On Suaalii. If I was Parra I would make a bid for him right now. He has a player option for 2023 and 2024. Since we are probably going to be in a rebuilding year of sorts next year I would offer him a five year $1m deal. No ifs or buts and see if the Chooks could match it. The Roosters are never going to be more vulnerable then right now to retain his services. They are weaker on the field and they have Salary cap issues and he is yet to become the superstar that he eventually will, but he is getting closer and closer with each game.
Remember this guy is only 18 years old and is already the best winger in the game and had not played there till the Chooks put him there. He has always played centre and fullback. By the time he is in his early 20's he will probably be the best player in the world and he will want to be playing fullback to reach that potential.
I know we have Gutho on our books, but I don't care. I would cut Gutho in millisecond if it meant that we could sign Suaalii. I know that that maybe a strange thing for me to say after Gutho's stellar performance yesterday, but Gutho will never be Suaalii and the price difference between them isn't staggering. In my opinion Gutho has priced himself into a take him or leave him corner now if we can secure a better option on there abouts money. Sure Gutho is on around $800K and to get Suaalii, we would probably need around $1m, but the extra $200K will be well worth it for a player that is going to be the best in the world.
He is a generational player that you build a roster around. We could do exactly what the Storm have done and have the three spine players, in our case, the 1, 6, and 7 of the highest calibre all on around a million dollars and the rest as good as we can produce or recruit from outside. The roster will always be strong and at least semi final contenders and in good years, especially if we can ever recruit and a very good coach like Ciraldo or Flanagan, we would be genuine title contenders. Also the added advantage of having a spine that good, Suaalii, Brown and Moses, is that it wouldn't be all that difficult to convince other players to join us and play with them or good coaches.
As for what about Gutho, well if we did get Suaalii's Signature, then I would do what the Roosters did to Mitchell Pearce and tell him the new boy is taking your spot, so deal with it the way your want. The advantage for us is he is still producing great football that a team like the Dogs or Tigers would love to have in their roster so I don't think it would be such a difficult thing to offload him very quickly.
Seeing Suaalii has a player option for both 2023 and 2024 we can make a play for him right now. Imagine if we had that type of ruthless attitude to do whatever it takes to get the best possible players to our club and playing for us? That is what the Roosters have always done and why the win premierships and why we meander around but never win the title. You need to have champions in your roster that in a blink of an eye can make sh*t happen when no one else can.
Also the odds are(I'm an atheist, but I'm praying) that BA will not be here come 2025 and it will be much better and easier to attract a high quality coach that just needs to get the filler players right around the spine as opposed to an ageing Gutho at the back who God knows what kind of condition he will be in about 2-3 years time. Also Moses will be in his last couple of years, but halves that haven't had to rough time of it injuries wise tend to be still ok at that age and what they lose in speed, they make up for in footy smarts and game playing awareness. I mean look at what Townsend has helped do at the Cowboys and Moses is twice the player.
We need to be ruthless in our roster management and Gutho has hardly been the most pleasing or loyal type when it came to contract renegotiation time. He took the 'every man for himself' approach and made a terrible example of himself for the rest of the squad to see and follow. We too should look after our clubs interests in kind.
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