Rumoured Targets 3

[Yosh]

You forgot 12. SBW @Yosh

I'm telling ya, if we signed SBW, he wouldn't have broken Joey's neck and we would have another Premiership of 2 instead of 3 spoons. Lol

 

[Woody90]

Shame about Leo, especially when we don’t have many options to replace him with. Completely not surprising though. I’ve heard Canberras offer is for around 900k per year (not sure how true) which we were never going to compete with. He’d be nuts not to go tbh.

Only positive is that he’s still under contract for 2025 so we have a year to bring the likes of Hopwood on.

 

[slotmachine]

Losing your best prop isn't something you can spin as a good thing.

Oh well, more playing time for the Brodie Jones of the world. Or maybe we can entice Josh King to come home.

 

[Allstar Knights]

I don’t think Leo's future is going to be bleak, but I agree that his output in 2024 was pretty average. I'm not super bummed about this either

 

[Yosh]

Losing your best prop isn't something you can spin as a good thing.

Oh well, more playing time for the Brodie Jones of the world. Or maybe we can entice Josh King to come home.

But for someone else to take him for $850k is pretty good.

 

[slotmachine]

But for someone else to take him for $850k is pretty good.

It's good for Leo, it's not good for the Knights

 

[Knight Tales]

Oh well. Was always likely to happen wasn’t it! It is Dom all over again sadly. Doesn’t bother me but I respect his popularity on here and among fans. Sucks for them. Not good.

 

[mozza91]

850 or 900 is absurd. I’m actually happy that we weren’t willing to match that. That’s way too much.

 

[Woody90]

Losing your best prop isn't something you can spin as a good thing.

Oh well, more playing time for the Brodie Jones of the world. Or maybe we can entice Josh King to come home.

I don’t think anyone thinks it’s a good thing but what’s the alternative? Compete with the 850-900k offers and end up with another DSaf situation? Neither option is a good thing, but him leaving is the less damaging one.

 

[Woody90]

Someone on the other forum said the Telegraph article apparently reporting we pulled our offer with the numbers being thrown around. If there’s any truth to that at all sounds like our offer wasn’t even close to the ballpark.

 

[slotmachine]

what’s the alternative

The alternative was the Knights being a good club that has players staying for less.

A man can dream.

 

[Woody90]

The alternative was the Knights being a good club that has players staying for less.

A man can dream.

From all reports we’ve possibly offered 250-300k less than another club. He’d be near idiotic to stay for that much less.

Also Best and Lucas both stayed for less.

The days where players stay for significantly less across the board are gone. Hence why Penrith have had significant turn over in recent years.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

The alternative was the Knights being a good club that has players staying for less.

A man can dream.

Problem is you can’t just snap your fingers and make that happen. The Knights will be that when they decide not to compromise on core principles, and I think not over-paying for Leo Thompson is a step in the right direction. It shows that we’re a club that you can’t put over a barrel anymore which has happened way too often in the past, it also shows that we’re not going to pay on pure potential.

I imagine we offered him in the realms of $650-$700K which is good money, but if he can get $850-900K elsewhere then he’d be silly not to take it. But I’m glad we haven’t budged on the offer.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

The silver lining is that we now know with certainty that he’s going. This could have dragged out another couple of months and we may have missed out on a couple of other targets. The way I see it is we should be on the look out for a couple of good front rowers that we can get for $350-$400K each and start with that.

 

[Woody90]

If he goes to Canberra (honestly they’re the only ones I could see offering that type of money) wondering if they’re keen to get him early if we could get someone like a Trey Mooney.

 

[Allstar Knights]

If he goes to Canberra (honestly they’re the only ones I could see offering that type of money) wondering if they’re keen to get him early if we could get someone like a Trey Mooney.

He'd be a good target. I'm pretty sure we've shown interest in Mooney before as well.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Canberra have one of the best forward packs in the comp imo. I’m a little surprised they’re in a position of need for another front rower. Although maybe this hints that Papalii is basically on the verge of retiring. He is getting on a bit so it wouldn’t surprise me.

We signed him from Canberra a few years ago didn’t we? So maybe he’s keen to go back there given he spent some time there already.