Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

The only chance of that happening is due to managers (Bateman with Isaac Moses v Big O with Tartak), stranger things have happened!

When you include the transfer fee we had to pay to get Sheen's "domino" Bateman to the club we would have spent approx 1 million dollars on him.I doubt very much the club would trade him for anybody as it would be a new low even for our mob in player transfers.
 
The blame lies with our chairman Lee and nobody else.The length of the contract was ridiculous
What's terrifying is that we're loading up on these contracts. I'm prepared to bet that by this time next year we'll have 100% dead money going to both Nofoaluma and Bateman. We'd also better bloody well hope Sullivan and Fainu are our next halves pairing because we have both of them signed until 2027. I think Klemmer has been very underrated this year but we'll still be paying him a monster deal the year after next. Brent Naden will still be getting paid - though I hope and assume not very much - by the Tigers in 2025.

I do understand why this happens. Crappy clubs like ours can only sign and retain free agents by giving them more money or extra years, and we have obviously decided to go down the latter route. The problem is it means you have to get more or less all your signing decisions right: we're going to be going onto 2025 with something like A$1.5m of cap money committed to Nofoaluma, Bateman and Naden - who more than likely won't be playing first grade for us (or, if they are, won't be helping).

However, it is also yet another reason why it's basically impossible to build your roster from the ground up with free agents. You can try to be the Panthers and the Bulldogs. The latter route is the one that gets everyone excited, because it includes big name signings. But it isn't the one that works.
 
Ice, Bateman, Api, both Fainus, Blore, Pole, Toa, Utoikamanu, and even Tupou are possible getting a call up. possibly some juniors like S Saukuru, Jordan Miller get called up to Fiji, Kit may get called up to Tonga for experience (less likely given their strength). So we may see a number of boys called up... Who knows how many established players pull out of national team matches or how much depth the pacific teams have, there's often a few obscure players so our top juniors may well be in the reckoning.
 
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