Canterbury hooker Michael Lichaa is on the verge of signing a new deal with the Bulldogs

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TalDog

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Paul Crawley, The Daily Telegraph
October 5, 2017 4:07pm
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NEW Canterbury coach Dean Pay wants to keep Michael Lichaa at the club and a deal could be finalised within days.

Brett Morris is also expected to stay at Belmore despite interest from South Sydney.

But as the Bulldogs look to put to bed their salary cap troubles of 2017, it looks like promising young fullback Brad Abbey will be heading to Canberra in what is essentially a player swap with Clay Priest.

While Lichaa was unwanted by Des Hasler, Pay coached him at junior representative level for NSW and knows full well what the 24-year-old can offer under a game plan that best suits his strengths.

It is believed Lichaa has attracted late interest from a couple of rival clubs but wants to stay at the Bulldogs under Pay.


Lichaa turned things around late in the season.
Since joining Canterbury from Cronulla where he was brought to replace Michael Ennis, Lichaa’s career has hardly reached the heights many expected.

In under 20s, he was averaging about 150m a game but in NRL that average dropped dramatically.

In fairness, no hooker has ever had a history of big running metres playing under Hasler.

At Manly Matt Ballin made his name as a tackling machine and even Ennis was criticised for his lack of running during Hasler’s reign.

But that changed when Ennis went to the Sharks and played to a different plan.

REACT: The bombshell that rocked the Kiwis

MATE MA’A: Fifita dumps Roos for Tonga

Lichaa also changed opinions in his last three games of the season when he started running the football more and reminding everyone of the type of player he was when he was rated one of the most exciting young talents in the game.

Meanwhile, Morris is growing increasingly frustrated with speculation surrounding his future that has dragged on for most of the year.

The 31-year-old took to Twitter this week and denied he was on the move.

Morris tweeted: “I’ve been linked to a lot of clubs recently. I have not met any officials from any clubs and haven’t signed anything elsewhere. #FakeNews”

That was backed up by his manager David Riolo who admitted South Sydney and other clubs had made contact “but we have never had an official off on Brett Morris from another club at any stage”.

“He is getting annoyed (by the constant speculation),” Riolo said.

“Social media people jump on and make comments that things are done (at another club).

“So then Brett gets family and friends and everyone else saying ‘what’s happening?’

“I’ll say it again, Brett Morris is under contract and we haven’t received an official offer from any other club.”

The only thing that could change it is if a rival club like Souths offered Morris a lucrative contact beyond 2018 that worked in the best interests of Morris and the Bulldogs.

Pay wants the roster finalised as soon as possible so he and the players can focus on 2018 without the distractions that caused so much angst this year.
 

The DoggFather

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A big mouth bird blabbed that Lichaa has agreed to terms with us for another 2 years and will be more than likely announced next week.

As usual, confirmed my source to Mr I. Not claiming I'm the first to know or even if it's set in concrete, just passing on info like I usually do.
You're 6 days late scoop lol

I posted this last Friday.
 

belmore_utd

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Was hoping for an imminent announcement but that has been canned till atleast xmas as the media rolls out a carbon copy article bi weekly replacing 'on the verge' with on the horizon, nearing, looming, likely, close, expected, in the air and the rest.

Please Doggies board, impregnate Lichaa's signature onto an immediate contract so we can end the circus
 

The DoggFather

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Was hoping for an imminent announcement but that has been canned till atleast xmas as the media rolls out a carbon copy article bi weekly replacing 'on the verge' with on the horizon, nearing, looming, likely, close, expected, in the air and the rest.

Please Doggies board, impregnate Lichaa's signature onto an immediate contract so we can end the circus
The Telucrap must of invested in a thesaurus lol
 

Vlasnik

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Canterbury hooker Michael Lichaa is on the verge of signing a new deal with the Bulldogs
Paul Crawley, The Daily Telegraph
October 5, 2017 4:07pm

NEW Canterbury coach Dean Pay wants to keep Michael Lichaa at the club and a deal could be finalised within days.

Brett Morris is also expected to stay at Belmore despite interest from South Sydney.

But as the Bulldogs look to put to bed their salary cap troubles of 2017, it looks like promising young fullback Brad Abbey will be heading to Canberra in what is essentially a player swap with Clay Priest.

While Lichaa was unwanted by Des Hasler, Pay coached him at junior representative level for NSW and knows full well what the 24-year-old can offer under a game plan that best suits his strengths.

It is believed Lichaa has attracted late interest from a couple of rival clubs but wants to stay at the Bulldogs under Pay.


Lichaa turned things around late in the season.
Since joining Canterbury from Cronulla where he was brought to replace Michael Ennis, Lichaa’s career has hardly reached the heights many expected.

In under 20s, he was averaging about 150m a game but in NRL that average dropped dramatically.

In fairness, no hooker has ever had a history of big running metres playing under Hasler.

At Manly Matt Ballin made his name as a tackling machine and even Ennis was criticised for his lack of running during Hasler’s reign.

But that changed when Ennis went to the Sharks and played to a different plan.

REACT: The bombshell that rocked the Kiwis

MATE MA’A: Fifita dumps Roos for Tonga

Lichaa also changed opinions in his last three games of the season when he started running the football more and reminding everyone of the type of player he was when he was rated one of the most exciting young talents in the game.

Meanwhile, Morris is growing increasingly frustrated with speculation surrounding his future that has dragged on for most of the year.

The 31-year-old took to Twitter this week and denied he was on the move.

Morris tweeted: “I’ve been linked to a lot of clubs recently. I have not met any officials from any clubs and haven’t signed anything elsewhere. #FakeNews”

Follow
Brett Morris

✔@bmozzle

I've been linked to a lot of clubs recently. I have not met any officials from any clubs and haven't signed anything elsewhere. #FakeNews



That was backed up by his manager David Riolo who admitted South Sydney and other clubs had made contact “but we have never had an official off on Brett Morris from another club at any stage”.

“He is getting annoyed (by the constant speculation),” Riolo said.

“Social media people jump on and make comments that things are done (at another club).

“So then Brett gets family and friends and everyone else saying ‘what’s happening?’

“I’ll say it again, Brett Morris is under contract and we haven’t received an official offer from any other club.”

The only thing that could change it is if a rival club like Souths offered Morris a lucrative contact beyond 2018 that worked in the best interests of Morris and the Bulldogs.

Pay wants the roster finalised as soon as possible so he and the players can focus on 2018 without the distractions that caused so much angst this year.
 

doggieaaron

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The thing with pay compared to hasler is he seems so clear in his ideas where hasler just seemed to have these odd ideas etc
 
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Como Dog

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Is it just me or was Riolo putting it out there to all of the Sydney clubs that Brett Morris is up for grabs if you're willing to offer a multi-year contract beyond his current Bulldogs agreement.
 

Wahesh

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So does anyone have any news on this yet? Anything at all? Surely it can't take that long in the off-season to draw up a contract FFS.
 

Papa Emeritus

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So does anyone have any news on this yet? Anything at all? Surely it can't take that long in the off-season to draw up a contract FFS.
It is probably taking longer because he really wants to stay so the process is in no need of being rushed.
 
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