Rumoured Targets 3

[Mr_Knightside]

Elliot, Frizell, KPP and Hetherington can all stay for less $$$ if they like. I don’t think we need to be moving them all on, just keeping them a lesser chunk of the cap is fine. We need to play a bit of money-ball from here on with KP and Brown on big contracts.

 

[Woody90]

Elliot, Frizell, KPP and Hetherington can all stay for less $$$ if they like. I don’t think we need to be moving them all on, just keeping them a lesser chunk of the cap is fine. We need to play a bit of money-ball from here on with KP and Brown on big contracts.

I’m sure that’s what we want to do, ideally keep them all on reduced contracts to what they’re on now. It’s not that easy though. They’re only going to stay if they don’t get a higher contract elsewhere. Frizz will probably stay for less rather than uprooting his family. KPP isn’t going to take a huge pay cut though if he can get more money from the Tigers. I’d probably re-sign him at 550k but I say he’ll get more from the Tigers or Raiders.

We might be able to keep Elliott or Hetherington cheap (if they had no desire to go to ESL for more money). I’d definitely keep Elliott at the right price (I think we’ve missed his leadership). I go back and forth on Hetherington though. He has all the tools to be a great middle but he just can’t control himself.

At the end of the day losing any of them individually isn’t going to hurt us (although Frizz may) but if we lose all 4 we’re going to have a wooden spoon forward pack for 2026.

 

[Burwood]

Why would we offer a player like KPP to Wests or make a deal to help Parramatta’s recruitment? They’re the clubs stuck with players who don’t want to be there. We can happily wait it out until next season for Brown to arrive.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

I’m sure that’s what we want to do, ideally keep them all on reduced contracts to what they’re on now. It’s not that easy though. They’re only going to stay if they don’t get a higher contract elsewhere. Frizz will probably stay for less rather than uprooting his family. KPP isn’t going to take a huge pay cut though if he can get more money from the Tigers. I’d probably re-sign him at 550k but I say he’ll get more from the Tigers or Raiders.

We might be able to keep Elliott or Hetherington cheap (if they had no desire to go to ESL for more money). I’d definitely keep Elliott at the right price (I think we’ve missed his leadership). I go back and forth on Hetherington though. He has all the tools to be a great middle but he just can’t control himself.

At the end of the day losing any of them individually isn’t going to hurt us (although Frizz may) but if we lose all 4 we’re going to have a wooden spoon forward pack for 2026.

Our forward depth atm is a big concern. Especially in the front row. I wonder if it’s worth having Elliot be a front rower from now on. His running game is strong and he has a bit of ball-playing ability too. But I think we need to be in the market for a couple of NRL standard front rowers regardless.

 

[PhilGould]

This is all done under the assumption that KPP signs with the Tigers for next year of his own accord, not that the Knights are trying to push him out the door. If that happens then scenarios like this would logically be talked about.

 

[Yosh]

KPP? We are tiny in the forwards as it is. That's be a terrible deal l.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Fogarty still on the market for next year and beyond. I really hope we’re looking at him. He’s the perfect halfback to have in the team for KP and Brown to play their natural games. I know money is likely to be the issue but the stars have aligned and a genuine organising half with an excellent kicking game is on the market at the right time, and he’s going to cost good halfback money, not elite halfback money.

I know they’re talking about having Sharpe in the spine but surely we can move him back to the wing for a while.

If we got serious about getting a genuine halfback to the club, this could be our spine in 2026-2028.

1. KP
6. Brown
7. Fogarty
9. Crossland

That’s a pretty serious spine imo, and you’ve got two really good ball runners being allowed to do what they want to do and a guy who can pull the strings and get us into good field position with his kicking game whilst Crossland keeps it simple at dummy half and focuses on defending well.

 

[Apey]

The offers being reported for Fogarty are 200k less than what we're paying Hastings. I reckon it's only between Canberra and Manly though unfortunately.

 

[HarVeeGee]

It's not going to happen. If the club wanted someone like Fogarty at halfback they wouldn't have signed Brown to do it.

If they decide Sharpe isn't going to cut it in the halves the fallback option will be Gamblor. Maybe a cheaper emerging player like Niwhai Puru if Cogger sees the exit door early. If you have $2.7 million in Ponga and Brown next year, another $500K or so in Crossland, who knows what for Sharpe... where is the money for Fogarty going to come from? What would be left to replenish the middle forward stocks?

