Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[hank37w]

Shawn Blore. Stefano Utoikamanu and Tommy Talau have all made the Emerging Blues 29 man squad ??

Good acknowledgment for these guys but does anyone know if there are any classifications to who is eligible for the emerging blues? Moses Leota is 25 years old and played 81 NRL games. He might want to fully emerge soon if he’s going to get many origin years in before he retires.



You make a very good point about eligibility for the Emerging Blues Squad, but as far as I can tell there are no set guidelines or restrictions on who may qualify for the squad other than them being possible future selections and giving them a little bit of exposure to the highest level of the NRL.

Having a look at the list theres no slouches taking up space on it. Highly rated and promising players the lot of them, should give us a lot of confidence and pride 3 of our squad managed to make it in.

I agree and congratulations to all 3 of our boys who have been terrific signings for us, but unless I am mistaken, none of the 3 are actually our local juniors, which reinforces my concern about abandoning growth/junior areas.

 

[Jedi_Tiger]

one for the conspiracy theories probably but a mate of mine is friends with one of the Newcastle players and he reckons Andrew McCullough to St George (which we know is likely) an Cameron Smith to Brisbane Broncos for 2021 will be announced once McCullough deal is done

Do they have cap room for Cam, or is that not an issue like other years

I’d say so.
As he is unsigned at this stage he is forgoing any salary from November, December, January which means whatever club signs him only needs to pay 9/12s of his market rate on the cap.
Now we know Cam loves money and diamond rings so he wouldn’t want to play for the broncos for $500,000 however we also know that the Broncos have over 2million dollars of qualified third party payments with which you’d expect they would find another couple of hundred to top up the deal.
Makes more sense than the Titans whom I would say that would have less cap space than the Broncos.

Not necessarily
You would think that Cam Smith is good mates with Mal Meninga
Australian coach and Australian Captain
Qld Coach and Qld Captain
There is alot of history between those two

my mate also said that the player said broncos assistant coach for 2022 also so who knows

 

[PJ_]

RTS set to quit warriors at end of 2021 to play for All Blacks

He realises it's the All Blacks and not the Wobblies?

You actually have to be the best of the best to get a run with them.

You don't think he has what it takes mate?
I haven't followed union since school so don't know the all blacks side.

He's a great RL fullback. Don't know if he'd crack the All Blacks though. He won't be a walk up start like most league converts to Australian Rugby.

Gotcha ?

 

[balmain boy]

Jock Madden told us after training that Matty Johns is at the club to help mentor the halves, especially Brooksy. Awesome to see him at the club, looked very dedicated today. Great vibes around the joint at the moment. Future certainly looks promising!
 

So it turns out Matty Johns is not on the coaching roster, just doing a favour for Madge.

More importantly, Photo-gate continues. How did fox get access to those photos and why didnt they give credit to the source?

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-premiership/nrl-2021-cameron-smith-storm-future-cameron-mcinnes-andrew-mccullough-dragons-contract-matty-johns-at-tigers-james-hooper-column/news-story/0b175e5f9a317a22db8759550c3084cd

As soon as they got posted on social media they're fair game for anyone

No, they're not. A company making a profit has to credit the source of the image. If they used it without permission they are open to being sued for compensation...

Pretty sure as soon as you post it on Facebook it becomes public if you have it set to public - which they must have done especially if it was a Facebook page. Hence fox sports being able to save it and use it.

Incorrect.

Facebook may have the right to use anything you upload for their own promotional purposes but private businesses can't just take whatever they want and use it. They have no idea on if the publisher had ownership of the image or stole it from someone else....

They just have to message the person and say hey can we use your image in an article and many will say sure...

 

[JC99]

"The NRL will introduce a radical change to its eligibility rules in 2021 in a return to the halcyon days of rugby league.

The Townsville Bulletin can reveal the NRL has rushed through a rule change to allow clubs to dip into their feeder club stocks midway through the season as injuries begin to hit.

Players outside of the a club’s top-30 roster can be called up from their Queensland Cup or NSW Cup teams from Round 11.

An NRL spokesman confirmed the rule change but added that the players must be signed to club’s on a training deal to take the field."

Don't see many guys outside the top 30/development squad getting a run but it's good incentive for the reserve graders to work harder and adds a little more competition for spots.

 

[finnzo]

"The NRL will introduce a radical change to its eligibility rules in 2021 in a return to the halcyon days of rugby league.

The Townsville Bulletin can reveal the NRL has rushed through a rule change to allow clubs to dip into their feeder club stocks midway through the season as injuries begin to hit.

Players outside of the a club’s top-30 roster can be called up from their Queensland Cup or NSW Cup teams from Round 11.

