If Gus Gould is Gold as we think what's the best possible signings he could make for 2024. In my opinion it would be these 3 AND we have an inside advantage with all 3. Williams or Klemmer could actually be for 2023 using Jacko's money
George Williams - best 7 available if he wants to come back to Australia. Bateman does and he said in an article a few months ago he thinks Williams would have stayed in Aust if it wasn't for Covid flight restrictions making him homesick. Williams has the perfect short kicking game to compliment Burton's long kicking game. Long term friend of Ryan Sutton according to this article
Nobody was more excited than Ryan Sutton when the Canberra Raiders announced they had signed George Williams for the upcoming season.
www.nrl.com
Latrell Mitchell - definitely the best fullback "available" and can often be the difference in winning big matches against even the best teams. A genuine gamebreaker on his day. Mates with JAC. I've noticed a few recent photos of them out and about together in England. Many say Latrell will never leave the Bunnies. Many said the same thing when he was at the Roosters. Why wasn't he extended before Nov 1 then ?
David Klemmer - great metre eater. Big body. Now has an offload again which he never used under Des. We really need some experience in the engine room with Jacko and Vaughan gone. The only player (besides Reynolds) able to qualify for our 200K long term player allowance so we'll virtually get him at a 200K discount under the cap. (eg: we pay him 650K but only 450K is counted on our cap) Big advantage so we should use it. Mates with Josh Reynolds. Leniu I imagine would cost us around 500K
1 Latrell Mitchell
2 JAC
3 Aaron Schoupp / Alamoti / Skelton / Averillo
4 Braidon Burns
5 Jacob Kiraz
6 Matt Burton
7 George Williams
8 David Klemmer / Spencer Leniu
9 Reed Mahoney
10 TPJ
11 Viliame Kikau
12 RFM
13 Max King
14 BBO
15 Ryan Sutton
16 Andrew Davey
17 Franklin Pele
18 Jackson Topine
Random that we signed Sutton out of nowhere and maybe signing JAC was part of a plan also to attract Latrell. Wouldn't surprise me if signing these 2 were part of a bigger plan to also get George Williams and Latrell. Remember also how Gus was about the only one who immediately and very publicly defended Latrell over his illegal hit on Manu.
It would take around 1.1M to sign Moses and around 700K to sign Crichton so say 1.8M in total. Mitchell at 1.1M and Williams at around 700k would cost around the same and better use of the same money with 2 genuine gamebreakers.
Shedding Jacko, Thompson, Flanagan and Allan frees up around 2.3M for 2024 plus we can get a bit more if we let go of other off contract players like Waddell etc