Rumours and Stuff

[Gronk]

In fairness to The Plane, if you looked at his press conference, he did say that not even in his wildest dreams did he think he would be playing for the Gold Coast.

People expecting him to take $500k a season less than the Gold Coast offer are just being fanciful...maybe it's their lifelong dream that The Plane plays for $500k less a year than his worth.

Cool just say that our offer was short. Shake hands and move on. Playing semantics about formal informal offers is embarrassing.

The right way to deal with this is to be up front with eels fans and tell them that the club have dropped out then sign elsewhere.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Is it that much of a risk though? If he was to have a significant career ending injury then his salary is cap exempt, just as Watmough's was. Cronk is pretty durable so I definitely think he has another two very good years in him.

As for off-field leadership and its value, he would provide more than Watmough and Foran combined. What is that worth, particularly mentoring our current young halves in Dargan and Doolan? A mill a season for the games premier halfback at the moment isn't overs in my opinion.

I don't think he would look quite so capable away from Cam Smith and the rest of Melbourne's pack.

 

[hineyrulz]

Mate, I wouldn't bag too many people out about user names. It took me a couple of years to work out that you weren't a 14 yo Nathan Hindmarsh fan.

Nah I was 12

 

[ash411]

In fairness to The Plane, if you looked at his press conference, he did say that not even in his wildest dreams did he think he would be playing for the Gold Coast.

People expecting him to take $500k a season less than the Gold Coast offer are just being fanciful...maybe it's their lifelong dream that The Plane plays for $500k less a year than his worth.

It's a funny thing though, player values.

He's worth 1.2m a season because the Titans were willing to part with it. Open market value and value to a particular club are two different things. BA decided that Hayne's value to us was 833K, and he stuck to that. And to be honest, Hayne at Parra on 1.2m would have been overs.

He will probably work out as a good investment for the Titans though, as they have a lot more to gain out of him that we did.

 

[Noise]

If the Dragons miss out on Norman I'd expect them to pay Hastings considerably more than what we're willing to pay.

Yep. I'm thinking this will happen:

Normans re-signs with us
Farah to Souths
Hastings to Dragons
Blake Green to Manly
Cronk stays with Storm

and we end up re-signing DeGois and convince the great Jeff Robson to go around again

 

[Noise]

double

 

[Gary Gutful]

In fairness to The Plane, if you looked at his press conference, he did say that not even in his wildest dreams did he think he would be playing for the Gold Coast.

People expecting him to take $500k a season less than the Gold Coast offer are just being fanciful...maybe it's their lifelong dream that The Plane plays for $500k less a year than his worth.

No problems in him taking more money. Just don't treat us like mugs.

First it was the 'lifetime agreement' with Parra, then it was a 'life long dream' to play NFL then a 'life long dream' to go to the olympics and then finally he returns to the NRL and plays for another team which in itself is fine if it weren't for the complete horseshit story that he made up about not receiving an offer from Parra.

That is why you won't see him receive the benefit of the doubt from a lot of people.

He has some work to do to rebuild his image and reputation.

 

[hineyrulz]

Yep. I'm thinking this will happen:

Normans re-signs with us
Farah to Souths
Hastings to Dragons
Blake Green to Manly
Cronk stays with Storm

and we end up re-signing DeGois and convince the great Jeff Robson to go around again

#powerhouse!!

At least Todd will be happy.

 

[strider]

In fairness to The Plane, if you looked at his press conference, he did say that not even in his wildest dreams did he think he would be playing for the Gold Coast.

People expecting him to take $500k a season less than the Gold Coast offer are just being fanciful...maybe it's their lifelong dream that The Plane plays for $500k less a year than his worth.

No I think people are hoping he would have waited just a little to give us the chance to come up with maybe 300-500k worth of legit TPAs

 

[strider]

Im still rather confused ... supposedly his 1.2m contract is the biggest in the NRL ... I thought JT was on at least that? ... or are they saying the 1.2m is entirely guaranteed by the club?

