The Rumours Thread

[Parko1310]

Good. Cause we need one!
While I'm typing. And.
After last nights dismal performance. You would have to ask why we are hanging on to the Feagai's.
Seriously not right - both of them.
BMM and Muhleisen need to go as well. IMO

Add Michael Molo to the clean out. Really never got some of the hype for this guy that fans go on with. He provides next to nothing when he comes on. Impact is zilch. Was one of our only forwards who seemed to get pushed backwards multiple times last night. I'm hoping we don't make the mistake of re-signing him. Francis on the other hand, fit and strong, is heavily underrated by the fanbase. Was our best forward when he first came here. He should be re-signed, won't cost much, and can be really damaging.

 

[shiloh dc]

The Leilua contract at the Cows once again demonstrates the enormous amounts of money/tangible assets required to prize quality players from other clubs. I don't think anyone knew or had previously reported Leilua was on such big money.
I suspect its safe to say that some of the recent other big name moves are being underreported.
Jarome Luai moved to Wests for 1.5M - It's a big amount but what's not to say he doesn't have bonuses included for Wests to finish in the Top 8/4/2 etc.
AFB has moved to the Sharks for $1M per season. Surprisingly low amount but what's not to say he hasn't been offered some equity in the Woolooware Shores project.
Dom Young passed up 500K at the Knights to go to the Roosters. The Roosters would have officially paid 500K - 550K but what's not to say they haven't topped that with some sort of real estate component either locally or in the UK.
Jack Wighton to the Rabbits for 700K - 750K. Ridiculously low amount - what's not to say he does he have a burgeoning Art collection?
What makes a successfully run NRL team - the ability to offer such top-ups to attract top talent and keep them quiet.
Flanno has said they will target 2025 to bring in 2-3 big name stars. Honestly, I don't believe the Dragons have the resources to compete against other teams and achieve his goals. I hope he proves me wrong!

 

[Gold_Coast Dragon]

back to the subject re Max King

he must be on our list

2024 contract finishes and the guy in a good team would be a serious asset

ball playing post contact is very impressive and is coming into his prime like AFB did last two years ie right age right size right time in the NRL

No signings will turn us into a threat until we get a genuine organising 7 with a good short kicking game.

 

[thebigredv]

Dom Young passed up 500K at the Knights to go to the Roosters. The Roosters would have officially paid 500K - 550K but what's not to say they haven't topped that with some sort of real estate component either locally or in the UK.
Jack Wighton to the Rabbits for 700K - 750K. Ridiculously low amount - what's not to say he does he have a burgeoning Art collection?
What makes a successfully run NRL team - the ability to offer such top-ups to attract top talent and keep them quiet.
Flanno has said they will target 2025 to bring in 2-3 big name stars. Honestly, I don't believe the Dragons have the resources to compete against other teams and achieve his goals. I hope he proves me wrong!

This will be the reason I have to finally give the game up. It’s not a level playing field but a game of how good are your financiers. I doubt Souths and Roosters fans see it this way but we’ve been frozen out well and truly. Sour grapes? Yep but that doesn’t discount that it’s wrong. Will have to eventually pay overs for people or continue to run out with a team full of Paul Turners.

 

[hewi]

If the NRL don’t do something about it they will lose a lot of fans. It’s no good at the start of the season saying well 5 or 6 teams will make the 8 and the remaining teams will fight it out for 2 or 3 spots.

 

[Trifili13]

The other thing is that at the amounts players earn, for every dollar after 180k they pay 45c in the dollar tax so in reality you need to pay an extra 200k to 300k pa to get a top player to come to a lowly ranked club with no chance of finals from a top 8 team as that only leaves them 100k to 150k in the pocket subject to what their tax adviser can do with splitting the income and other tax minimisation schemes. So the salary cap favours the top teams who can pay less for the same player and in fact have maybe 1 to 2 million extra to spend compared to a lower team assembling the same side.

 

[TheRev]

What happened to the lomax Sloan switch

UPDATE: So apparently Lomax had back spasms most of last night, thats why he didnt play any fullback.. I still dont know if thats the entire story.. but I might be way off the mark with my comments now..
=================================================

The fact that Lomax is on the wing 'I think' is indication that Flanagan has seen enough over the off-season, that Zac is not creative/clever enough to play fullback.. I think Flanagan is trying to simplify Zacs gameplay to work to his strengths.. brute physical skills... Centre is possible but I think Fullback would only be through desperation.

With our slow halves (slower than I realised), we need speed from the fullback chiming in.. which is why im really concerned that if Sloan keeps making errors and getting driven back.. we are in real strife for 2024.

Its frustrating also there are lots of brilliant kids sitting behind rep fullbacks but we couldnt really go after because we are on the Sloan-train currently (and we will de-rail if he fails).. our next kid up is Rumble who hasnt even played a cup game yet.. we cant be sure hes going to be any better than Sloan, its too early to know.. he runs fast and has footwork.. but the kids we are seeing like Sailor or Dykes or Grey.. I mean these kids have years of reserve grade footy before they started being 1st grade ready.

