Rumoured Targets 3

[Burwood]

I think it's fair for gids to be given Brown's tenure at the club as his timeframe for employment.

That would be overlooking the period between Bennett and Brown, where Stone and Hagan worked some of their magic.



On a more positive note, it looks like Newcastle are very close to signing the quality prop that they so desperately need. A seasoned veteran with 35 rep games for NZ should make the world of difference to our team next year.

Kostjasyn said any side would be lucky to have former Cowboys teammate Quentin Pongia, with Newcastle poised to announce his arrival soon.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4306181/knights-recruit-wants-newcastle-to-be-home/?cs=306

 

[Haffa]

Quentin is certainly experienced. Too bad he's in his late 40s well done by the Herald.

Trained with him for a bit last year, his knees probably aren't up to scratch.

 

[Knight76]

That would be overlooking the period between Bennett and Brown, where Stone and Hagan worked some of their magic

Not at all, but I don't see much point in firing him when we look to be finally positively building again. That would just destabilise things at a time when we need stability.

So whilst Brown is being given the leeway to rebuild the team, Gids should get the same free pass. But if this one doesn't work out, he goes no question.

 

[GetUpstandup2k]

Quentin is certainly experienced. Too bad he's in his late 40s well done by the Herald.

Trained with him for a bit last year, his knees probably aren't up to scratch.

I think he's just coming to us for a coaching role.

 

[Liam]

I think that the Herald might have just f**ked up and said Quentin Pongia instead of Kalyn Ponga, considering that Rory never played with Pongia.

 

[Burwood]

I think that the Herald might have just f**ked up and said Quentin Pongia instead of Kalyn Ponga, considering that Rory never played with Pongia.

An article on the weekend had him down as Kalin or Kaylin or something similar.

 

[Swarzey]

Interesting. Apparently it's drama free and two pieces of news; likely getting Ponga for 2017 being one of them.

Edit: Apparently the Ponga deal going around is a bit inflated. It's overall less than 3m over 5 years and if we get him next year, it starts at 350k and then rises. However, what pushes it towards the 3.5m mark is if he plays rep footy. Very smart stuff from Brown and Mooney IMO.

We're also targeting Napa for 2018 to lead our pack.

 

[Knight Vision]

Interesting. Apparently it's drama free and two pieces of news; likely getting Ponga for 2017 being one of them.

Edit: Apparently the Ponga deal is quite inflated. It's overall less than 3m over 5 years and if we get him next year, it starts at 350k and then rises. However, what pushes it towards the 3.5m mark is if he plays rep footy. Very smart stuff from Brown and Mooney IMO.

We're also targeting Napa for 2018 to lead our pack.

I would seriously wet myself with excitement if we got both those lads. Napa is a special kind of player. Exactly the type of forward we need in our pack and hasnt yet reached his peak, his best is in front of him.

 

[Tom155]

Interesting. Apparently it's drama free and two pieces of news; likely getting Ponga for 2017 being one of them.

Edit: Apparently the Ponga deal going around is a bit inflated. It's overall less than 3m over 5 years and if we get him next year, it starts at 350k and then rises. However, what pushes it towards the 3.5m mark is if he plays rep footy. Very smart stuff from Brown and Mooney IMO.

We're also targeting Napa for 2018 to lead our pack.

FORWARD THINKING

Now that Newcastle’s primary target has signed a letter of intent, the club has turned their attention to boosting their forward stocks.

Market Watch can reveal the Knights are the latest club to join the queue for Roosters forward Dylan Napa.

Brisbane and the Knights are two of six clubs chasing the young prop for season 2018.

With Kalyn Ponga signing a letter of intent to join the Knights on a massive long-term deal, the club needs to bring in some size to help him and his young teammates Danny Levi and Brock Lamb.

While the Saifiti brothers are stars on the rise, the club have several experienced targets they will pursue to bring some experience to their young squad.

Several ageing forwards are off-contract but the list of younger big men is a boutique list headlined by the likes of Napa, Aaron Woods, Ryan James, Josh McGuire and Jordan McLean.

All five men will attract plenty of interest and command big money on the open market.

Like James and McLean, 24-year-old Napa is pushing for an Origin call up in 2017 and is set to command around $700,000 a season for his services.

A member of the Prime Minister’s XIII side, 2017 will be Napa’s fifth year in the top grade.

Having recently re-signed Kiwi enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves until the end of 2020, the Roosters won’t lose Napa without a fight and have turned their attention to extending the forward.

