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So where will the money be spent?

Rob Dragon

Juniors
Messages
312
OK, Widdop is off at the end of 2019 and his departure frees up significant money. Matt Dufty appears to be the only 1st grader of significance off contract at the end of 2019 and the club therefore has a small war chest to chase an elite styled player. The question therefore is where should this money be spent in terms of our requirements?

1. Do we pursue a top notch centre and therefore along with Lomax have a potentially devastating centre pairing?

2. Do we chase an established front rower given Graham's probable retirement?

3. Do we chase another elite back-rower given the potential DeBelin quandary?

It's a recruitment managers dream; a small war chest to add to a squad that should be peaking in 2020.
 

Dragonslayer

First Grade
Messages
7,679
OK, Widdop is off at the end of 2019 and his departure frees up significant money. Matt Dufty appears to be the only 1st grader of significance off contract at the end of 2019 and the club therefore has a small war chest to chase an elite styled player. The question therefore is where should this money be spent in terms of our requirements?

1. Do we pursue a top notch centre and therefore along with Lomax have a potentially devastating centre pairing?

2. Do we chase an established front rower given Graham's probable retirement?

3. Do we chase another elite back-rower given the potential DeBelin quandary?

It's a recruitment managers dream; a small war chest to add to a squad that should be peaking in 2020.

Most of it will go to Norman in 2019 onwards.

There are 15 players off contract this year, many of those wont be re-signed, so there will be some nice coin around to secure some quality players.
 

George Dragon

Juniors
Messages
1,985
Most of it will go to Norman in 2019 onwards.

There are 15 players off contract this year, many of those wont be re-signed, so there will be some nice coin around to secure some quality players.
11 players in our top 30 off contract none of them are on big contracts. Remembering we have to sign another 11 there's not much to throw around.
 

Dragonslayer

First Grade
Messages
7,679
11 players in our top 30 off contract none of them are on big contracts. Remembering we have to sign another 11 there's not much to throw around.

Mitchell Allgood, Eddie Blacker, Matthew Dufty, Jai Field, James Graham, Josh Kerr, Jeremy Latimore, Blake Lawrie, Hayden Lomax, Joe Lovodua, Lachlan Maranta, Steven Masters, Darren Nicholls, Reece Robson, Tristan Sailor, Lachlan Timm

These are the listed players off-contract at the end of this season.
I concur that some of these players wont be retained past this season, but not all.

We will have approx. 200k from this years signing of Norman and we still need to sign 1 more.
Allgood, Latimore, Maranta and Nicholls in my guess wont be re-signed. Kerr and Sailor? well debatable.
James Graham has a PO for 2020, whether he takes that up is a big question (that's around 600k)

Looking at the list its obvious that Robson and Lawrie stand out as being priorities.
Blacker, Masters and Lovodua, could all be promoted from the DS, on minimum wage along with Ford.
Its wait and see on Timm.
The other 2 are obviously (1) Dufty, does the hierarchy see him as an option beyond this year, (2) Field, where does he fit into the scheme of things?

whatever the case its interesting times ahead, to see the priorities of our coach and recruitment, and how well we negotiate through the player minefield.
 

Carlton

Juniors
Messages
1,223
Most of it will go to Norman in 2019 onwards.

There are 15 players off contract this year, many of those wont be re-signed, so there will be some nice coin around to secure some quality players.

We have Norman ($500k) and Widdop ($850k) in this years salary cap.Thats a total of about $1.35 million.

Next year we have Norman ($700k) which means we have about $650k available from widdop leaving next year. If Widdop leaves this year we have $850k available this year.
 

possm

Coach
Messages
15,587
Lomax and Robson need to be locked in long term. Over time there salaries will be funded once Aitken, Lafai and McInnes come to the end of their contract.

Widdop's salary for 2020 on will fund Norman.

It all depends on what happens with De Belin and how young guns like Lawrie, Kerr, Timm and Blacker step up in 2019 to understand where recruitment need to direct their attention in the forwards for 2020.

In my opinion there is still about 500k surplus in our cap - Mann + approx. a balance of 200k. These funds could be used to upgrade the likes of Dufty, Pearson and any other young players that step up in 2019 and who we want to upgrade and keep long term.
 

denis preston

First Grade
Messages
8,157
Lomax and Robson need to be locked in long term. Over time there salaries will be funded once Aitken, Lafai and McInnes come to the end of their contract.

Widdop's salary for 2020 on will fund Norman.

It all depends on what happens with De Belin and how young guns like Lawrie, Kerr, Timm and Blacker step up in 2019 to understand where recruitment need to direct their attention in the forwards for 2020.

