Trent Merrin offered record deal by St George Illawarra as Dragons await decision on

[BennyV]

He's worth what the market will pay him. Other clubs obviously a) have the foresight to take a long term view of his huge talent, and b) have the savvy to offer more in third party deals.

We fail at both.

His worth to us isnt the same as what he is worth to other teams. We need a forward leader, someone who will get us out of the shit end of the field and get us on the front foot. Someone who will stand up against the bigger. Based on this, and the shitty situation our club is in regarding inability to utilise TPDs and the fact thay the morons hired a rookie coach from the system, he is not worth more than $600k of cap space to us, particularly on 2014 form, and that money could be prioritised elsewhere.

Other clubs may have a different vacancy that he can fill, not to mention ability and savviness to use their cap space and sponsors wisely. Good for them. They can have him.

Did our clubs mismanagement lead to this? Absolutely!
Is Trent complete blameless? Hell no.
Am I going to lose sleep over him leaving? Not so long as the extra money is used where its needed.

 

[matPORTS]

The club should definitely not be held to ransom by any player or player manager. If the deal isn't good enough:

Release Merrin now and seek conditional compensation from the club which decides to sign him. If that happens to the Roosters, we'll take Nu'uasala. If that happens to be the Broncos, we'll take McGuire.

The club should then also sign Costigan and Packer immediately to deals of their bare minimum market value.

Mary should then hand JDB the #13 jersey with words of "here you go, make this your own son!".

1. Dugan
2. Nubuli / Williams ?
3. Neilson
4. Runciman / Farrell ?
5. Nightingale
6. Widdop
7. Marshall

8. Creagh
9. Rein
10. Cooper
11. Frizzel
12. Thompson
13. de Belin

14. Nu'uasala / McGuire ?
15. Packer
16. Costigan
17. Keating

Even without Merrin that pack has a good value for money look about it, and will definitely hold it's own. Still rumours persist about Kasiano coming over as well. With the likes of Rose, Ah Mau, Matthews, Fonua-Blake, O'Brien, L'Estrange etc all available for depth and no doubt pushing for spots should others not perform.

Room will also be available in the cap to hit the market hard for 2016 and beyond. But our appeal in the market will be tested by how well we perform next year. Damn, if only we had a decent CEO and Coach.

 

[blacksafake]

How did he go when playing against the big boys in State Of Origin? Got dropped from the team at least twice didn't he? Was it the crap coaching there as well?
Or is it that he's just not as good as real Origin players?

Well Stuart was the coach:lol:

 

[matPORTS]

His worth to us isnt the same as what he is worth to other teams. We need a forward leader, someone who will get us out of the shit end of the field and get us on the front foot. Someone who will stand up against the bigger. Based on this, and the shitty situation our club is in regarding inability to utilise TPDs and the fact thay the morons hired a rookie coach from the system, he is not worth more than $600k of cap space to us, particularly on 2014 form, and that money could be prioritised elsewhere.

Other clubs may have a different vacancy that he can fill, not to mention ability and savviness to use their cap space and sponsors wisely. Good for them. They can have him.

Did our clubs mismanagement lead to this? Absolutely!
Is Trent complete blameless? Hell no.
Am I going to lose sleep over him leaving? Not so long as the extra money is used where its needed.

Agreed with this!!

If Trent is going to command the type of money he is asking for, is he going to step up and become one of the leaders in the pack and continue to improve year-on-year?

 

[since77]

Well Stuart was the coach:lol:

lol you got me on that one!

 

[grouch]

There's no comparison between Merrin and Gallen though. One is a grubby but very talented front rower worth the big $$$ and the other is a slightly above average first grader.

Gallen was considered about the same at that age.

The fact is another highly rated and important Dragons junior is happy, nay eager, to leave the club. And apparently everyone is ok with that.

 

[BennyV]

The club should definitely not be held to ransom by any player or player manager. If the deal isn't good enough:

Release Merrin now and seek conditional compensation from the club which decides to sign him. If that happens to the Roosters, we'll take Nu'uasala. If that happens to be the Broncos, we'll take McGuire.

The club should then also sign Costigan and Packer immediately to deals of their bare minimum market value.

Mary should then hand JDB the #13 jersey with words of "here you go, make this your own son!".

