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PLAYER WORTH 1 Blake Taaffe $380,000 2 Jacob Kiraz $410,000 3 Stephen Crichton $1 million 4 Matt Burton $650,000 5 Josh Addo-Carr $480,000 6 Drew Hutchison $320,000 7 Toby Sexton $260,000 8 Sam Hughes $390,000 9 Reed Mahoney $550,000 10 Liam Knight $400,000 11 Viliame Kikau...

The fact that you think playing fullback 6 times means he qualifies to hit the ground running..... Never played fullback obviously meant that he hasn't played the position properly week in week out, which he hasn't. Filling in 6 times doesn't count. Nice nitpicking though, kudos for being...

What's the point of that. The guy has never played fullback before, he would need more than the first few rounds to figure the position out properly, especially in our team. If we are going to play him at fullback, which I want us to, he needs to be given a proper go at it. That means proper...

There needs to be clarity within the squad about who is playing where. Having players who are versatile is great, but too many people vying for positions (especially key positions) creates uncertainty, chopping and changing and before you know it, it's another wasted season. They don't...

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/nrl-2022-brisbane-broncos-karl-oloapu-reece-walsh-dave-donaghy-ceo-tom-dearden/news-story/4e63fb068fb8d383c79c42225ea3d304 It was for both reasons. “Now since then I have been told I am not part of the full-time squad and they want me to play at...

Phil Gould said in the year that the club see Karl as a 13: "I see him as a lock-forward, very much in the Cameron Murray mould, and I think he’s gonna be a really great player for this club for a long time." Whether that's how it works out I'm not sure, I thought he left Broncos cause they...

Almost every other sport in the world does it, yet it "wouldn't work" in NRL because???? It makes 100% sense to do. People saying it would be confusing, like seriously have you never watched a sport that's not the NRL? But to make things simpler, they can limit the selection of numbers between...

This is the type of deal I would usually hate us doing, but we are so desperate for props and experience. Averages 21 games a year across his career, so at least he would be available unlike the our forwards recently. Last year he played 24 games and averaged 139 metres, 24 tackles, 1 tackle...

Not only is he a 6, but he's the best half we have on our books for 2024. He's still young and playing in a side that is changing his halves partner every week, no decent fullback and the worst forward pack in the comp. How do you expect a young half to thrive in this environment? Yes he...

Mate you're way too pedantic for a post on a club forum. Pretty obvious what I meant that our backline has risk, if you can't see that then that's on you. I think you need to chill out.

I'm sorry you're right he's coming for $4.50 where he played fullback for Panthers for 5 years straight. How could I miss all that.

You're confusing risk with ability. Interesting. Signing Crichton to 850K to play a position he has never played is a big risk. Playing Averillo at centre is nowhere near as big of a risk as there is a lot less to lose, hes not on such a large contract. Signing Bronson Xerri is a risk...

I didn't say Crichtin is more risk than Perham. The backline as a WHOLE has more risk (liekly Crichton new position, Xerri back, likely Kiraz centre.) And even if Kiraz doesn't play centre, then who does? If it's Crichton, than its Taafe at fullback which is also a risk as he's never been a...

I think the more important way to look at it is in terms of depth for each position. Obviously a lot of these guys can play in different areas (e.g. Crichton FB, CT) but this is to highlight their main position I think they will be playing. Fullback: Stephen Crichton, Blake Taafe, Hayze Perham...

Who in all honestly can explain the difference between him and kurt mann?

Caps gone up about 25% from 2023 to 2022. To put into perspective, $1million in 2024 will be equal to about $800,000 in 2022. I agree it's big money on a forward, but relative to the cap it's not unprecedented.

I can't see them releasing Hunt. Amone might be going to prison, they already released Sullivan & Mbye. Right now their only recognised halves for next season that are guaranteed to be available are Hunt and Flanagan.

I think the only thing that works in our favour is that he wants an immediate release. With the release of Thompson, TPJ and a few others we would have plenty in our cap for 2024. The Dragons is are locked into a few big deals for 2024 who come off contract at the end of next year. In 2025 they...

