Rumours and Stuff

[hindy111]

MON has got some work to do filling those shoes. So far Ogden, Emu and Hollis, Rodwell and Cartwright is pretty average.

The issue is
Marata,Stone,Papali'i,Kafusi would be costing how much?
Marata maybe 250k
Papali'i apparently 150k
Stone I'd assume about 120k
Kafusi maybe 200k
Mattersons apparently 550k.

All these guys provide good value and on unders bar Matterson imo. At his best he is worth the 550k but his forms always inconsistent.

Stone and Kafusi are a high chance of being replaced of similar quality for the price tag. Neither are changing our results.
Marata is going to hard to get a guy of his quality for less then 400k and Papali'i I would put in the same boat. So we need to find about 400k.
Hodgson will be costing probably what we are currently paying Reed.
I feel we maybe able to get Matterson for about 100k less then his on. But still we'd be 300k-400k short of finding any quality.

We may pull a rabbit out of our arse again like we did with Papali or we may develop someone the same way ad Marata. But I think our best hope is Sivo walks. That would be 400k there. Between Haze, Russel,Simmonson,Laizou,Blake we should be ok in the backline.

 

[Soren Lorenson]

By all accounts we offered Paps and Marata in the ballpark of 4-450. So we obviously have it in the budget. It would have been matching the offers they got from other clubs that f**ked us.

 

[Angry_eel]

I think rugby leagues very different these days.
I feel clubs have a system in many positions and less reliant on individual brilliance like in past times.

Are you saying that we have a Plan A, B, C, D, E for all positions?

 

[Poupou Escobar]

By all accounts we offered Paps and Marata in the ballpark of 4-450. So we obviously have it in the budget. It would have been matching the offers they got from other clubs that f**ked us.

Exactly. Just because we refused to match bigger offers doesn't mean we don't have the cap space. But if we started matching overs that cap would fill up very quickly.

 

[hindy111]

Exactly. Just because we refused to match bigger offers doesn't mean we don't have the cap space. But if we started matching overs that cap would fill up very quickly.

Where would it come from? We have kept everyone and who would of been downgraded?

 

[hindy111]

We also wouldn't be getting any freight for Blake or RCG moving forward either.

 

[84 Baby]

Where would it come from? We have kept everyone and who would of been downgraded?

We need to start being more like top sides. We lost Will Smith so that’s at least $700k extra available!

 

[Poupou Escobar]

We also wouldn't be getting any freight for Blake or RCG moving forward either.

Whatever Penrith pays them has nothing to do with us. It is their negotiated payout and it's between those players and their former club. Our contract with each player is a separate thing.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Where would it come from? We have kept everyone and who would of been downgraded?

We obviously couldn't have kept all of them. My point is we could have kept one or two of any of them but we only have 18 players contracted for 2023 even after re-signing Rodwell et al. If we had kept Mahoney and Papali'i, for example, the remaining 12 might all have had to be minimum salary nuffies who should be nowhere near first grade.

But history shows you need to use a lot more than 18 players in the NRL each year. The difference between a $100k player and a $200k player might be peanuts in the context of your stars, but for actual output the $200k player is on average vastly superior to the dude on half his salary. I think you might want half a dozen minimum salary players at most, especially because some of them are likely to be worth less than that. If you bring a bloke in who is only worth $50k (for example) you still have to pay him $77.5k. If he is required to play first grade he is only going to give you $50k worth of footy. You're better off paying $120k to a player who is worth it. He's less likely to let you down.

 

[Glenneel]

We need to start being more like top sides. We lost Will Smith so that’s at least $700k extra available!

That's Roosters money, get real.

 

[SneakyEel]

Anyone heard anything about Isaako or is that not happening

 

[eels_fan]

Anyone heard anything about Isaako or is that not happening

He doesn’t want to move to Sydney so I think that scuppered it from the get go

 

[Poupou Escobar]

He doesn’t want to move to Sydney so I think that scuppered it from the get go

Yeah it's not like he doesn't have a contract for this year nor does he need to be playing NRL to get a contract for next year. He is sorted. I'm sure he would rather be playing first grade than reserve grade but at the cost of eight months away from his family? It's just not worth it.

 

[hindy111]

Yeah it's not like he doesn't have a contract for this year nor does he need to be playing NRL to get a contract for next year. He is sorted. I'm sure he would rather be playing first grade than reserve grade but at the cost of eight months away from his family? It's just not worth it.

I'd tell him to f**k of

 

[hindy111]

Issako if he was driven would see the Eels as a chance to win a title. The new side won't be much good for a while. And unsure how Brisbane will go.

 

[lucablight]

Issako if he was driven would see the Eels as a chance to win a title. The new side won't be much good for a while. And unsure how Brisbane will go.

I’d rather bring back Fergo than sign Issako. Very average player.

 

[Eelementary]

I honestly do not understand this idea that Matterson is inconsistent.

Is he overpaid, given how many games he misses? One could successfully argue so, imo.

But he is routinely making tackles at a high completion rate on the edge, scoring the odd try, and running for 90m+ per game.

I think he is better suited to the middle, but the guy is consistent - he just suffers from injury issues.

 

[Avenger]

I’d rather bring back Fergo than sign Issako. Very average player.

We don’t need him. Russell will be our rookie of the year.

 

[lucablight]

We don’t need him. Russell will be our rookie of the year.

Here’s hoping. I really liked the way he showed great football IQ in that trial against Penrith to get down low and score that try without getting pushed out.

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

He looks too small to me.