1. Dugan
2. Nubuli / Williams ?
3. Neilson
4. Runciman / Farrell ?
5. Nightingale
6. Widdop
7. Marshall

8. Creagh
9. Rein
10. Cooper
11. Frizzel
12. Thompson
13. de Belin

14. Nu'uasala / McGuire ?
15. Packer
16. Costigan
17. Keating

Even without Merrin that pack has a good value for money look about it, and will definitely hold it's own. Still rumours persist about Kasiano coming over as well. With the likes of Rose, Ah Mau, Matthews, Fonua-Blake, O'Brien, L'Estrange etc all available for depth and no doubt pushing for spots should others not perform.

Room will also be available in the cap to hit the market hard for 2016 and beyond. But our appeal in the market will be tested by how well we perform next year. Damn, if only we had a decent CEO and Coach.

Sidebar...I love Ben Creagh and Mike Cooper as much as a next dragons fan, but that is a poor starting front row!

 

[grouch]

Release Merrin now and seek conditional compensation from the club which decides to sign him. If that happens to the Roosters, we'll take Nu'uasala. If that happens to be the Broncos, we'll take McGuire.

Hahaha

What makes you think our club can demand/request/expect or even beg for a trade like that? We released Brett friggin Morris a year early and got sweet fa for him

 

[Hutty1986]

Our centres look absolutely ratshit, we've got a glorified hotel porter on a wing and we're about to lose our best forward after we just lost our best back. 2015 is going to be a long, long year I'm afraid.

 

[St Georgio]

His worth to us isnt the same as what he is worth to other teams. We need a forward leader, someone who will get us out of the shit end of the field and get us on the front foot. Someone who will stand up against the bigger. Based on this, and the shitty situation our club is in regarding inability to utilise TPDs and the fact thay the morons hired a rookie coach from the system, he is not worth more than $600k of cap space to us, particularly on 2014 form, and that money could be prioritised elsewhere.

Other clubs may have a different vacancy that he can fill, not to mention ability and savviness to use their cap space and sponsors wisely. Good for them. They can have him.

Did our clubs mismanagement lead to this? Absolutely!
Is Trent complete blameless? Hell no.
Am I going to lose sleep over him leaving? Not so long as the extra money is used where its needed.

x3

 

[grouch]

His worth to us isnt the same as what he is worth to other teams. We need a forward leader, someone who will get us out of the shit end of the field and get us on the front foot. Someone who will stand up against the bigger. Based on this, and the shitty situation our club is in regarding inability to utilise TPDs and the fact thay the morons hired a rookie coach from the system, he is not worth more than $600k of cap space to us, particularly on 2014 form, and that money could be prioritised elsewhere.

Other clubs may have a different vacancy that he can fill, not to mention ability and savviness to use their cap space and sponsors wisely. Good for them. They can have him.

Did our clubs mismanagement lead to this? Absolutely!
Is Trent complete blameless? Hell no.
Am I going to lose sleep over him leaving? Not so long as the extra money is used where its needed.

How can you not lose sleep over it? You're saying that a young, talented, representative quality player is leaving our spoon-contending club, yet his value is higher at a stronger club? That does not compute. We're forced to pay big money to attract ok players like Joel Thompson who we hope to produce future performance worthy of his pay packet, yet a local elite forward can't be accommodated the same way? We're basing his contract worth on past performances, rather than future? Something is fundamentally wrong.

The grass is not always greener when it comes to signing external players. A talent like Merrin would cost a lot more to attract from outside than he would be to retain from within.

 

[dragonreddy]

FFS, it's not like he's going to say, 'our squad is crap'. It's part of his job as a Saints employee in the public light to talk up the club. I have certainly whinged about the club in the past, but some people actually look for things to complain about like it's a sport...

Thanks for the input , I must remember to run any criticisms of the club by you in the future to ensure they meet your approval before i go to print...:roll:

As far as what Mullholland said its preferable to say nothing sometimes than to insult people by expecting them to swallow crap.

Also if you are going to quote my post include the whole post,dont edit out whatever doesn't suit your bitching.

Some people look for reasons to BITCH about other posters like it's a sport !!

 

[BennyV]

How can you not lose sleep over it? You're saying that a young, talented, representative quality player is leaving our spoon-contending club, yet his value is higher at a stronger club? That does not compute. We're forced to pay big money to attract ok players like Joel Thompson who we hope to produce future performance worthy of his pay packet, yet a local elite forward can't be accommodated the same way? We're basing his contract worth on past performances, rather than future? Something is fundamentally wrong.