Through process of elimination, the only clubs that make sense are the Bulldogs and Dragons (either due to no need for him, cap pressure or both). Eels, Panthers, Roosters - all sorted for middle forwards & under cap pressure. Rabbitohs, Sea Eagles, Sharks - could use him but under cap...

The problem with trades, and why they happen so little, is because you need to find two players of roughly equal value, both willing to move and both clubs to agree to the move. That's a lot of moving pieces to fall into line. It's all well and good for the Warriors to want to trade say...

RFM for AFB seems like a fair trade to me

So he punches someone in the face at what is essentially a Community event, runs before the cops get there, then gets upset at the club for not supporting him? Did he want Phil Gould to jump into the fight and throw some hands? He's more upset with the media for reporting he got knocked out than...

Why sign a second rower on big money, only to move him to the middle where maybe he works out and maybe he doesn't. Plus the best part of his game is how he attacks the edges, especially on the try line.

Keaon is one of the best second rowers in the comp & he would be great to have, but 2nd row isn't our priority to be throwing big money at. We have Kikau on big money, Preston who has been a revelation. Not sure if signing big money second rowers is going to get us out of our current...

We should not re sign him. He hasn't done enough in his 3 years to show that he merits it. He isn't the worst player but we need to move on players who aren't good enough.

Still too early to tell. Looked average but to be fair he came when the team was playing like shit so not the best time to judge. A full pre-season + a better fullback + hopefully better forwards and we can better judge. He isn't spectacular in any areas, average in everything. To make it as...

Crichton has the potential to be a gun fullback, he will just need time to adjust & learn. My worry is that our current team is not exactly ideal conditions for a player too learn the trade (between our forward pack that gets dominated every week and our lack of cohesion in the spine). The...

The thing with the NRL is that it's easy to look good for a few games but eventually the true quality of the player comes to light. We've had it before with players who had a few good games when they were introduced to the team and looked like our saving grace (Matt Frawley in 2017 in particular...

We can all agree that Preston was just about the only good thing to come out of 2023. What's everyone's predictions about who (if anyone) will be the breakout star for 2024?

I was confused why we re-signed him for 3 years (a 30 year old with a horror injury record). As much as we can point fingers at the players for being lazy/shit, its yet another blunder from our recruitment and retention.

Agreed. I said something similar in another post that essentially if we look at the players individually, none of them have improved after Ciraldo and I would argue most of them have regressed. End of the day rugby league is a relatively simple sport tactic wise (especially when compared to...

We could sign Cleary, Munster and Haas and after 10 months with us they'll look like reserve graders. The talent is there. The attitude isn't. There is an obvious disconnect between players and management. Who's fault it is etc we don't know for sure, but until that is resolved we won't see...

Only cause he's off contract. We will sign him to a 2 year extension and he go back to no effort.

It's a classic example of chicken or the egg; are the players playing like shit cause Ciraldo isn't good enough or is Ciraldo not good enough cause the players are shit? It's a combination of both but if I had to pin the fault on anyone its Ciraldo more than anything. You've got guys there who...

Right now we are the worst team in the comp. I have a bad feeling about a spoon next year too.

A message from who and to who? What's the message say? All seems pretty vague....

Perfect even better. I guess they will be replaced by next year by RFM, Ryan Sutton, Franklin Pele and god knows who else we will release.

Corey Allan - we were probably paying a good chunk of his contract this year but his contract finishes as the end of the year. Nick Cotric - his Bulldogs contract finishes 2024 so i'd say this year and next year we will be paying a chunk of it. DWZ - his contract with us finished in 2022 so...

Everyone was ass in the first half .... Do we not do a 321 then?

3 Burton - 3 of our tries came directly from him, once again the sore creative force in the team. 2 Tevita - Plenty of runs, plenty of tackles, offloads and tackle breaks, aimed up to their forwards. Plus none of the I'll discipline. 1 Mahoney - The heart of the team, his line speed and big...

