Onitoni Large to Manly

[liltiger]

And then Latu Fainu is Luai's halves partner. I think we are missing that there is a genuine logjam of quality halves at the club & only 2 are going to play. We will lose some.

Your right we finally do have good depth in the halves though we need Latu to finally find some fitness. We need him to get playing.

 

[rex2ce]

You started with some valid points around Galvin.

But connecting stefano and papa to junior development there's no correlation.

If we let this bloke go, on contract, for nothing in return, then we should be concerned though, you are right there.

I'm sure we'll find out over the next few days.

How are Manly able to make him an offer whilst he’s on contract ?

 

[user118245]

How are Manly able to make him an offer whilst he’s on contract ?

Because we don’t know the full story yet

 

[Tiger_Yoshi]

So Manly sign this 17yo kid to a 3 year deal....yet he is under contract with the WT till he is 20....numbers don't add up...Richo launch an investigation!>..

 

[hank37w]

I think the club is a sleeping (maybe comatose) giant and we’ve gone from a clueless nobody to a ruthless guy who knows the business inside out. It took him 5 secs to close a deal Pascoe couldn’t do in 9 years (origin playmaker ) He went on a week long media whinge and got $40 million for LO. The Galvin stuff is only half done.

His health and his bosses concern me.

💯

 

[stephen]

The missed tackles, kick out on the full and errors say otherwise

Situation normal.

 

[hank37w]

Larges management would just be saying if Galvin goes you’ve got Latu waiting, you don’t need us.

Who cares what his management says, if he's on contract we should be in the box seat.

We also come back with, "Latu hasn't proved his long term fitness and durability yet, there is still a pathway and opportunity here for your client."

But like I said, he is still on contract so we don't really have to say anything other than, "honour it."

 

[hank37w]

I think fullback is the go turbo mite last 18 months - 2 years

He might also not make it through the pre-season.

 

[Tom Shines]

Who cares what his management says, if he's on contract we should be in the box seat.

We also come back with, "Latu hasn't proved his long term fitness and durability yet, there is still a pathway and opportunity here for your client."

But like I said, he is still on contract so we don't really have to say anything other than, "honour it."

Come on mate ..surely a 17 yr old and his agent are going to be telling Richo what he should do…

 

[BlackWhiteGold]

Come on mate ..surely a 17 yr old and his agent are going to be telling Richo what he should do…

Exactly. Since there has been no official word from the WT aka Richo, I expect that we will be compensated appropriately by MW hopefully more than financial but by either taking Bateman/Naden or releasing Bullemore to us.

 

[hank37w]

Come on mate ..surely a 17 yr old and his agent are going to be telling Richo what he should do…

Exactly.

I 'd really like to know what is going on, it just doesn't make sense at the moment.

 

[Juice]

Exactly. Since there has been no official word from the WT aka Richo, I expect that we will be compensated appropriately by MW hopefully more than financial but by either taking Bateman/Naden or releasing Bullemore to us.

Bateman could be possible with Lawton signing for cowboys but Naden would be 0 chance of happening. I don’t think anyone in the league would take that guy sadly

 

[jirskyr]

It's a tough one, considering we bought the Fainus from Manly and they were considered amongst the best juniors going around right now.

And Newcastle grabbed Ponga, Panthers signed Talagi etc.

If you are willing to make big offers to juniors, you will nab some really good ones. Clubs are rarely able to hoard juniors at those inflated prices, esp clubs like Tigers who do not have a history of success.

For Manly it just remains to be seen if Large turns out like DCE who Manly bought from Qld, or a Schuster who also had massive junior raps.

Specific to Large we cannot overlook that he was a Wests junior, then took a deal at Roosters, then came back to Tigers and has now secured a release for Manly, all the while being selected in Union teams and taking Union scholarships. Real mercenary "own brand" attitude if I've ever seen one.

 

[jirskyr]

Good clubs sign their youngsters to long term contracts, let them develop and bring them through when others leave which helps balance the salary cap.

We let the blokes coming through go, lose the good first graders we have and then are forced to blood kids that aren’t ready.

