Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

[Odessa]

before I cop it, yes I said something about Haumole. I was told by someone close to WT that he was intrigued by the prospect of joining us given his relationships with the Fainu boys and Scott Fulton and that would we would offer a competitive contract for him to join for 2026.

competitive implies market rate with a reasonable amount of years, not $1 million a year for 8 years until he is 34. credit to Haumole and Tartak for getting Manly to go that high. that is an insane deal that may well end up being salary cap suicide with Schuster, DCE and the Trbojevic’s all there on good money.

I have no idea why people would give you a hard time it's just rumours I told my wife I would be a good boy yesterday and have a salad sandwich for lunch 3 hours later I am eating a double Wagyu double cheese burger but it did have salad on it things change

 

[Devon Head]

You could argue that we could have signed Keppie for around 450k and he would likely do a very similar job to what Klemmer could fit 300k more. Saving 300k for a prop would allow us more capacity to spend that cap money elsewhere.
I would certainly argue that Cogger is a much younger and far superior number 7 to Sezer at this stage of their careers.
Schuster would no doubt add an attacking threat as an edge back rower to any NRL club. Sure he’s not worth even close to the rumoured 800k that Manly are supposedly paying him, but I’d say we could have potentially got him for around 500-600k with Manly chipping in the rest to get him off their books.
With us being light in back row stocks, particularly ones that have a bit of x-factor about them, it could be strongly argued Schuster would definitely make our playing roster stronger.

Sorry but comparing Cogger and Sezer is a weak argument. Until Cogger signed with Riff he was an absolute nuff who filled a role in an elite team which made him look much better than he is. Sezer has been solid his whole career and it's game managing experience we needed most not a gamble on bloke who failed at Newy, Failed at Dogs and didn't light up Super League.

Also comparing Klem, an Origin and National rep player with a bloke who's barely first grade standard is a fairly big reach. The differences between their salaries is a true reflection of the difference in their comparable abilities imo.

 

[supercoach]

99% of rubbish we hear about in the media, social media and forums is just stuff that has been leaked or made up to push a person’s agenda. There is very little stuff that has factual credibility . Okay some stuff might have started off with some elements of truth, but than the substance gets changed and multiplied to suit someones agenda .

So I take very little notice of most of the stuff I read about regarding what goes on at Tigertown

 

[Vicious]

You could argue but the argument would be a terrible one. Comparing Keppie to Klemmer is like
Comparing Seyfarth to him. If a team wants to win you pick Klemmer over both anyday of the week.

Cap capacity isn’t a problem we have nor will have next 2 seasons.

Cogger/Sezer meh on both fronts neither are players you sign long term

Schuster is not a backrow answer

Souths obviously think Keppie is an NRL quality prop.
I don’t think you will find many people who honestly think Sezer is comparable to Cogger at this stage of their careers. Sezer from 4-5 years ago would be a different story.
Surely you are not suggesting an ageing Batenan is near an attacking threat as edge back rower to what Schuster is ?
I understand Bateman has a much better work rate, but ideally we could have had Schuster as someone who could have interchanged with Batenan and Papali’i to save us watching 80mins of boredom on our edges each week.

 

[crazycat]

Haha yeah it’s crazy how people think these guys become completely unemployable after footy ends.
Turn 35…life over. You must survive on whatever you have made so far…lol
It’s just ridiculous.

Look, it's not that.

But it can be damn tough for some of the guys.

Yes if you get a 600k+ contract you should be banking it for a house and be in the clear by the time your career finishes. Craig Wing and others banked in Stupid investment schemes and lost Millions, but hey.

So ofcourse UFC/Boxing you could get a fair bit. Maybe a million if a known title fight. But that's kinda rare.

Sales/Real Estate/Customer reps seem to eat ex football players up.

I worked with 2 failed footballers in the Engineering space. One guy had a spinal fracture and a signed $300,000 contract with a sydney club for 3 years as his doctor in Hospital said "no way you can play". Far out the guy was built like a forward. But yea Engineers/construction I know a few who went there.

Lets say your not good at talking, have a few Hamstring injuries and can't really walk right. Your career options are fairly limited. Maybe you got $250k and blew it.

Could be very had being a bench prop who has to go on pain medication (think Nigel Plum) post footy.

 

[Devon Head]

What I can't understand if someone can please explain it to me ...

If Fulton does not get along with Benji & does not think he is the right coach for us, how can Fulton do his job recruiting players? Wouldn't he have to talk up how good the coaching structure is to potential recruits otherwise how can he sell the club?

He will know that Benji is untouchable at the moment so he if he himself can't do his job because he doesn't believe in Benji, he'd have to be looking to move on himself surely!

So maybe and just maybe, Fulton does tell people that Benji is a coach-in-training but has the right support around him to develop (such as Johnny Morris). Some people translate this to "coach in training wheels".

I just can't understand how Fulton can do his job if he is so anti-Benji so maybe he is no.

