Dale Finucane

Billy said:
It's pointless to try to work out what they do in Melbourne to get the best out of players for recruiting purposes - although it would be great if someone could actually find out what they do and repeat it.
For recruiting purposes, all you need to know is that most players who leave Melbourne go into rapid decline and end up being worth half what you pay for them.
As with all things, there are a few exceptions, but as a rule with ex-Melbourne players, Caveat Emptor applies.

In short, if we pay 800k for Finucane, he'll probably be worth 400k once we get him out of the box and check out what we bought.
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I think old Phil thought OB would have been the guy to bring the secret Melbourne sauce. Hasn’t worked yet.
 
The Artist Formerly Known as Aku'd said:
I think old Phil thought OB would have been the guy to bring the secret Melbourne sauce. Hasn’t worked yet.
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I think they’re just more patient than other clubs. I think they have the highest average debut age for young players, as well as the highest average number of reserve grade games before first grade debut. They use their feeder teams better than anyone else & bring in guys who are raw but with obvious talent, or who are talented but who are cast-offs for whatever reason, and they invest in developing a complete game.

I’d say they have just as many guys who are never up to it as they do guys who kill it, but if you’re never paying big money for players you bring in, you can afford to get it wrong. They’re a bit like our answer to the San Antonio Spurs, who have that track record of turning late first round or second round draft picks into stars. But rugby league is a bit more about every link in the chain performing than basketball is, where one or two stars can just carry a team. Every Melbourne player has things they’re good at, and things they can’t do particularly well, and rarely do they put players in a position where they have to play better than their capabilities to help the team win. Everyone does their job and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The Roosters are the next best in this regard, but recruitment is a bigger part of what they do - Xavier Coates is the first incumbent rep player Melbourne have signed in about 20 years I think, which is staggering to think about… I’ll be surprised if he’s not regarded as the best winger in the comp by the end of next year.

I think actually the Knights are getting better at recruitment than we have been previously - the kind of player we always used to sign, and the kind you want to avoid like the plague if you want to be good, is like the classic “mid tier” or fringe rep player. Trent Hodkinson, Kade Snowden, I’m sure we can think of others. And then we’ve overpaid for our juniors - Aku Uate is one of my favourite ever Knights, but we paid him insane money for years. Those are the contracts that kill you.

We look for genuine top tier players or talented prospects & fill the gaps with cheap journeymen now - unfortunately the roster still isn’t there yet & we get way too many injuries, so guys who I’m sure we’d rather give more time in reserve grade eg Young, Sasagi et al keep having to play firsts.
 
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Hititup said:
Regarding our injuries the last few seasons I really hope Cupples and his high performance team come under review
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I’m sure they will, but also look at every team’s injury toll this season already. I don’t think our club can be looked at in isolation. I’m no physio expert by any means, but I think a major factor in our injury toll and others has been the increased speed of the game. If there’s mismanagement there though then I’m sure it’ll be assessed.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
That’s an overpay for Glasby in my opinion. He was a grafter but that’s the kind of salary where you expect a bit more than what he gave a team. Not the worst contract a club has ever given a player, but yeah.
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No way was signing Glasby for 400k in 2018 overs. He didn’t play out his contract ok, but at the time a player of his caliber is 500k+ on the open market. His preparation/leadership much like Finucane, would still be felt on the playing group. It was an impressive deal signing him off the back of a wooden spoon year.
 
Signing Finucane seems a waste of cap when we have greater needs elsewhere
If we retained our current forwards for the next few years we would be very competitive but would likely struggle with our backs. Pearce hasn’t got more than 1-2 left and we continue to struggle using the likes of Schibs, Tuala, Musgrove and are letting Lee go and not sure at this stage that Hodgson, Young, Crosslands, Toa and Sasagi will make it they need time to develop.
We need to buy some backs to improve the team more so than forwards
 
Joel said:
No way was signing Glasby for 400k in 2018 overs. He didn’t play out his contract ok, but at the time a player of his caliber is 500k+ on the open market. His preparation/leadership much like Finucane, would still be felt on the playing group. It was an impressive deal signing him off the back of a wooden spoon year.
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I think at that point we were kind of forced to pay overs for many recruits, as we did for Guerra, Ponga - who was an unheralded rookie at the time - and others. We're in a better position to recruit now, as seen by the fact that we landed Frizell, but I think we're one of those clubs that will always struggle to pay at-or-below market value for top level recruits.
 
slotmachine said:
Finucane is a waste of money, we already have enough big $$$ middle forwards.
And he's nothing but a straight up and down player which are worth less under the new rules.
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Melbourne and Bellamy have said they want to keep Finucane and have huge raps on him . If Bellamy wants to keep him he cant be too useless with the new rules .
 
Cowboys missed out on Capewell, they might go harder for Finucane now. Or maybe they offer Fitz a big deal lol.

Finucane is a great player/leader but I don't think we need to get in a bidding war and overpay for him.
Hopefully his relationship with Obi gets him here on reasonable terms.
 
slotmachine said:
Finucane is a waste of money, we already have enough big $$$ middle forwards.
And he's nothing but a straight up and down player which are worth less under the new rules.
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Agree we don't need another 700-750k forward who's not played much lately cos of injury and he's getting older.
DSaf will cost us more in near future Brailey also.
2 strike weapon backs are top priority imo.
 
I think Gagai should be the #1 priority for sure. I think the fact there’s no chat about the club looking for a winger is a huge vote of confidence in Dom Young. I’d look at getting Corey Oates on the cheap if possible - “come down for one year and try and resurrect your career big fella” sort of thing. Daniel Tupou is off contract but it seems unthinkable he’d ever leave Easts. Otherwise there’s not a lot of off contract outside backs who are upgrades.

Finucane is absolutely not a “straight up and down” player.
 
I think we lack both strike and depth in the OB. I'd be happy with us chasing Oates. Meh on Tupou.
 
I think I'm off the Finucane signing now too much $ and he's only getting older.
I read he wants $800k for 3-4 years.
Jones could be a great stating lock.
Let's focus funds on 1 gun centre and 1 gun winger and retaining the good young forwards we have.
 
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