An NRL spokesman confirmed the rule change but added that the players must be signed to club’s on a training deal to take the field."

Don't see many guys outside the top 30/development squad getting a run but it's good incentive for the reserve graders to work harder and adds a little more competition for spots.

It essentially makes your top 30 bigger as well no need to upgrade players like edeen gebi (or how ever you spell it) to top 30 any more

 

[weststigerman]

"The NRL will introduce a radical change to its eligibility rules in 2021 in a return to the halcyon days of rugby league.

The Townsville Bulletin can reveal the NRL has rushed through a rule change to allow clubs to dip into their feeder club stocks midway through the season as injuries begin to hit.

Players outside of the a club’s top-30 roster can be called up from their Queensland Cup or NSW Cup teams from Round 11.

An NRL spokesman confirmed the rule change but added that the players must be signed to club’s on a training deal to take the field."

Don't see many guys outside the top 30/development squad getting a run but it's good incentive for the reserve graders to work harder and adds a little more competition for spots.

I’m assuming there is some sort of second tier salary cap to stop clubs stockpiling their feeder clubs with the best talent just below top 30 level?

 

[ConePuncher]

Does anyone know when the tickets for the trial game against Manly go on sale?

 

[jrtiger]

"The NRL will introduce a radical change to its eligibility rules in 2021 in a return to the halcyon days of rugby league.

The Townsville Bulletin can reveal the NRL has rushed through a rule change to allow clubs to dip into their feeder club stocks midway through the season as injuries begin to hit.

Players outside of the a club’s top-30 roster can be called up from their Queensland Cup or NSW Cup teams from Round 11.

An NRL spokesman confirmed the rule change but added that the players must be signed to club’s on a training deal to take the field."

Don't see many guys outside the top 30/development squad getting a run but it's good incentive for the reserve graders to work harder and adds a little more competition for spots.

V'Landys has spoken about wanting to bring back the second tier cap for ages. good move.

 

[Geo]

When you make the Townsville Bulletin..you know you have made it..

It's good move scope than just development players as it is now.. Clubs can be smart in adding overage players without taking up a top 30 roster spot and give fringe guys more incentive to perform

 

[Cobarcats]

Roger is a class act. I've played Rugby all my life and he will make it as an All Black trust me, only thing he'll have to work on is a kick return or clearing kicks and catching box kicks. He's got the muscle, speed and a football brain to make it. I wish he was a Wallaby.

 

[happy_tiger]

Marty Johns saying he wasn't at tigers in an official role, went down because he's close to Madge and Shane Millard. Said he's happy to lend a hand from time to time though but not an actual coach

I think the club is being careful after we tried to hire Laurie Daley last year (or was it the year before) and we were knocked back from Toddy. Clever approach. And good to see Matt there, officially, or unofficially.

It was knocked back because he works for a betting agency. It was stupid for us to even approach him.

Exactly Gal ...they were completely different situations

 

[Deleted member 3518]

Roger is a class act. I've played Rugby all my life and he will make it as an All Black trust me, only thing he'll have to work on is a kick return or clearing kicks and catching box kicks. He's got the muscle, speed and a football brain to make it. I wish he was a Wallaby.

He’d be a walk up start for the wallabies. IMO he’s streets better than Folau , and Folau was first picked for the wallabies .
Seriously when the ARU engaged all us middle class footy players around 2000, they were really on to something . It’s kind of ironic how history repeats itself , where they took their newly engaged middle class supporters and players for that mind , for granted , and now we end up where we are now .
Maybe that’s the point though . Maybe it was less about playing footy and and winning and more about networking for an executive job at Macquarie bank.

 

[Harvey]

"The NRL will introduce a radical change to its eligibility rules in 2021 in a return to the halcyon days of rugby league.

The Townsville Bulletin can reveal the NRL has rushed through a rule change to allow clubs to dip into their feeder club stocks midway through the season as injuries begin to hit.

Players outside of the a club’s top-30 roster can be called up from their Queensland Cup or NSW Cup teams from Round 11.

An NRL spokesman confirmed the rule change but added that the players must be signed to club’s on a training deal to take the field."

Don't see many guys outside the top 30/development squad getting a run but it's good incentive for the reserve graders to work harder and adds a little more competition for spots.

Again favours the Qld clubs who have 2-3 feeder teams

 

[Needaname]

Interesting.
And so the Development players are still restricted to Round 16?

The move makes sense, I’m not sure there will be much stock piling.
You’d be hard pressed trying to fit all 30 into the 16 squads without taking a few of the up and comers or knock abouts from the reserve grade.
Talent depth is low.

Also means you don’t have players like Jack Johns, Drew Hutchinson etc signed to Dev contracts, club to club.