The only scenario where I see us adding a player like Fogarty is if Ponga requests a release in the next few weeks. Then, in that case, they probably instantly pivot to Sharpe at fullback and sign a new half. Otherwise there isn't even a 1% chance of us signing Fogarty.

 

[Woody90]

I like Fogarty but I get the feeling he wouldn’t be able to do much more than Gamble/Hastings here. The Raiders forward pack is on a different level to ours.

 

[slotmachine]

I like Fogarty but I get the feeling he wouldn’t be able to do much more than Gamble/Hastings here

He'd immediately take our long kicking game from a D to a A, which is sort of important if you don't have any middle forwards.

Moot point though, don't have the money for a half. They've made their bed with what we have, committing almost $4m to the spine.

 

[Apey]

We probably wouldn't be far off Fogarty's asking value, the problem then is you still need money to fill out the rest of your top 30.

Can only go off reports but Hastings 800k + Brailey 600k + Pryce 400k. You get rid of Cogger, no idea what he's on but obviously more than 100k, that's enough for Brown at 1.3M and Fogarty at 600 - 700k. The problem is you're reducing 4 spots to 2 and need another two players to fill out the top 30. Even at minimum wage it's a struggle. There's then also the issue of depth.

I'm a big fan of him based on his value for $$$ but it's not happening.

 

[slotmachine]

You get rid of Cogger, no idea what he's on but obviously more than 100k, that's enough for Brown at 1.3M and Fogarty at 600 - 700k. The problem is you're reducing 4 spots to 2 and need another two players to fill out the top 30. Even at minimum wage it's a struggle. There's then also the issue of depth.

Plus the upgrades to Crossland and Sharpe etc etc.

Toohey wrote that if we had resigned Leo on 800k-ish there wouldn't have been space for Brown, so I legit don't think there's room for another 600-700k player.

And if there was, it needs to be a prop. Speaking of which we might end up having to overpay one to field a semi-competitive pack in 2026

 

[Mr_Knightside]

If we can get a couple of decent props who aren’t getting much of a run at other clubs (Trey Mooney being a good example) and get them for around $350K-$400K then I think we can make do. I’m not against keeping Hetherington on around $300K-$350K either.

We basically need to play money ball with our front row from now on to make this work. Local guys who won’t cost us much or guys from elsewhere looking for an opportunity. Jacob is going to need to be the main guy moving forward, and tbf he’s been more consistent than his bro for a few years now. But we can’t overpay him like we did with Dan.

 

[Woody90]

We probably wouldn't be far off Fogarty's asking value, the problem then is you still need money to fill out the rest of your top 30.

Can only go off reports but Hastings 800k + Brailey 600k + Pryce 400k. You get rid of Cogger, no idea what he's on but obviously more than 100k, that's enough for Brown at 1.3M and Fogarty at 600 - 700k. The problem is you're reducing 4 spots to 2 and need another two players to fill out the top 30. Even at minimum wage it's a struggle. There's then also the issue of depth.

I'm a big fan of him based on his value for $$$ but it's not happening.

I don’t think Fogarty is asking so much that we wouldn’t be able to take a crack from a $ perspective. I say would come down to how much faith they have in Sharpe to play in the halves because yeah, Fogarty on his own isn’t asking too much, but it’s too much on the spine if there’s no other spot for Sharpe.

My preference would be to bring Fogarty in with Sharpe going back to to the backs, but I won’t happen as they seem to have full faith in Sharpe.

If we could find a way to offload Cogger (and sadly Gamble) it would be different.

 

[Loose Cannon]

Bulldogs facebook claiming Sexton is staying put.

 

[HarVeeGee]

Smart from the Dogs. Sticking by the guy who’s proven rather than the mystery box.

 

[slotmachine]

Bulldogs facebook claiming Sexton is staying put.

He's never going to win them a game by himself but he's doing a great job in their system.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

If we are happy to stick with Sharpe/Brown as the halves combo for next year then we need to come up with a style of football that will compliment their playing styles. We can’t play boring AOB ball if they’re our halves, we need to have a system that relies a little less on kicking and a bit more on running. Maybe we play in a way that helps us earn more metres with the ball in hand so when we kick it we’re not relying on the kick being perfect.

I don’t have a problem with us sticking with that combo provided there’s a legitimate game plan that will make it work. Not some half-cocked version of what we’ve been doing for a few years now.

 

[Old dog]

If we are to sign other players such as Fogarty then we have to let Frizell go has an option and hope we can move Cogger on for $’s and numbers signed