The Rumours Thread

[jak]

Good things come to those who wait

and wait

 

[Mojo]

Good things come to those who wait

It's the painful wait that makes it good; like ending a long period of constipation.

 

[carltonsouth79]

Media reporting Faders met with David Fifita‘s management and are keen to sign him.…another one off the possibles list perhaps…..

 

[Inisai Toga]

It's the painful wait that makes it good; like ending a long period of constipation.
Yes, we’ve all had too much fibre lately and you know what that gives you…….

 

[possm]

To tell you the truth I am dead set sick and tired of the Dragons performance on and off the field. I just can't understand why they don't go after marquee players to replace the marquee players we lose. Who is the replacement for Sims? Both Brid and Burns are not in the same level as Sims was.

 

[Crush]

To tell you the truth I am dead set sick and tired of the Dragons performance on and off the field. I just can't understand why they don't go after marquee players to replace the marquee players we lose. Who is the replacement for Sims? Both Brid and Burns are not in the same level as Sims was.

Dark days Possm, the club barely has a pulse right now, no direction, no identity, no real will to improve.
How can they waste another season in 2023 with Griffin in charge? What a waste of time.
We will splutter our way through the season beating the bottom four teams but not troubling any of the competent clubs. Finish about 10th again, bring in Dean Young and more of the same.
They don’t care.

 

[Dragon David]

Dark days Possm, the club barely has a pulse right now, no direction, no identity, no real will to improve.
How can they waste another season in 2023 with Griffin in charge? What a waste of time.
We will splutter our way through the season beating the bottom four teams but not troubling any of the competent clubs. Finish about 10th again, bring in Dean Young and more of the same.
They don’t care.

The less I hear and see anything coming from the club, the more disinterested I am becoming of the Dragons. The club has basically stalled and because of the lack of any positive information about what the plans or aims are for us coming from them, 2023 definitely appears to be heading towards another wasted year.

So many have said that we should be patient but this patience thing seems to be going on forever. There used to be a time when the Dragons would let us know what they were planning and the type of players that they were chasing so that we would have some things to at least look forward to.

 

[Como Connection]

The less I hear and see anything coming from the club, the more disinterested I am becoming of the Dragons. The club has basically stalled and because of the lack of any positive information about what the plans or aims are for us coming from them, 2023 definitely appears to be heading towards another wasted year.

So many have said that we should be patient but this patience thing seems to be going on forever. There used to be a time when the Dragons would let us know what they were planning and the type of players that they were chasing so that we would have some things to at least look forward to.

I sure will not have another $500 on Saints to make the 8 this year. CC

 

[Parko1310]

To tell you the truth I am dead set sick and tired of the Dragons performance on and off the field. I just can't understand why they don't go after marquee players to replace the marquee players we lose. Who is the replacement for Sims? Both Brid and Burns are not in the same level as Sims was.

You can't necessarily replace players like-for-like all the time. Players contracts are upgrading each year (e.g. Sullivan has a contract worth 333k a year on average, but he earns less than that next year before it's upgraded monetarily in 2024). Not only that, but we don't even know what the cap is for next year. It's hard to make huge commitments regarding money to players when there is no number set by the NRL.

The reality is the Dragons are still trying to get themselves out of a salary cap mess. We constantly pay more than we need to for players. Bird, for example, is on a reported 550k from 2023 onwards. Why? The eels dropped out of their interest in Bird and the only other club that was reportedly interested were the Tigers. It's not like we needed to outbid others to secure his services. We could've saved 100k a year on that one. Second example, we upgraded de Belin whilst he wasn't even playing. He's still on that bloated contract. Suli and Su'a, whilst good additions to the team are over payed based on current performance. I have a feeling we're overpaying for a lot more players. I'd probably say we've over payed for our squad to the point where we'd have over 1 million spare to spend if players were on more realistic deals.

Replacing Sims like-for-like is not necessary and will just bend our cap again. We do however, need a capable second rower at the very least. Our issue is more in the front row. My guess is that the club will wait for the world cup to be over to negotiate with Leniu and likely Tapau. Tapau being a stop-gap more than anything else, but one we need for 2023 as we are very weak without another capable front rower.

Off the field, in my opinion from the outside looking in, the team lacks togetherness and camaraderie. You look back at 2018, and the dressing room had characters like Graham and Latimore. Well-liked players like Gypsy, Friz, Widdop, etc. Leaders like McInnes, Sims. Quiet achievers everyone loved like Nene, Ah Mau. Listening to Widdop's appearance on James Graham's podcast reinforces this and the culture of 2018. I look at the squad of 2022 and heading into 2023 and I don't see anything like a team that's as close as this. Sure, there's players that are close to each other, but it seems to be more in cliques than as a collective.

