2023 Recruitment & Retention Thread

1. Dom Young
2. Dane Gagai
3. Krystian Mapapalangi
4. Bradman Best
5. Hymel Hunt
6. Kalyn Ponga
7. Gamble / or some other buy in half .
8. David Klemmer
9. Jayden Brailey
10. Daniel Saifiti
11. Tyson Frizell
12. Mat Croker
13. Adam Elliott

14. Leo Thompson
15. Jacob Saifiti
16. Jack Hetherington
17. Simi Sasagi
It looks like Brooks and Garrick won't be coming so just my opinion but i would like to see this side .
I think Young would kill it at 1 if he were to train there for the off season , Gamble i know nothing about but we must have bought him for a reason ... I would rather Brooks or Hastings for that matter, but Gamble could go well .
 
Manly have the same problem with Garrick as we have with Young.
Both are clearly too good to stay on winger's money, and both have a lot of potential to improve.
Garrick is already a proven performer at fullback - a million a year position for a good one - so I don't think offering him centre will keep him.

What we do with Dom is a harder question. He won't be happy to spend his life on the wing, so we have to at least give him a shot at centre - minimum.
 
Billy said:
Manly have the same problem with Garrick as we have with Young.
Both are clearly too good to stay on winger's money, and both have a lot of potential to improve.
Garrick is already a proven performer at fullback - a million a year position for a good one - so I don't think offering him centre will keep him.

What we do with Dom is a harder question. He won't be happy to spend his life on the wing, so we have to at least give him a shot at centre - minimum.
Click to expand...

I've already seen enough from Dom to know he is a Centre. I saw him as a centre before he even arrived here!

Wasted on the wing other than his carries out of trouble which are phenominal.

No reason he can't keep those up.
 
Billy said:
Manly have the same problem with Garrick as we have with Young.
Both are clearly too good to stay on winger's money, and both have a lot of potential to improve.
Garrick is already a proven performer at fullback - a million a year position for a good one - so I don't think offering him centre will keep him.

What we do with Dom is a harder question. He won't be happy to spend his life on the wing, so we have to at least give him a shot at centre - minimum.
Click to expand...
Dom would be uniquely effective at centre imo. He's strong and loves to get an arm free. Would be a marquee centre imo
 
It's easy to forget about Chris Vea'ila because he had those stress fractures in his shins all season, so was in and out of Ball, Flegg and reserve grade all season and probably only had 2 or 3 good games - but that guy is a winger. I'd back him to outjump Dom, run nearly as fast, and he's very powerful as well. NRL.com have him as our only development player for 2023. Injury free he'll be hard to keep out of the firstgrade side - even if he never got to show it in 2022.
 
Billy said:
It's easy to forget about Chris Vea'ila because he had those stress fractures in his shins all season, so was in and out of Ball, Flegg and reserve grade all season and probably only had 2 or 3 good games - but that guy is a winger. I'd back him to outjump Dom, run nearly as fast, and he's very powerful as well. NRL.com have him as our only development player for 2023. Injury free he'll be hard to keep out of the firstgrade side - even if he never got to show it in 2022.
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Is his injury fixed, will it be recurring to the point of restricting his ongoing development
 
I like Dom as a centre. He is going to be so hard to stop in one on one situation. If the winger stays out, the centre is in trouble. If the winger comes in, offloads will come. If he is a decoy, he is going to attract significant attention. It doesn't require a great deal of playmaking nous to run his side of the field. And he doesn't give up in defence either. I think he would be more of a nightmare to play against and makes everyone's job around him easier just through his mere presence.
 
Frank McWilliams said:
Is his injury fixed, will it be recurring to the point of restricting his ongoing development
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They used to call them "growing pains" The only cure is a long rest for the legs - no running.
He should be OK after the off season, but they might keep him at just swimming and doing weights for a chunk of the preseason to make sure.
 
From the vids i saw of Young when we signed him, if i remember right he was at centre in all of them. He either broke the line or got a pass away while being tackled.
As i said before the kids a sponge he soaks up all the information on what he needs to do and then does it , he's been here what 18 months and he is already twice the player he was when he came here.
I would bet my left one ( being 63 probably don't need it anyway lol) that he would be good at 1 by the start of the season if he started training there now and by the end of the season he would be our Tommy Turbo .. I don't even think that is that far of a stretch to be honest...
I know some will say no he won't handle it and maybe he won't but you won't really know until he trains there . What IF he IS the next Turbo and we miss out on him being that good because we didn't give him a go at least at training...
On the other hand he may have already been given a go there at training ( i have no idea whether they would have or not ) and they just said nah didn't handle it ...
 
