Rumours and Stuff

[Avenger]

How much would Lussick be on? Maybe we can replace him with Brailey using some of the freed up cash to cover the difference. Still should have enough money after that to sign at least 1 possibly 2 decent players.

$250k I reckon.

 

[Incorrect]

$250k I reckon.

Plus petrol money from Gutho... He'll be taking a pay cut next year then!!

 

[MarkInTheStands]

Plus petrol money from Gutho... He'll be taking a pay cut next year then!!

Please, Joey paid for petrol!

 

[Poupou Escobar]

All true. I’m just looking at the longer strategy considering Gutho’s position as it stands. Just imagine the last round send off for Gutho at Commbank If he calls it quits as a Parra favourite next year.

How many hundreds of thousands of dollars do you think he'd give up for that fairy tale? NRL players earn so much money these days that most of them will play anywhere for any club up to the very last year they can get a contract rather than retire so they can focus on whatever shitty career awaits them afterwards. $200k is a fairly low salary by NRL standards, the type of money paid to a quality backup (like the third best half at a club) or the worst player in the top 17 (maybe a centre or bench forward). But $200k is plenty more than most people earn, including retired NRL players. I'd be surprised if Gutherson doesn't keep playing until no club wants him.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Who are the DragQueens offering in return? Jayden Sua would seem to fill a need.

If we give up Gutho for 2025 and get nothing in return, then we deserve the f**ken spoon.

We might be happy with the cap space for frontloading contract extensions. It's also good for every club to show that it looks after its players, including by helping senior players prolong their careers with an early release. If we're not offering a contract extension we look like merkins forcing him to play out the final year and risk a premature retirement due to injury. That impacts our ability to recruit/retain other players.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I wonder if Brayley from the Knights is now the first one signed after this?

Won't be cheap, despite the injury history

 

[Matty Bhoy]

Any merkin can cut and dice. The real talent is in the buying and growing and at the moment we only have a couple of very small green shoots that could easily die off come winter time.

I want to see some real quality brought into our roster from outside and from within and only time will be the ultimate judge. So far he has removed 3 very, very influential figures who have contributed massively in so many of our successes over the last plus 5 years.

So now we need to wait and see, is he a young football manager/mentor servant or just a change agent hoping that by changing things up that something may turn up and we get lucky?

We should now have a decent kitty to go out and do a Roosters and pilfer some real high end quality from the lower grades of other clubs or one proven star that we need to sure up our current NRL roster with.

Seeing that I don't expect a title next year, I hope he goes for the best juniors that have real pedigree. A young Boyd Cordner or JWH types. That is what I would be looking for. A player or two that you can see from an early age was always destined to succeed and lead. Someone that will change the attitude of the players around him. Yes I know they are very hard to find and even harder to lure away from their junior club, but they exist and they do move for the right money and well presented club at this early stage of their careers if the enticers and inducements are good enough, before they become established.

We need to be looking at being one of those types of clubs. Anything less is a failure by our new coach and administration. We also will have from next year on probably the best COE available in the NRL and that too will add to our resources which are now right up there with the best of them. It all comes down to the people we have hired or will hire and are they of the elite standard to get the results we are all seeking?

Well that is what I would be doing, which would include getting the best possible people in to run our, never to be the finished product it would seem, junior pathways.

Any merkin can indeed cut and dice… but how many do in their rookie year as coach? I’m leaning towards hardly fkn anyone.

The easiest and perhaps safest thing for Ryles to do is let RCG, Gutho and Sivo play out their contract and see if he can get them to go to the well for him one last time and improve on this season’s third last finish. If he did that, he’d be getting the backslaps for improving the finishing position.

But he’s said fk that. The man has a vision for what he wants this team to look like and he’s made ruthless calls and freed up a ton of cash and reshaped our roster from the get go. He’s also said to others like Matto, you’re free to go if you find a suitor. It’s really “buy in or fk off”.

Iongi is going to be a special talent. More of his ilk and we are trending in the right direction. We are watching the immediate future of club being shaped before our eyes. I’m genuinely pumped.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

It's certainly a high risk strategy.

It's been a long time since we were a club that could afford to avoid risk.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

There's going to be plenty of headlines and ill-informed sentiment critical of the club

Including from our fan base

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Yes, even if it works out well in the longer term(and I suspect it will), I reckon this place will go into meltdown at a few stages in 2025.

The first time we lose and Gutherson has a good game for the Dragons it'll be all MON's fault for letting him go. By round 12 Ryles will be on the shit list as well. The Broncos will be in the top four and wE sHoUlD'vE gOtTeN f**KeN mAdGe FfS!!1!

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I am a rich man mainly because every married bloke that i have met has told me never get married i listened to there advice and took it on board.

I've been married twice and it's awesome.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Gutherson will eventually retire without a premiership. Especially now.

I think players at his standard (quality first graders but not elite) need to choose between onfield success or maximising their income. Gutherson seems to have always chosen the latter.

 

[Angry_eel]

Maybe where BA left this stale water of a roster, something like this had to be done. Just a shame that two of our best in Gutho and RCG had to face the chop though.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Api Koroisau, Reece Robson and Jacob Liddle have all been pitched to the Eels in the wake of the crushing departure of Reed Mahoney to the Bulldogs.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-news-parramatta-eels-hooker-reed-mahoney-signs-with-canterbury-bulldogs/news-story/5c17020f25e31d93e19f9766f2753e21

He is available to talk to tomorrow but we could have had him to replace Mahoney back in 2022.

Instead we went after a shot duck in Josh Hodgson to mentor a young hooker coming through.

One of the all-time great recruitment decisions by our awesome R&R team.

Can you do some f**king research before parroting what the media wants you to be pissy about. Robson was contracted until the end of 2023: https://www.cowboys.com.au/news/2019/08/12/cowboys-sign-junior-kangaroo/

"Junior Kangaroos hooker Reece Robson has agreed to a four-year deal with the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys beginning in 2020 and running through the end of the 2023 season."

 

[Poupou Escobar]

What's interesting is Guthos salary for 2025 is now being reported as $875k, where we all were previously told it was $950k. Just shows how much BS is out there in the media.

There is. None of these media merkins know the details of player contracts. Why would they? Even their sources bullshit them to push their agendas.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

But but but but but there was no one better than Baldson, just like there was no one better than Bea Arthur.

See above. There literally was no merkin available better than Hodgson. That's why we signed him.

 

[Legal Eel]

Including from our fan base

couldn't resist the troll could you?

 

[Legal Eel]

The first time we lose and Gutherson has a good game for the Dragons it'll be all MON's fault for letting him go. By round 12 Ryles will be on the shit list as well. The Broncos will be in the top four and wE sHoUlD'vE gOtTeN f**KeN mAdGe FfS!!1!

pre-emptive strike troll!

 

[Legal Eel]

See above. There literally was no merkin available better than Hodgson. That's why we signed him.

because you say so? Rubbish.

 

[Stevie]

Nope i would be going after Vunivalu whose getting a release from Australian Rugby.

Addo-Carr is damaged goods and who would want a bloke that's missing 4 games already next year thats proven multiple times he can't stay out of trouble off the field.

I forgot about him. Is he still alive? I picture him looking like Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon these days murmuring that he’s getting too old for this shit.