Lets spend $1.5 million on 4 players for season 2020

Of our current squad of 30 we have Farah, Fonua and Rochow all ending their contracts, so that takes us to 27 and maybe we’ve saved $700k. Only others ending at the end of 2019 are Benji and Chris Lawrence, and I’m presuming they both go around again

Of those that end in 2020 that I’m guessing we’d be happy to allow to go elsewhere, it’s 3-5 depending on your view with ET, Huth, Jennings, Matulino and McQueen. They’ve got contracts and presumably are hard to shift. Let’s assume Mats retires and we offload 1 other of them, so down to 25 and maybe another $800k saved

That leaves us with Packer and Reynolds, best part of $1.3m per year between them. Let’s say we offload and pay half which is probably our best outcome, so save another, let’s call it $600k

We’re now at a squad of 23 and have around $2.1 million up our sleeve although presumably recent upgrades on Aloiai, Mikaele, Liddle and even Thompson cost us something, so let’s say we have $1.8m to go shopping with

We upgrade the 3 development players, I don’t know, maybe $300k, so $1.5m to fill 4 spots which I’d suggest are at least one centre, one prop and a half come fullback

Who would you look for? Let’s try to work within the $1.5m, I see lots of grab so and so but work with the $1.5m and accept we probably have to pay slight overs

If you go AJ Brimson and Jesse Ramien, surely that burns through at least a million, so $500k left for a prop and something else and props don’t seem cheap, so probably not doable

Look forward to seeing the views from the forum on how to spend our phantom $1.5 million

Sad I know attempting to bring my own thread back to life but I really think it is somewhere near the equation the club faces going into 2020
I’d really appreciate the view of the forum on how we best plan for 2020 on this basis, bearing in mind I’m pretty sure we now need to spend on a hooker among these 4
$1.5m so we really can’t pay more than one of these $500k max so we can’t aim too high on any one signing. Average is let’s say $400k
How much do we reckon Matto is on, would it be more than $500k? I doubt it is so
For what it’s worth Papenhuyzen is probably going to be cheaper than AJ Brimson, so I’d target him. Also, Billy Walters from The Storm is a possible, he seems like a controlling half with a kicking game
Prop someone like Ese Ese, Albert Vete or Josh Kerr are probaly as much as we can afford
Hooker? Koroisau, Luke, Katoa, Liccha?
Centre? Ramien seems too risky for us to pay $500k, there’s a few Cowboys backs off contract
I agree none of it is hugely transformative, I’d like to see what others think?

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@WT2K said in Lets spend $1.5 million on 4 players for season 2020:

Is the cap fine included in these figures?

Good point, I guess it’s not so let’s say we’ve now got $1.8 million

@willow I’m not claiming the $1.8m is accurate, I outlined a logic to it above. I think it feels like a possible amount but granted it is somewhat conditional on Mats retiring, and offloading Packer and Reynolds with us paying half. Tough no doubt but surely not impossible

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