Good. Cause we need one!
While I'm typing. And.
After last nights dismal performance. You would have to ask why we are hanging on to the Feagai's.
Seriously not right - both of them.
BMM and Muhleisen need to go as well. IMO

I think for next weeks trial, we leave these guys out, 28 is too big a squad, and not enough players are getting game-time that need that opportunity..

- I like BMM as a bench prop but there are other options
- the Feagais honestly I dont hate them like most do on here.. but they are holding reserve grade spots I want to see other blokes get.. even if its not for Round 1, Id be working to pay them our or move them on.
- Muhlehissen again I think is one of our biggest roster problems (we only went after Woolford a few weeks back so Shane obviously thinks so also), but we cannot move him on until we find another 9 to replace
- MMolo - Also should go early, hes a serviceable dude, but hes tiny and again id just rather work on Fifita or Tui or Couchmans or Coric or one of the SG boys, I dont think we need to put time into him, but maybe hes useful at cup level for atleast a part of the year... we do need a few hardened bodies in the NSW Cup pack also.

 

[Dragons4me]

The Leilua contract at the Cows once again demonstrates the enormous amounts of money/tangible assets required to prize quality players from other clubs. I don't think anyone knew or had previously reported Leilua was on such big money.
I suspect its safe to say that some of the recent other big name moves are being underreported.
Jarome Luai moved to Wests for 1.5M - It's a big amount but what's not to say he doesn't have bonuses included for Wests to finish in the Top 8/4/2 etc.
AFB has moved to the Sharks for $1M per season. Surprisingly low amount but what's not to say he hasn't been offered some equity in the Woolooware Shores project.
Dom Young passed up 500K at the Knights to go to the Roosters. The Roosters would have officially paid 500K - 550K but what's not to say they haven't topped that with some sort of real estate component either locally or in the UK.
Jack Wighton to the Rabbits for 700K - 750K. Ridiculously low amount - what's not to say he does he have a burgeoning Art collection?
What makes a successfully run NRL team - the ability to offer such top-ups to attract top talent and keep them quiet.
Flanno has said they will target 2025 to bring in 2-3 big name stars. Honestly, I don't believe the Dragons have the resources to compete against other teams and achieve his goals. I hope he proves me wrong!

Good post.
I'm hoping Twiggys involvement in '25 changes that. Australia's second richest man potentially opens TPA opportunities to the Dragons the likes of which others can only dream of.

 

[Jersey No 14]

AKA… EPL

The NRL run by V’Landy and his mates is open to negative innuendo.
And they want to add more teams.
Careful. Icarus. Don’t get too egotistical.
NRL’s biggest asset - the people in the grandstands- only problem with that.
the cost of living will stop mummy and daddy from forefilling little Johnnie’s demands.

the vicious circle rotates even further- The NRL can’t finance their delusional dreams.
it all turns to poo. - clubs crash
AKA - super league

 

[Illusion]

No signings will turn us into a threat until we get a genuine organising 7 with a good short kicking game.

This ................ x2

 

[Dragon David]

The Leilua contract at the Cows once again demonstrates the enormous amounts of money/tangible assets required to prize quality players from other clubs. I don't think anyone knew or had previously reported Leilua was on such big money.
I suspect its safe to say that some of the recent other big name moves are being underreported.
Jarome Luai moved to Wests for 1.5M - It's a big amount but what's not to say he doesn't have bonuses included for Wests to finish in the Top 8/4/2 etc.
AFB has moved to the Sharks for $1M per season. Surprisingly low amount but what's not to say he hasn't been offered some equity in the Woolooware Shores project.
Dom Young passed up 500K at the Knights to go to the Roosters. The Roosters would have officially paid 500K - 550K but what's not to say they haven't topped that with some sort of real estate component either locally or in the UK.
Jack Wighton to the Rabbits for 700K - 750K. Ridiculously low amount - what's not to say he does he have a burgeoning Art collection?
What makes a successfully run NRL team - the ability to offer such top-ups to attract top talent and keep them quiet.
Flanno has said they will target 2025 to bring in 2-3 big name stars. Honestly, I don't believe the Dragons have the resources to compete against other teams and achieve his goals. I hope he proves me wrong!

Could be all a pipe dream Shiloh for Flanagan. Wish list doesn't result in actual signings as we have found out with the AFB fiasco. We want 2-3 big names like Flanno does but him targeting 2025 to bring in these "stars" is a matter of who can they be, will they really want to join us and at what cost and who else will be needing these type of players at the same time as us who have better attraction than us.

We keep on saying that we need better props and a couple of speedier guys in the backs. These need to be identified now and negotiations started as soon as possible and have others as stand bys. Most of the top 6 clubs can boast bigger, more aggressive props and faster outside backs and we won't be able to beat them unless we have the same/better.

 

[Crush]

Dragons to offer reece walsh from Brisbane a contract to hard to refuse.
Will be the highest paid fullback in the nrl.

Haha, what would that number look like I wonder? 1.5 million a season wouldn’t be near enough for him to leave Broncos.
He already experienced being the one good player in a shit team with warriors for a couple of years, doubt he wants to do that again.

 

[Dragonslayer]

No signings will turn us into a threat until we get a genuine organising 7 with a good short kicking game.

