Rumoured Targets 3

[Hardcore_Fan]

SKD offers a lot more than gagai, even with is 3 spack attacks a game

 

[perverse]

I think it's very difficult to see how good Gagai is playing in a very very bad side.

Every time he has good players around him like Origin or the All Star game he looks fantastic.

We don't get to pick and choose what we pay if we want rep quality players unfortunately. We'll just end up with a team of Starlings.

Any game where he has got good ball this year he has made his opposing player look like a clown.

I don't agree with the Hages model of pay whatever for whoever (i.e Hodko), but Gagai is a genuine rep class player and will be for years yet. Having him on even $100-$200k over his market value at this moment in time isn't going to be the difference between us putting together a premiership winning team in the next 3 years and not, but it could make a huge difference at least having one person that isn't still learning how to shave or not worth feeding in the team.

 

[Hardcore_Fan]

I think it's very difficult to see how good Gagai is playing in a very very bad side.

Every time he has good players around him like Origin or the All Star game he looks fantastic.

We don't get to pick and choose what we pay if we want rep quality players unfortunately. We'll just end up with a team of Starlings.

Falling over the line sitting out on the wing scoring tries than anyone in the NRL could score doesnt make him look fantastic

 

[Johns Magic]

I think it's very difficult to see how good Gagai is playing in a very very bad side.

Every time he has good players around him like Origin or the All Star game he looks fantastic.

We don't get to pick and choose what we pay if we want rep quality players unfortunately. We'll just end up with a team of Starlings.

Gagai played for us in the Bennett years and was no star.

His Origin performance has been overhyped for scoring a hat-trick with no particularly impressive tries.

My feeling is he had his chance last year at fullback to show us what he's made of and he failed to impress.

I like him, want to keep him, hope we do...think he's overrated and won't be a key player to any possible resurgence we have as a club.

 

[slotmachine]

Is salary cap space an issue? How are we even going to spend $4m next year if Gagai leaves?

 

[perverse]

It would be a kick in the guts to lose him, but is he worth 8% of our salary cap?

It depends what else you're going to spend it on. At this point it's looking like that money will sit in the bank, much like it did this year. That's wasted cash.

SKD offers a lot more than gagai, even with is 3 spack attacks a game

On the wing as a hitup merchant, yeah maybe. As an attacking threat at centre, no way.

 

[perverse]

Gagai played for us in the Bennett years and was no star.

His Origin performance has been overhyped for scoring a hat-trick with no particularly impressive tries.

My feeling is he had his chance last year at fullback to show us what he's made of and he failed to impress.

I like him, want to keep him, hope we do...think he's overrated and won't be a key player to any possible resurgence we have as a club.

Up until this year Gags has been under weight/under strength for mine. I think if you put 2017 Gags into the 2013 Knights he would be shredding it.

 

[Johns Magic]

Up until this year Gags has been under weight/under strength for mine. I think if you put 2017 Gags into the 2013 Knights he would be shredding it.

No doubt he's been good for us this year. I hope he stays. I just think his reputation precedes him.

He was never a star in our more competitive days. He had a bad season last year. Yet somehow came into this season with a huge reputation as a gun player in a squad that was beneath him.

If we could sign SKD and get to use 400K on a better forward or spine player I take that deal every day. But as you've said, we'd probably just end up 400K further under the cap.

I genuinely want him to stay but I won't be gutted to lose Gagai the player if we do.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

I can understand why people here might think Gags is overrated, but it's pretty hard for him to show his worth when he never gets quality ball because he has no-one to give it to him. The one game this year where we gave him quality early ball he carved the Bulldogs up all night and we were all singing his praises. Since then he's barely been given any ball at all so what's he supposed to do?

So what if we let him go and we then somehow manage to get a couple of decent halves who can feed early ball to our right centre, well when that finally happens we'll have an 18yo scrub playing at right centre who doesn't know what to do with it. At least now whenever we do get the ball out there Gags looks like he can make something happen.

 

[Glendale]

Gagai leaving isnt going to stop players signing with us. That's ridiculous.

No it's not. There is already just about no one willing to sign with us. Lose our only rep player and things get even worse.

 

[perverse]

No doubt he's been good for us this year. I hope he stays. I just think his reputation precedes him.

He was never a star in our more competitive days. He had a bad season last year. Yet somehow came into this season with a huge reputation as a gun player in a squad that was beneath him.

If we could sign SKD and get to use 400K on a better forward or spine player I take that deal every day. But as you've said, we'd probably just end up 400K further under the cap.

