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This is nonsense. There are plenty of players who are 100% committed on the pitch without being scumbags off it, and vice versa. Look at Luai: absolute pest on the field, seems to be a really top guy on his own time. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is another: one of the game's leading enforcers for...

I've no idea what their salary cap looks like for 2025 - in all honesty, looking at their current roster and the players they've already lost for next season I find it hard to imagine they're in that much cap strife. But it's not a question of being "smarter": if their cap is under pressure they...

Once again the idea that players are all on the same contract and all have equal value to other clubs. Garner and Eisenhuth will be on minimum salary or close to it, so there is literally zero value in releasing them unless they need the roster spot: they don't free up any cap room at all, as...

Papali'i's deal for 2025 is reportedly $750k. Assuming that's right - and who knows, TBF - that's what he'll cost for next year as that's what he's contractually entitled to, regardless of how he's played the previous two years.

Utoikamanu gone - official.

Yes, which is why there haven't been any offers to take Bateman. Keeping Bateman and releasing Papali'i doesn't mean anyone thinks Bateman is better - it just shows that there's a market for decent players on manageable contracts and there isn't one for poor players on shocking contracts.

I'm sure at this point in time all of us would swap places with Parra, but it's not a model of 'success' I want to follow: a brief spell near the top followed by a rapid collapse back to spoon contention as the chickens come home to roost with the big contracts you've handed out. The Bulldogs...

I think the issue is that only a really, really dumb club would outright cheat the cap now in the sense of doing the type of thing the Storm did a decade or so back - two sets of books or similar. What will be far more prevalent is things like when players conveniently walk away from massive...

I'm absolutely not convinced Benji is the answer as coach but giving bloody Bateman the arsehole is a long, long way down the list of reasons why. It's not on it, in fact.

He's playing a simpler role in a better team. Also, sometimes players improve - they respond to different coaching, or a different style of play, or they realise they're running out of chances and focus. It happens.

I think you've missed my point. I don't think that should be the discussion because I don't think it's true. Most players are more or less exactly the same after they leave the Tigers as they were when they were here, and the ones that obviously take a genuine step-change upwards are the ones...

I actually went through the list of Wests Tigers players on Wikipedia and I thought I'd picked out more or less everyone who left for another club rather than just disappearing from the comp. I didn't include Tedesco, Moses or Taupau as these were players the Tigers were keen to keep and who...

This gets said a lot but it doesn't really stand up to scrutiny. Most players who have left the Tigers have absolutely not set the world on fire. Going through the list: Aloiai is worse than he was here, Hastings is exactly the same, Peachey never came back to first grade and Daine Laurie hasn't...

I didn't, I'm reproducing someone else's comments. It's the first I've heard of it and I'm wondering if there's anything to it. As I said, I don't know anything about the source of that post.

I happened to come across the following on rugby union social media (it just popped up on my feed, honest). I should say I have no idea who this guy is or what his mail might be, so presented without any endorsement whatsoever. From comments on an article about clubs chasing Onitoni Large: I’m...

Sivo is contracted for next year so he's not going to take any deal for 2024 only. Also he's not first grade standard anymore. Would be a complete waste of a roster spot.

Personally I'd rather sign players who, y'know, play football. If we want a standards setter and culture we could give another contract to Matt Ballin. The brutal truth is that the Sharks gave Finucane a three-year deal for which they're going to get 33 games. I don't care if the bloke is...

Yet another player various people on here were desperate to sign because they don't understand the concept of ageing.

Sivo is unplayable nowadays. Parra fans are absolutely desperate to see the back of him: slow, bad defender, lazy. He'd be a shocking signing.

Sorry it was so hard for you, "pal".