I never said it’s not what the smart clubs do. Where are you pulling that quote from? I gave you the opinion of one prominent official from a “strong club”. I already said it wasn’t Melbourne.
Fair enough
It could be bad for both. Stagger already pointed out how the Storm have a lot of roster spots to fill so it seems like a move out of desperation rather than an ideal scenario.
Everyone's rosters should be weaker with the new teams coming in, and R360 luring other players away. If clubs are desperate, then they're desperate. If it can happen to the Storm it can happen to us. The Panthers were forced to sign a 6 that can't tackle ffs. They didn't produce another Luai or Katoa.
Rebuilding and win now are not concurrent scenarios
Then we have to win now while also improving the roster in the future. I'd say that's the position most clubs are in. Rebuilding - literally sacrificing current results for potential future results - is an extreme position that most clubs try to avoid. Nobody would ever do it two years in a row. Just because you're not a realistic chance of winning the comp in a given year doesn't mean the club has carte blanche to rebuild. Clubs want fans to attend games, and that means going into each game with the best chance of winning. If you take the example of Dylan Brown this year, he wasn't dropped until four months after we announced he was leaving. He was dropped because his form hadn't returned, not because "the future is now". If we really wanted to give Papalii more NRL games we would have dropped Drown when we announced his departure, which was before round two. Instead he played right up until round 19, because we hoped he would get back to his best.
It’s a lose lose scenario. If he’s shit then it’s a waste of time. If he’s good then we’ll be salty about why he isn’t signed to a longer deal.
The glass is half empty hey? Welcome to Parramatta.
The only way I could see it being a winning scenario is if Pezet turns out to be good but then his replacement turns out to be amazing.
Yeah it’s possible. He has the second most missed tackles in the nrl for 2025. He also made a crucial game deciding error in the grand final qualifier.
It's the risk you take with young players.