@earl said in [Dale Finucane](/post/1410009) said:@nelson said in [Dale Finucane](/post/1409871) said:@earl said in [Dale Finucane](/post/1409864) said:@nelson said in [Dale Finucane](/post/1409862) said:@earl said in [Dale Finucane](/post/1409858) said:@avocadoontoast said in [Dale Finucane](/post/1409856) said:@jedi_tiger said in [Dale Finucane](/post/1409855) said:Storm would probably want a player in order to release Smith for 2022
As much as I would not like to see it do you look at Simpkin or Liddle but he has just re signed
They can have them all
Player swaps are fantasies in the NRL. They don't really exist. They can definitely have one of them though. We keep the other as a utility.
Well, except for that whole player swap that happened last season...
It's very very rare. It only exists if two clubs and two players agree to it. There is no trade system in place.
Sure, but we at least created a blueprint for it last season. We are not doing well at the traditional methods of recruitment (i.e. be a desirable destination or throw stupid money to outbid the market) so it wouldn't hurt to try being creative.
Smith is under contract for next year so Melbourne have a say in whether or not he's released. We can make ourselves desirable to Smith by throwing stupid money at him, but then so could other clubs. Our advantage over other clubs lies in what we could offer Melbourne, given we have some of the best young talent in the league.
Smith wants his extra $400K next year and needs a release from Melbourne to get it. We can help get that release by giving up someone who, let's face it, is probably not going to be kicking and screaming about the prospect of developing their career in the best system in the game. Worth exploring.
I'd refuse to engage like that any more. It'd be really simple. We sign Smith for the year following his release from the Storm. That is the contract we negotiate. If we get a deal on that contract we go to Melbourne and state can we do a deal ? Of course you'd try to get him early if we could. Surely Liddle or Simpkin want to be getting plenty of NRL time and in that situation I reckon one of them would be happy to go.
But any club can negotiate the year after that, that's the point. We would be competing against the whole market and we have not been doing well at that. That's why, as an alternative, we could try to create a more limited market of club's that have something to offer Melbourne, where we would be more competitive.