-$600k or anything like that. Personally, I'd probably low-ball him a bit - say $300-$350k - and see if his manager comes back with a bigger offer from elsewhere.

The only risk of him getting an offer from elsewhere that might make us blush will be Canberra and Sticky... he and Snowy have a bit of a love affair. We'll see what happens, but ultimately he's an ex-rep player now and will come back to the fold a bit pay-wise I'd imagine.

Having said all of this, had Snowy kicked on and continued to be the player he was at the Sharks, he'd definitely be up for a payrise at this point. It was unfortunate timing for us regarding Snowden, but ultimately he has still been a very important signing for us, and one that I doubt many people regret at this point. Gidley, Boyd and Aku have a lot more to answer for as far as value for money goes.