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Rumoured Targets 3

harrywilliams

Juniors
Messages
65
Roberts will not get 500k+ unless one of the rich clubs give him third parties.

I struggle to see how Kurt Gidley, Beau Scott, Tyrone Roberts, Adam Clydsdale, Joey Leilua can only get us Hodkinson and Paea. That's pretty much what you're saying. They're some of the highest paid players at the club we've lost. We have released about 20 other players that make up for our fringe signings and upgrades. Then we have McManus and Houston's money. Remember we stopped paying Boyd's contract this year and we were offering Packer a big deal too.

Everyone goes on about the upgrades but to put it into perspective, let's say Sione got a 300k upgrade, that right there is Cuthbertson's money. Let's say Sims got a 200k upgrade, that's Mason's money. Gagai gets a 200k upgrade, that's Dobson's money. There's another 15+ players we have lost too.

We are losing 5 times the amount than we are gaining. We have lost several of our highest paid players in the last 2 years along with about 20 others and we have signed two quality first graders and a handful of rookies and rejects and the rest are filled up with our own kids stepping up from NYC/NSW Cup. Yes we upgraded a few players but they're only upgrades. It's not like we were paying Sione nothing and all of a sudden we are paying him 450k out of the blue.

Nobody has a clue what's really going on in the cap but to me I can't see how we don't have enough for a quality back and a quality forward. Brown has already said himself that we are better off than most other clubs and we are waiting for the right player to come up so take that as you will.
 
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slotmachine

First Grade
Messages
7,421
Yes it's tight but so is every other NRL club

Negative. The big clubs can always fit a player in if they want to. Refer to Souths and Burgess. Dogs and Hopoate. Broncos and Teo (when he finishes in union). If Hayne ever comes back from the NFL he'll go straight to the Roosters no matter what their cap position is.

Broncs most likely for me.
 
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Messages
3,329
Bottom line is the NRL are enablers of the glamour sides and we now live in a world where tv ratings are all that matters. Now that sides can survive on tv money alone means crowds are going to potentially plummet. The NRL should look to subsidise ticket prices in order to fix this. We know they will not.

The only thing we can really give Roberts is the number 1 jumper as a carrot cos that is where he wants to play long term. Boyd won't be leaving Brisbane any time soon and that could be the only sticking point with them when it comes to signing Roberts. The fullback claim was from his manager.
 
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Mr_Knightside

Juniors
Messages
2,377
The thing that concerns me is that there's a heap of articles about all the player movements going on at the moment but we're not when being mentioned in any of them, it all seems to be Souths, Parra, St George & Pentith doing all the recruiting. It's not a good sign that we're not even on the radar with some of these players.
 

slotmachine

First Grade
Messages
7,421

Burwood

Bench
Messages
4,990
The thing that concerns me is that there's a heap of articles about all the player movements going on at the moment but we're not when being mentioned in any of them, it all seems to be Souths, Parra, St George & Pentith doing all the recruiting. It's not a good sign that we're not even on the radar with some of these players.

Take some comfort in the fact that our player recruitment and retention these days seems to be taking place behind closed doors and not through the media.
 

Burwood

Bench
Messages
4,990
One good thing about the clubs chasing these signatures is that they are likely to offload current players in order to free up some cap space. We may miss out on this round, but other opportunities will hopefully present themselves over the upcoming weeks.
 

slotmachine

First Grade
Messages
7,421
I don't see the big clubs signing up all superstars and us feeding on the scraps as a good thing, but that's just me.
 
Messages
3,329
I think Browny is looking for quality depth rather than big name players right now. When they say too expensive in regards to Lafai it simply means Browny is not going to change his recruitment plan and budget for one player. Their is till some talk about Brett Ferres being a possibility. I also think we should have a crack at Dan Sargison from Wigan as he is off contract end of this season. he is only 22 and the kid is a quality centre. Big and fast. Wigan's depth is bullshit in their backs. Like really impressive. You have Dom Manfredi (I would sign him in a heartbeat. Better than Joe Burgess IMO), george Williams (superstar), Josh Charnley (Super talent poor application), Dan Sargison (All quality) Sam tomkins (speaks for himself) as their back 5. They by rights should piss Super League in next season.
 

K-Man

Bench
Messages
3,171
I hope you are right K-Man and I don't subscribe to the theory that our forwards are always dominated as some do but interestingly we are one of the only NRL clubs without representative props in our rotation.

Another couple quality props would be enormous for us.

Yeah I don't subscribe to that theory at all. I lost count of the number of games last year where our forwards held their own and we had ridiculous tackled inside opposition 20m stats, but were let down by the fact we had easily the worst spine in the comp. We just couldn't turn field position into points. We never sustained the pressure and it would come back and bite us.

I think our forwards can actually improve again this season. What worries me more is that I don't think Hodkinson suddenly fixes our creativity. I have very little faith in our spine taking advantage of opportunities inside the opposition 20m. I don't see much spark in that spine other than the odd moment of unpredictable play from Mamo, perhaps.
 

K-Man

Bench
Messages
3,171
But it is.

Roberts will get 500k+. We've got 300k + jimmy's & houston's money. That doesn't stretch into Roberts + 1 quality prop territory, let alone 2.

Barry Toohey is saying they might not even have enough for Roberts full stop.

This is the reality when you have Gagai on 575k, Aku on 550k, Sione on 450k and who knows for Mamo/Chanel/Pat/Ross/all the other fringe guys who got upgrades for no discernible reason.

Gagai's price is a joke if that's true and he's going to play centre. He's not even one of the best centres in the game. That is spine player money, not defensive liability centre money. Frustrating.
 

Still Nutty

Juniors
Messages
870
Take some comfort in the fact that our player recruitment and retention these days seems to be taking place behind closed doors and not through the media.

Agreed - it has been one of the positives in the football administration side of our operations.

The fact that Brown also has an astute eye, is not going to buy at all costs and he has a handle on what quality is playing and up and coming in the ESL ranks seems to point to any upcoming player recruitment is not going to be from the NRL unless it is a bargain buy.
 
Messages
3,329
Browny trying to bring in a couple of St Helens players before Feb I believe and I get the feeling Roby may still be one of them. Going by what Gids said today regarding recruitment it is clear Browny refuses to just reflex buy anyone cos the papers say they are hot shit. James Roberts still has a lot of work to do before he is as good as he is made out to be. This bloke was nearly on the scrapheap 18 mths ago. his manager and him are frankly immoral in my book. Titans got hung out to dry. And with hindsight I agree with what No Name said about Mundine cos the man has clearly had Roberts f### over another club for the pursuit of money. he is not worth any where near 500 k.
 

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