Addin Fonua-Blake

crazycat said:
Fire Richardson now!

Bring back the old Board.

Seriously what on earth is he thinking:
Souths - 4x Burgess brothers + Chris McQueen(in good form) and some others...
Sharks - Paul Gallen + Luke Lewis + half our forward pack.
Brisbane most years.

The attitude is 100% wrong.
1. You don't bow out of a race when your opposition teams are ante'ing up. It's like playing poker, if the other person is deciding to check or raise the pot you don't Smile like an idiot. Let St George pay 1.3 for AFB...
2. We should still go for AFB, he should be our priority over Luai. I have No idea how Luai fits after our stupid halves spending spree. We have cashed up on Fainu/Sullivan/Sezer... now we add Luai we get 4 halves for two spots (including Ad).

Go for AFB. Cmon tigers get a nightmare forward pack for once. AFB would have been an upgrade on Klemmer, Bateman or paps.
Forwards play better in teams with good forwards around them. People don't want to be the player who gets pummled each game. You want Payne Haas or AFB on your team because you don't want to be running against them. we need that aggression... We haven't finished building our forward pack.

Fire Richardson, bring back Pascoe.
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Isn’t Sezer 1 year only? So for 2025 it’s only 2 halves. We need depth. If by any miracle that both fire and we have Luai then one can play 14 if they just have to be in the team.
 
Just read an SMH article with quotes from the presser and also the recent statement re withdrawing from AFB.
Earlier today he claims
“I will not recruit a player that Benji Marshall does not want at the club”.
Hours later after speaking to Benji about the current deals on offer he announces that they have withdrawn their offer for AFB.
Does this mean Benji was not sold on AFB? In what world would you be offering a contract to a player that the coach doesn’t want to have at the club?
The offer came as a bit of a surprise, who actually put forward the offer.
 
Needaname said:
Just read an SMH article with quotes from the presser and also the recent statement re withdrawing from AFB.
Earlier today he claims
“I will not recruit a player that Benji Marshall does not want at the club”.
Hours later after speaking to Benji about the current deals on offer he announces that they have withdrawn their offer for AFB.
Does this mean Benji was not sold on AFB? In what world would you be offering a contract to a player that the coach doesn’t want to have at the club?
The offer came as a bit of a surprise, who actually put forward the offer.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

Getting to the real reasons they withdrew now
 
Players of AFB's quality are extremely rare, and so I would have liked to see him here.

But understand we have more pressing issues - also sounds like a Gould move, withdraw before rejection - which saves us the rubbish from the media.
 
Needaname said:
Just read an SMH article with quotes from the presser and also the recent statement re withdrawing from AFB.
Earlier today he claims
“I will not recruit a player that Benji Marshall does not want at the club”.
Hours later after speaking to Benji about the current deals on offer he announces that they have withdrawn their offer for AFB.
Does this mean Benji was not sold on AFB? In what world would you be offering a contract to a player that the coach doesn’t want to have at the club?
The offer came as a bit of a surprise, who actually put forward the offer.
Click to expand...
That was my interpretation. That or he just didn’t feel that’s what was needed. The club felt differently and was going to sign him against Benjis need. Just like they signed Fulton without telling Sheens…muppets. So glad Richardson is with the tigers.
 
Needaname said:
Just read an SMH article with quotes from the presser and also the recent statement re withdrawing from AFB.
Earlier today he claims
“I will not recruit a player that Benji Marshall does not want at the club”.
Hours later after speaking to Benji about the current deals on offer he announces that they have withdrawn their offer for AFB.
Does this mean Benji was not sold on AFB? In what world would you be offering a contract to a player that the coach doesn’t want to have at the club?
The offer came as a bit of a surprise, who actually put forward the offer.
Click to expand...
It could be for a variety of reasons.

One being that Richo sold a vision to the board and has a mandate to execute that vision. He has consistently spoken about juniors and balancing that with recruits from other clubs.

After a chat, maybe they agreed the money could be spent better elsewhere to have a more balanced cap?

In fairness, over 1 million on a prop is pretty heavy on your cap considering who else you could sign for that money.

The decision to withdraw is understandable in context.