The good ones then move on and we end up with a roster made up of those that don’t develop and deadwood.

Honestly that's not how it works any more, it's not just a Tigers thing.

Top-tier junior talent has a huge bargaining chip for any club who is short in a particular position, and can earn top dollar by moving around. Loyalty is a very distant consideration.

And when half of all the best juniors don't become successful career players anyway, it's in their best interests to secure big early (perhaps desperate) deals before they've truly been tested at the top level.

E.g. Schuster, who had junior raps on him as good as any big 5/8th cum backrower has had in the last 20 years. Used that pedigree to secure a big last junior deal from Manly, then his first adult contract also on big dollars, leveraging other clubs interest to max out the deal.

Fast forward 2 seasons and he's cooked and Manly are on the hook for a big value 4-year deal for a bloke that cannot maintain a decent output. And he was tearing the juniors to shreds when he played kids half his size who could not tackle.

But Schuster would be doing just fine, he's been paid a few million by Manly for about 40 average matches and about 10 good ones.

And not to forget the manager's cut on each transaction. It's a real feeding frenzy at the junior level.

 

[jirskyr]

They have developed the best junior system perhaps in the history of the game. A system so good that when they move players on, they have kids that they have groomed to step up and they don‘t even miss a beat. I wouldn’t be crying either.

They didn't just "develop" it, they are sitting on a gold mine of geographic and demographic potential.

For example you can mock the Easts junior network all you want, and I encourage that, but the reality is not so many kids in the Eastern Suburbs are playing League, and it's a catchment with very clear boundaries.

Penrith has the biggest junior participation in the country, not just because of their work, but because of the demographics of the families who move out West. Their boundaries continue to expand as Sydney grows to the foot of the mountains and North and South West.

It's been true for 40 years, but also credit to Penrith that they've periodically managed to capture that potential in a bottle.

 

[jirskyr]

It smacks of Tedesco and Paps all over again. The club was certain Tedesco was going to re sign and let the up and coming Paps walk. Let's hope history isn't repeating.

That's not what happened.

Tigers made an offer to Paps and it was equal to the Storm offer. But Paps saw Tedesco ahead of him, whilst Storm made a personal pitch to have him come down and understudy with Billy Slater. Paps said himself he didn't think Tedesco would leave. Paps himself was actually an Eels junior before Balmain scouted him.

Paps has said all this on record. He took the Storm deal and after that Tedesco signed with the Roosters.

Tigers made very good offers to both players but we were competing, in this instance, with Uncle Nick and Craig Bellamy.

 

[jirskyr]

Best of luck to him. Manly's success depend solely on Turbos fitness. IMO they are around their peak at the moment.

100% any current Manly success is predicated on Turbo and DCE. Not clear how Manly does when they are gone.

 

[BAGNF05]

Exactly.

I 'd really like to know what is going on, it just doesn't make sense at the moment.

It makes perfect sense we are stacked at five eighth to the point of embarrassing and we have huge holes elsewhere.

 

[BAGNF05]

Who cares what his management says, if he's on contract we should be in the box seat.

We also come back with, "Latu hasn't proved his long term fitness and durability yet, there is still a pathway and opportunity here for your client."

But like I said, he is still on contract so we don't really have to say anything other than, "honour it."

At some point you need to back your own decisions, something we have failed at for 15 years.

 

[Tiger_Yoshi]

It's a tough one, considering we bought the Fainus from Manly and they were considered amongst the best juniors going around right now.

And Newcastle grabbed Ponga, Panthers signed Talagi etc.

If you are willing to make big offers to juniors, you will nab some really good ones. Clubs are rarely able to hoard juniors at those inflated prices, esp clubs like Tigers who do not have a history of success.

For Manly it just remains to be seen if Large turns out like DCE who Manly bought from Qld, or a Schuster who also had massive junior raps.

Specific to Large we cannot overlook that he was a Wests junior, then took a deal at Roosters, then came back to Tigers and has now secured a release for Manly, all the while being selected in Union teams and taking Union scholarships. Real mercenary "own brand" attitude if I've ever seen one.

This is "the age" of this generation....