Official: Knights sign Connor Watson on a 3 year deal

There's a balance, ignoring good players for juniors is dumb & something of the past. Maloney ticks all the boxes, current rep & premiership player, very experienced & not on his last legs. If something happened to him after joining the club, well then that's just tough luck for us. Hokko was on his last legs & Kostjasyn got struck down by coincidence. We have to look at all avenues, bring in the best players we can & surround them with the best juniors we can, best chance of doing something in this comp.
 
There's a balance, ignoring good players for juniors is dumb & something of the past.
It never happened.
Michael Hagan and whoever was in charge of recruitment at the time, overpaid players, and we ended up with a roster that wasn't competitive.
He did exactly the same at Parra, and no one blamed that on local juniors. They blamed it on Hagan over paying players - which is, pure and simple, what it was.
Players are worth what they are worth. Doesn't matter where they learnt to play. If you can get them cheap, you end up with a good roster.
News flash - the only players we can get cheap are ones we breed ourselves.
 
It never happened.
Michael Hagan and whoever was in charge of recruitment at the time, overpaid players, and we ended up with a roster that wasn't competitive.
He did exactly the same at Parra, and no one blamed that on local juniors. They blamed it on Hagan over paying players - which is, pure and simple, what it was.
Players are worth what they are worth. Doesn't matter where they learnt to play. If you can get them cheap, you end up with a good roster.
News flash - the only players we can get cheap are ones we breed ourselves.

As long as I've watched the Knights, we have bought mostly fringe first-graders, retirees, kids, guys off the scrapheap & a handful of players that play regular first-grade. The highest profile players we've signed were Neville Costigan, Tariq Sims & Trent Hodkinson. You can include Darius Boyd, Jeremy Smith & Beau Scott but they only came here for Bennett. When a current rep player with no apparent injury or off field issues is willing to come like Maloney, you figure something out, anything otherwise & you're not in the business of winning games.
 
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As long as I've watched the Knights, we have bought mostly fringe first-graders, retirees, kids, guys off the scrapheap & a handful of players that play regular first-grade. The highest profile players we've signed were Neville Costigan & Tariq Sims. You can include Darius Boyd, Jeremy Smith & Beau Scott but they only came here for Bennett. When a current rep player with no apparent injury or off field issues is willing to come like Maloney, you figure something out, anything otherwise & you're not in the business of winning games.
Ben Kennedy
 
Tony Butterfield,
Marc Granville,
Mark Sargent,
Glenn Grieff,
Matt Parsons,
David Fairleigh,
Brian Carney

Just to name a few
 
Ben Kennedy

I'm just talking about my time watching the Knights. I was too young then. But we've been one of the least successful sides over my time & it's no coincidence that it's because we haven't bought & grown many good players during that period.
 
I'm just talking about my time watching the Knights. I was too young then. But we've been one of the least successful sides over my time & it's no coincidence that it's because we haven't bought & grown many good players during that period.

What??

Hopefully no 4yr olds log on then.
 
That sounds great in theory.
In practice, we have bought guys like Hodko, Steve Walters, Kosjaysyn, Steve Linnane and maybe some other experienced playmakers I've forgotten, and just like 9 out of 10 imports in any position, they have been complete duds for us.
Only 1 of Brown's imports this year has been worth feeding (Buhrer).
I agree that we should spend all our salary cap next year to improve our roster, but we'll be lucky if half our imports live up to all the hype, and it's not the way to eternal salvation that many seem to think it is.
The "grass is always greener" mentality lets us down every time.

Billy, this maybe so, although it takes more than one key signing to make a team. it has been evidenced time and again that in the NRL a team only needs to off by a fraction or have one weak link and they will be found out.

Buying one gun is futile if the collective don't buy in.

You must admit that at times this year we have shown " true grit" in effort , but have lacked the direction of experience to close out, with luck key changes will bring that support.
 
Billy, this maybe so, although it takes more than one key signing to make a team. it has been evidenced time and again that in the NRL a team only needs to off by a fraction or have one weak link and they will be found out.

Buying one gun is futile if the collective don't buy in.

You must admit that at times this year we have shown " true grit" in effort , but have lacked the direction of experience to close out, with luck key changes will bring that support.
Filling out the roster with high quality imports in positions needed to improve the current roster is the way to go.
Buying large numbers of nuffies is just desperation, and is doomed to fail.
 
So are we saying that all our buys this year for next are nuffie?
Maloney is the type I hoped to see 4 or 5 of for next year.
The rest we have signed so far are has beens or rookies with potential.
If the quotes attributed to Eseëse are correct - that he wanted to stay at the Broncos, but the Knights are making him a millionaire - then he is the worst kind of signing. Overpaid and doesn't want to be here.
 
Maloney is the type I hoped to see 4 or 5 of for next year.
The rest we have signed so far are has beens or rookies with potential.
If the quotes attributed to Eseëse are correct - that he wanted to stay at the Broncos, but the Knights are making him a millionaire - then he is the worst kind of signing. Overpaid and doesn't want to be here.
Lots of people don't want to leave the club they are at! It's natural you wanted us to sign 4 or 5 origin level players? So a kiwi test player and a qld player this year! Isn't a good enough start and two players from a top 4 team that they didn't want to lose isn't good enough this forum can be so overly negative at times! There is no chance in the world that we were ever gonna sign 4/5 origin levels players you need to screw your head back on and look into the real world
 
Lots of people don't want to leave the club they are at! It's natural you wanted us to sign 4 or 5 origin level players? So a kiwi test player and a qld player this year! Isn't a good enough start and two players from a top 4 team that they didn't want to lose isn't good enough this forum can be so overly negative at times! There is no chance in the world that we were ever gonna sign 4/5 origin levels players you need to screw your head back on and look into the real world
If we went through all the pain to get salary cap space to sign a bunch of guys who are only a 50/50 chance to be upgrades on the guys we got rid of - it wasn't worth it.

This isn't my first rodeo. I've ridden the manic/depressive tours of the knights forums before.
I was here when all the giddy girts such as yourself were abusing me for saying Tinkler was as dodgy as hell, but everyone wanted to believe he was the messiah, and I was also here when I was being abused for saying Tinkler wasn't all bad.

A year from now i'll be saying we could have done better, but have to make the most of what we have, and guys like you will be marching up Hunter street with torches and pitchforks, looking for Brown.
 
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If we went through all the pain to get salary cap space to sign a bunch of guys who are only a 50/50 chance to be upgrades on the guys we got rid of - it wasn't worth it.
Hold on who is better then skd in our back 5 maybe gags but every one complains about his defense in centre who is better in our back row over Guerra and do we even have a full back? As I said before everyone is so negative you are blowing up we don't get signings now you all blow when we do saying they aren't t good enough they arent up to origin players! Like **** should we just go an sign the storm team that's the only thing that will make you all happy! How does everyone get through the day being so negative to you see the sun during the day or just dark raining clouds
 
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