Storm gives 7 players permission to leave, Knights want White

[Johns Magic]

People here now are just complaining for the sake of complaining. We weren't signing anyone and everybody is up in arms. We start signing - and signing some quality current and prospective players - and everybody is whinging the signings aren't good enough.

The complaining of the prospects that Brett White may come here is one I can't quite cop. Given the few front rowers in front of him on form at the moment are not on the market, and the other Storm front rowers (like Blair and Manu) are not on the list free to negotiate, then who out there would be a better option at the moment?

I don't really know who people want the club to sign. So rather than complaining, why not help the club and inform us of these tremendous signings who are off contract this year that the club can pick up.

Excuse me for taking your opinion on good players with a grain of salt when you said Kade Snowden was average a couple of months ago.

We talked about having a million dollars to spend.

Thus far that million dollars has amounted to:

Replacing a passionate prop with his ex-teammate who was never as good at him at the Storm but who thinks he's Shane Webcke.

Replacing a club legend and former rep regular second-rower with a 48 minute player who has no running game to speak of and would most likely be on the bench if his club team was fully fit.

Wasting money on the worst prop in the world who was struggling on a QLD Cup bench.

And a few kids.

Is that what you dreamed of when told we had a million dollars to hit the market Alex?

My gripe is that the Knights seem to be targetting these guys because they are 'rep players', despite them all being very average rep players. So in all likelihood, White will get rep money.

 

[Alex28]

Excuse me for taking your opinion on good players with a grain of salt when you said Kade Snowden was average a couple of months ago.

We talked about having a million dollars to spend.

Thus far that million dollars has amounted to:

Replacing a passionate prop with his ex-teammate who was never as good at him at the Storm but who thinks he's Shane Webcke.

Replacing a club legend and former rep regular second-rower with a 48 minute player who has no running game to speak of and would most likely be on the bench if his club team was fully fit.

Wasting money on the worst prop in the world who was struggling on a QLD Cup bench.

And a few kids.

Is that what you dreamed of when told we had a million dollars to hit the market Alex?

My gripe is that the Knights seem to be targetting these guys because they are 'rep players', despite them all being very average rep players. So in all likelihood, White will get rep money.

All those words yet your answer is "I can't think of anyone better".

Stop complaining, and come up with some ideas. If you can't come up with anybody better what is the point of complaining? We can only buy what is available. I'd love Petero over Kaufusi but is he available? No.

Also, give me a link where Simpson won't be here next year. That is not the mail I've been hearing unless things have changed due to injury.

 

[Johns Magic]

All those words yet your answer is "I can't think of anyone better".

Give me a list of off-contract players and I will think of someone better.

Mason, off the top of my head as RABK said.

Shane Tronc, done wonders at the Broncos and again off-contract.

Aiden Tolman.

Brent Tate.

Michael Hodgson.

Trent Merrin.

Matt Prior.

Michael Weyman.

Eddy Pettybourne.

Ben Lowe.

Lewis Brown.

That's just a list of players who were off-contract but have since signed with new clubs or re-signed at their current club.

Any of them would have been better than Kaufusi, White or Costigan, so there's a list for you.

 

[Johns Magic]

All those words yet your answer is "I can't think of anyone better".

Stop complaining, and come up with some ideas. If you can't come up with anybody better what is the point of complaining?

Well it's a shame you edited your post after I started replying because I already did that.

We can only buy what is available. I'd love Petero over Kaufusi but is he available? No.

Civoniceva was available you knob.

Also, give me a link where Simpson won't be here next year. That is not the mail I've been hearing unless things have changed due to injury.

So which one of Taia, Simpson, Costigan or Paterson will be a benchie next year?

 

[Alex28]

So you have come up with a bunch of players who are NOT on the open market. Bravo.

Fantastic post with all of your trademarks:

Lots of words with little substance - check.
Lots of complaining - check.
Name calling when you realise you have no answers - check.

We weren't active when we chased Gasnier. Whether it was worth doing that is debatable in hindsight however that is what we did. Some of those players we may have had a chance of getting, the majority not. The likes of Civoniceva and Tolman we were never a chance of getting and blaming the club for not getting them is not fair.

We get you don't like out recruits. You are well and truly driving your point through to all of us. But you can't come up with any better alternatives that are on the market at present.

As for Simpson...last I heard he was keen to re-sign. There have since been some injury concerns which may have changed the picture though...

 

[perverse]

Merrin, Prior or Lowe would have been awesome pickups.

we need to coup de grace Simmo and put him out of his misery. re-signing him on anything but minimum wage would be a mistake, especially given the number of backrowers we have now with Costigan joining the party.

 

[Johns Magic]

So you have come up with a bunch of players who are NOT on the open market. Bravo.

Are you dense?

