Rumoured targets thread

[Joker's Wild]

No not really. Nate Myles, Beau Champion and Greg Bird he missed out on in 2011. Cameron King, Sam Kasiano and JWH are three he missed out on this year. (Though Kasiano form bumped up his negotiating price and Bennett pulled the offer)

Bennett misses out on signings just as much as other coaches.

If we offer the exact same contract dollar for dollar and word for word as the tigers Lewis will choose the Tigers over us. Bennett is not the recruitment Death Star with a player tractor beam.

:lol: nice

 

[Dave_]

If we somehow get Lewis, next year looks alot better all of a sudden.

 

[Adsy]

Time to go:

Wes
Sau
Hilder
Edwards
Tuimavave

 

[Nuffy]

We'll be near the bottom in terms of cap space but near the top in terms of been an ideal home for Lewis.

RABK, don't doubt that for a minute but how f**ked up is our cap when we are bursting at the seams and the team is so ordinary.

I reckon that Lewis would love Newcastle and the ethos of the place but I just can't see it happening unless we are sitting on some major untapped 3rd party sponsorships.

 

[RABK]

TBH, Bennett and Smith signed too much depth the last 3-4 years.

So whilst we probably have the best depth overall in the comp (ability to call players up of equal calibre to replace injured ones in near every position on the park) it's average/solid players replacing average/solid players.

Other teams have less depth but a few superstars in their squad. So whilst we are able to cover injuries better they at full strength blow us off the park.

Brisbane is just the one exception in the NRL - they've got superstars and depth. Always have, always will.

Our cap is full because of instead paying three 400-500k players mixed in with eight or nine 150-400k players and twelve 50-150k players eg Manly, Melbourne, Dragons... we are paying 1 superstar and one very average player 400k and about 20 other blokes in the 150-350k range.

Solid depth don't win comps. Bennett knows that.

 

[Newie is God's Country]

Tinkler needs to play businessman here. A call from him could change the game. Explore our options and be persuasive.

 

[Jobdog]

He's probably got no idea what's going on. He's moved to Singapore.

 

[K-Man]

TBH, Bennett and Smith signed too much depth the last 3-4 years.

So whilst we probably have the best depth overall in the comp (ability to call players up of equal calibre to replace injured ones in near every position on the park) it's average/solid players replacing average/solid players.

Other teams have less depth but a few superstars in their squad. So whilst we are able to cover injuries better they at full strength blow us off the park.

Brisbane is just the one exception in the NRL - they've got superstars and depth. Always have, always will.

Our cap is full because of instead paying three 400-500k players mixed in with eight or nine 150-400k players and twelve 50-150k players eg Manly, Melbourne, Dragons... we are paying 1 superstar and one very average player 400k and about 20 other blokes in the 150-350k range.

Solid depth don't win comps. Bennett knows that.

Absolutely hit the nail on the head. That is exactly what has happened to us and it's pretty frustrating.

It's another reason I'm just not quite sold on Beau Scott - I don't doubt his work ethic or defence, but I just think we are in desperate need of somebody, ANYbody to provide an attacking threat on the fringes.

I mean seriously, Joel Edwards as a left edge backrower! It's just ridiculous, and I'd so much rather have paid an extra $200K to get Lewis over Scott, because one is a gamebreaker that takes your team to a whole new level and one is a small, solid tackler.

If we chopped 5 or 6 of our average depth players (who would all be on similar coin to the guys in front of them in their positions) we'd probably be able to afford one of the NRL's better halves, but instead we have a bunch of guys running around in reserves on $150-$200K contracts.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Would tinkler be able to say offer Lewis 100-150k a year but then give him like a 700k lump sum when he retires? Would that lump sum come under the cap considering he is retired?

Man, having Lewis and Scott in our backrow would add some much needed sting in our defence.

 

[Nuffy]

I actually think Bennett bought Scott to the club to add some steel to the club, not necessarily as an attacker but rather to toughen up the pack, on the field and off it.

