Rumoured Targets 3

[slotmachine]

He would be perfect. Quality prop and competitor, also experienced in doing hodkos job for him.

Don't understand why dogs would punt their captain though.

 

[Tom155]

NO RUSH FOR NEWCASTLE

Don’t be surprised if Newcastle stays dormant in the player market for the next two months or so.

A three-year offer to Jack Bird is the exception but he is the only marquee player the Knights have their sights set on in the short term.

While they’ve signed Kalyn Ponga for 2018, they missed out on Matt Scott, who will remain at the Cowboys and Dale Finucane, who never asked the Knights for an offer before re-signing with the Storm.

Now, they’re happy to sit and wait.

Why? Because several clubs have been busily re-signing talent without any clarity on what the salary cap will be for next season.

You can bank on several clubs needing to offload players to be cap compliant and that’s just one of several reasons the Knights are in no rush.

Another reason is they want to see how their younger players, in particular the middle men, develop in the coming months.

The club is after an experienced middle and another back but with Dane Gagai yet to take up the option in his contract, the Knights will wait until he makes a call before making a move on what they do with their backline.

Gagai has until mid-season to activate another year on his contract.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...t/news-story/b7e3b64e4a8107e676ca07543425ce18

 

[Bartwah]

He would be perfect. Quality prop and competitor, also experienced in doing hodkos job for him.

Don't understand why dogs would punt their captain though.

We're looking to get rid of ours? Lol

 

[Hardcore_Fan]

Graham would be a great signing. If we could land him and another centre we are definitely moving up the ladder in 2018

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Graham would be the type of guy that we need, he's one of the toughest players in the game and never takes a backwards step, he would not cop other players in the team not putting in 100%

If Matt Scott is worth about $900K a year to us then surely James Graham is worth about that too.

 

[Spot On]

Well, it looks for once, that all the cards may fall into place for us due to the uncertainty surrounding the future of the salary cap and as a result many clubs potentially being over committed or unable to move as they would like before knowing the final figures from the NRL.

It could be that the sacking of Stone and the appointment of Brown, combined with his ability to quickly turn our dire cap situation around and free up a huge war chest, may give us a range of recruitment options if we are patient. Add to that now the Cronk move to Sydney and there will be some major reshuffling of some rosters to capitalise on the flow on effect that could eventuate.

At least we are in a position to play the game.

 

[Zoidberg]

Surprised to hear there's a question about Gagai. After seeing a story on him a few weeks ago about how happy he is being at the club.
I'm pretty sure it will happen though.

 

[Yosh]

If we get Bird, Ponga and Graham coming for 2018, that'd be the most successful recruitment year we've had in decades.

 

[slotmachine]

Ever.

 

[MilkShark]

1. Yes, if we sign bird, a decent prop and decent centre we are well in the mix for a top 8 spot.

2. If guys like woods and teddy can get origin spots playing in a terrible tigers team, and gagai can get a spot in the qld team when he hasn't been doing to wel for us, I am sure jack bird can keep his origin spot.

Well it's rumoured you guys have offered over a million dollars for him. That's not leaving a lot of coin for other players.

It's a lot of money for a player unproven at 5/8. His current form suggests he isn't worth anything near 1 million.

In regards to origin, he is a fringe origin player so won't be a walk up start. He will need to playing extremely well in a underperforming team to get selection.

 

[perverse]

Tomorrow it will be $1.6million and the keys to Newcastle, lol.

 

[Glendale]

The media vastly exaggerated the value of Ponga's deal. They're probably doing it again here.

 

[Alex28]

If the Sharks get Bird we certainly should be chasing James Maloney. They can't afford to keep them both...

 

[slotmachine]

He's not off contract.

 

[Hardcore_Fan]

Well it's rumoured you guys have offered over a million dollars for him. That's not leaving a lot of coin for other players.

It's a lot of money for a player unproven at 5/8. His current form suggests he isn't worth anything near 1 million.

In regards to origin, he is a fringe origin player so won't be a walk up start. He will need to playing extremely well in a underperforming team to get selection.

It's more around 800k. These days $1mil
Isnt that ridiculous anyway. Most teams have 1 or 2 players around that million mark. You will probably find his deal will be back ended and his pay will go up as the salary cap goes up. It's the same deal
With ponga. Bird will probably be on 700k or so in 2018, will then go up to 8-900k in 2019 and around 1 mil in 2020. By 2020 the salary cap will be in excess of $10million.

And in response to your second point, he will need to be playing well in any team to warrant selection. Just because he plays for the sharks doesn't get him an origin spot if he is playing poorly

 

[MilkShark]

It's more around 800k. These days $1mil
Isnt that ridiculous anyway. Most teams have 1 or 2 players around that million mark. You will probably find his deal will be back ended and his pay will go up as the salary cap goes up. It's the same deal
With ponga. Bird will probably be on 700k or so in 2018, will then go up to 8-900k in 2019 and around 1 mil in 2020. By 2020 the salary cap will be in excess of $10million.

And in response to your second point, he will need to be playing well in any team to warrant selection. Just because he plays for the sharks doesn't get him an origin spot if he is playing poorly

Yep hard to know with the media nowadays. They just throw out random numbers which is probably far from the mark.

I'm just saying it's easier to play well in a top team then what it is in one of the lower teams.

 

[Hardcore_Fan]

Yep hard to know with the media nowadays. They just throw out random numbers which is probably far from the mark.

I'm just saying it's easier to play well in a top team then what it is in one of the lower teams.

If we land James Grahame we will be a middle of the road team, maybe more depending on how our younger guys develop. 2018 will be a break out season for the knights. We won't be one of the lower teams.

 

[MilkShark]

If we land James Grahame we will be a middle of the road team, maybe more depending on how our younger guys develop. 2018 will be a break out season for the knights. We won't be one of the lower teams.

For your sake I hope it's true. Knights were my 2nd favourite team when johns and o'davis were there.

 

[Caped Crusader]

Now that Peachey is out for an extended period it's almost a certainty that Bird will get picked on the NSW bench. He was impressive last year in Origin and Daley factors that stuff in highly

 

[Sydney Knight]

Don't we have some coin that can be carried over from this year's cap?

Maybe Bird can be front loaded?

Well it's rumoured you guys have offered over a million dollars for him. That's not leaving a lot of coin for other players.

It's a lot of money for a player unproven at 5/8. His current form suggests he isn't worth anything near 1 million.

In regards to origin, he is a fringe origin player so won't be a walk up start. He will need to playing extremely well in a underperforming team to get selection.