These guys were all on the open market you idiot. We missed out on all of them, and we had the chance to go after them.

Fantastic post with all of your trademarks:

Lots of words with little substance - check.
Lots of complaining - check.
Name calling when you realise you have no answers - check.

Complaining? Should we dig up your little bitch thread about sacking Stone and signing some ESL coach? You did a fair bit of bitching about the club in that thread you hypocrite.

Get off your huge high-horse, you're no different to anyone else here. Except you think Kade Snowden is average...

We weren't active when we chased Gasnier. Whether it was worth doing that is debatable in hindsight however that is what we did.

I'm not complaining about going after Gasnier at all.

Some of those players we may have had a chance of getting, the majority not.

Oh so they are players we missed out on? Righto.

The majority of players don't ever want to leave their club, but they will if the right offer comes along.

Pettybourne and Ben Lowe are both outstanding young backrowers competing with Dave Taylor and Sam Burgess for three spots.

Matt Prior has Creagh, Jeremy Smith and Dean Young in front of him(and possibly even Costigan before as well).

Trent Merrin has Dan Hunt and Michael Weyman in front of him.

Michael Hodgson only got offered a one-year extension by the Dogs, offer him two years here and see which he finds more appealing.

Shane Tronc only just turned up at Brisbane so wouldn't have a life-long loyalty to them, and with Nick Kenny and now Ben Hannant at the Broncos next year he might have fancied a move somewhere else. In fact I'm pretty sure the Broncos haven't even re-signed him yet.

Lewis Brown is a backrower behind Mannering and Luck, and the Warriors have recruited Mateo next year as well. He'll be a benchie there.

If I was genuinely throwing out just any big-name who we were never a chance with I would've mentioned Thurston or Folau but I didn't, these were players who logically may have an interest in a change of clubs. Possibly with the exception of Weyman but we all know how tight their salary cap is.

The likes of Civoniceva and Tolman we were never a chance of getting and blaming the club for not getting them is not fair.

What's your mail on why Tolman was never a chance of going anywhere but the Bulldogs? Genuinely interested because you appear to have some inside mail but I can't think of any affinity he would have with the club. He's a country boy who in fact lives closest to the Knights so it's intriguing that we would never have been a chance.

We get you don't like out recruits. You are well and truly driving your point through to all of us. But you can't come up with any better alternatives that are on the market at present.

They're not on the market at present because we missed out on them you fool.

We knew we had big bucks to spend before a ball was kicked this year.

Since then we have watched all these quality players who were off-contract, sign for other teams.

It sounds like we could make no signings at all this season and then pick up Troy Thompson in February next year and you'd call it a success because "there was no one else better on the market at present." Never mind it was because we missed out on all of them.

As for Simpson...last I heard he was keen to re-sign. There have since been some injury concerns which may have changed the picture though...

I'm sure Simpson's keen to re-sign. But signing Costigan looked like a message from the club that they we needed to strengthen our back-row, and we already have Taia and Paterson locked in.

Sounds to me like Simmo's not in their plan but if there's any left over they might offer him a small contract.

 

[Pure_Knight]

to all you guys whinging about the big list of players there that re-signed with there own clubs or moved onto another club... and how we didnt go after them...

how do you know we didnt make a play for them?? how do you know those fellas werent on our list of targets? but just decided to stay with there current clubs because they were happy with where they were out and had good enough offers... or for personal reasons....

 

[perverse]

to all you guys whinging about the big list of players there that re-signed with there own clubs or moved onto another club... and how we didnt go after them...

how do you know we didnt make a play for them?? how do you know those fellas werent on our list of targets? but just decided to stay with there current clubs because they were happy with where they were out and had good enough offers... or for personal reasons....

this is the real gist of it for mine. we have missed out on a fair few players... but personally i don't know the reasons behind many, or any of them. it won't matter to me if we can just pick up one or 2 quality props. it's all we super desperately need. the rest we can deal without now.

Tronc would be a decent pickup. can't imagine he'd be asking for the world either.

 

[Pure_Knight]

Shane Tronc - from queensland, left england to be in his home state
.. newcastle is not in queensland

Aiden Tolman - always wanted to go to the bulldogs

Brent Tate - wanted to go home with his family...newcastle is not his home


Trent Merrin - loving it at the dragons under bennet, his junior club, and has an opportunity to be the starting prop there for years

Matt Prior - as above

Michael Weyman - loving it at the dragons and on good coin

Eddy Pettybourne - playng in the best forward pack in the comp, souths junior, on good money, and happy

Ben Lowe - read above

Lewis Brown - read above except nz


we cant force these players to sign with us.. just because they chose certain clubs, does not mean we didnt pursue them, nor does it mean we have not tried our best to get certain quality players....

players are people and will make personal decisions.. based on alot of influences

if we as a club have not chased any above named players at some point... then i would be dissapointed.. but i know for a fact that is not the case..

and to be fair...

coming out with Liki liki, henry, costigan.. and still having a bit of money to lure 2 quality forwards and perhaps another centre (white, o'donnell/blair/manu, carney) is not too bad an effort

 

[Alex28]

I don't have the time, inclination or desperate need to reply to every sentance...but I will say:

* little substance, complaining, name calling - bingo!

