We are the laughing stock of the league

[Chicken_Hunter]

so many threads to skim through...and i dont know how current the signings and re signings thread is... havent heard a whole lot up in brissy.

so who have we lost and who have we kept?

lost

tahu
BK
Ennis
Odavis
Parsons

Kept

Everyone else.. Carmont may go

 

[northey]

well they are gunna keep laughing at us

 

[antonius]

Ennis I think will go on to better things, and may well be one player (Like Toupo) who we will regret losing.

I agree antonious but that one was out of out control. He wants to play hooker. We have the best hooker in the world.

I have no doubt that Ennis will play rep football, mabye in the back end of Buderus's career, but with Ennis we were stuck in between a rock and a hard place.

But that is the very thing I'm refering to reladith, soon it'll be because Buderus is here that we'll lose players. How many players have left the club because they can't see a future with Johns in their favoured position? We could have said to Ennis here's some extra money, hang in there at 5/8th, or lock, or utility for a couple of years, step up to Hooker ect when Buderus is out on rep, or injured and in a couple of years we'll re-assess where your at. Nobody Knows what may happen next year with Johns, or Buderus, we may well be in a situation that we're saying "sh!t wish we still had him" He wouldn't have cost mega dollars, but no we just let him go without so much as a whimper, I'm only using him as an example by the way. over the years there's been a few players we've let go because the Knights apparently didn't want to invest in the future. What we are seeing now is the result of that, and aging team that is relying too much on a small core of players, and this year that small core of players suffered major injury, including the main man.

 

[reladith]

But that is the very thing I'm refering to reladith, soon it'll be because Buderus is here that we'll lose players. How many players have left the club because they can't see a future with Johns in their favoured position? We could have said to Ennis here's some extra money, hang in there at 5/8th, or lock, or utility for a couple of years, step up to Hooker ect when Buderus is out on rep, or injured and in a couple of years we'll re-assess where your at. Nobody Knows what may happen next year with Johns, or Buderus, we may well be in a situation that we're saying "sh!t wish we still had him" He wouldn't have cost mega dollars, but no we just let him go without so much as a whimper, I'm only using him as an example by the way. over the years there's been a few players we've let go because the Knights apparently didn't want to invest in the future. What we are seeing now is the result of that, and aging team that is relying too much on a small core of players, and this year that small core of players suffered major injury, including the main man.

Its a great point, but i get the impression with Ennis he was a little impatient and did not want to wait. I guess thats the costs benefit we have to look at in regards to having great players on our roster.

 

[Doctor]

How often are Tahu, Kennedy, Parsons and O'Davis injured? How much value for money are we already getting from them?

I would suggest (along with others already), that Ennis is the only major loss. The Knights have never let one or two losses worry them -- they've made a habit of shedding players, but have never really been any less successful. In 2001 we had what others described as an ordinary team -- yet we still won the premiership because a few key players remained relatively injury-free.

I don't see how the loss of the above-mentioned players will prevent the Knights being competitive -- especially given these players are rarely in the side anyway because they're chronically injured.

I'm over it -- move on people, it's hardly worth getting depressed over. :roll:

 

[astrogirl]

This comment isn't going to add much to discussion, but my gut feeling tells me I'm not too concerned about missing out on Webb and i wouldn't be too worried about Reynoldson either.

I'd be happier seeing the young guys already at the Knights get a go, even if it doesn't yield great results immediately.

 

[antonius]

In Ennis's case your probably correct reladith. With Toupo it's a different story, He went to the Roosters for not a lot of money,(His contract was upgraded by them this year when he realised the potential they and a lot of others saw in him) Our club for the sake of probably $20-30K let him go. Had he stayed here we would have seen him doing exactly what he is doing now at the Roosters. He will be the next great prop forward, how could we have let him slip through? He is a standout amongst the juniors we've lost, but there are others that with a little more money invested in them earlier may have stayed at the club. The problem is we have signed a few big names to a lot of money for long periods of time, those players are chewing money that at present they are not worth, I'm talking about players like Kennedy, signed for 5 years at $300,000 per year, value five years ago, certainly not value the last 2 years (He hasn't played) Adam McDougall, how much money did he chew up over the years for very little return? great player, but with all the time off the field how many kids could we have kept with some of his money? Mark Hughes is another, at the time of his contract worth every penny, last year or so he hasn't been. I honestly think 5 year or 4year contracts are for mugs, in a game like ours there are too many variables that change a players value. Clubs need to collectively come up with a consistant plan and contract timeframe that includes allowances for injuries etc, it sounds hard I know but clubs at the moment are being almost blackmailed into agreeing to long term contracts because players know sometime down the track they won't be as fast, or as fit, so it's to their advantage to get all they can ther and then. I think we need limitations on contracts across the board, so everyone is on the same playing field, ie:- all contracts are two years, all players must play 75% of the year or lose part payment. At the moment it's one way traffic. I'll just add again the anti-tampering date should be at the end of the season.

