Opinion War chest 2.0

bricktamland

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If anything now is the time, nrl players have shown they are greedy as fuck. Reduction in money promised means they want more when it comes to the crunch, pay has met with a few but only signed a handful I’ll admit chn, dwz have been really good but I reckon we need 3 big names. No excuses this season if we don’t improve then I’m sorry but I won’t be confident in pay.
 

CrittaMagic69

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We absolutely need to recruit a hooker for next season so Friend and Mahoney would both be high priority targets for me, Watson is also off contract and has shown he can be a creative spark through the middle so is also another potential option if we're willing to punt on him establishing himself in that role.

Cotric an absolute no brainer, yes he isn't established at centre or have the NRL experience in the role that I'd like, but skill wise he looks suited to there and is one of the most explosive backs in the comp. Cotric also looks to be at that stage of his career where a move would be good for him and take him to the next stage of his career.

Tamou is another I'm interested in, would've been ideal if he was a year or two younger but I'm not against the idea of bringing in an experienced prop to help strengthen our middle and develop our young forwards alongside him. I'm also not convinced with Thompson at prop, think the team would be a hell of a lot stronger if we had another big body prop and Thompson at lock playing a supporting role and sticking to what he's best at.
 

Dogna88

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We absolutely need to recruit a hooker for next season so Friend and Mahoney would both be high priority targets for me, Watson is also off contract and has shown he can be a creative spark through the middle so is also another potential option if we're willing to punt on him establishing himself in that role.

Cotric an absolute no brainer, yes he isn't established at centre or have the NRL experience in the role that I'd like, but skill wise he looks suited to there and is one of the most explosive backs in the comp. Cotric also looks to be at that stage of his career where a move would be good for him and take him to the next stage of his career.

Tamou is another I'm interested in, would've been ideal if he was a year or two younger but I'm not against the idea of bringing in an experienced prop to help strengthen our middle and develop our young forwards alongside him. I'm also not convinced with Thompson at prop, think the team would be a hell of a lot stronger if we had another big body prop and Thompson at lock playing a supporting role and sticking to what he's best at.
Hookers are always no1 priority
 

TwinTurbo

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My problem with next year is that I really don't know what positions we will need to fill. Other than hooker, I think the forwards are pretty settled., maybe one more to fill in for CHN (or CHN himself). I'd really like to recruit a strike centre, but do we want to spend money on that position if we really need a 1/2 and a 5/8? Maybe the big bucks would be better spent there if the current developing players don't develop further enough in the 20 games this season. Similar question with fullback, if a gun becomes available do we spend the money there? Far too many unknowns for me to make a call right now, maybe in 10 games or so.

Go Dogs
 

Haddaway

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I love the Dogs but why on earth would a decent player want to join us?

Poor on field performances, not a good one off, shit house player roster, coach in limbo, no established halves......on and on and on.

We won't get Cotric or anyone of that calibre.

People say give Dean one more year with a full salary cap, that's all well and good but players don't want to join no hoper teams. That's why we need to make the 8, to show players we are a team on the rise, but we have already got off to our customary shit start.
 
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Haddaway

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Thompson probably got sucked in with our finish last year and thought we were a team on the rise LOL.
 

Alan79

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I don't think we will be making much of a dent in the player market. There's just not that many quality players off contract for 2021 in positions we desperately need.

It will be more stop gap options, veterans or other clubs scraps.

Our best hope will be other player movements in the NRL making contracted players become available.
With channel 9 playing hardball about honouring their current deal and working hard to demand that they accrue the profitable digital arm of the NRL, the very real possibility that the cap will decrease exists. If it does, some clubs will likely be looking to offload some good talent. So while not a great deal of talent is available for now, that might change and we could possibly negotiate with clubs to partially pay for players to play with us. That's an optimistic scenario, but a possibility all the same.

If I was in the recruiting position I'd currently be offering a set wage based on this years reduced cap with clauses that if it rises by the same percentage next year, the deal goes up by the same percentage.



So much of the recruitment process right now revolves around the negotiations done by the current NRL administration team. I have little faith in them to be honest. . Off topic a little bit, but the sacking of Castle from Rugby has come under a bit of fire since it has been found that she had negotiated a better deal with a new sponsor. Her replacement has strong links with their current sponsor and supposedly they have their smaller sponsorship deal on the table now in spite of a larger offer being available. So it seems that a little bit of corruption might be taking place with the governing body of union. And coming back to our own code, perhaps we will see a similar situation eventuate with League. Many of the current board have been involved with the mismanagement of the finances and it may be cheaper for our old sponsors to slip bribes to people they know than to pay a larger sponsorship deal. So at this time I'd like to see the NRL administration working with some outside oversight to ensure that this situation might be avoided. Murdoch and channel 9 might just be aiming to stage a coup that saves them big money based on this unfortunate year where a virus has screwed up the game.
 

GoTheDoggies

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Short term options in our favor since there are no super star signings available. I'd say sign a bunch of experienced guys and go for the premiership in a 1-2 year window. Similar to 09.

De Belin (on the cheap) will want to prove himself get back to origin form

Taikarangi

Tamou

James Graham 1 year deal

Benji Marshall 1 year deal

Foran extension 1 year deal on the cheap take it or leave it.

Watson utility only.

Jake Friend or Cameron Smith

The best centre off contract is probably Suli, would you take the risk? I'd say yes provided we sign experienced guys.

Also bring back CHN & Okunbor.
 

