Signings, Suggestions & Rumours Discussion

Why not both?

The inconsistency of Starford To'a and his constant injuries are just not doing it for me.
Because we have Makasini and Doueihi that can cover centre. We also have Luke Laulili. If you want to add Averillo you need to get rid of one. He ain't signing anywhere for 200k or 250k.
 
Your understanding and perception of the salary cap and pay is seriously warped!

Turuva for 450k is a steal in comparison to other wingers. Most NRL starting wingers are on 400-650k.

To’a is a top 13 player in our squad and you’re suggesting anything over 250k is too much. You won’t find any starting NRL players with 50+ games on less than 250k. Players on 250k are usually players 26-28 in the 30 man roster. Even if you personally don’t rate him, he’s not even close to being that far down the roster.

The salary cap is 11.4million and you HAVE to spend 95% of it. No player in the best 17 should be on less than 350k based on the cap and number of roster spots.

There are 100 players league wide on more than 610k. We only have 4 on more than 610k which means the rest of the squad need to account for the rest of the cap that needs to be spent.

We have plenty of cap space, Galvins offer was 1 million, TDS clears 450k, half of Sullivan deal is gone as is Naden, Staines and the lower guys like Feledy, Tumeth, Matamua etc. Add all that to the extra money from the increase in the cap. We just havnt spent it yet because Richo clearly wants to get the right guys.

Richo knows what he’s doing and what each player is worth, which is why we only have 4 players in the top 100 and all on are relatively fair/accurate deals. Nearly every other club has at least 1 or 2 really bad higher pay contracts. Were one of the only clubs that doesn’t have a bad one.
We cannot have plenty of space.
Add up our cost with the estimated pkayer values and we have viery little left to spend and I was calculating it off a 12 million dollar salary cap.
 
I’ve been trying to work out who will be “late” back to pre season training after the rep games.
Samoa - Luai, May1and 2, Skelton, Hunt (perhaps)
Tonga -Fainu 1,2 and 3 ( perhaps), Toa
NZ - Pole ( perhaps)
Happy for any likely additions but it seems our pre season will be interrupted again !

Thank goodness no Fiji or Lebanon involved !
Fiji - Bula, Turuva, Api
Leb - Twal, Douehi, Sukkar

Have I missed anyone ?????
 
Because we have Makasini and Doueihi that can cover centre. We also have Luke Laulili. If you want to add Averillo you need to get rid of one. He ain't signing anywhere for 200k or 250k.
What does our current playing roster as it stands have that will prevent teams such as the Eels and the Rabbitohs from being well ahead of us in 2026 ?
I hope you are right, but I think you are delusional if you honestly believe our current playing roster is good enough to make the top 8 in 2026.
 
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Freshly updated with Tiny's signature.

Bud is still on the list as nothing official yet making it 28 for now, but when he goes back to 27.

3 spots, you would also assume Bird will be moved on & maybe others... Hunt might have done enough in the last few weeks to stay on, who knows!

Pre-November 1 we need to lock up Sione 100% & maybe Skelton, put I think he may end up elsewhere on bigger coin given Makasini coming into grade.

The mystery is still the 7 officially announced on Development deals, as we can only have 6. Some have alluded that Broederlow may be the one that on the outer.

In summary I would say we have a bit in the bank for at least 2 "good" signings & Richo will leave a spot or 2 open going into next year.
 
I think Samuela will become a greater tackle buster as he gets stronger & more powerful with each pre-season. I think the value we'll get from KPP is his ability to stand in tackles and get an offload away hopefully to a Bula at speed.

But with the players we have got, it seems our attacking threat will be through our system (like Dogs & Panthers) not on any individual x-factor brilliance though I think we'll see it time to time from Latu, Taylan & Makasini.

It would be good to have a player who can break a game open through explosive speed though like a Faalogo, Brimson, Kini, Fuller, Papz, Walsh etc etc. I know Mason is meant to be that player for us but he is nowhere near NRL defensive level yet. Jake Averillo would be a good get imo although others are right in saying he's probably not a target nor would he want to come here when To'a has a lock on right centre it seems.

Are there any other explosive fast outside backs down the depth chart at their current club who possibly could look for another opportunity?
Phillip Sami or Brian Kelly from the titans, experienced. I’d say Sami is quicker than the two but more prone to errors.
I’d be happy with adding either to our squad.
 
Backing himself because if he stays out of trouble and continues to play great, he will be in for a bigger and longer deal.

Good for us as he will want to perform.

Great news
I actually rate players who back themselves on shorter contracts, hoping to play well and earn a bigger one down the line. Too many times we see players sign 3+ year contracts which gives them the opportunity to kick stones and phone it in down the line.
 
I’ve been trying to work out who will be “late” back to pre season training after the rep games.
Samoa - Luai, May1and 2, Skelton, Hunt (perhaps)
Tonga -Fainu 1,2 and 3 ( perhaps), Toa
NZ - Pole ( perhaps)
Happy for any likely additions but it seems our pre season will be interrupted again !

Thank goodness no Fiji or Lebanon involved !
Fiji - Bula, Turuva, Api
Leb - Twal, Douehi, Sukkar

Have I missed anyone ?????
Is there no pacific Bowl this year?
 
View attachment 27402

Freshly updated with Tiny's signature.

Bud is still on the list as nothing official yet making it 28 for now, but when he goes back to 27.

3 spots, you would also assume Bird will be moved on & maybe others... Hunt might have done enough in the last few weeks to stay on, who knows!

Pre-November 1 we need to lock up Sione 100% & maybe Skelton, put I think he may end up elsewhere on bigger coin given Makasini coming into grade.

The mystery is still the 7 officially announced on Development deals, as we can only have 6. Some have alluded that Broederlow may be the one that on the outer.

In summary I would say we have a bit in the bank for at least 2 "good" signings & Richo will leave a spot or 2 open going into next year.
We have to hold onto Sione. Gotta keep the brothers happy. They’re all guns too.
 
What does our current playing roster as it stands have that will prevent teams such as the Eels and the Rabbitohs from being well ahead of us in 2026 ?
I hope you are right, but I think you are delusional if you honestly believe our current playing roster is good enough to make the top 8 in 2026.
We are talking about cover aren't we? Our backline is fine. You hate To'a, we get it, but he also scored some incredible tries that I doubt Averillo scores. Averillo may score some that To'a can't. To me they cancel each other out. You want a real problem? Lightweight Hope as backup hooker...I'd want to solve that before looking at To'a. Hope gets ragdolled and is a liability in defence.

We are weak in forward depth and ultimately defence and winning the contact consistently is our issue. You believe attack is our issue...more specifically, if we had more speed, our attack, if nothing else changes, gets better with speed. I don't believe that.
 
Speed only helps when you’re in the clear. A lot of missed opportunities came about this year because we as a team just didn’t back our ability and confidence to pass to a man in a better position. There were also times where our players were in two minds about getting in structure for the next play or pushing through in support. We fix that, and they comes through playing more time together as a team and understanding one’s strengths but also physical fitness to be able to be out of position as either a support runner or to be involved in the next play. In addition to that greater awareness needs to be in the team as a whole in being a player in their required position and or being placed momentarily in a cover position. I’m sure we’d all agree we finished watching many games saying to ourselves if only.
 

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