Truth is he's employed to deliver the club the best and most suitable talent on offer. How he does that is irrelevant if he succeeds however it appears on the surface him and Benji have very different opinions on the type/s of player/s they wish to target. In the beginning Fulton seemed hell bent on bringing across anyone and everyone he could from Manly which imo is the first mistake.

I feel a great recruitment agent should put together a hit list of targets he feels would benefit the team and be a great fit. He then takes this list to the coaching dept and they all discuss said list and whittle that down to those the coaching dept want most and prioritize those who are absolute must haves. This going rogue and trying to sign blokes without consulting the coaching dept first isn't on.

 

[Tom Shines]

Thoughts on a Tupou x Galvin centre pairing?
Could be a realistic move come 2025, with Tupou making the move as of next year.

It appears that could be an option… but it would be nice come 2025 to have at least one proven centre instead of hoping two guys are going to “come good”…

 

[The Chad]

Right …because it’s all sunshine and rainbows once the season starts

True. But Off Season certainly brings out the dormant warrior more than during the season.

Only reason we suffer through doom & gloom mid-season here is because of the outstanding success rate of the last 5 years & the casual fan's ability to not get so heavily emotionally invested....

If we were to win a few games, "real fans" jabber more than 'realistic fans'...or whatever other moniker people want to put on the warring factions.

Anyways. I'm just waiting for Hymel Hunt's signing so we can watch the message board burn.

 

[innsaneink]

You could argue that we could have signed Keppie for around 450k and he would likely do a very similar job to what Klemmer could for 300k more. Saving 300k for a prop would allow us capacity to spend that cap money elsewhere.
I would certainly argue that Cogger is a much younger and far superior number 7 to Sezer at this stage of their careers.
Schuster would no doubt add an attacking threat as an edge back rower to any NRL club. Sure he’s not worth even close to the rumoured 800k that Manly are supposedly paying him, but I’d say we could have potentially got him for around 500-600k with Manly chipping in the rest to get him off their books.
With us being light in back row stocks, particularly ones that have a bit of x-factor about them, it could be strongly argued Schuster would definitely make our playing roster stronger.

Sorry V glad you're not recruiting... That's just more average Ho hum players aimed at saving a few hundred k to buy another average guy.
Quality over quantity.please.
You can argue it but just saying it doesn't make it true... It's just countering someone else's opinion

 

[The Chad]

Thoughts on a Tupou x Galvin centre pairing?
Could be a realistic move come 2025, with Tupou making the move as of next year.

I reckon Starford would be sad.

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

Souths obviously think Keppie is an NRL quality prop.
I don’t think you will find many people who honestly think Sezer is comparable to Cogger at this stage of their careers. Sezer from 4-5 years ago would be a different story.
Surely you are not suggesting an ageing Batenan is near an attacking threat as edge back rower to what Schuster is ?
I understand Bateman has a much better work rate, but ideally we could have had Schuster as someone who could have interchanged with Batenan and Papali’i to save us watching 80mins of boredom on our edges each week.

Re Keppie keep in mind he will be rotating with Tatola, Burgess, Mitchell & Arrow. If he was here over Klemmer you would be starting him every week. Very different situational asks.

Sezer and Cogger are both meh - neither would get us to the finals.

I didn’t mention Bateman but you always do as you hate him, we get it.

 

[The Chad]

Sam Fainu, Tumeth, Kepaoa & maybe Fa'agutu & Lualili'i might be the likely options to fight for the 3rd edge forward role.

Wouldn't surprise me if Seyfarth factors into that equation as well.

 

[Kelce68]

Hopefully when we're competing for the Top 8 in 2037 we won't be at each others' throats in the off-season once again.

We're all on the same team here, these are just differences of ideas.

 

[Vicious]

Re Keppie keep in mind he will be rotating with Tatola, Burgess, Mitchell & Arrow. If he was here over Klemmer you would be starting him every week. Very different situational asks.

Sezer and Cogger are both meh - neither would get us to the finals.

I didn’t mention Bateman but you always do as you hate him, we get it.

I think Keppie will surprise many in 2024, let’s wait and see.
Cogger played an important role in the Panthers comeback GF win in 2023, looks an under rated player to me.
Nofa always gets criticised for running the ball sideways, Bateman must have broken the NRL record for running the ball sideways in 2023.
Let’s hope he decides run the ball with a bit of purpose and hopefully break a tackle or make a line break in 2024.

 

[240z]

There will be no player announcements today

 

[Vicious]

There will be no player announcements today

Thanks Danny Weidler.

 

[Tom Shines]

There will be no player announcements 2023

fixed

 

[The Chad]

Hopefully when we're competing for the Top 8 in 2037 we won't be at each others' throats in the off-season once again.

We're all on the same team here, these are just differences of ideas.

Ha! 2037! You're dreaming! What do you know about football anyway!

(hits keyboard keys with great anger)

 

[The Chad]

There will be no player announcements today

Is that a decree?

And on this day, there will be NO players announcements!

 

[240z]

fixed

Lol - thx