 

[reladith]

The Tupou story is unfortunate. Maybe we reallt do need to look at the people in power and see if they are doing a good job?

I think they underestimate our region in regard to talent available. It used to be a rose bed and an untapped resource.

Now talent is a bit scarce, but this is combined with other clubs invading and poaching with glee!

We need a more stable junior recuitment program in place to stop this crap from happening time and time again.

We shouldnt have to rely on the signings of Renoyldson and Webb to maintain our competitiveness.

 

[macavity]

Lets hope this year gives them a bit of a shock and things are rectified.

I dont think its gunna happen though.

We need a professional administration. Now.

Sarge should resign over this years' events.

We need a holistic approach to talent - top to bottom - rather than only worrying about our top half dozen players.

They also seem to play favorites for some reason.....

 

[Nuffy]

I think we have been shown to be deficient in many keys areas.

Retention.
Recruitment.
Strategic planning.
Talent identification.

If the board, management, coaching staff and football staff aren't sitting down every day and trying to fix this mess then we have the wrong people in the club.

I don't think they play favourites, theres just no depth in the club at any position and with no depth comes no competition so the same faces get to play week in week out.

The problem of depth has been there since 01, we seem to operate in this wildly optimisitic frame of mind where we assume that nobodys ever going to get injured.

I would have thought that the events of the last few years would have taught the club that we needed depth, but no, the experts are allowing the depth to thin even further.

Jobson should be playing PL, ask yourself, how many of our team would walk into the line ups of the top teams in the comp, maybe 1/2 dozen if lucky, the rest would be in PL.

Plus you people just don't seem to understand, another couple of years of avg performances and we will have to pay over the odds just to keep blokes at the club. People won't want to stay.

We have played with fire and are going to get burnt to a crisp next year.

 

[keeney]

johns, simpson, buderus, abraham, perry, woolnough, gidley, gidley, newton(50-50), quinn i rkn theyd all make first grade at other clubs, riley brown would next year, hes going well

 

[Nuffy]

I'm talking about the top teams.

On current form and or reputution the only ones would be

Johns
Bedsy
Simpson
Gidley
Gidley
Abraham / Woolnough it depends on the club

Not exactly a dazzling array after that.

My point is that we have ZERO depth,

Who replaces Johns
Who replaces Bedsy
We need another playmaker
Our first choice fullback has played 3 FG games, had a knee reconstruction and is yet to re-sign.
Where are the other 4-5 props that the club needs as a minimum.
Remember last year, Quinn was the third choice winger, now hes our best winger.
We have 1 lock and 1 decent backrower, wheres the rest.
We seem to have 3 centres in the club, one of which hasn't re-signed, one is chronically injured and one is of true quality.

You are living in a fools paradise if you think the club is going well.

 

[knight_of_knights]

Hmm Knight of Knights - I just realized you joined the same day as me :shock:

well that just prove ur theory, great minds think alike

 

[~bedsy~]

Everyone else.. Carmont may go

It was said in the paper... not sure if it was today that Carmont is close to signing.
The whole thing of not having enough depth has been going on for yrs now, and you say we haven't won a GF since 2001... Brisbane haven't since 2000 and they have planty of depth.
I'm to worried at all that we have lost these players... and as for Kurt being offerd a conract before Tahu... well Kurt's was a reduced contract. They would have wanted to see how much they can give Tahu after they got Joey. Yes I know it's stupid of them waitting so long... but how long has it been since we entered the market? A long time and we have still survived.

 

[miladi]

Oswin, thank goodness for some rationality.

To read many of these posts you would think we were Manly or Souths. I love the fact that Newcastle fans are so passionate. But I sometimes think the passion gets in the way of reason.

Yes we aren't having a good year. We have lost some talent. We have also let some deadwood go.

As you say it is time to move on.