Spoonman84

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With channel 9 playing hardball about honouring their current deal and working hard to demand that they accrue the profitable digital arm of the NRL, the very real possibility that the cap will decrease exists. If it does, some clubs will likely be looking to offload some good talent. So while not a great deal of talent is available for now, that might change and we could possibly negotiate with clubs to partially pay for players to play with us. That's an optimistic scenario, but a possibility all the same.

If I was in the recruiting position I'd currently be offering a set wage based on this years reduced cap with clauses that if it rises by the same percentage next year, the deal goes up by the same percentage.



So much of the recruitment process right now revolves around the negotiations done by the current NRL administration team. I have little faith in them to be honest. . Off topic a little bit, but the sacking of Castle from Rugby has come under a bit of fire since it has been found that she had negotiated a better deal with a new sponsor. Her replacement has strong links with their current sponsor and supposedly they have their smaller sponsorship deal on the table now in spite of a larger offer being available. So it seems that a little bit of corruption might be taking place with the governing body of union. And coming back to our own code, perhaps we will see a similar situation eventuate with League. Many of the current board have been involved with the mismanagement of the finances and it may be cheaper for our old sponsors to slip bribes to people they know than to pay a larger sponsorship deal. So at this time I'd like to see the NRL administration working with some outside oversight to ensure that this situation might be avoided. Murdoch and channel 9 might just be aiming to stage a coup that saves them big money based on this unfortunate year where a virus has screwed up the game.
I’m not sure it really matters if the cap decreases or increases for next year we have the same percentage of cap space available anyway. If they decrease it they will take it off across the board. I don’t think it’s a given they will decrease it either Nine are trying to bluff their way to a cheap deal and Foxtel is dead without the NRL V’landys will get a good deal I think.

I have given up on the idea that the club is going to buy their way into contention. The club is on the nose with most players and it would be on the lower end of the list where players would want to come. The club has put its eggs all in one basket relying on the juniors and that’s never a sure thing if they make it into NRL.
 

Spoonman84

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Short term options in our favor since there are no super star signings available. I'd say sign a bunch of experienced guys and go for the premiership in a 1-2 year window. Similar to 09.

De Belin (on the cheap) will want to prove himself get back to origin form

Taikarangi

Tamou

James Graham 1 year deal

Benji Marshall 1 year deal

Foran extension 1 year deal on the cheap take it or leave it.

Watson utility only.

Jake Friend or Cameron Smith

The best centre off contract is probably Suli, would you take the risk? I'd say yes provided we sign experienced guys.

Also bring back CHN & Okunbor.
James Graham was cooked when he left us at the end of 2017.
 

Mighty_Matt

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I would move DWZ to wing or centre and go all out for jordi and beauden Barrett and alex wormsley and harry grant
 

Paulie Gualtieri

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With whats available I would be going for
Nick Cotric - Center
John Asiata - 13
Jesse Bromwich - Starting prop and mentor the youngens
Conor Watson - Bench or starting 9. Katoa to start or bench. No more JMK
Jamil Hoppa - Edge backrower
Matt Eisenhuth - depth or bench
 

Spoonman84

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Chris Heighington and Luke Lewis were also cooked when they joined the Sharks...
Not really they were both around 30 years old when they went to the Sharks. Graham will be 35 next year and has played over 400 games in his career he’s done and should retire.
 

Scoooby

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Too early to even speculate after what’s happening with Covid-19 etc, league hasn’t yet returned, and to be honest.. as always it will be a wait an see approach from us supporters/fans of this great club..

One things for sure, we will need a good recruitment going into 2021, or a good plan to see the changes we all want an have been waiting for, for sometime now..!!
 

Cook

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Not really they were both around 30 years old when they went to the Sharks. Graham will be 35 next year and has played over 400 games in his career he’s done and should retire.
One of the best moves we made, parting with graham
 

2144superman

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Short term options in our favor since there are no super star signings available. I'd say sign a bunch of experienced guys and go for the premiership in a 1-2 year window. Similar to 09.

De Belin (on the cheap) will want to prove himself get back to origin form

Taikarangi

Tamou

James Graham 1 year deal

Benji Marshall 1 year deal

Foran extension 1 year deal on the cheap take it or leave it.

Watson utility only.

Jake Friend or Cameron Smith

The best centre off contract is probably Suli, would you take the risk? I'd say yes provided we sign experienced guys.

Also bring back CHN & Okunbor.

You want to just sign NRL pensioners
 

Spoonman84

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One of the best moves we made, parting with graham
He was interviewed on the news tonight and said he was keen to play next year in the NRL. He is a shadow of himself these days I don’t think there would be too many clubs if any after him.
 

NPC83

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I think your brain is missing something. The % of the salary cap that he's on is all that matters. If he signs a contract where he's on more than anyone else in the squad he'll still be the highest paid afterwards too. It'll be exactly the same just relative to a new salary cap. A pay cut will be across the board for every team and player.
Look just don’t start with the insults.. cause if anyone’s brain is missing something it’s you. I’ll spell it out for you simply.. if Fifita is worth $1m on the open market his manager won’t sign a contract saying he automatically takes a 20% pay cut in line with the salary cap proposed reduction in your example which would put him on $800k. They’ll wait until The broadcast deal and funding is all confirmed and try and squeeze the club for the maximum dollar which would likely still be more than $800k maybe $850 or $880k. Cause a club like us would still be in the position to make that sort of offer. Hope that makes sense and I have broken it down enough for you.
 

TOTTO

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I still would like us to go for Brandon Smith , I know he's contracted but with Harry Grant being the next big hooker for Melbourne maybe there is still a chance.
 
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