In my opinion there is still about 500k surplus in our cap - Mann + approx. a balance of 200k. These funds could be used to upgrade the likes of Dufty, Pearson and any other young players that step up in 2019 and who we want to upgrade and keep long term.

That's obviously the sensible scenario. 2019 will be a very big year for some of our young players career's .If they don't show improvement then it's off to England or park football. Trouble is , will supercoach give them a fair go to show what they can do in the NRL ?

Otherwise a Front Rower & a 4 that can play 1 or vice versa would be on our shopping list.
 

Crush

Coach
Messages
10,412
Lomax and Robson need to be locked in long term. Over time there salaries will be funded once Aitken, Lafai and McInnes come to the end of their contract.

Widdop's salary for 2020 on will fund Norman.

It all depends on what happens with De Belin and how young guns like Lawrie, Kerr, Timm and Blacker step up in 2019 to understand where recruitment need to direct their attention in the forwards for 2020.

In my opinion there is still about 500k surplus in our cap - Mann + approx. a balance of 200k. These funds could be used to upgrade the likes of Dufty, Pearson and any other young players that step up in 2019 and who we want to upgrade and keep long term.
I find it curious that you are hell-bent on locking in two players long term that are still yet to really prove themselves at NRL level?
 

Carlton

Juniors
Messages
1,223
Lomax and Robson need to be locked in long term. Over time there salaries will be funded once Aitken, Lafai and McInnes come to the end of their contract.

Widdop's salary for 2020 on will fund Norman.

It all depends on what happens with De Belin and how young guns like Lawrie, Kerr, Timm and Blacker step up in 2019 to understand where recruitment need to direct their attention in the forwards for 2020.

In my opinion there is still about 500k surplus in our cap - Mann + approx. a balance of 200k. These funds could be used to upgrade the likes of Dufty, Pearson and any other young players that step up in 2019 and who we want to upgrade and keep long term.

Widdops salary is not needed to fund Norman, we already have them both this year and next year Normans salary only goes up $200K. We should have about $650k extra from Widdop leaving next year and after paying Norman.
 

Frank Facer

First Grade
Messages
5,069
Widdops salary is not needed to fund Norman, we already have them both this year and next year Normans salary only goes up $200K. We should have about $650k extra from Widdop leaving next year and after paying Norman.
If we do have 650K left over, plus what ever Dufty is on would give us some big dollars to throw at a top line fullback if one was available. We would probably have close to 900k to play with.

I would still like to see Dufty get first crack at fullback this year, with Widdop at left centre. I obviously haven't written off, but if someone better was available, such as Holmes, Tom Turbo or Mitchell we could chase their signature.

If we have got Norman for 700K a year, then I think we may have snared ourselves the bargain. I am all for spending big money on halves and fullback.
 
Messages
2,866
OK, Widdop is off at the end of 2019 and his departure frees up significant money. Matt Dufty appears to be the only 1st grader of significance off contract at the end of 2019 and the club therefore has a small war chest to chase an elite styled player. The question therefore is where should this money be spent in terms of our requirements?

1. Do we pursue a top notch centre and therefore along with Lomax have a potentially devastating centre pairing?

2. Do we chase an established front rower given Graham's probable retirement?

3. Do we chase another elite back-rower given the potential DeBelin quandary?

It's a recruitment managers dream; a small war chest to add to a squad that should be peaking in 2020.
I reckon an elite centre would be the way to go.
When you look at Cooper and Gasnier, Johnston and Beattie in the past.
Mark Coyne, McGregor etc. They were all such an integral part of our success in their day.
It is the biggest hole we have in our roster by a long way.
Instead of plugging it with middle of the road quality, give Lomax an experienced, top flight centre partner that will support his development and, at the same time, bring some real strike power to our back line.
Lafai and Aitkin are just not the answer - terrible long term signings in the first place.
Can you imagine a Bird/Lomax pairing now?
 

Carlton

Juniors
Messages
1,223
If we do have 650K left over, plus what ever Dufty is on would give us some big dollars to throw at a top line fullback if one was available. We would probably have close to 900k to play with.

I would still like to see Dufty get first crack at fullback this year, with Widdop at left centre. I obviously haven't written off, but if someone better was available, such as Holmes, Tom Turbo or Mitchell we could chase their signature.

If we have got Norman for 700K a year, then I think we may have snared ourselves the bargain. I am all for spending big money on halves and fullback.

I agree we could afford a top fullback and if we also let Aitken and Lafai go we could afford a top centre to partner Lomax.

We realistically could have:
Top Fullback
Pearson
Lomax
Top Centre
Ravalawa
Norman
Hunt

as our backline.
 
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