He is so much better than Flanagan. His brain explosions are mitigated by plays he comes up with & the passion he brings. At least he brings SOMETHING. Flanagan was the definition of a passanger and a waste of a spot. Reynolds isn't the long term answer, everyone knows that. But at least in the...

Skelton has been playing on the wing in NSW Cup this season, so unlikey he comes in at centre. I'm guessing they're waiting for Bronson Xerri next season, as neither of the current NSW Cup Centres (Casey and Burns) will be our long term centre.

I agree that Burton & Flanagan did look better what Reynolds came on. Seemed like Reynolds was the link man between them, goes to show the importance of experience. Kyle Flanagan's effort and defense are pretty good but unfortunately those aern't the key criterea for a halfback. It's been said...

Difficult to give 321 cause despite the win, we were prerrty ordinary. But shoutout to Hayze Perham for another quietly strong performance. 204 metres, 7 tackle breaks, 2 offloads, 5/5 tackles and safe under the high ball. He's been super reliable and hard working the last 4 weeks. He may not...

Cowboys really are there for the taking. They're in poor form, missing several key players (Drinkwater, Cotter, Nanai, Tuilagi) plus missing Tamou and Leilaui still, and the match is in Sydney. In saying that, i still think they will get more out of their bench than us. Pele is a needed...

One of the reasons we have faded out of matches this year is due to the lack of rotation with our bench. - Against Tigers, our bench played for a combined 92 minutes (with Okonbur playing 0 minutes) whilst Tigers bench played for 172 minutes. - Against Warriors, our bench played for a...

He's not the quickest but he's also not slow as to be fair, Naden is also very quick. I remember last year Hamiso getting run down very quickly by Jasob Saab. Overall Alamoti's game isn't build around speed anyway. Overall very happy with how he's performing in 2023.

Burton is a footballer is great but as a half he still has a lot to improve on. However, to judge him properly we need to look at his strengths & role in the team. When he was playing well last year he wasn't playmaking but rather getting his hands on the footy often and running; that's his...

Well that's likely Luke Thompson's last ever involvement as a bulldogs player. Sad that his time at the club ended like this, such a missed opportunity.

100%. Burton just had a big season and knows it's another long season ahead for him, why would he go all out in a trial game. You'd think that Flanagan would step up as he is quite literally playing for his career now. It doesn't seem like it's an attitude/lack of effort problem, he just isn't...

I'd be happy keeping Kiraz on the wing, especially if it meant putting money into more pressing issues like halfback and middle forwards. Averillo is so hot and cold, he has some very good moments followed by dud moments. I feel for him cause he keeps getting moved around so he hasn't been able...

My takeaways from the trials Negatives - Middle Forwards: The really alarming problem was the middle of the field. There is a real lack of go forward, we struggle to build momentum. Our forward pack isn't the biggest especially with TPJ out; King, Sutton and Thompson are all decent workhorses...

Agreed, the two most likely to drop out are Eels and Raiders. In the reverse, you gotta look at who is likely to make the 8. Broncos - in terms of talent should easily be in the top 8. The question is their mentality and if Kevin Walters can get it right. Similar to Brad Arthur, i think if...

Based purely on squad, ours is around 10th. We've still got too many questions to be considered a lock in for the top 8; who's our best fullback? our best centres? is flanagan good enough for first grade? how will ciraldo go in his first season? how long will it take for the new signings to gel...

Sounds like food is an ongoing motif in this transfer saga. Interesting...

Most likely. Either way its good to have competition for places. Now we just need it in our forward pack.

Will be interesting to see what happens if he does well at fullback. I can't see Crichton not playing fullback, maybe Perham at centre then? He will have competiton with Alamoti & Xerri. A good problem to have; hopefully if they all come good. Good to see that the club aern't putting all their...

For him to commit for a 4 year extension it must be a big value deal. Would have to be in the 800k minimum in the first year.

The problem with the current media is they focus on the end of Gus' tenure at Penrith, which in hindsight had some mixed outcomes, but thats football. The obvious criticisms are being against Ivan Cleary coming back & the signings of Blake, DWZ and RCG. Recruitment is mixed; Blake & DWZ aern't...