* you can't say we missed out on players we never went after to start off with. They have either made the judgement call to go after them or not. The club chose to go after bigger fish at the time. You don't miss out on players you don't actually go after in the first place;

* I've complained plenty about the club, however I haven't complained about every recruit the club is making in a market which is short on people making decisions until they see who comes on the market from the Storm. Nothing has made you happy, yet you haven't come up with any viable alternative;

* Do you know whether we made any approaches to any of those players? I don't. We might have, we might not have;

* I know a member of Tolman's family who lives in Dubbo - the decision to go to the Bulldogs was made months ago, even before the Storm saga was made public. We were never ever a shot and people saying we missed out on him are way off the mark;

* We didn't make offers on players because we rolled the dice on SBW and Gasnier. You can't go out making offers on $2 Million worth of players in case you get $1 Million of them. It isn't the way that it works;

* Agree with Simpson - anything I heard was prior to his injury being more serious than first thought. Whether he signs up again it will be a bench/impact spot at best;

* Have already admitted my judgement on Snowden was off and based on the limited games I had seen him play with the Sharks and the guy who couldn't get it together here. Glad I was wrong.

 

[Johns Magic]

Aiden Tolman - always wanted to go to the bulldogs

Rather than keep saying "he always wanted to go to the Bulldogs", which I don't disbelieve, can someone tell me why a young guy playing in Melbourne and originally from the Central Coast had his heart set on going to Canterbury? That is what I can't understand.

Trent Merrin - loving it at the dragons under bennet, his junior club, and has an opportunity to be the starting prop there for years

Is Michael Weyman or Dan Hunt going to die soon? Because they're both signed at the Dragons until at least 2012 as well. Merrin would walk into our starting team.

Matt Prior - as above

Might start in a full-strength Dragons team in a couple of years behind Creagh, Young, Jeremy Smith, and previously Costigan still possibly there and now Beau Scott back in the second-row with Gasnier returning.

Eddy Pettybourne - playng in the best forward pack in the comp, souths junior, on good money, and happy

Ben Lowe - read above

Pettybourne is a benchie at Souths, he would start almost anywhere else.

Lewis Brown - read above except nz

Why would Lewis Brown be "loving it" when he's on the bench with no starting place in sight and is being dropped in and out of the team every few weeks?

And of course all these players could well start at their clubs one day, it's called having talent, which is what we need. According to you we'll only sign players that would never get a starting spot at their home club down the track.

Neville Costigan said he was happy at the Dragons and was probably going to stay.

Beau Henry would've eventually succeeded Hornby if he'd stuck around at the Dragons playing NSW Cup until he was 24.

Likiliki was the obvious successor to Tate at the Warriors.

These guys all left, because of the opportunity to make it now, and the money we threw at them. That's what took Dave Taylor to Souths, it's what took Michael Weyman to the Dragons, it's what took Bronson Harrisson to the Raiders, it's what took Waerea-Hargreaves to the Roosters, etc. etc. It happens with plenty of players every year. I find it hard to believe that entire group has no desire for a starting spot and don't like money.

I understand your comment about players making personal decisions completely. But that doesn't justify going after players that aren't in any way the answer to our problems, nor does it justify targetting fringe rep players who will overprice themselves because they pulled on a rep jersey once upon a time.

and to be fair...

coming out with Liki liki, henry, costigan.. and still having a bit of money to lure 2 quality forwards and perhaps another centre (white, o'donnell/blair/manu, carney) is not too bad an effort

Where did you hear that we definitely have that much money left over?

 

[Yosh]

Man seriously White is gonna be a nuffy... Hope we really don't sign him. Then again could be better than what we have here... Plus if its only 2 years and not that much could work out okay...

 

[Weels]

Man seriously White is gonna be a nuffy... Hope we really don't sign him. Then again could be better than what we have here... Plus if its only 2 years and not that much could work out okay...

Sometimes I read your posts for the laugh it brings to me. :lol:
You hope we don't get White, but he's better than what we have. :lol::lol:
It's only two years, not that much, it could work out ok. :lol::lol:

God, your good mate! What theatre are you doing stand up at?????

Apparently you haven't seen White play the game. The guy never takes a backward step.
I'd be very surprised if he comes to the Knights and disappoints anyone.
We have to get him first though. If six clubs are chasing him then I would think Ben Cross could be the factor that gets him here.