Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Lukic said:
Cap space is always good to have. We can front load contracts and pick up players who suddenly become available a lot easier.

Ofahengaue is a good player and teammate for sure, but his role in the team and going forward didn't match up with his contract.

We have four props in the first grade team already without Joe. Klemmer, Stef, Twal and Pole. We also want to shift towards having a ball player at 13. Joe's the odd man out and an easy choice if we can move his salary. Matamua to 13 and Pole to 16 and we're not much worse off, if at all.

We're 2 and 8 this year. I'm not worried about depth this year because we're not winning a comp. We can fix that next year. Klemmer, Bateman, Koroisau, Twal and Papali'i means our pack has plenty of experience without Joe.
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You can through Blore into that prop rotation as well. I reckon he offers more than Offa.
 
hank37w said:
Blake could be okay if the price is right as back up depth to replace Tommy Talau because we definitely need some depth for centre, but I wouldn't get involved in a bidding war for him as I believe he is out of contract at the end of this season.

I haven't heard anything about Parramatta wanting to extend him or anyone making offers so far which could have been made since last November if he is off contract this year.

That guy has been known to destroy us when he has played against us in years gone by, but you could guarantee that the way he has been playing in more recent times, dropping bombs and suspect defence wise, if he was playing for us he would destroy us from within.

The guy has some mistakes in his game, admittedly there is the odd flash of brilliance but that isn't too often these days.

I would argue that Toa is as good, if not better than him at the moment and seems to be improving every game with the added advantage of still being young with plenty of up side.
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Blake would be appalling under any circumstances. We currently have no depth, and very little quality at centre. All of our centres are pretty bang average. Having 5 average centres in the squad doesn't help us win matches. We need to sign stars, ideally current, and if we can't we at least need to sign the hottest youngsters around. We've been doing neither in recent years, though Api, Papa and Klem is a step in the right direction
 
finnzo said:
He’s aloud to play now already as of round 11 you can play players from outside top 30 I was thinking more for next year
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It would be just like us to promote him to the top 30 now when we can actually play him and see how he goes in the top grade first and keep our options open.

That would be a completely brain dead move just like extending Doueihi for a year before a game was even played and now we carry the Salary Cap liability and a top 30 spot taken up for an extra year for nothing in return.
 
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balmain boy said:
We've been doing this for years and still can't spend our money. This is the last resort on the planet kind of option.
Not spending our cap every year is why we won the spoon last year, and why we're coming last this year. Other teams have quality players, we don't.
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No other mitigating factors, eh?

(I would argue that Koroisau, Klemmer, Papali'i and Bateman are most definitely quality, even if they're not out and out superstars)

Look, I get it; the 'all this money all the time and no-one to spend it on' argument. And it's true. But that money hasn't been spent not due to a lack of chasing quality players, but, so far, an ability to regularly land big names, which is primarily due to a sustained lack of success over a long period of time, coupled with errors in the negotiation process.

But we will continue to chase the best players available in the positions we need moving forward and you need cap space in order to do that. You also need cap space in order to retain your best juniors, which, along with an inability to land a big fish, has been something that has bit us massively over the last 10 years.

All clubs lose players, the difference is that those with cap space may chose who they lose, whereas those who redline their cap will have players begrudgingly squeezed out. Obviously, the powers that be had decided that Joffa was surplus to requirements, particularly considering his upcoming salary and felt that they could better balance the squad moving forward by seeing if they could find a suitor.
 
If we could get rid of joffa AD and brooks the high profile clean out would be complete

Saving over $2M per year

For garbage

Joffa is rubbish

90% of the time he gets tackled he has a slow play the ball bc he gets up and looks at the ref and shakes his head for not getting a penalty … just play the ball dude
 
Wearyfan22 said:
Yep. The "freeing up cap space" argument is ridiculous. Cap space is not our issue. We just can't sign quality players at the moment. Joffa is a quality player and person and he will be a loss.

The argument about freeing up a top 30 spot falls down too, because we are now able to select outside top 30.

The only argument with some weight is that he is blocking the pathways of some of our young forwards. Problem with that is, you need one or 2 injuries in the pack to experienced forwards and then we will be crying out for someone like Joffa. Just can't understand it.
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No we can't sign a player from ANOTHER club if we don't have a top 30 spot. A decent player isn't coming over on a train and trial contract.
You're talking about promoting from within which is totally different.
 
tigermate said:
Joffa is rubbish

90% of the time he gets tackled he has a slow play the ball bc he gets up and looks at the ref and shakes his head for not getting a penalty … just play the ball dude
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He was our best player last year. He hasn't had an impact this year and we can probably spend the money (if we can spend it) elsewhere but he also had a poor pre-season and you would think he will regain form at some point.
 
Kelce68 said:
My post was a load of crap?

Thanks.

Is that what you got from my entire post? Plenty of other posters have laid out the numerous ways this situation will help us, I suggest you have a read of these perspectives.

