These are the players off-contract at the end of the season: Nathaniel Roache 2020 Leivaha Pulu 2020 Adam Blair 2020 (PO 2021) Gerard Beale 2020 Peta HIku 2020 Blake Green 2020 Isaish Papalii 2020 Adam Keighran 2020 Taane Milne 2020 Lachlan Burr 2020 Patrick Herbert 2020 Jackson Frei 2020 Selestino Ravutamada 2020 (Development Contract) These players may or may not be: Api Pewhairangi Sean Mullaney We know Green and Beale are going at season's end. We know Blair is in doubt. Roache probably has to play at least one game to stay. Who do you think is worth keeping?
Nathaniel Roache - keep (pending he plays the rest of the year uninjured when he returns) Leivaha Pulu - keep (if new coach will actually use him, if not, let him go) Adam Blair - gone Gerard Beale - gone Peta Hiku - keep Blake Green - gone Isaish Papalii - gone Adam Keighran - gone Taane Milne - gone (again, id be happy to keep if we would actually use) Lachlan Burr - keep (good as injury cover) Patrick Herbert - keep Jackson Frei - gone Selestino Ravutamada - unsure, I don't know anything about him. The great news is that out of those players, no one will be getting big upgrades from that list. Pulu and Milne are the interesting ones for me. Pulu went well when he played, and Milne only had the one game but could help out with a potential difficult position in centre. Depending on the coach coming in, I'd be happy to keep them. If it's the Walker brothers then surely someone like Pulu would be handy...
Agree with the above. Keep Roache (pending fitness), Burr, Pulu, Hiku and Herbert. No contract upgrades. That leaves plenty for signings.
Keep none. Herbert and Hiku need to make way for new blood, either within or from signings. I've seen enough of Herbert now and he's not the answer. Burr is having concussion issues, Roache is made of glass. Pulu and Milne I have nothing against but would prefer to look elsewhere. I don't know anything about the fijian so maybe he can stay. We need to completely blow up the roster.
Burr is far too weak for NRL standards. He gets dominated every time he runs the ball and gets dragged back ten metres after first contact on defense... I honestly dont think you can make a case for any of those off-contract players.
Yeah no cash upgrades in that list. I would argue Hiku should be kept for cheap as a back utility, same as Herbert. But we need to sign 2 better players at centre to push them down the squad list. I like Keighran, and he could potentially be an answer for the centre spot. I'd keep 2 of those 3 for depth. Roache is a keep on minimum, hope we get to see him sometime soon to be sure. Papalii, seems a shame to ditch him after 3 years of development (why Kearney!?!). Cheap extension as a 20-30 squad forward is all, which apparently we've offered him but thinks he's worth more... good luck. Others are meh. A guy like Pulu or Burr might get a near minimum contract depending on who we can actually sign to replace them. That's the hard thing, awesome to clear the roster, but when there is no one to replace them who are better, it's lose/lose. We don't have the luxury to sign Aussies who have NRL experience for bottom dollar like the Sydney clubs. And our juniors seem to have little faith of doing the job, judging on their non selection this season.
Hiku (utility value), Keighran (utility value), Roache & Papalii are probably the only ones who could realistically make our FG squad if we were winning. I would keep Keighran around because I am nowhere near sold on CHT
Is the club shopping Papalii around ? Article last week suggested he wants to play lock, he was told no you’re a 2nd rower, so he said he wants to test his value on the market I think he may get a jolt to his ego when the market value comes in for him
He was SK favorite son. I don't think the next coach would want anything to do with the SK era. If Peyton gets Head Coach then he may survive the positional swap or chop altogether.
think it was the opposite, he wants to be an edge and the club see him as a middle. Payten also gave Blair an almighty bake today. Pulls no punches, thats for sure. “He wasn’t great, missed a lot of tackles, didn’t work hard enough to get onside a lot of the time,” Payten said. “That’s just not acceptable. “Given his experience we keep him in the side. Anyone else I reckon they would have missed out completely. “I think that sends a message to the rest of the team.” https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...s/news-story/4848bb4d5a4d8c73e81d4dc9098f2703
I really like that from Payten, for too long the club has been happy to make excuses for performance, that’s straight down the line home truth there which is needed
Herbert I would keep. The problem is who are the replacements? I would move to Auckland for 500K. Surely get a nice pad, kiwis are nice people. Buy a boat. Maybe just me, but I would find Auckland more attractive than Melbourne (full of Victorians) or Townsville (f**king hot all the time). I just do not get why young men would not like it, usually mum, which is ok.
Dead set. Could easy do a couple of years without mum https://www.realestate.co.nz/3805562/residential/rental/
Playing roster needs a complete rebuild - I'm kind of happy to lose for a few seasons if I see a point... beats losing for season after season and there demonstrably being no point... Hopefully they are at least considering keeping Payten, he's on a hiding to nothing here
I like Payten too. I just don't think he has the experience we need right now. Let him go back to assistant to our new coach for a couple of years and then inherit a functioning team.
Yeah, I meant keep him in the general sense... but if they do find a good coach, he'll need to organsie his own team
At 500k bring your mum. I do not get it. I spent a year in Perth, was great. How can not you not love NZ, great place, cool peeps. I can understand being worried cause the warriors are struggling, but I just do not get how moving to Auckland is a problem. Blokes go to England, f**k that, I would be Catalan, french chicks... I will never understand people it seems.
Auckland is expensive (like approaching Sydney expensive). Probably not a major issue for players moving for a couple of years, but still puts it behind places like Newcastle or Townsville on that front. The weather is pretty ordinary compared to most of Aus. The nightlife/social life is probably underrated, especially compared to Sydney which has been dire for the past few years. The major issue is still probably the additional time/expense/hassle of having to travel internationally every time you visit home. It still effectively makes it a longer journey than anywhere else despite being a similar distance to Townsville.