The Rumours Thread

[justadragon]

The young bloke has a smart manager who wants to know what other clubs are offering.
The club has looked after him thus far, and for his family to move down to Wollongong you would like to think this will have some sway in what he does next contract.
The invisible is if some club offers him an over the top amount of money, the Dragons may have to let him go.
From what he has said in interviews and Flanagan's view that he is a potential future first grader, our offer should be a very competitive one.
My view is he is a must keep.

100% DD, I said this a while ago, our future rests with our Juniors, and bearing in mind that we will have new clubs on the horizon soon enough, we cant afford to be dicking around with offers, we need these guys locked cocked and ready to rock, FOR THE DRAGONS !!

 

[Dragons4me]

The young bloke has a smart manager who wants to know what other clubs are offering.
The club has looked after him thus far, and for his family to move down to Wollongong you would like to think this will have some sway in what he does next contract.
The invisible is if some club offers him an over the top amount of money, the Dragons may have to let him go.
From what he has said in interviews and Flanagan's view that he is a potential future first grader, our offer should be a very competitive one.
My view is he is a must keep.

I have no confidence in the club keeping him. I'm struggling to have confidence in the club being able to do anything positive at the moment. I so hope I'm wrong.

 

[Slippery Morris]

Once a Saints junior starts looking around at other clubs then he is more or less gone. It should never get to that stage as Saints cannot compete with any other NRL club. Even the Tigers who were wooden spooners are a preferred option to Saints. It is sad if he goes whilst Saints have guys like Lawrie, Luciano & RFM blocking their paths.

LKT is simply going because the coach has his son playing his preferred position of 6. He knows he has buckleys of getting picked ahead of him.

 

[dragonfire]

Atkinson is coming next season as our 6, no clear path to first grade for LKT.
I am sure we have tabled an offer for Latu, but as mentioned his manager doing a disservice if he doesn’t see what other clubs may offer. That said we have some talent coming through in the second row, Egan and Stewart have debuted this year, Latu and Halanagahu. I am sure there are others as well.

 

[Gippsy]

But surely we need to see what young Latu can do in the NRL before we let him walk. Extend him now, give him a shot in the NRL and if we still don't think he is up to it , give him a release.

Personally, I think he will be a big loss if he goes, and will be another one that will come back to bite us on the arse.

 

[lombard]

Atkinson is coming next season as our 6, no clear path to first grade for LKT.
I am sure we have tabled an offer for Latu, but as mentioned his manager doing a disservice if he doesn’t see what other clubs may offer. That said we have some talent coming through in the second row, Egan and Stewart have debuted this year, Latu and Halanagahu. I am sure there are others as well.

The issue is the club I believe dragged their feet on offering Latu a new deal, could have done it months ago but waited too long so his manager is now fielding other offers. Latu plays lock and so should be our long term JDB replacement but watch us f**k this up.

 

[VodkaSaint]

One small step for qld, one giant leap for karma-kind.

He won’t be kick boxing and anytime soon either.

I think Zac is cursed myself. He was still talking up his former SGI team-mates on the weekend.

He walked out on the club in its hour of need for less money. Those are his real values, that’s what he stands for.

Someone needs to “break” the news to him that the relationship is over.

I hope he gets well and is not in any pain, but a broken heart never mends Zac.

he def regrets it, you can in his tears and his eyes, I met him at the storm game when I said hello to Cody Ramsy and you can just tell, I did has a dig and said get back on the wing

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

he def regrets it, you can in his tears and his eyes, I met him at the storm game when I said hello to Cody Ramsy and you can just tell, I did has a dig and said get back on the wing

Great post and you spoke well. Boys at work will enjoy that.

It’s interesting how he sees the need to share his emotions publicly.

I don’t see the same reaching out from Gutho.

 

[blacksafake]

I really want understand his reaction to the field goal on Saturday.

From what we have heard he didn't want to leave Dragons but by that time it was too late. These are things you just hear.

Obviously he was pumped when he hit the point but was his tearful reaction:

A. Because he somehow proved others wrong and stuck one up us.

Or

B. Because he crushed the hopes of the club he loves?

What are the thoughts on this?

Because he was in pain from the broken foot lol

 

[blacksafake]

he def regrets it, you can in his tears and his eyes, I met him at the storm game when I said hello to Cody Ramsy and you can just tell, I did has a dig and said get back on the wing

Well he must’ve listened to you because that’s where he played against us & was picked there this week before injury

 

[AyiosYiorgos]

The issue is the club I believe dragged their feet on offering Latu a new deal, could have done it months ago but waited too long so his manager is now fielding other offers. Latu plays lock and so should be our long term JDB replacement but watch us f**k this up.