Point being, a dressing room needs character, or the outside pressure and complete focus on footy becomes suffocating and exhausting. By all means, when it comes time to train and play, your focus should be 100% on the task, but when it comes time to step away and enjoy life, that should be done without the toxicity that comes with the pressure of the NRL.

 

[BIG RIG]

So where is all this good news that some members have claimed to be coming soon

all I see is a club that has no clue what they are doing and are content with finishing bottom 4 in 2023

 

[Parko1310]

So where is all this good news that some members have claimed to be coming soon

all I see is a club that has no clue what they are doing and are content with finishing bottom 4 in 2023

It's unlikely anything news wise will come out until a week or two after the world cup. One piece of positive news is Aaron Woods wasn't in any of the training photos the Dragons put out today, including the background. He just wasn't there. I would say the delay in announcing his departure would have something to do with the tigers wanting to get done and announce the klemmer-hastings swap deal. So, whilst we do at times have to devise it ourselves, there is some good news there.

 

[Maddragon99]

David Klemmer signs long-term deal

Wests Tigers has signed former Newcastle prop David Klemmer on a three-year deal, with a mutual option for a further season.

www.weststigers.com.au

Klemmer confirmed to Tigers, swap for Hastings I think.

 

[BIG RIG]

It's unlikely anything news wise will come out until a week or two after the world cup. One piece of positive news is Aaron Woods wasn't in any of the training photos the Dragons put out today, including the background. He just wasn't there. I would say the delay in announcing his departure would have something to do with the tigers wanting to get done and announce the klemmer-hastings swap deal. So, whilst we do at times have to devise it ourselves, there is some good news there.

That’s Fair

1 piece of good news I guess

But still with Woods gone that leaves 5 spots to fill in our roster plus I also keep hearing that Josh Kerr could be off to the Warriors which will leave 6 spots

I don’t want to be negative and all but our current squad is a wooden spoon squad and at this rate and the talent available those 6 spots will either be all young players upgraded which is all well and good but May rush them too quickly into FG or shit reserve grade quality players ( e.g Jacob Liddle and Zane Musgrove who I still can’t believe we signed )

 

[Gareth67]

Apparently the Irish gentleman James Bentley , who had a run-in with Victor Radley , has said that he would like to play in the NRL .

That should get plenty of air play on this thread .

 

[Old Timer]

To tell you the truth I am dead set sick and tired of the Dragons performance on and off the field. I just can't understand why they don't go after marquee players to replace the marquee players we lose. Who is the replacement for Sims? Both Brid and Burns are not in the same level as Sims was.

possm
Sims was a giant liability to our side and hardly a marquis player.
6 agains, sin bins, suspensions and some dumb shit football thrown in as well.
So hopefully his replacement doesn't cost us as much $ contract wise or stupidity on the field.

 

[since77]

possm
Sims was a giant liability to our side and hardly a marquis player.
6 agains, sin bins, suspensions and some dumb shit football thrown in as well.
So hopefully his replacement doesn't cost us as much $ contract wise or stupidity on the field.

Agree but I’m willing to bet he will fit in into the purple scum’s system very well and I suspect a decent coach like Bellamy might extract a few last drops of value out of him. Barring injury he’ll give Melbourne far better value than our piss poor coaches have managed to get out of him.

 

[St Tangles]

Agree but I’m willing to bet he will fit in into the purple scum’s system very well and I suspect a decent coach like Bellamy might extract a few last drops of value out of him. Barring injury he’ll give Melbourne far better value than our piss poor coaches have managed to get out of him.

I think they will start by utilising him properly

Our coaches still thought he was an 80 minute edge

 

[Parko1310]

Former NRL.com journalist Chris Kennedy is the new media guy.

 

[Old Timer]

Agree but I’m willing to bet he will fit in into the purple scum’s system very well and I suspect a decent coach like Bellamy might extract a few last drops of value out of him. Barring injury he’ll give Melbourne far better value than our piss poor coaches have managed to get out of him.

Compared to previous years the Storm will be well down on troops in the forwards and Sims will have to do some of the hack work and that is not his go.

I think he will have brief moments of good football and then be ordinary as has been the case almost his entire career.

 

[Walpole]

Dark days Possm, the club barely has a pulse right now, no direction, no identity, no real will to improve.
How can they waste another season in 2023 with Griffin in charge? What a waste of time.
We will splutter our way through the season beating the bottom four teams but not troubling any of the competent clubs. Finish about 10th again, bring in Dean Young and more of the same.
They don’t care.

It feels like we're getting close to rock bottom. 10th? Four teams we can beat? Not sure those are even achievable. We might just get that long avoided spoon.