One of the questions for 2023 is who will be the starting centres. I can't see them debuting both Alimoti & Skelton next season so i wonder how Ciraldo will line them up. Hayze Perham perhaps? Move Kiraz into centre? Surely not another season of Braidon Burns.

Doueihi is definately a 6 now. I don't think he's a bad player, just not what we need as we already have Burton. He's not a fullback either. He can fill in at centre, and would offer good versatiltiy in case a half goes down. But for the money he will want, he isn't worth it. Gus just tryna...

I am a big fan of Kikau but I am slightly worried about his signing. He obviously had no reason to leave Penrith apart from money, so will be still have the same motivation? I think/hope he will come good, as we are on the up right now.

For once we didn't get completely rammed by the draw.

You've even got Terry Lamb reserve behind it for additional space. It doesn't need to be a huge stadium either, 25K is more than enough. The concern is that it's in a highly residential area, so traffic will be an issue. For one off back to Belmore games its fine, but 12 times a year and it...

The Canterbury Bankstown LGA is the largest LGA in NSW in terms of population, yet we don't have our own stadium. Yet Canterbury Bankstown is also the worst gambling LGA; $162,146,000 in about 3 months. They can bleed the community dry for RSL clubs & tax revenue, but not to give us a stadium.

So the Roosters go ahead and sign everyone after they retire and no one bats an eye, we give a job to a 10 year club legend and captain and the NRL investigate?

He's not our long term 1 or 7, so i doubt the club is even looking at extending him on anything major (if at all).

In fairness, they had another 400K stream it on 9Now so the true number would be around 3.1m.

It's a farce how the cap isn't released at least 2 years in advance. Contacts for next season start 1 November, it's almost October and they still haven't said what the cap is. How do they expect clubs and players to properly plan?

Player Salary Viliame Kikau $ 800,000.00 Luke Thompson $ 800,000.00 Tevita Pangai-Junior $ 720,000.00 Josh Jackson $ 600,000.00 Reed Mahoney $ 600,000.00 Josh Addo-Carr $ 550,000.00 Matt Burton $ 500,000.00 Corey Allan $ 500,000.00 Kyle Flanagan $ 450,000.00 Raymond...

Honestly apart from Cowboys, it was pretty spot on wasn't it!

TPJ and Thompson are on big dollars, inconsistent and unreliable; yeah they can have one belter of a game but that is then followed by constantly not in the match squad. They are definately not money well spend at this rate. Ryan Sutton is okay, he's just another plodder. He will be decent off...

Hunt would have been a good signing, but i guess with us bringing in Sutton, Pele & still having Thompson coming back (maybe) we have enough props for 2023.

Best player overall has been Addo-Carr because 99% of our attacking play centres around him and Burton, plus the energy that he has brought. Best buy has been Max King, followed by Paul Vaughn. Both have played 21 games, consistent every week and I can't imagine either are on big coin. Most...

Attacking wise he has been decent enough at fullback when we are attacking in the opposition 20. His support play is non existent & It's the fullback fundamentals like catching the high ball, organising the defence etc where he seems to be struggling (which makes sense considering he went into...

Our run home isn't easy, I think we only win 1 match against Manly and that's it. I think that one more win should be enough to avoid the spoon. Although I also think 0 wins should also be enough, as Tigers and Titans both won't win 2/3.

The performance was due to the players just looking flat/tired more than anything. Bundaberg on a Sunday then Auckland on a Friday isn't an easy turn-around and it showed. They only piled the points on in the last 5 minutes when the gas tank was empty. I don't thin anyone was saying Potter is...

Felise Kaufusi and it's not even close . I've hated him for years but this season he's taken his grubbiness to new levels.

It makes no sense to me how Allan hasn't signed with the Dolphins yet. Back to QLD, Dolphins need players, played FB under Wayne in Origin. It works perfectly.

Definately not needed as a player, maybe the club can utilise him in some capacity as he's gone an obvious passion for the club. On an unrelated tangent, I like what the club is doing at the moment by having 'modern' legends like Mason involved in the club. Most of the players these days are...