I believe he was always going to test the market, whether we made an offer 3 months ago or last week at the meeting. Im sure his manager would have had enquiries from other clubs about him, hopefully we are in the ballpark..

 

[redandwhite4evr]

I believe he was always going to test the market, whether we made an offer 3 months ago or last week at the meeting. Im sure his manager would have had enquiries from other clubs about him, hopefully we are in the ballpark..

Could be wrong about this, but as I've read it, we are in a hiatus period between Webb finishing in March and Watsford starting as CEO in June. Hope this doesn't get in the way of keeping Latu.

 

[denis preston]

Could be wrong about this, but as I've read it, we are in a hiatus period between Webb finishing in March and Watsford starting as CEO in June. Hope this doesn't get in the way of keeping Lat the

Who the f..k is our recruitment manager ? WTF is he doing?

 

[TheRev]

CEO would be irrelevant, but I dont believe we have a Recruitment Manager (for big name signings), we missed POS and its been silent since.. perhaps Haran or Millard are picking some of it up, Millard is now Flegg coach, but he was I think our recruitment manager previously....

But kids come under the pathways program I believe.. but given these ones are Top30 or about to be Top30 in the case of LKT..., maybe it is the head recruitment managers role... if indeed we had one.

 

[redVinme]

Totally unacceptable to leave such a critical position open.

Clown show

 

[Jeremy Dragon]

Could be wrong

Yes u are

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

Which might bring us to the question of who would make a good recruitment officer:

Well whoever is doing the storm job should get an interviews Except they bought Stefano who is a big pussy wuss and you beat them!

Once Benji is offloaded later this year, you could grab him and 3 or 4 of our players who are Benji loyalists.

Brad Arthur is looking for a post somewhere. He nailed some good ‘uns back in the day.

What Benji did is select 7 players who were becoming available and pitched for all of them. We got 5 and jagged May with some sweet nothings and told him it was ok to put his family above the club. Of course, he’s done the opposite. Reverse psychology or bone headed stupidity, we don’t know either.

 

[Parko1310]

Can anyone tell me why in the world we aren't beating Manly's 600k a year 2 year deal for Jamal Fogarty? I know Flano said we aren't in the market for halves (which is ludicrous) but COME ON. We have so much cap room. Ilias and Kyle are both crap. Atkinson and Fogarty would be a very good pairing. Atkinson has barely played 10 first grade games as a starting half. To have someone of Fogarty's experience and quality next to him whilst he learns would be great. Atkinson is not going to be some saviour, he still needs to learn his own trade. Fogarty is easily worth more than 600k, he's got a very good kicking game, can goal kick well and can control a game much better than Ilias or Kyle ever could (I think a game managing half is something we are in desperate need of). Not to mention would be a much better mentor to Kade Reed than two reserve graders in Ilias and Kyle and one bloke still learning in Atkinson. It just makes sense, I cannot fathom why we wouldn't go after him.

Again, to me this points to a lack of smarts, a lack of a real understanding of where we're at and a lack of ambition. It tells me we're going no where.

 

[redV06]

Biggest question around recruitment

Does the player want to come to the Dragons?

Our biggest issue is that we’re on the nose with players and managers. They all talk.

Hopefully with the right support around Shane we can overcome this brick wall.

 

[kit66]

Can anyone tell me why in the world we aren't beating Manly's 600k a year 2 year deal for Jamal Fogarty? I know Flano said we aren't in the market for halves (which is ludicrous) but COME ON. We have so much cap room. Ilias and Kyle are both crap. Atkinson and Fogarty would be a very good pairing. Atkinson has barely played 10 first grade games as a starting half. To have someone of Fogarty's experience and quality next to him whilst he learns would be great. Atkinson is not going to be some saviour, he still needs to learn his own trade. Fogarty is easily worth more than 600k, he's got a very good kicking game, can goal kick well and can control a game much better than Ilias or Kyle ever could (I think a game managing half is something we are in desperate need of). Not to mention would be a much better mentor to Kade Reed than two reserve graders in Ilias and Kyle and one bloke still learning in Atkinson. It just makes sense, I cannot fathom why we wouldn't go after him.

Again, to me this points to a lack of smarts, a lack of a real understanding of where we're at and a lack of ambition. It tells me we're going no where.

Fogarty turns 32 in December, surely it's better to invest in our young guys - stop them being poached by offering them a decent contract and a fast track to 1st Grade.