The Rumours Thread

[saintmar]

Would be very sad to lose Sua

Unfortunately it is very sad but this is where we are at.
There is no confidence from players and their managers about our club.
Can't recruit new talent, Can't keep existing talent and release our best talent.
Fact is we finished 16th and the club below us has recruited well including our best junior to add to their existing youthful playing talent.
I am really concerned about the next two years

 

[saintmar]

The annual Charity Shield between South Sydney and St George Illawarra is headed to Sydney for the first time in seven years.
WIN Jubilee Stadium at Kogarah or Wollongong’s WIN Stadium are the preferred venues for the pre-season fixture, most likely to be held on Saturday, February 17.
The Charity Shield has never been played at Jubilee Stadium in the 41-year history of the pre-season contest.
Dragons coach Shane Flanagan has made no secret of his desire for the club to embrace their heartland of St George and the Charity Shield would leave an indelible mark.


How good will that be.

Never mind playing for the shield for charity it should just be handed to us.

 

[possm]

Poor list management has had our roster out of balance ever since Bennett left. When Bennett arrived, we had a pack with a soft underbelly. Now we find ourselves in the same situation. It is up to Fanno to do a Bennett for us.

Moving Hunt on is crucial to us balancing the List. There is still a few players that should be moved on but Hunt is the main one for 2024. and if we can move Hunt on, we have a chance to at least be able to afford a decent front row.

Kyle Flannagan will be our first-choice halfback in 2024 and so, it will be a fullback and five-eighth we will be looking for in the backs as our centers will remain the same (unless Flanno moves Suli to left-edge forward) and promote a couple of youngsters to left wing and left center.

There are plenty of options available but it goes without saying that we need to rebalance the list with a new front row as a matter of priority.

 

[hewi]

Hunt is just wasted $$$$$

 

[Desperate Dragon]

So Nene Macdonald has signed a 4 year deal with Salford, so his name can be crossed off the possible recruitment list.
You never know though with some players like Nene if he will see out this deal in full based on his history.

 

[St Tangles]

Was always on the cards
Makes releasing Sullivan possibly a bad decision

https://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-news-2023-st-george-illawarra-star-junior-amone-found-guilty-of-hammer-attack/news-story/4d08e00338a2d4609dc2786d45b77f6c?amp=

 

[justadragon]

Was always on the cards
Makes releasing Sullivan possibly a bad decision

https://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-news-2023-st-george-illawarra-star-junior-amone-found-guilty-of-hammer-attack/news-story/4d08e00338a2d4609dc2786d45b77f6c?amp=

Yes not good news, surely they will appeal this but who knows now. If Amone is gone then we should definitely go all out for Deardon. Dont get me wrong I feel sorry for the kid but it really was his own doing and probably didnt have the best role model to follow.

 

[Parko1310]

Here comes Cade Cust.....

 

[Parko1310]

.

 

[St Tangles]

Here comes Cade Cust.....

I was going to laugh but you just made me sad as this is likely true

 

[mattchuot]

Can Connor Tracey play 6? If so, snagging him might give us some depth in the halves as well as fullback. Also does this mean Kyle will be first preference to replace Amone at 6?

 

[dungay dragon]

Can Connor Tracey play 6? If so, snagging him might give us some depth in the halves as well as fullback. Also does this mean Kyle will be first preference to replace Amone at 6?

From a pure Club perspective
Devastating..NO
Unfortunate..Yes
Someone else now gets a golden opportunity at 6
Just re the never ending Sullivan Soap Opera...thinking it was more attitude related and not potential/ability wise , but lets move on

 

[Parko1310]

Can Connor Tracey play 6? If so, snagging him might give us some depth in the halves as well as fullback. Also does this mean Kyle will be first preference to replace Amone at 6?

I would assume by the way it looks right now, Kyle and Hunt halves. Cade Cust 14. He's coming back to Australia, it was us or the Tigers, and well.. we need a half now (to be fair we already needed another backup half anyway, but now its absolutely essential).

Tracey has played in the halves. I think he was a halfback coming through the grades, but if he was going to come it was going to be for fullback I'd say. I don't see that plan changing unless there's injury now.

Ramsey's spot in the 30 now becomes even more important for the NRL to give us some dispensation for, but they'll probably dick us around like they did last year and wait for round 16 or 17 to tell us we can replace him, but we have to do it with some useless sod right this minute.

In short, god help us.

 

[The Word]

Yes not good news, surely they will appeal this but who knows now. If Amone is gone then we should definitely go all out for Deardon. Dont get me wrong I feel sorry for the kid but it really was his own doing and probably didnt have the best role model to follow.

Wouldn't waste any time feeling sorry for him justa, he was a grown man making his own decisions. He could quite easily have been responsible for that tradies death if he'd landed differently. I hope they punish him to the full extent of the law and that he never plays for our club again.

Him and his lawyer wasting the courts time trying to bullsh.t that it was a case of mistaken identity, what a joke. Bad call. Should've gone for some kind of mitigation (if there even was any).

Flanagan would've known this was a likely outcome (let's face it, we all did) which means the Sullivan exit was probably always on the cards, tells us that Flanagan just didn't want him. Whether it's attitude, work rate, ability, injuries, who knows, but he's not going to tell us so we just move on. Coach's call.

Also explains why he made the decision to hang on to Ben Hunt for the next year, far too much upheaval to let him go as well at the current time. Also makes more sense of the Flanagan jnr signing.

I expect the club will keep Amone on the books until he's sentenced in 6 weeks. At that point they will probably terminate his contract and that will free-up the salary cap to go after another long term half.

 

[Biglance]

Trust flano!

 

[Victoire]

Trust flano!

He greenlighted the Sullivan release knowing this was a distinct possibility. It was questionable at best

 

[denis preston]

He greenlighted the Sullivan release knowing this was a distinct possibility. It was questionable at best

Unless Bud does his hammy or whatever and misses over half the season.

 

[slippery5]

In the current market, for a quality half, that's a disgraceful offer from the Cows. Definitely worth more than that, and the offer has been tabled for a couple of months now too. They must have some cap issues. If he wasn't going to test his value, he would've signed a deal by now. Hopefully we can put ourselves in the race, he'd be a great get, especially looking towards the post Hunt era

I think you may see him post Reynolds era.....

 

[slippery5]

Why would Tom Dearden leave Nth Qld to come to Saints? I am sure the Cows will throw everything they can to keep him and they look more likely to win a comp than Saints in the next year or 2. Plus, they threw him a lifeline whilst he was an outcast at the Broncos and he has been that good that he played for Qld. And to think that if the Broncos played their cards right and did not have Siebold as coach, they would have had Dearden and Mam as their halves, both in the low 20's.

The guy I have massive wraps on is Faalogo at the Storm, he was impressive in his NRL debut and even more in his Rep debut for Samoa. Bloody bunker ripped him off a brilliant try on top of that .This kid is going to be a star. I would throw the kitchen sink at him but that won't happen. No stars leave the Storm unless Bellamy has squeezed the juice out of the lemon. The Storm have got another gem of a player. For a club that has not much of a pathways system they seem to be doing extremely well identifying gun juniors.

Does Tino & Nicho come into that squeeze also???? because both of them were coming off the bench & looking for a starting position.

 

[Lindsay Moss]

Was always on the cards
Makes releasing Sullivan possibly a bad decision

https://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/nrl/nrl-news-2023-st-george-illawarra-star-junior-amone-found-guilty-of-hammer-attack/news-story/4d08e00338a2d4609dc2786d45b77f6c?amp=

No possibly at all was always a poor decision so he could bring his son in his decision making is starting to look HOOK like.