Brandon Smith contract news: Storm grants star early release

[Cujo]

If another NRL club is interested in Napa for anything other than minimum wage (and even then) that'll do me. I think the Storm would be better off going after Ogden or Atoni.

Or the old lady who washes the jumpers & cuts up the oranges for halftime!!

 

[Che]

No way in the world. His carry on at the end of last year is not what we want as part of our culture. Good player, but no. Next.

Really he just won the big prize, so don't worry about his talent because he said something. What have we become

 

[Cujo]

Lol these speculation signings are doing my head in. It all sounds like a title for a Dr. Seuss book...

The Fox jumped over The Cheese.

Awesome post, funny as fuck! Cheers I need a good laugh

 

[Pity Fool]

Could be the final piece in the puzzle. I’d put JAC talks on hold so the club can focus on whatever they need to get the deal done.

Yeah but don’t you think that it’s a bit fishy the Storm are releasing him willingly? I don’t rate the guy personally, I just don’t think his fitness is good enough to be an 80 minute dummy half! Add to that Smith is a very LOOSE cannon, his history with the Cowboys speaks volumes and I don’t think he is the gun he pretends to be, why would the Storm recruit Grant as a contingency then promote him above B. Smith when Smith has been in the Storm system a great deal longer than Grant! Seems very suspect imo!

 

[Kempsey Dog]

Yeah but don’t you think that it’s a bit fishy the Storm are releasing him willingly? I don’t rate the guy personally, I just don’t think his fitness is good enough to be an 80 minute dummy half! Add to that Smith is a very LOOSE cannon, his history with the Cowboys speaks volumes and I don’t think he is the gun he pretends to be, why would the Storm recruit Grant as a contingency then promote him above B. Smith when Smith has been in the Storm system a great deal longer than Grant! Seems very suspect imo!

Agree, lock forward his best bet for me and not 80mins either. Brailey, McInnes my prefered options. I get Ennis vibes from McInnes at times just needs a coach to get the attack to flourish, he's shown glimpses at times but works himself dead and hinders himself at times

 

[Cujo]

Yeah but don’t you think that it’s a bit fishy the Storm are releasing him willingly? I don’t rate the guy personally, I just don’t think his fitness is good enough to be an 80 minute dummy half! Add to that Smith is a very LOOSE cannon, his history with the Cowboys speaks volumes and I don’t think he is the gun he pretends to be, why would the Storm recruit Grant as a contingency then promote him above B. Smith when Smith has been in the Storm system a great deal longer than Grant! Seems very suspect imo!

I think it's just a case of Smith being good....but Grant coming through being great despite being young. There may be more to it, or as simple as that...

 

[Mr Beast]

sorry mate whilst ever you mods allow nasheed to post on here i keep my posts to private messages. All he does is bring down a reputable site and it is a shame you allow this.

@Bulldogsteve if there is something or a post you find inappropriate, I encourage you to report it. Mods will deal with it accordingly.

 

[Spoonman84]

Yeah but don’t you think that it’s a bit fishy the Storm are releasing him willingly? I don’t rate the guy personally, I just don’t think his fitness is good enough to be an 80 minute dummy half! Add to that Smith is a very LOOSE cannon, his history with the Cowboys speaks volumes and I don’t think he is the gun he pretends to be, why would the Storm recruit Grant as a contingency then promote him above B. Smith when Smith has been in the Storm system a great deal longer than Grant! Seems very suspect imo!

I don’t think it’s that fishy it looks like Melbourne want Grant long term and Smith wants to play hooker. I think most teams would take Grant over Smith.

 

[gibbobulldog]

Bulldogsteve for the oil

Fuck off nasheed

 

[Alan79]

1.3m for Fifita is way worse than 700-800k for B. Smith. Fifita shouldn't of been receiving offers over 1m. There is a difference between overs and overs on overs. I wouldn't compare those two. It's almost impossible for Fifita to live up to the price tag imo.

Just saying again that my post was mainly aimed at the idea that people on here will be thinking that we should stay in the race if another club were to offer anything like a million for him. JMK and Katoa are by no means top shelf hookers, but we've never seen B. Smith in a side that wasn't well drilled in their roles, playing with good attacking structure. There's a chance that if Barrett improves our structure rather than having our forwards playing on the edge of the field like we've seen in recent years, either one of them might find it easier to play a smarter attacking game. I'd probably think that my cutoff price on Smith would be around the 600k mark. If it elevates above that I'd be about ready to drop out of the race for him and hope that we see some improvement in the options that JMK and Katoa (or Wakeham if the rumours of him being groomed for the hooking role are true).

