Rumours and Stuff

[Poupou Escobar]

We used him very poorly, like most of our attacking threats.

We used him just fine at fullback but the emergence of Gutherson killed French’s future at our club. To be fair we never missed him, unless you’re looking for a hypothetical to whinge about.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Did you see who we had on our wings this season??

The top contracted wingers were Sivo and Dunster. We got about a dozen games out of them.

 

[hineyrulz]

The top contracted wingers were Sivo and Dunster. We got about a dozen games out of them.

Dunster thank you for making my point.

 

[Glenneel]

Welch epitomises what Melbourne is all about

if Ryles is bringing him to the club it because he wants him to set the standard on and off the field

Didn't Ryles get let go early on condition he doesn't poach Storm players in first year? If so then not true. But Wishart, what a player, and we could afford him in 2026.

 

[Glenneel]

He is past his best, but his best was pretty good. He is still a first grader.

As for minutes, tonight the following middles all got fewer minutes than Alec MacDonald's 38 MInutes:

Asofa-Solomona (26 minutes)
Kamikamica (24)
Welch (19)

I'd say if it was close they all would've gotten more minutes but they had 59% of the ball. It was a good time to give merkins a rest. We don't know what injuries they're carrying at this time of year.

Apologies for replying to you.

Just on that game how tentative was Haynes. Think Sharkies need to offload him, make Trindle halfback and put someone in a 5/8 or move Haynes to fullback. They'll never win a finals match with him in charge.

 

[Avenger]

I thought he played very well yesterday. His passes from dummyhalf are exceptional.

 

[Glenneel]

Especially him getting rag dolled into the in goal or into touch every time he ran the ball...now that was super fun.

People have short memories...

This rag dolling is a stupid comment. NRL is full of small fullbacks and few get rag dolled but even if do look at the chaos they've created for the defence beforehand. Walsh, Fuller, Paps, Kini, etc I'd love one of those at Eels.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

View attachment 94182
I thought he played very well yesterday. His passes from dummyhalf are exceptional.

He knows the knights....

 

[Glenneel]

View attachment 94182
I thought he played very well yesterday. His passes from dummyhalf are exceptional.

Good player but too injury prone. We had the season from hell with half our players out injured. No thanks!

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Good player but too injury prone. We had the season from hell with half our players out injured. No thanks!

Was for last 2 years.....

He played 23 games this year.

Anyhow his injury history wouId make him cheap....plus knights wouId probably contribute.

With Hands, Lussick already here (they provide cover), reckon he is worth the risk.

 

[Glenneel]

Think our backline for next year will be:
longi
Sivo
Peninisi -Dick or Will?
Gutho
Lomax
Will that get us into top 8?
None with express speed but if get D right and forwards dominate there should be some points in the side.
Its exciting.

 

[Glenneel]

Was for last 2 years.....

He played 23 games this year.

Anyhow his injury history wouId make him cheap....plus knights wouId probably contribute.

With Hands, Lussick already here (they provide cover), reckon he is worth the risk.

Can't we offload Lussick? One of the worse signings by BA after Watnot and Forgone.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Tuala from the knights is off contract. Reckon he would be a good signing to provide depth in the backs

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Can't we offload Lussick? One of the worse signings by BA after Watnot and Forgone.

Why would we want to do that? I get Lussick shouldnt be playing 80 mins, but reckons he is still pretty decent at NRL level.

unless he is on stupid money, keep him to provide depth at hooker. It wasn't long ago we had no depth there.

Brailey, Lussick, Hands and Smith creates depth and good competition

 

[hindy111]

Surely we are paying a sizeable chunk of RCGs salary to play elsewhere. I actually dont get letting him go. Most our team mostly had an off season. But i think he still played tough up the middle and is less injury prone.

Why would we be? He had one year left. He wanted 2 or 3yr deal. He has 5 or 6 clubs sniffing. We didn't want to extend him.

I'm not again thinking going. He is our best middle but showing signs of ageing. I always prefer they go a year early.

 

[hindy111]

Tuala from the knights is off contract. Reckon he would be a good signing to provide depth in the backs

Agree. Goes ok and fast

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I’m sure you are right. Players walk away from a $700K contract at the end of their contract all the time. That makes perfect sense

The thing is he wants a multi year contract worth a lot more than whatever he was on in his final year with us. This is why he might've asked for a release.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Why does that mean that we are paying him nothing? Unless he signs an extended contract at another club, he'll have a total salary cap cost of whatever his current 2025 contracted salary is. Unless another club is willing to pay his full contract amount, we'll cop the difference on our cap.

I don't think his contract with us has any bearing on what he'd cost another club. If he agrees to zero payout his cap cost to us next year will be zero. His contract with his new club is independent of that.

Where there is a payout from the former club (e.g. Penrith when he came to us) it is negotiated between them and possibly over a number of years. That's the salary cap hit to the losing club. We could've done this with RCG's release but if he wanted to leave then probably not. Then it'd be on our cap. But if there's no payout then he would cost us nothing under the 2025 cap. Either way, the 2025 value of his new contract with his new club has no bearing on us, just as our payout has no bearing on his cap cost to them.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

He must be confident he will sign another contract. The club has said they will not be paying him to play elsewhere. He is taking the gamble at gaining a 3year contract. My understanding is the club would have been happy to have him play out his final year but would not extend him.

This makes the most sense. But also, I'm sure he already had an offer before he agreed to the release.

 

[hindy111]

Have you seen Cleary’s differential in his first 11 years? Not everyone gets to start at the Roosters or Storm.

At the Warriors it was 150+ not bad considering how bad they where and are.
At Tiger his 1 yr was -80 not bad for them

At Penrith it's been
1040+ across both stints.

So all up he is sitting at about 1120 vs - 150