That's excatly it; there are no options on the market that scream out to us so why do we need to rush into making a decision?

These are things that change with time, particularly an off season. Potter has come in & steadied the ship but also got us winning matches. For now it seems he is focused on getting fitness and confidence back in the team, and should he get the job full time then that's where you will see more...

Klemmer's numbers for the last few years have been consistently solid. He doesn't have the spark that he did in his early career but he makes consistent metres and tackles. His 2022 averages are 144m, 34 tackles and 2.2 offloads. Still though, I don't think we need him back especially with...

There's still the rest of the season left, let's see what Potter can do. Hopefully the club has an open mind and are still considering Potter as an option. The most positive thing about Potter's tenure so far is it doesn't seem to just be 'new manager bounce'. It's not like he came in, we won...

3 Burton's Left Foot 2 Addo-Carr 1 Kiraz I loved the aggression of TPJ but he had too many stupid moments & penalties. A few times where it invited the eels back into the game but luckily for us they were flaccid. He plays for himself too often and needs to remember the bigger picture. Plus we...

100%, i'd rather just persist with Averillo or Toia for another season than sign another flop. Neither Staines or CNK are the answer.

Flanagan is playing worse than bad; he's hiding. I'd respect him more if he went out, gave it a go and it just didn't work out. Right now he is hiding, letting burton do eveyrthing just so he doesn't make any mistakes, that way he keeps his spot in first grade.

Scott Drinkwater would be great but seeing how he is killing it right now, he has just about solidified himself as Cowboys fullback so i can't see them releasing him or him wanting to leave (especially for us).

No idea why he hasn't been given a run when you consider how shit we have been for the past few years. It's a no risk strategy; he can't be any worse than Stimson, Waddell and the other flops we have going around. I thought he showed some promise when he did make first grade, has good energy and...

100% right, look at what Bellamy did with Hughes (a fullback his whole career), Hynes at Cronulla and to a lesser extent Moses at Parra. None of those guys are what you would call traditional halfbacks but their coaches created systems which play to their advantages. I don't really rate Brad...

If Kyle was wrapped up in a long term contract than I would agree with you. But Kyle only has one year to go on his contract, which would co-incide with Shane's hypothetical first year. Basically it would give Shane & Kyle 1 year to make it work and if it doesn't than I am sure the club would...

I remember Belmore being tossed up in the NSW Government suburban stadium upgrade plan, any progress/updates on that?

He's a signing to balance the forward pack I would say/replace Jackson. Next year the pack is Kikau, TPJ, Hethrington, Thompson and Jackson. Plenty of excitiment and impact but also plenty of penalties and errors. Apart from Jackson not too many guys who you'd consider a workman type forward...

Does his work and nothing fancy. I thought he was one of Canberra's more consistent forwards last year. He's got a good workrate. Stats from 2021: he played 22 games with average 50 minutes per game, 105 metres, 28 tackles. Low errors and penalties but also not high on offloads or line breaks...

Realistically 12th. I think we are better than Tigers, Knights, Cowboys for sure and will be battling around teams like the Warriors, Dragons.

I think if the storm can get an adequate 'replacement' for Cheese they will let him go. Seems like he's pissed off a lot of the management there (first with the coke and now this). Going on the podcast and saying what he did seemed like him angling for a move. The problem is finding this...

This stuff with Brandon Smith and pushing for an early release could really help us potentially get Mahoney early (2022) with the news that Parra are interested in Verills. If Storm release Brandon Smith early to go Roosters, they'll release Verills early to go Eels who will hopefully release...

Guess we are doomed to play at the souless Stadium Australia for eternity

Will be very interested to see what the roster looks like in 2023. If the reports are true that we are shopping around Cotric, Flanagan, Allan plus players like Dufty and Vaughan are only signed for one year. Between those players that about 2.2 million in cap space.

Agreed. Stats never tell the full story but they're interesting to look at. Overall I rate Kikau as the best second row in the game so to get him at 800K is a deal. But I'd definately like to see his output increased cause he is capable of it.