I'm not suggesting we have to wait for anything, I'm saying that smart operators, if there's a dearth of options available in the present, will store resources patiently for a time in the future where they can responsibly and deliberately spend that money.

The alternative is spend millions on what is around now, regardless of what quality is available, i.e. the Ivan approach. If you'd like to go back to Packer, Reynolds, McQueen and Matulino, then best of luck.
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NO , I am saying dumping players like joffa is a really dum idea , yes we have good numbers in the forwards, but it only takes a couple of injuries and ur putting kids in who are not ready , and for gods sake what are we getting out of it , we have over a million in cap and there will be more dead wood dumped at the end of the season, so unless we get a player that we can use tell these clubs to Pisa off
 
Kelce68 said:
Kelce68 said:
Wot.

In a market where no-one of note is available, what exactly do you propose? Teams can only work with what is available at the time. If somebody becomes agitated or unwanted/underutilised, but is under contract, they become an option too. This is how we got Klemmer, this is how the Eels have gotten Joffa.

I really like Joffa, but a reported $600k for our 4/5th choice prop (which is what he's become this year) in the rotation who is playing 30/40 minutes off the bench is bad business. Our forward pack has quickly become our strength and likely greatest depth, therefore, we've got some toys that we can trade in to hopefully strengthen other areas of the squad that are glaringly in need of an upgrade. How is freeing up that cash and a roster spot a bad thing?

Unless of course you're suggesting that we keep paying him $600k to play off the bench for the next 2.5 years.
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Wot.

In a market where no-one of note is available, what exactly do you propose? Teams can only work with what is available at the time. If somebody becomes agitated or unwanted/underutilised, but is under contract, they become an option too. This is how we got Klemmer, this is how the Eels have gotten Joffa.

I really like Joffa, but a reported $600k for our 4/5th choice prop (which is what he's become this year) in the rotation who is playing 30/40 minutes off the bench is bad business. Our forward pack has quickly become our strength and likely greatest depth, therefore, we've got some toys that we can trade in to hopefully strengthen other areas of the squad that are glaringly in need of an upgrade. How is freeing up that cash and a roster spot a bad thing?

Unless of course you're suggesting that we keep paying him $600k to play off the bench for the next 2.5 years.
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It's a shit contract that this Club designed for him only 6 months ago. Why offer it in the first place?
We are $1m under the Cap for 2023 BEFORE the release of Ofahengaue.
Why don't we spend to our Cap?
Parra are desperate for him, did we leverage anything for his immediate release?
Just like Matterson, Aloiai, Leilua etc etc we let them go for no compensation. Shit Club run by Muppets.
 
Eternal Tiger said:
It's a shit contract that this Club designed for him only 6 months ago. Why offer it in the first place?
We are $1m under the Cap for 2023 BEFORE the release of Ofahengaue.
Why don't we spend to our Cap?
Parra are desperate for him, did we leverage anything for his immediate release?
Just like Matterson, Aloiai, Leilua etc etc we let them go for no compensation. Shit Club run by Muppets.
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We can't leverage a player leaving when it was us shopping him to other clubs to unload him .
Parra did us a favour taking a player who isn't NRL standard because they're in a desperate injury situation.
 
bptiger 0 said:
NO , I am saying dumping players like joffa is a really dum idea , yes we have good numbers in the forwards, but it only takes a couple of injuries and ur putting kids in who are not ready , and for gods sake what are we getting out of it , we have over a million in cap and there will be more dead wood dumped at the end of the season, so unless we get a player that we can use tell these clubs to Pisa off
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Yeh, if we go down three props suddenly to injury after transferring him out, then that'll suck. I like joffa. He's just being outplayed and is now, and for the next two years too, overpaid for his contribution.

But I guess that's the (albeit small) risk you take with any player movement discussion and if there's a position that we can fill best in that situation across our squad, it's probably prop.

Stef, Klemmer, papali'i, Blore, twal, pole, seyfarth can all play in the middle if needs be, not to mention possible reserves options. But you don't make these kinds of decisions based upon possible catastrophic injury tolls in the future.
 
Eternal Tiger said:
It's a shit contract that this Club designed for him only 6 months ago. Why offer it in the first place?
We are $1m under the Cap for 2023 BEFORE the release of Ofahengaue.
Why don't we spend to our Cap?
Parra are desperate for him, did we leverage anything for his immediate release?
Just like Matterson, Aloiai, Leilua etc etc we let them go for no compensation. Shit Club run by Muppets.
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Good, then you agree that it's a shit contract and we've just managed to erase it and make it Parra's problem now.

In the last 6 months we've had papali'i confirm he was coming afterall, Klemmer sign on and Bateman sign on. So would it be fair to say that the landscape in our forward stocks may have changed since he signed that contract do you think?

1 million under you say? Do you know this for sure?

If you're saying why don't we spend to our cap, can you demonstrate what you mean by that, as in, right now, how would you spend the money?

Parramatta are desperate? They're in need of middle, certainly, but by all reports it is us who have been shopping him around. Which, to me, indicates that the club too, see that he is now expensive for his role in the squad.
 
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