The grass is not always greener when it comes to signing external players. A talent like Merrin would cost a lot more to attract from outside than he would be to retain from within.

First of all, lets not throw 'rep quality' around all willy-nilly...the bloke was picked in 1 test match as an 'up and comer' and hasnt returned, and has averages around 20mins/game in origin. If thats rep quality, lets throw $600k+ at Aaron Woods or Tony Williams...

He is certainly our top forward, but he is not being used right and based on the 3 year deal that just went to Mary (a graduate of the Steve Price 'Make-our-best-prop-dance' Academy), I'd say it would be at least 3 years before he hit any sort of potential under us. Thats $600k+ wasted when it could be used for 1-2 blokes who can get us moving in the right direction. We cant bank on the fact that Merrin will reach his potential under Mary, and frankly I cant see it happening.

The reason he is worth 'more' to another club is that, well, he isnt worth more. Not under the salary cap anyway. Roosters can pay him $400k of cap money and another $400k in dodgey TPA. So whats his value? Is it $800k because thats what we'd need to pay, or $400k because thats what hes actually worth to their team?

In conclusion, the reason i am not losing sleep over it is that there are far, far worse issues at the club that would make me lose sleep!

 

[Fingerbang]

What it boils down to Grouch....is you rate Merrin much higher than I (and many others) do. If the club was capable of doing TTP deals, yes....I agree, we should match the other offers. But our club can't do that....and I would rather we don't go higher than the reported $600k per year out of our cap. There will be plenty of replacements up for grabs for 2016 who I rate as a better player than Merrin that could be bought for less than $600k per year.

 

[grouch]

First of all, lets not throw 'rep quality' around all willy-nilly...the bloke was picked in 1 test match as an 'up and comer' and hasnt returned, and has averages around 20mins/game in origin. If thats rep quality, lets throw $600k+ at Aaron Woods or Tony Williams...

10 origin matches, including the last 6 straight, is enough to qualify as rep quality under any measure.

He is certainly our top forward, but he is not being used right and based on the 3 year deal that just went to Mary (a graduate of the Steve Price 'Make-our-best-prop-dance' Academy), I'd say it would be at least 3 years before he hit any sort of potential under us. Thats $600k+ wasted when it could be used for 1-2 blokes who can get us moving in the right direction. We cant bank on the fact that Merrin will reach his potential under Mary, and frankly I cant see it happening.

Again, we're able to bank on players like Thompson, Widdop with big money, why not Merrin? The some wastage would occur with them.

In conclusion, the reason i am not losing sleep over it is that there are far, far worse issues at the club that would make me lose sleep!

The Merrin situation, for me, encapsulates everything wrong with the club in one neat little package:
- the total absence of quality coaching
- the lack of resources to compete financially with our rivals, entirely due to poor management
- the utter facade that is our "organic growth" strategy

Decrying Merrin as "overrated" or "greedy" is all well and good, opinions will vary. But it also serves to gloss over those underlying issues which are undeniable

 

[stg666]

wish i was computer literate enough to be able to put a picture of a violin up.

 

[bottle]

End of the day we can't afford to keep him because he wants MORE than $600K (reportedly). Sucking all of that out of our salary cap kills us in managing to put together a balanced pack/side.
I have no issue with the man wanting to maximise his income, who amongst us doesn't?
I do have an issue with his cling on mate smack talking.

Without the club leveraging TPAs we are buggered. This needs to change, stat. Otherwise we can expect more of the same, and be a bit part player in the recruitment game.

 

[grouch]

wish i was computer literate enough to be able to put a picture of a violin up.

I suggest the Winter concerto by Vivaldi. We have several miserable winters of discontent ahead of us :-({|=

 

[stg666]

too much for an old fart to learn grouch.

 

[dragonreddy]

End of the day we can't afford to keep him because he wants MORE than $600K (reportedly). Sucking all of that out of our salary cap kills us in managing to put together a balanced pack/side.
I have no issue with the man wanting to maximise his income, who amongst us doesn't?
I do have an issue with his cling on mate smack talking.

Without the club leveraging TPAs we are buggered. This needs to change, stat. Otherwise we can expect more of the same, and be a bit part player in the recruitment game.

Thing is Bottle they have had the same amount of time as the other clubs to organise TPA'S but obviously our management didn't take it seriously enough and probably thought it would blow over.
It all come back to gross ineptitude in managing the club.