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Joshuatheeel

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
20,203
The selfish rotted culture in the joint for the past decade was poetic with all these POs.

The culture started from the coach, captain & all the senior players and its festered from there.

The fact the club has basically implied it wont be doing it moving forward is a huge culture shift and a shot across the bow to the playing squad.

Buy in or piss off
Ryles and Brown have both said the culture was good and the players are used to pushing themselves at training, which has made their job a lot easier.

That's not saying a change wasn't required....
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
92,493
So you’re saying offering a new contract now could potentially “remove” the PO.
In the same way offering to extend Guymer now would ‘remove’ him being off contract and free to negotiate in November. At the moment he has the OPTION to negotiate and upgrade his deal (here or elsewhere) for 2027. We also have the OPTION to refuse to offer an extension. If the player had a formal PO for 2027, he would have exactly the same OPTION to leave or seek an upgrade from us. There would be zero difference. What would be different is that, with a PO, the Eels would no longer have the OPTION of letting Guymer leave after 2027. That’s it. Is that an option we are likely to want to retain? That’s a decision for the club to make during contract negotiations, and informs whether they offer a PO or not. Is it a no brainer that we would want to keep him, and can we anticipate a value that we are likely to be happy with if the PO is activated? If so the risk is minimal, and almost certainly worth the benefit of whatever salary the player is willing to concede in exchange for the PO.
I’m glad that’s cleared up.

You’re taking the piss Pou
I’m not. I don’t know how I can spell it out any more simply than I have. I suspect merkins are taking the piss when they refuse to see the benefits of a PO, or overstate the risk. They are conflating the PO with being off contract. The risk isn’t that the player might leave, or that the club doesn’t know if the player will stay. These risks exist independent of the PO. The risk is that the player will stay despite the club not wanting him to. We have one example of this with Haze Dunster. A freak occurrence and a realised risk. If this happens to all our players with options it will be terribly unfortunate. If it doesn’t then we’ve taken the benefit of the POs while avoiding the risk. A win for the club.
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
92,493
In the latest Jam & Cheese podcast, they spoke about Christian Welsh and his retirement, how it must have been hard to retire considering Storm are in a premiership window AND that he had a player option.
I believe the retirement means he can activate the option and the Storm don’t have to wear it on the cap. It’s win/win.
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
92,493
The selfish rotted culture in the joint for the past decade was poetic with all these POs.

The culture started from the coach, captain & all the senior players and its festered from there.

The fact the club has basically implied it wont be doing it moving forward is a huge culture shift and a shot across the bow to the playing squad.

Buy in or piss off
Maybe this is why the Storm took the captaincy off Welch? One too many player options proved he was selfish and evil.
 

King-Gutho94

Coach
Messages
16,170
Ryles and Brown have both said the culture was good and the players are used to pushing themselves at training, which has made their job a lot easier.

That's not saying a change wasn't required....
I never said they didnt train hard.

The likes of Gutho & RCG could train all day.

Team Culture in sporting teams comes down to team dynamic & connection as much as it does effort on the park.

This is what most people on here are saying about the flaws under the old regime.

Effort can only get you so far.

But not working as team and having an identity & connection then its hard to succeed.

I think Ryles spotted the lumps that needed to be weeded out and has done so pretty efficiently.

Wouldn't surprise me if Dylan is another one tbh another one in that clique.

Matto would have been another one but no one else actually wanted him with his concussion history and was impossible to get rid of.
 

Stevie

Bench
Messages
3,220
Interesting comments through the week from Ryles re the top 30 spot left open for a high quality back... A few assumptions I take from this which is positive.
* We obviously have plenty of cap space for a high level player which is a nice place to be.
* Based on Ryles obvious pedigree around forwards, it tells me he is comfortable with our forward pack which if I am honest, is super surprising. He has had a long time to analyse our forwards and I would have thought we may consider 1 more big bopper (I actually wondered if he might be sniffing around Molo from Dragons who is there best prop) or even an edge player, hooker etc. This makes me quietly optimistic of what our forward pack is capable from.
* He doesn't seem set on the backs as yet. Does that tell us he has a question mark over a first tier player and maybe the depth isn't quite ready yet?

Interesting times!
 

84 Baby

Referee
Messages
29,984
Interesting comments through the week from Ryles re the top 30 spot left open for a high quality back... A few assumptions I take from this which is positive.
* We obviously have plenty of cap space for a high level player which is a nice place to be.
* Based on Ryles obvious pedigree around forwards, it tells me he is comfortable with our forward pack which if I am honest, is super surprising. He has had a long time to analyse our forwards and I would have thought we may consider 1 more big bopper (I actually wondered if he might be sniffing around Molo from Dragons who is there best prop) or even an edge player, hooker etc. This makes me quietly optimistic of what our forward pack is capable from.
* He doesn't seem set on the backs as yet. Does that tell us he has a question mark over a first tier player and maybe the depth isn't quite ready yet?

Interesting times!
I think there’s definitely one outside back spot up for grabs. Doesn’t mean we necessarily have mountain of space to sign Suaalii when he’s bored of union, but if someone better than Simonsson/Russell/Dunster/Samrani/Whoever within our price range becomes available then those players will either need to step up or risk losing their spot.
I think we’re fine for middles, it’s more 2nd row we’re lacking. Although I also think our edges will benefit from the changes in the middle so maybe Tualagi/Cartwright, even Lane can perform better
 

hindy111

Post Whore
Messages
63,592
We would’ve been unable to plan anyway because they were off contract. The only option we (the club) lost due to the POs for Moses and Drown was the option of getting rid of them. Do you really think that was a realistic option? Just to keep Talagi and/or Sanders?

No. We would of had since November to plan. That's an extra 7mths then rnd 10.
 

Joshuatheeel

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
20,203
* He doesn't seem set on the backs as yet. Does that tell us he has a question mark over a first tier player and maybe the depth isn't quite ready yet?

Interesting times!

Ryles actions don't really indicate this....4 of the genuine starting back options (apart from Lomax) JAC, Russell, Simonson have signed/re-signed under Ryles, while the club is negotiating an extension for Will.

I don't think a top 13 back signing is where we are looking to spend money. Probably more edge, hooker, as it is where we don't have a lot of cap space taken up on in 2026.
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
92,493
No. We would of had since November to plan. That's an extra 7mths then rnd 10.
WTF are you on about? We could only start planning in November if we didn’t want to keep them. If we did want to keep them we were stuck waiting until they signed (whether with us or a rival).

And if we had decided to let them go (in the hypothetical case where they didn’t have a PO) then we were stuck waiting for our recruitment targets to sign (with us or with a rival).

It’s like you think that without a PO there’s this magical world where you can instantly sign every player you need like in those bullshit fantasy leagues.
 

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