We have a few positions to bolster over the next few years. I think we have about 3/5 of a decent backline. . If Meaney or Averillo fire at Fullback it looks better. We're probably still short a gun winger and centre. Cotric I think will transition well into the centres but it's still a gamble. Meaney is at least a solid winger if Averillo proves himself in the #1 (not guaranteed). Okunbor looked to be improving and has the power to be a strong option if his catching keeps improving but is far from a polished player. DWZ is good for centre or wing if his handling improves again but may quickly fall out of NRL contention if his confidence doesn't improve. Hopoate is solid always with occasional periods when he's great in attack. They're the most likely backline options. Schoupp is the only other one who gets a regular mention as a contender but from memory isn't even a development player. The level of discussion about who plays from 1-5 shows that we don't really have 5 players that are definitely going to be named every week. Our pack isn't terrible, but I think it's relying on a few decent prospects to step up a lot to be more than competitive. We have a lot off contract next year and I think that we'll see a decent amount of turnover.

 

[nedloh50]

Fuck off nasheed

yes fuck every body

 

[Alan79]

Yeah but don’t you think that it’s a bit fishy the Storm are releasing him willingly? I don’t rate the guy personally, I just don’t think his fitness is good enough to be an 80 minute dummy half! Add to that Smith is a very LOOSE cannon, his history with the Cowboys speaks volumes and I don’t think he is the gun he pretends to be, why would the Storm recruit Grant as a contingency then promote him above B. Smith when Smith has been in the Storm system a great deal longer than Grant! Seems very suspect imo!

They're not exactly dumping him. But it's better to give an unhappy player the option to look around even if they're a solid back up hooker than to have them kicking stones. Even one of the worst origin coaches in NSW history dumped a whinging Klemmer from the squad because he saw that the negativity could really rub off on the rest of the squad. At the end of the day they'll have final say on him leaving and seemingly thats reliant on them bolstering another position first. If he's forced to stay he'll be far happier IMO because they didn't outright deny him his request. They may wind up making him play out his contract. As for the loose cannon bit, he's made some borderline silly comments while celebrating a GF win. Compared to being accused of gang rape, stabbing someone, getting your dick out where a sneaky telegraph photographer could get happy snaps, assaulting police, fighting in public, assaulting your partner, getting caught using performance enhancing drugs or recreational ones. A few silly comments due to being a bit exhuberant while celebrating a GF win is pretty tame.

 

[Mak Dogs]

God reading all the butt hurt fans of other teams makes me laugh. All I want is for the dogs to be a force again so they can stfu all the haters out there. B smith and jac would be perfect inclusions to begin our dogs of war reputation back... 2022 target a centre and a big body up front and you can bet we will be a threat sooner rather then later. So a big f you to all the other supporters we will be back

Spot on bro and a double fuck you to the parra supporters

 

[bradyk]

Agree, lock forward his best bet for me and not 80mins either. Brailey, McInnes my prefered options. I get Ennis vibes from McInnes at times just needs a coach to get the attack to flourish, he's shown glimpses at times but works himself dead and hinders himself at times

B. Brailey can't play 80 minutes effectively either, that's straight from his ex-coach.

 

[DogsOfWar1704]

B. Brailey can't play 80 minutes effectively either, that's straight from his ex-coach.

Dont really rate B Brailey. Hes average

 

[CroydonDog]

Been out of position too long to be considered a hooker now.

 

[Kempsey Dog]

B. Brailey can't play 80 minutes effectively either, that's straight from his ex-coach.

His ex coach ? Dudes just started playing full time last year lol he clearly got better each game he played. His service and pass selection and shape on the ball is better than so many hookers in the game atm and he's only just started

 

[bradyk]

Dont really rate B Brailey. Hes average

If you have him you stick with him and think he has the potential to be one for the future, but that's about all he is. This year he was very average at best imo.

 

[D.O.W.]

Melbourne are bluffing everyone with this rubbish of wanting compensation for giving B Smith and early release, let’s face it, they want to offload him because he doesn’t want to be there...

 

[Kempsey Dog]

If you have him you stick with him and think he has the potential to be one for the future, but that's about all he is. This year he was very average at best imo.

Ennis thinks otherwise and his opinion on hookers is pretty good.