***

PONGA’S REAL WORTH

The figures being thrown around Kalyn Ponga’s Newcastle deal have been wildly inflated.

It’s been reported the teenager has been offered $3.5 million over five years but that isn’t quite right.

In fact, Ponga’s deal is worth a little less than $3 million — meaning he will still be the highest paid teen in the game.

The Ponga deal is broken down per season, with 2017 valued at $350,0000 should the Cowboys agree to release the fullback.

His salary increases substantially each year from that, with representative triggers throughout the deal which will boost his wage even more should he reach Test level.

Only if those triggers are activated early in his career will Ponga be able to earn more than $3 million.

His current Cowboys deal for 2017 is worth $110,000, which means Ponga stands to earn $240,000 more if he can leave Townsville before next season.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...s/news-story/33b89d815fd29e774aa1511b00380ee2

 

[otori]

I would personally prefer McLean to Napa in terms of pricing vs impact but obviously would not happen. It is fantastic to see us competing for talent like this and building a team.

 

[Knight76]

Remember those articles not so long ago about how dire our salary cap position was and even with offloading some players it was still not good.

Well, something sure turned that around. Though these signings are for 2018 though.

So far, my hat is off to Browny and Mooney for the fairly swift turn around for the club.

 

[Spot On]

If we're anywhere near the cap atm with the roster we have then there's a long way to go before 'dire' is taken out of the talk.

If the young blokes, in particular those in the pack, come on very quickly, that will give us some hope of continuing the build much more quickly.

As for our halves, well that's a different story.

But yes Brown and Mooney have done well to move the lead weights and find some decent replacements on paper.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

A great move to have Ponga on a performance based contract.

Denniss has re-signed until the end of 2018. Brown has a lot of confidence in him.
http://www.newcastleknights.com.au/news/2016/11/23/cory_denniss_re_sign.html
This is his first NRL pre-season which will do him well.
I'd say he will be our backup. Injury or if we don't get Ponga next year and we might see more of him in 2017.

In his favour is that Denniss is a left side winger which we don't have except for Ross who is wasted there. He also had a bit of a combination with Ross at left centre.

Gagai should be gone end of 2017 so some forward thinking going on.

 

[Swarzey]

Can get behind an edge with Sione, Ross and a bulked up Denniss. For a kid who only had a few U20's games and no preseason, I thought he did a decent job.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Not at all, but I don't see much point in firing him when we look to be finally positively building again. That would just destabilise things at a time when we need stability.

So whilst Brown is being given the leeway to rebuild the team, Gids should get the same free pass. But if this one doesn't work out, he goes no question.

The KPIs of a club CEO very rarely have anything to do with the clubs on field performance. A CEO could be great at the backroom stuff and the players could still be shit or players could be brilliant in spit of the CEO...

I want the best person for the job as our CEO, not just the weird and arbitrary goalposts of the Old Boyz ("you stay as long as the coach does"). If Gids is the best person for the job then keep him, if there is a better option then move him on.

And, most importantly, i feel like the WORST time to get rid of Gids would be when Brown is leaving. Why totally tear the systems down, id much rather get a new CEO in now and have a steady hand in charge when Brown moves on and a new bloke comes along...

 

[Knight Vision]

I hope Brown is around for a few years

 

[TooheysNew]

I hope Brown is around for a few years

And i the same about gids.

 

[Joel-22]

I take it no one would be interested in Sandow?
I've personally always rated him as a player. His mindset is his biggest issue.. can be brilliant in attack, a speed bump in defence. However, most halfbacks are. I wouldn't complain if we signed him on a performance based short-term contract. I think we'd get him cheap too. I'm not sold on Hodkinson, Cogger is still a while off being NRL ready though I very, very much like what I've seen of him. Mullen looks likely to play a lot of the season at hooker. At the very least the addition of Sandow would create competition for spots.

 

[Bring it home Knights]

A massive no to sandow. His attitude and behaviour is not what we need when we are developing a professional team again.

On the halfbacks cant tackle issue, is that still going on or have halves overall improved in that area?

 

[mozza91]

I think that the halves in the NRL have improved defensively over the last 5 years. It may be due to losing guys like Walsh and Sandow to the Super League though.
It's one of very few areas we are very strong at least. Hodkinson is one of the best defenders in his position and Mullen would be close to if not the best defensive 5/8 in the comp.