As we've seen every year, good players are released from their contracts and join other clubs. Opportunities will arise.

The offer probably had an air of desperation about it to get a big signing. Everyone has been under immense pressure over the last 2 seasons. I'd say it was talked about and everyone agreed.

A new administration buys a little bit of time before people start getting restless for results and perhaps they felt there was no need to risk loading the cap with a million dollar front rower for the next 4 years when they could get better value elsewhere and open a clear pathway for some juniors.
 
I think they have realised AFB was not coming to us and that’s why they have withdrawn. Can’t imagine they possibly think he wouldn’t be an asset to our pack.
I don’t agree with posters suggesting our current pack performed well enough - for one, we are short of an AFB, JFH, Tapine, Paulo, Leota etc, type prop and that deficiency is only going to be worse in ‘24
 
I see all this as just an all out effort to get Luai.

Richo has been heaping a lot of praise on Luai and it appears to not just be a recent thing either, seems that he has had a very high opinion of him for quite some time, this along with the impression that I am getting about Benji really wanting him as well tells me that this is a serious pitch at sealing the Luai deal.

Elsewhere I have seen comments made by Richo about the dollar value of forwards in comparison to other positions and I don't think that he believes AFB, as good as he is should command the type of money that a quality half would attract.

Gives me some confidence that he talks up our current forward strength.

I personally have mixed feelings about signing Luai and have not had all that much confidence in being able to pull it off anyway, but at the moment with this latest and very public sales pitch aimed at Luai, I am about as confident as I have ever been that we can actually pull it off.
 
Needaname said:
Just read an SMH article with quotes from the presser and also the recent statement re withdrawing from AFB.
Earlier today he claims
“I will not recruit a player that Benji Marshall does not want at the club”.
Hours later after speaking to Benji about the current deals on offer he announces that they have withdrawn their offer for AFB.
Does this mean Benji was not sold on AFB? In what world would you be offering a contract to a player that the coach doesn’t want to have at the club?
The offer came as a bit of a surprise, who actually put forward the offer.
Click to expand...

I called out a while back that whilst AFB makes us better it creates a massive shift in our team structure just for 1 player.

I doubt it was a Fulton v Benji situation. Richo mentioned squad management is big key rather than getting every name player. AFB signs and we have a heap of cash in the front row limiting Stef and other kids runway whilst having to find a home for Klem which would need to be agreed. If we trade someone it would be Papa probably which then creates a massive weakness in the backrow but inside defensively for our young inexperienced halves/backs.

Still think we need to go hard at Luai but AFB won’t win us more games than it would cost to bring him in & for $1m think it’s a good decision to pull the plug.
 
I have to agree that paying a prop a million dollars a year is an absolute waste. Even if they are one of the best in the game. Was only a couple of years ago the Broncos were getting spoons with Payne Haas. it’s not a position that’s going to turn a losing club into a winning one. The best course is going all in on Luai.
 
Leck said:
You could say that about Luai too.
Click to expand...

Agree. That's my only concern with Luai. Imagine Sullivan and Fainu look great in 24, and then we have to shaft one of them. I know it's no chance, but if we get Luai, I really hope we manage an early release.
 
king_sirro said:
Totally disagree. I think it's a simple explanation for a simple situation. A front rower just isn't worth that money. No more to it IMO
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Don't know why peoe can't just take what is said at face value. No, there's gotta be more to it, people aren't up front and something has to be made from nothing
We are told there's more to it but everything's a secret a.mystery or conspiracy.
It. Like some people you see out and about cannot live without drama
 
Something doesn’t add up with me. Richo also mentioned on his podcast that signing Roy Asatsi was the ice breaker for Souths to start looking like a big player. He goes on to say that in recent years Souths haven’t had the forward pack needed to compete with the big guns. He puts a huge amount of emphasis on building a strong forward pack. It had to only be about the money because AFB would be our Asotasi signing for our forward pack and significantly improve ours.
On that note as he has mentioned you need to target the tier lower; I’d expect him to be hunting around every club for a bench prop that shows the potential to grow over the next couple of years to join our club.
A Royce hunt? Davey Mole, Terrell May type.
 
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