Hopefully this opens up the opportunity to fix up the development player loophole that teams have been exploiting. By enforcing a rule that they haven’t debuted for any NRL club prior!

 

[happy_tiger]

I was listening to a footy talkback show on the way home last night and they were commenting about how Tim Horan went to a Roosters event back when RTS was at the Roosters .....and basically the whole night RTS was talking Union with Horan ...he always made it clear it was a definite option at some stage ...and with him being 27 and the World Cup up in 2023 ......everything just added up

And it won't be a walk up start either.....whichever Barrett it is that play fullback is a superstar ...get him to switch to League lol

 

[Geo]

Interesting.
And so the Development players are still restricted to Round 16?

The move makes sense, I’m not sure there will be much stock piling.
You’d be hard pressed trying to fit all 30 into the 16 squads without taking a few of the up and comers or knock abouts from the reserve grade.
Talent depth is low.

Also means you don’t have players like Jack Johns, Drew Hutchinson etc signed to Dev contracts, club to club.

Hopefully this opens up the opportunity to fix up the development player loophole that teams have been exploiting. By enforcing a rule that they haven’t debuted for any NRL club prior!

Round 11...don’t know where Round 16 came from

 

[jirskyr]

Shawn Blore. Stefano Utoikamanu and Tommy Talau have all made the Emerging Blues 29 man squad ??

Good acknowledgment for these guys but does anyone know if there are any classifications to who is eligible for the emerging blues? Moses Leota is 25 years old and played 81 NRL games. He might want to fully emerge soon if he’s going to get many origin years in before he retires.



You make a very good point about eligibility for the Emerging Blues Squad, but as far as I can tell there are no set guidelines or restrictions on who may qualify for the squad other than them being possible future selections and giving them a little bit of exposure to the highest level of the NRL.

Having a look at the list theres no slouches taking up space on it. Highly rated and promising players the lot of them, should give us a lot of confidence and pride 3 of our squad managed to make it in.

I agree and congratulations to all 3 of our boys who have been terrific signings for us, but unless I am mistaken, none of the 3 are actually our local juniors, which reinforces my concern about abandoning growth/junior areas.

Does it really matter about the development of "local juniors" if you can sign up good juniors from anywhere in Australia?

There's a real discussion to be had about the benefit of focusing on a specific geographical area or simply casting your net as wide as possible.

For example, of all the historical association Wests have had with Macarthur since 1987, how many actual first-class juniors has the region yielded for Magpies or WT? Would the answer be, honestly, more than 20 or 30 players in the past ~35 years?

The best junior Macarthur has arguably ever produced plays for Bondi now, as simple as new teeth and some brown paper bags.

 

[cochise]

Shawn Blore. Stefano Utoikamanu and Tommy Talau have all made the Emerging Blues 29 man squad ??

Good acknowledgment for these guys but does anyone know if there are any classifications to who is eligible for the emerging blues? Moses Leota is 25 years old and played 81 NRL games. He might want to fully emerge soon if he’s going to get many origin years in before he retires.



You make a very good point about eligibility for the Emerging Blues Squad, but as far as I can tell there are no set guidelines or restrictions on who may qualify for the squad other than them being possible future selections and giving them a little bit of exposure to the highest level of the NRL.

Having a look at the list theres no slouches taking up space on it. Highly rated and promising players the lot of them, should give us a lot of confidence and pride 3 of our squad managed to make it in.

I agree and congratulations to all 3 of our boys who have been terrific signings for us, but unless I am mistaken, none of the 3 are actually our local juniors, which reinforces my concern about abandoning growth/junior areas.

Does it really matter about the development of "local juniors" if you can sign up good juniors from anywhere in Australia?

There's a real discussion to be had about the benefit of focusing on a specific geographical area or simply casting your net as wide as possible.

For example, of all the historical association Wests have had with Macarthur since 1987, how many actual first-class juniors has the region yielded for Magpies or WT? Would the answer be, honestly, more than 20 or 30 players in the past ~35 years?

The best junior Macarthur has arguably ever produced plays for Bondi now, as simple as new teeth and some brown paper bags.

I actually think creating genuine pathways from the the area is better than anything else in capturing players. If we are talking about generating fans in the area that seems more difficult and is something we have struggled with.

 

[jirskyr]

Don't care if RTS joins rugby, good luck to him. I don't watch the sport and he's dead to me if he leaves.

Rugby is on its knees in Australia. There's far less money to be had in international rugby, even prior to COVID, but certainly devastated by COVID.

It's institutionalised in New Zealand but the entire country has less population than Sydney. I'm not surprised young Kiwis have dreams to play for the All-Blacks, good for them.