I genuinely want him to stay but I won't be gutted to lose Gagai the player if we do.

I think the argument holds more weight if we don't have $2 million+ under the cap already to spend that we can't seem to spend, and that's after we've re-signed him. If we were pressed up against the cap and we had a specific target in mind, then yeah it might be a different story. We'd probably also have a better squad in that scenario in general, and could afford to let a quality player go in order to shuffle the deck around a bit.

I agree his reputation outweighs his ability - but he probably gets that being the only rep player in the poorest team anyone younger than 50 or 60 can remember seeing. Scoring tries in Origin never hurts, either... no matter how easily scored.

We've got into a lot of trouble in the past and present paying overs for shitty players that gave us nothing in Uate, Hodko, etc. We could at least improve on that by paying overs on players that are actually good players.

 

[Spot On]

We can if Souths are offering more. Whatever they're offering, that's the number unfortunately, and we have to match it. If he leaves for Souths for the same or less money, then you can be filthy at Gags all you like. I wouldn't blame him personally, he wants to win football matches and just about anyone is a better chance at that than us.

We can't just lowball him and expect him to stay. We're not in that position. We have no leverage and we need him.

Umm 600K plus is not lowballing for Dane Gagai.

At what price would you pull the plug??

Why are people so quick to panic yet fail to attach a number they consider a fair offer or a number they consider outrageous for him???

Let's establish what people believe is a decent offer for him so when he goes we don't have the constant whinging and whining at the club and the inevitable 'we didnt even make him a decent offer' line.

 

[Johns Magic]

Uate was much better than Gagai when we re-signed him IMO but that's beside the point.

Yes hopefully Gagai stays. I like him.

 

[Spot On]

I think it's very difficult to see how good Gagai is playing in a very very bad side.

Every time he has good players around him like Origin or the All Star game he looks fantastic.

Most wingers look fantastic on the end of a backline for a rep team that has lost 1 series in over a decade and has had the luxury of the 2 best halves since Johns retired.

Put him on the wing for NSW the past few years and see how he looks.

 

[perverse]

Umm 600K plus is not lowballing for Dane Gagai.

At what price would you pull the plug??

Why are people so quick to panic yet fail to attach a number they consider a fair offer or a number they consider outrageous for him???

Let's establish what people believe is a decent offer for him so when he goes we don't have the constant whinging and whining at the club and the inevitable 'we didnt even make him a decent offer' line.

Lowballing is saying "Okay, the market is saying you're worth $x, but we're going to offer you $x minus $y because that's what we think you're worth". I don't even need to know the exact figures. $y can be a little bit, say $50k a year I guess... but anything more than that is taking the piss.

Where would I pull the plug? In our current situation, if Souths were offering Dane $700k, I'd have matched it already for the next 3 years without blinking. He's been on $600k already for the past 3 years, what's an extra $100k out of our cap? He's certainly a much better and more credentialed player than when he last signed a deal - he's probably feeling entitled to a fair pay rise.

We literally have millions spare to spend, paying Gagai an extra $100k a year is piss fart all in the short term. I'd probably have no issue paying him more than that, at the end of the day we're not going to use the cash on anyone better. I think the risk of us sitting here in 24 months time going "gee, if only we weren't paying Gags $800k, we'd be certainties for the Top 8" is very low compared to the risk of us sitting here in 24 months going "gee, if we'd paid Gags $800k we'd still have a rep player in our team".

 

[Spot On]

If he's being offered 700K by another club/s he will have signed elsewhere already.

 

[Alex28]

I think having him makes it easier to attract other players. In that respect we absolutely need someone of his calibre.

He probably is worth 8 or 9% of the cap just for what else could/eventually will follow.

Has Dane contacted Robbie to see how life is at Souths?

 

[Johns Magic]

I would take Rochow back for 150K.

 

[perverse]

If he's being offered 700K by another club/s he will have signed elsewhere already.

So what do you think is being negotiated then? Do you think Gagai is saying that we need to pay more than anyone else to keep him at this point? He already has an option on the table to stay another year for $600k, that's in the bank already.

 

[Spot On]

My belief is that the majority of the time players take the money. There's only one club they go to where they are more than happy to take massive, massive unders. And Gagai isn't going to Brisbane ........ yet.

He has a 600K option. If a 700K plus offer has been made to him from another club then I think he'd take it as I can't see Brown offering too much more than the current option.

Would he stay if we matched it??? Not sure. He'd want to play out of his effing skin every week if he bags 700K plus off us.