Trent Hodkinson, James Maloney and Chris Sandow have been sounded out as possible replacements for Daly Cherry-Evans at Gold Coast after the star playmaker reneged on his deal with the Titans to stay at Manly.
With speculation rife that Cherry-Evans was set to use the soon to be scrapped Round 13 rule to back out of the four year contract he signed in March, Gold Coast officials are understood to have made contact with Hodkinson before Wednesday but have since spoken to representatives of Maloney and Sandow.
The Titans are after a goalkicking halfback or five-eighth to partner rookie Kane Elgy at the scrum base and Hodkinson, Maloney and Sandow all fit the description.
Titans don't want to spend anything close to what Maloney was asking. They don't want to spend over $600k on a half apparentely, and they had $300k of third party offers lined up for DCE.
Sezer was valued at $400k which they believed was fair when he was released.
So assuming that they don't want to go over $600k, I wonder is that $300k + $300k endorsements ($600k total), or $600k + $300k endorsements ($900k total).
If its $600k of their own money, Maloney is still in the ballpark. If it's $600k total, Maloney is out.
Sandow was sacked from the Titans so I can't see him going back there (plus him and Jupiters/Gold Coast lifestyle are a recipie for disaster).
That leaves Trent Hodkinson, who has a cool head and won't let that way of life impact him. Trent wanted $750k a while back and was willing to take a $150k hit to sign again with the Dogs, yet still isn't getting any bites.
Assuming the Titans paid $400k for season from their own pocket (for Sezer), if they use that money + third party deals (which Hodko I'm sure could do), they could effectively pitch Trent an offer of $700k.
If they did that, I reckon he would take the deal, given what the future at Bulldogs looks like at present.
All this though begs the question... where is Maloney off too.
Dogs?