ET to Rugby?

[southerntiger]

Rugby always raises its head for a player when its contract negotiation time, agent's will try anything to lift a player's asking price!! Don't believe he would seriously be considering switching codes at this point in time in his career.

the Waratahs knocked back Hayne early into the negotiations.
I can't really see ET making it. mainly because the position he plays doesn't easily translate.
At this stage of ET's career his managers will just be trying to get top dollar.

I don't see where he would play as well. He isn't big enough to be a rugby forward and he is too slow for the backline. I don't think he would make it in the halves either.

Flanker is the only position I can see him suited to with his body shape. Given the Australian teams are blessed with world class flankers, I can't see him getting a gig there. It is also one of the most technical positions. Get it right, and you can be the difference between winning and losing. Get it wrong, and your side will be penalised all day long.

ET would be nuts to play rugby at this stage of his career.

 

[stevetiger]

Rugby always raises its head for a player when its contract negotiation time, agent's will try anything to lift a player's asking price!! Don't believe he would seriously be considering switching codes at this point in time in his career.

the Waratahs knocked back Hayne early into the negotiations.
I can't really see ET making it. mainly because the position he plays doesn't easily translate.
At this stage of ET's career his managers will just be trying to get top dollar.

I don't see where he would play as well. He isn't big enough to be a rugby forward and he is too slow for the backline. I don't think he would make it in the halves either.

Flanker is the only position I can see him suited to with his body shape. Given the Australian teams are blessed with world class flankers, I can't see him getting a gig there. It is also one of the most technical positions. Get it right, and you can be the difference between winning and losing. Get it wrong, and your side will be penalised all day long.

ET would be nuts to play rugby at this stage of his career.

It's not going to happen is it.

 

[Doc_Tiger]

Whilst listening to ABC Grandstand before yesterdays game, Matt Elliott was speaking of how a club tries to juggle their salary cap. It's horrendously complicated due to it being so fluid. One thing he mentioned was that the simple fact is, in general terms, most players are paid overs or unders. Very few are paid exactly what they are actually worth. As others have said, those lower tier players are very important and have little impact on the club securing the services of those on higher payments. What hinders gathering (or securing) a group of top players is too much being given to too few. Things need to be spread out more as Manly did for some years recently.

 

[andrew 474]

I think he will be with us next year and he will sign on for min 2 years , I think we may be close to securing him and if we have a loss over the next few weeks this is the kind of news the club can use to soften the blow of a loss to keep things rolling still , the club has signed a few guys knowing we needed to sign ET as well so I thinks it's only a matter of time before we hear so more good news

 

[Tigertigertiger]

He has been a great buy

ET phone home!!

 

[balmain boy]

With all due respect to the above comment but I have to disagree.
Whilst ET is a very important player currently to the style we play. You cannot go down the path of paying all out for one player as we have been caught out doing in the past.
In trying to build a quality side, squad depth is very important, even more important is the chance of keeping players that have been exposed to the system whilst also being exposed to first grade. In most cases buying within has the potential to secure those players on a less inflated contract due to the fact they are already happy within their surroundings.
Had we moved our squaddies on, we would be stuck paying slightly over's to bring someone with similar experience from another club or buying rookies and starting over again.

But we still very well could keep all 3 even if ET was signed first. Of those players ET is the one most likely to get offered more elsewhere. Clubs wouldn't be offering fringe players much more than what we could, and if they were happy and we said we'll be able to sign you at the end of the season there's still a decent chance they'd stay.

On the other hand ET getting offered more money might be less likely to wait a few months until we maybe have enough cash to offer him what he wants.

Well i guess it depends on the cash situation we find ourselves in.
If we can sign all three without changes to the current squad, then yes the argument stands.
We are led to believe that it is not possible at this stage with how we are placed with the cap.

I do get the feeling though, due to Mania moving on and Geo's subtle hints, that that has free'd up enough cash for next year. Even if the club planned on re-signing Mania on less than $200, it's still money that is available now.
But still I ask why haven't the club confirmed it.
Are they waiting for a chance to rectify an unfortunate announcement with a good one?

I think you guys missed the point. You have to have players on minimum wage. Wether you sign them now or later makes 0 difference to how much cap space you have to spend.

Nope, didn't miss the point. I think you did. Yes we have to have players on minimum wage. Yes the total cap space remains the same. It's the priority which you place upon the signings. Do you sign 2-3 squaddies first, or do you sign a star player first?

Once Robbie is sorted, or another player or two leave then the squaddies could easily be signed as few (if any) would be chasing them as a priority. If we don't sign ET in the next few weeks he possibly goes elsewhere.

We chose to re-sign squaddies before the star player, which might end up costing us the star player. I'd rather keep the star player and risking losing a squaddie or two, than lose a player that's been absolutely crucial for us. How many games have we lost since ET joined?

I think ET's got a good head on his shoulders and something will be worked out soon though.