We currently have a crop of pussy cats, can you imagine the Chief or BK accepting meekly what happened to KOD yesterday, those blokes would have hunted Burgess for the rest of the game, our forwards dogged the issue.

We need some hard heads and thats why Scott got a start, not his left edge prowess.

 

[perverse]

Would tinkler be able to say offer Lewis 100-150k a year but then give him like a 700k lump sum when he retires? Would that lump sum come under the cap considering he is retired?

Man, having Lewis and Scott in our backrow would add some much needed sting in our defence.

:lol:

No, that lump sum would be cheating the cap.

I agree with RABK too. Our team still has a very moneyball type stink to it. Outside of Boyd and Gidley (who is not worth what we're paying him even when fit, and never seems to be fit), we really just don't have enough star power. Our back row is dreadful, our front row outside of Snowy and Willie is dreadful or inexperienced. We only have 1 half, who has proven he isn't capable of flying solo yet is always expected to.

There are positives to be had if you look, I love the way Mullo is linking with Boyd, they have a good understanding. I like our back line. The rest of the team is extremely lackluster, though.

 

[Nuffy]

Would tinkler be able to say offer Lewis 100-150k a year but then give him like a 700k lump sum when he retires? Would that lump sum come under the cap considering he is retired?

Man, having Lewis and Scott in our backrow would add some much needed sting in our defence.

I'll bet that happens but it never appears in any cap.

 

[RABK]

Guys i gotta say i've read a lot of negativity over the signing of Beau Scott and i think it's mostly about his rumoured 400k per year price tag.

I can assure you he isn't been paid near that, i have it on good authority it's 1.3 million over 4 years. A lot less than what Rothfield and the Tele reported. Still big money but not superstar money. He is a very good backrower.

 

[RABK]

Would tinkler be able to say offer Lewis 100-150k a year but then give him like a 700k lump sum when he retires? Would that lump sum come under the cap considering he is retired?

Man, having Lewis and Scott in our backrow would add some much needed sting in our defence.

:lol:

Brian Waldron?

 

[Newie is God's Country]

He's probably got no idea what's going on. He's moved to Singapore.

That could become an issue in itself. Not yet but later on down the track. Out of sight out of mind maybe.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Ok then, well what if Tinkler offered Lewis a job mowing his Lawn for a 700k lump sum when he retired? Would this still be breaching the cap?

 

[perverse]

Ok then, well what if Tinkler offered Lewis a job mowing his Lawn for a 700k lump sum when he retired? Would this still be breaching the cap?

Do you feel this is in the spirit of the salary cap?

Honestly, I think you know the answer to this.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

Do you feel this is in the spirit of the salary cap?

Honestly, I think you know the answer to this.

No, it is probably not. But I could deal with it if it made us a premiership threat.

 

[RABK]

The knights got investigated because Tinkler did this with tolar. Nice guy but Bennett wanted him out of the cap so Tinkler gets Tolar a cushy job on the same wage.

It's most defenitely breaching the cap and i don't know how we didn't get pinged for it. Brisbane have a millionaires club who is strongly beleived to have paid players huge lump sums for 'appearances' and 'endorsements' over the past 20 years.

My point is that while your example of 700k for mowing the lawn is unrealistic i have no doubt clubs breach the cap doing that exact method only more realistic eg 40k for hosting a dinner function.

Tinkler could do it sure.

 

[perverse]

Guys i gotta say i've read a lot of negativity over the signing of Beau Scott and i think it's mostly about his rumoured 400k per year price tag.

I can assure you he isn't been paid near that, i have it on good authority it's 1.3 million over 4 years. A lot less than what Rothfield and the Tele reported. Still big money but not superstar money. He is a very good backrower.

Geez, 325k per year + third party is still a fair amount. He needs to bring quite a bit. He's obviously better than what we have, though. I'm going to wait until I see him in the red and blue before I pass any judgement on this signing. I'm skeptical... But willing to give the benefit of the doubt. What concerns me is that I can't see him fixing our attacking issues on the fringe, although he will surely improve our D.