Rumoured Targets 3

[Swarzey]

Welp, RIP his career. Genuinely feel for Canberra having Stuart as a coach; what should be an excellent pick up will likely be forgotten in a year or so.

 

[Spot On]

I hope Brown sticks to his word with Tapine.

 

[PhilGould]

Hope we release him early if it's true.

 

[The Showstopper]

Just go already Joseph. Feeney, Lamb and Levi were outstanding in the 9s. Pauli looks like he will be a real handful in attack. His defence needs heaps of work. We do not need to be playing around trying to please a little spoilt child who has forgotten we stood by him when he was facing time inside. He can join the other pea heart, Leilua.

 

[perverse]

The puzzling thing for me is that, while I'm sure it's a nice contract, surely he has more chance for increasing his value further with us? He's got a clear path to a starting spot here. Unless Canberra plan to move on some forwards, he'll be competing for a bench spot there at best? For an extra 33k a year? Seems dumb long term.

 

[PhilGould]

We don't actually know it's $33k more a year though. All Toohey said is it adds up to over $100k more than the Knights offer over the 3 years.

 

[Swarzey]

Stuart will stick him on the bench and dump him after one or two poor performances. He'll rot away in NSW Cup until some club like Penrith picks him up on a cheap deal. Compare that long term plan to the one Newcastle have that includes a spot in the starting 13, plenty of time to develop as a player and if he develops well then a big contract in three years.

Toohey believes it's strong ties to the Raiders. Mostly Leilua I assume.

Oh well. Saifiti twins have looked just as impressive in their development. At least Tapine's money can go towards making sure this doesn't happen with Levi, Mamo, Feeney, Lamb etc.

 

[nick87]

The puzzling thing for me is that, while I'm sure it's a nice contract, surely he has more chance for increasing his value further with us? He's got a clear path to a starting spot here. Unless Canberra plan to move on some forwards, he'll be competing for a bench spot there at best? For an extra 33k a year? Seems dumb long term.

If he comes, I'm expecting Stuart to use him in the middle third, potentially as a STT/Taupou style lock and moving Fensom up front
You drop Junior Paulo and Tapine into our current squad and all of a sudden Stuart has got himself a squad that can compete with any. He won't have a lack of talent to blame if he fails here

And fwiw those figures of 1.2n over 3 years seem ridiculous to me. Look at our squad, bare in mind we are paying top dollar for Austin, Hodgson and Wighton who are all recent upgrades, we paid 500k for Sezer, we've got Papalii on the books for stacks, we've brought an English international and we're not a club that can attract TPAs, not to mention paying Waqa a reported 400k, Croker, Beej, Fensom, Vaughan and Boyd, we wouldn't have 400k a year to throw at a guy of Tapine's limited track record

 

[Wato]

If he comes, I'm expecting Stuart to use him in the middle third, potentially as a STT/Taupou style lock and moving Fensom up front
You drop Junior Paulo and Tapine into our current squad and all of a sudden Stuart has got himself a squad that can compete with any. He won't have a lack of talent to blame if he fails here

Tapine is an edge forward playing him in the middle would be a waste and he would get dominated more often than not. Stone played him their for a chunk of last year and he struggled. Tapine if allowed to play on an edge could be a very good player but I can understand why the Knights never got into a bidding war for him with the guys already in the team and the saifitis coming through alongside the likes of Yates and Fitzgibbon. I was a bit surprised canberra went so hard for him you seem to pretty well stocked as far second rowers go.

 

[perverse]

If he comes, I'm expecting Stuart to use him in the middle third, potentially as a STT/Taupou style lock and moving Fensom up front
You drop Junior Paulo and Tapine into our current squad and all of a sudden Stuart has got himself a squad that can compete with any. He won't have a lack of talent to blame if he fails here

And fwiw those figures of 1.2n over 3 years seem ridiculous to me. Look at our squad, bare in mind we are paying top dollar for Austin, Hodgson and Wighton who are all recent upgrades, we paid 500k for Sezer, we've got Papalii on the books for stacks, we've brought an English international and we're not a club that can attract TPAs, not to mention paying Waqa a reported 400k, Croker, Beej, Fensom, Vaughan and Boyd, we wouldn't have 400k a year to throw at a guy of Tapine's limited track record

I'm not sure what you're offering him, but it'sore than ours, and our offer isn't small. You can believe what you like about what you'll be paying him, but it's not a modest contract. He isn't a middle forwards arsehole, he's more a centre than a prop or lock (although not a good centre either). Times he has filled in in the middle he has been very underwhelming. He needs to be out wide. He can thrive out wide.

As I said, it's a bit puzzling to me. Ricky will always find a way to cram another backrower in his squad, though. I think its a really dumb move for him in the long term, and I won't be surprised if he plays a lot less first grade than he's been promised.

Either way, even the 'poorer' clubs can pick the eyes out of our best juniors now. Happy days... we're basically a feeder club. Can't keep our own talent, can't sign it from elsewhere. Boned.