 

[hineyrulz]

No problems in him taking more money. Just don't treat us like mugs.

First it was the 'lifetime agreement' with Parra, then it was a 'life long dream' to play NFL then a 'life long dream' to go to the olympics and then finally he returns to the NRL and plays for another team which in itself is fine if it weren't for the complete horseshit story that he made up about not receiving an offer from Parra.

That is why you won't see him receive the benefit of the doubt from a lot of people.

He has some work to do to rebuild his image and reputation.

Spot on Gaz, and just say their offer was much better. At least we can al agree money talk and bullshit walks.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Yep, the one who's hardly hit 20 years of age and has already played a dozen or so first grade games.
I'm glad we didn't go silly on this money hungry prick, options will come up they always do and we'll be one of very few clubs who could easily take a marquee player off a cap strapped clubs hands at a drop of a hat..

Yep just like Titans have done this year with peats / hurrell

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

Im still rather confused ... supposedly his 1.2m contract is the biggest in the NRL ... I thought JT was on at least that? ... or are they saying the 1.2m is entirely guaranteed by the club?

Confused also. Iirc JT was on 1.25, and that was 3 or 4 years ago.

 

[hybrideel]

Im still rather confused ... supposedly his 1.2m contract is the biggest in the NRL ... I thought JT was on at least that? ... or are they saying the 1.2m is entirely guaranteed by the club?

Was thinking the same thing.
Also if the $1.2m included the $600k in TPA's then the titans have got him on less under the cap than we would have had him for. His earning potential with TPA's would have been more given the hometown hero status here.
The rushed decision seems very odd for some reason,

 

[hineyrulz]

Im still rather confused ... supposedly his 1.2m contract is the biggest in the NRL ... I thought JT was on at least that? ... or are they saying the 1.2m is entirely guaranteed by the club?

Guaranteed TPA's are all fine now.

 

[ash411]

No problems in him taking more money. Just don't treat us like mugs.

Exactly.

When he left in 2014, if he had just been like "NFL Bitches, peace out!" and left that would have been that. People would be pissed (they were anyway) but we all got over it pretty quickly.

I would have preferred that, even if he said that if he was to come back, that he would like to be an Eel, but not like "lifetime agreement" and "i'll only be an eel" which we all suspected was rubbish anyway.

I'm pretty sure he said that thinking two things:
1) He was never intending on coming back at all, and
2) He thought that if he did, the Eels would pay him whatever he wanted.

and he was wrong on both fronts..

 

[Joshuatheeel]

I know it has been suggested Hayne was offered $500k per season extra with the Titans so he had no choice but to take it. But that is only $1million over the two years. Yes it's a shit load in the short term. But really in the long term it's bugger all, compared to what his brand could have earned in the long term as a "one club eels legend".

He will probably never ever be associated with our club again and doubt he will hang around on the Gold Coast once he career is over.

While we are a basket case at the moment, we are still one of the biggest sporting brands in Australia, while the Titans will never be close even top 10.

Hayne has forgone all this with his brand by some short term decisions. Bad decision by his management

 

[Joshuatheeel]

BTW there was an article last week about an agent who probably was going to be de-registered very soon, so was shopping his superstar client around to accept the biggest offer out there, so the agent could get one more "payday".

 

[ash411]

compared to what his brand could have earned in the long term as a "one club eels legend".

What's specifically marketable about that? Why is being a one club man better than "NRL superstar".

It means more to Parra fans, but outside of that, it wouldn't hold much sway.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Yep. I'm thinking this will happen:

Normans re-signs with us
Farah to Souths
Hastings to Dragons
Blake Green to Manly
Cronk stays with Storm

and we end up re-signing DeGois and convince the great Jeff Robson to go around again

More likely is Gutherson partners Norman in the halves, allowing French to play fullback. Then we just need to find a winger.