Dane Gagai

HarVeeGee13

HarVeeGee13

Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Per Toohey’s News, Gagai has contacted the club to let them know he’s keen to come back next year. The club has just basically cried poor, said we can’t afford him. I gotta say I’m tearing my hair out over this considering how many issues we have in the outside backs - aside from Braddy, next year we’ve got a solid first grader in Hymel, a high potential guy who’s still raw in Star, a project player who’s likely a long way off in Dom Young, and then beyond that it’s all guys who’d be playing reggies at any other club. Besides 6, right centre is very obviously the biggest hole in the roster right now.

As far as I can see, the market for outside backs isn’t great this off-season - the only club seemingly willing to really shell out is the Bulldogs and they’ve already loaded up on the position. Dane is not going to attract bigger offers than Kotoni Staggs and Xavier Coates. Dane is an experienced, rep-level player who obviously takes great care of himself given he’s almost never missed a game outside of Origin commitments, playing as well as he ever has in his career right now. Addo Carr went for something in the $500K range. If the worst club in the NRL the Bulldogs can sign one of the best wingers in the NRL for that kind of cash - and it’s honestly an underpay compared to what some other guys are getting - how is the club seriously saying they can’t make a decent, realistic offer to Dane here? Especially since he has stated he wants to come back.

If the club doesn’t make this happen, it absolutely reeks of a situation where Dane will just go to the Roosters, absolutely kill it there like the Morris boys have, and the NRL world will marvel at the brilliance of seemingly the only club smart enough to fill gaps in their roster with proven rep-caliber players...
 
Problem for Gagai will be how consistent would he be if he joined us again? Too many times he phoned it in for us but played out of his skin in Origin (in fairness, surrounded by much greater talent during Origin games obviously). But he’s now a few years older and I’m not convinced he would be a significant upgrade on the players we have already, so he wouldn’t be a sure thing to join the starting lineup. IMO, we’d be better using that money for younger players keen for more opportunities, such as Harvey Smith-Shields or Sebastian Kris from Raiders. Otherwise, if we keep Hoy and Mann for next year, I think they could be well used in the backline without having to spend big recruiting new players there.
 
Do not be fooled by his recent form playing for a new deal, he was phoning it in for Souths as well.

He's on 700k, if he wants to come for 400k and the love of the club, maybe.
 
I wouldn’t object to him returning.

But @HarVeeGee13 , your comment on his lack of injuries means if he does return he will do an ACL in his second or third game back. Jinxed him for sure. 😂
 
I feel like there’s a lot of revisionist history around Dane’s form with us, as well as unreasonable expectations of an outside back in the worst team in the NRL. He was good. Not as good as Kalyn has been, not the very biggest brightest star going, but rep standard. And if you don’t think he’s a huge, huge upgrade on say Tuala, I don’t know what to tell you. $400K is a good number and I don’t think it’s insane to think you could get him for less if you make post-footy work with the club part of the offer as I’m pretty sure we did with Blake Green. You’re not going to find an outside back who averages more try contributions, tackle breaks & metres per game than that for that money (outside of local juniors eg Braddy the phenom) and playing beside the likes of KP & Frizell will make him much more dangerous than he was in his previous stint.

Also plays both centre and wing at a high level so that gives flexibility going forward depending on which kids coming through kill it and which ones start having issues.
 
Gagai produced about the same for us as hymel hunt does, for double or even triple the money.
He proved in origin that he was a much better player, which made it all the more frustrating that he phoned in his performances for us every week. We paid him a lot of money to play like a journeyman, while he picked up man of the series for qld.
 
Very happy with Hymel, one of the best value signings we’ve made, but the only thing H produces more of is run metres. It’s not Hymel I’d want to replace anyway, Hymel never misses a game and rarely fails to do his job. He’s also looked good as Bradman’s winger. It’s Tuala we need an upgrade on. Dom isn’t ready and may not be next year either. Star I think will improve but would benefit from playing with a veteran next to him instead of other inexperienced players.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Very happy with Hymel, one of the best value signings we’ve made, but the only thing H produces more of is run metres. It’s not Hymel I’d want to replace anyway, Hymel never misses a game and rarely fails to do his job. He’s also looked good as Bradman’s winger. It’s Tuala we need an upgrade on. Dom isn’t ready and may not be next year either. Star I think will improve but would benefit from playing with a veteran next to him instead of other inexperienced players.
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I’m still a big fan of Tuala. He’s young and I’m certain he’ll only get better, just as Toa should. I think he can be a starter, but feel we need more competition for that spot to push him and whoever else is eyeing it off. Shibasaki just ain’t it though.
 
I like Enari’s work in defence for the most part, but I’ve just got two observations on him: 1. He plays a lot better at left centre than on the right, but he’ll never be first choice at left centre over Braddy. 2. He’s having a bit of a regression year so far (struggling for run metres especially).

Also a player who might attract some suitors this year who want someone who can do a job in multiple backline positions. Wouldn’t be out of the question for him to end up at Souths for example given the salary cap squeeze they’re facing at the moment. Not a player I’m keen to get into a bidding war for hahaha.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
I like Enari’s work in defence for the most part, but I’ve just got two observations on him: 1. He plays a lot better at left centre than on the right, but he’ll never be first choice at left centre over Braddy. 2. He’s having a bit of a regression year so far (struggling for run metres especially).

Also a player who might attract some suitors this year who want someone who can do a job in multiple backline positions. Wouldn’t be out of the question for him to end up at Souths for example given the salary cap squeeze they’re facing at the moment. Not a player I’m keen to get into a bidding war for hahaha.
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If anything, I think he’d be pushing Toa and Young for a wing spot. Think Baz mentioned we’re on the lookout for another centre recruit, so that might be his best chance at a spot in the 17, assuming he stays on beyond this year.
 
How could the club not be able to afford him though? Haven’t we already come out and said that Edrick won’t be retained? Not to mention who the club opt to re-sign out of:

Crossland
Fitzgibbon
Green
Hoy
Hunt
Johns
Jones
King
Kiraz
Mann
Randall
Smith
Tuala
Watson

Obviously we’d need a chunk of those for depth but if Dane really sounded out the club you’d think if he wanted to come back he’d at least take a pay cut.
 
Would be stupid not to entertain signing him, we should be able to get him cheap you would think?

Imagine a centre pairing of best and gagai
 
Matty23 said:
How could the club not be able to afford him though? Haven’t we already come out and said that Edrick won’t be retained? Not to mention who the club opt to re-sign out of:

Crossland
Fitzgibbon
Green
Hoy
Hunt
Johns
Jones
King
Kiraz
Mann
Randall
Smith
Tuala
Watson

Obviously we’d need a chunk of those for depth but if Dane really sounded out the club you’d think if he wanted to come back he’d at least take a pay cut.
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Hard agree mate. I’m not sure why we’d re-sign Hoy, Watson AND Mann as I’ve heard the club wants to. That’s a lot of players covering a lot of similar positions, meanwhile we’re a bit short on genuine first grade standard specialist outside backs, we don’t have a back up specialist hooker for Jayden, an injury to a Saifiti or Klemmer leaves us alarmingly short in the middle... sometimes even if someone’s a great clubman you just have to let them go, and the best way to improve depth is to improve the starting 17, rather than having depth players in your best 17 guys.
 
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