 

[K-Man]

Either way, even the 'poorer' clubs can pick the eyes out of our best juniors now. Happy days... we're basically a feeder club. Can't keep our own talent, can't sign it from elsewhere. Boned.

It's quite depressing. The alarming thing for me is that even the guys with a pretty clear pathway to first grade are not sticking around, and are happy to move to clubs where that pathway is almost certainly filled with more roadblocks.

Holland and Tuha leaving in the off season understandably didn't get much press, but that bothered me as well. I had them down as the next two outside backs on the ladder, and thought they could be the guys to step up to the NRL for McManus / Gagai moving to fullback / injuries to incumbents etc. In a season with such few positives, we had the NSW Cup champions and a glimmer of hope that 2-3 of that group could make the step up in 2016. Then two of the brightest prospects left and will probably not see any first grade this year.

If Tapine is gone then I'm very disappointed. I've been a fan of him through the juniors and I do believe when played on the edge that he will become an excellent footballer. He offers a point of difference in that he has a bit of skill about him, he's a multi-faceted threat unlike Tariq who seemingly can't even draw and pass. Forwards like Tapine might really start to excel now and massive brute force forwards might have less of an impact. We'll see.

I was excited to watch him reach his potential with us. I think he has a higher ceiling than both Sione and Mamo to be honest (but not as high as Levi or Feeney).

 

[Burwood]

What I don't like is the fact that a lot of this is happening in the preseason. It seems to be a new tactic these days where a club signs a player (or is heavily rumoured to be chasing them) 12+ months before their contract ends, and then there is a very deliberate campaign through the media where they build pressure for the current club to release them early.

If Tapine does sign with Canberra, I'd be amazed if he lasts the year at our club without there being constant speculation of him getting a midseason release.

We'll end up losing a quality player with only the option of picking up another club's reject or front loading/upgrading current contracts.

 

[slotmachine]

What value is Tapine going to add for 8 months if he does sign for Canberra?
We would be doing backflips if they agreed to take him early.

 

[Still Nutty]

He had 6 good games and was out injured for a lot of the season and we missed him badly when he was out. He's one of the few backrowers we have that actually knows how to run a proper line. He's not a brilliant rep quality player by any stretch but he's very valuable to OUR squad. I'd be devastated to lose him. I'd have no qualms telling Tapine to walk so we can offer Rochow a little more. He's much more valuable to us on and off the field and I think Tapine has potential.

I've been away for a while so I've not been able to hear much of the rumour mill...is there anything new on whether Rochow is still being chased by Manly?

Like most here, I do rate chow's potential highly and think an injury free season could see a real breakout year for him...even knocking on an origin bench spot, particularly with Cordner likely to be out of the picture early in the Origin series.

 

[Noname36]

I've been away for a while so I've not been able to hear much of the rumour mill...is there anything new on whether Rochow is still being chased by Manly?

Like most here, I do rate chow's potential highly and think an injury free season could see a real breakout year for him...even knocking on an origin bench spot, particularly with Cordner likely to be out of the picture early in the Origin series.

He's being chased by Manly, Canberra and Penrith apparently.

I really want him to re-sign but we've got our work cut out for us. Manly have apparently put in a really big offer, a lot of his mates are in Canberra now and Gus seems to have an obsession with our players.

 

[Noname36]

Either way, even the 'poorer' clubs can pick the eyes out of our best juniors now. Happy days... we're basically a feeder club. Can't keep our own talent, can't sign it from elsewhere. Boned.

This is the most depressing part. It was hard enough watching the bigger clubs picking apart our best juniors but now we've gotta watch the likes of Canberra do it too. The game is absolutely f**ked.

 

[slotmachine]

Maybe if aku, sione and gagai didn't take up 25% of the cap there would be money left over.

 

[Noname36]

Maybe if aku, sione and gagai didn't take up 25% of the cap there would be money left over.

As much as they're all over paid we should be at least able to hold onto Rochow and Tapine. I have no doubt we have more money to throw at Tapine to stay but Brown doesn't want to and I'm fine with that. We wouldn't be so behind the other clubs if players were actually paid what they're worth. It's the ridiculous contracts like 400k for Tapine which we can't compete with - and when we do compete to keep them (Aku, Sione, Gagai, etc) it always seems like a dumb idea anyway.

 

[Swarzey]

Maybe if aku, sione and gagai didn't take up 25% of the cap there would be money left over.

Except when we first heard about Sione losing we lost our shit and begged the club to do what they could to resign him. If Uate wasn't resigned this forum would have been in meltdown criticising the club for not retaining our best winger.

So it's either be depressed that we resigned quality talent* or pissed off that the club can't compete with richer clubs. That's just the reality of Newcastle.

* Uate isn't quality anymore.

 

[Burwood]

I'm more worried about the club offering guys like Clydsdale $
250,000. I'm scared to know what Randell is worth after his upgrade last year. These guys are fringe first graders. If they were at any other club they wouldn't even be that.