Agree. However, I feel we will persevere with Hunt for his contract whilst we bring through our juniors. And we have a fair few of those.

5/8 seems well covered with LKT and Shadi Hammoud.
Glover is young and Marschke showed something last night in his first hit out.

 

[steerlerbab]

This will be the reason I have to finally give the game up. It’s not a level playing field but a game of how good are your financiers. I doubt Souths and Roosters fans see it this way but we’ve been frozen out well and truly. Sour grapes? Yep but that doesn’t discount that it’s wrong. Will have to eventually pay overs for people or continue to run out with a team full of Paul Turners.

It has been said few times before by a lot of Dragons fans and yours truly. We need to emulate panthers. A regional team like us and with a great nursery like us. We have to develop our own. We cannot beat Corporate teams like Roosters, Souths, Melbourne or Brisbane but we can beat them in innovation like Panthers have done 3 times in a row.

 

[Number of the Beath]

This will be the reason I have to finally give the game up. It’s not a level playing field but a game of how good are your financiers. I doubt Souths and Roosters fans see it this way but we’ve been frozen out well and truly. Sour grapes? Yep but that doesn’t discount that it’s wrong. Will have to eventually pay overs for people or continue to run out with a team full of Paul Turners.

Post of the year.

 

[Draginzaaar]

AKA… EPL

The NRL run by V’Landy and his mates is open to negative innuendo.
And they want to add more teams.
Careful. Icarus. Don’t get too egotistical.
NRL’s biggest asset - the people in the grandstands- only problem with that.
the cost of living will stop mummy and daddy from forefilling little Johnnie’s demands.

the vicious circle rotates even further- The NRL can’t finance their delusional dreams.
it all turns to poo. - clubs crash
AKA - super league

Because they are paying hundreds of $ for their 10 year olds to see Taylor Swift.

 

[Gardenia]

If the NRL don’t do something about it they will lose a lot of fans. It’s no good at the start of the season saying well 5 or 6 teams will make the 8 and the remaining teams will fight it out for 2 or 3 spots

Our young lad was a die hard Dragons fan and cried in 2018 when they lost that final. This year says he doesnt care now and has dropped out of playing NRL to play soccer

Does he still want to see games - nope

Does he ask for merchandise that is nrl related - nope wants soccer stuff

 

[TheRev]

If the NRL don’t do something about it they will lose a lot of fans. It’s no good at the start of the season saying well 5 or 6 teams will make the 8 and the remaining teams will fight it out for 2 or 3 spots.

The problem 'for us' is that the competition has never been closer.. there is clearly still tiers of roster quality.. but virtually anyone can beat anyone if they play to potential. This means the NRL wont do squat to fix the inequality.

In the old days where there was 5 or 6 teams struggling, so a good year or 2 and you got yourself out of the cellar... that's not the case anymore, imo every other clubs has had a huge lift in professionalism and management over a number of years.. the awful sides like the titans, sharks, dogs, tigers, knights, cowboys.. they all have heaps of potential (or actual) rep players in their ranks now.. they signed their marquees years ago, and grew from there.

I know many here like to laugh at the Tigers & Dogs in particular, but I think they are years in front of us in developing their rosters, and I feel bad for Flanagan because if he was here 3 or 5 years ago.. I reckon he gets some big signings too.. and we're off.. but as he has found out.. we have let ourselves decline until we are virtually unsellable, and the other clubs have seemingly found ways to keep everyone they want (plus spares).

TLDR: We are clearly improving as a club.. but we need to do it 'much' faster than our opponents do.. if we are going to close the gulf.

 

[kit66]

Our young lad was a die hard Dragons fan and cried in 2018 when they lost that final. This year says he doesnt care now and has dropped out of playing NRL to play soccer

Does he still want to see games - nope

Does he ask for merchandise that is nrl related - nope wants soccer stuff

You've disowned him of course.

 

[Slippery Morris]

I might get shot down for this but I really feel Saints missed the boat big time to be such a huge success like Penrith as this has been said a million times. Sloan in his article said how he played his best footy with Amone and Bud. Just like Penrith persisted with Cleary, Edwards and Luia. Saints simply should have done the same we had 3 or 4 years of pain, hiw much worse would it have got if they played together those 3-4 years? I am sure Cleary, Luia and Edwards did not burn teams from their first few games as they were just getting experience. They also brought in Api a gun hooker to make it even easier for them. The Panthers simpley had more patience. They knew they had something special and just gave it so much time to blossom and they are bearing all the fruits to that with 4 awesome years of excellent footy on the back of these youngsters who simply stuck together and were given time.

Saints had that with Sloan, Bud and Amone and if Hunt went to Hooker would have made it so much easier for them just like Api. But it never happened. Watching the Charity shield then Bud play the way he did for the Tigers was sad.

I just hope Saints learn from this. Watching Kyle Flanno and Bud, I still cannot understand by the coach let go of Bud knowing Amone was literally no chance of getting clear. Kyle could have still been in the 17 as hooker. Coach Flanno has as much to blame as Mary and Hook as it was really bad judgement and one where he may have been blinded because he wants his son to succeed.