The Knights statement confirming the release of Jake Clifford.

www.newcastleknights.com.au

Knights agree to release Clifford

The nib Newcastle Knights have agreed to release Jake Clifford from the final year of his current contract, allowing him to take up a multi-year deal in the English Super League.
www.newcastleknights.com.au www.newcastleknights.com.au
 
Billy said:
www.newcastleherald.com.au

NRL: Knights playmaker Jake Clifford officially confirms move to Hull FC

"I'm excited to announce I'm signing for the next two years."
www.newcastleherald.com.au www.newcastleherald.com.au

Article about Clifford leaving.

Says in the article that we have Crossland signed.
They either know something we don't, or it's an error.
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I read a different article somewhere and it kinda sounded a bit like he was having a go at the Knights when he said , It will or would be nice to win some games ... Not that i really care he is gone now so that's history , although i'm unhappy he has gone he has a lot of skills and played a few very good games for us .
 
Ethan said:
From the vids i saw of Young when we signed him, if i remember right he was at centre in all of them. He either broke the line or got a pass away while being tackled.
As i said before the kids a sponge he soaks up all the information on what he needs to do and then does it , he's been here what 18 months and he is already twice the player he was when he came here.
I would bet my left one ( being 63 probably don't need it anyway lol) that he would be good at 1 by the start of the season if he started training there now and by the end of the season he would be our Tommy Turbo .. I don't even think that is that far of a stretch to be honest...
I know some will say no he won't handle it and maybe he won't but you won't really know until he trains there . What IF he IS the next Turbo and we miss out on him being that good because we didn't give him a go at least at training...
On the other hand he may have already been given a go there at training ( i have no idea whether they would have or not ) and they just said nah didn't handle it ...
Click to expand...
Just have to extend his deal now.
 
I just had a look on the Manly forum and most of them love Garrick and don't want to lose him but the only question mark from them is his defense at fullback and possibly centre.
There are a lot of comments like this,

"Rueben better spend the summer on the tackling bags then if he's going to center. The turnstile efforts at full back were rivalling soul glo's efforts against Talakai."

Just something to ponder 🤔.
 
krustykraz said:
I just had a look on the Manly forum and most of them love Garrick and don't want to lose him but the only question mark from them is his defense at fullback and possibly centre.
There are a lot of comments like this,

"Rueben better spend the summer on the tackling bags then if he's going to center. The turnstile efforts at full back were rivalling soul glo's efforts against Talakai."

Just something to ponder 🤔.
Click to expand...
It'll be hard for him to be a downgrade on Ponga in that department ...
 
Ethan said:
From the vids i saw of Young when we signed him, if i remember right he was at centre in all of them. He either broke the line or got a pass away while being tackled.
As i said before the kids a sponge he soaks up all the information on what he needs to do and then does it , he's been here what 18 months and he is already twice the player he was when he came here.
I would bet my left one ( being 63 probably don't need it anyway lol) that he would be good at 1 by the start of the season if he started training there now and by the end of the season he would be our Tommy Turbo .. I don't even think that is that far of a stretch to be honest...
I know some will say no he won't handle it and maybe he won't but you won't really know until he trains there . What IF he IS the next Turbo and we miss out on him being that good because we didn't give him a go at least at training...
On the other hand he may have already been given a go there at training ( i have no idea whether they would have or not ) and they just said nah didn't handle it ...
Click to expand...
Happy not to bet on your "left one", but what ballplaying ability have you seen from Young that even remotely suggests he could play at fullback? As far as I can tell he has never played in that kind of role.

There also isn't a fullback in the comp that's his size (mainly talking about weight here) other than Latrell - who is the lowest involvement fullback in the comp. He only makes it work because he's a once in a generation freak whose limited touches are much more effective than anyone else in the sport. Betting that Young is that doesn't make sense to me.

Wouldn't say that there is no way we should let him train there to see, but pretty strongly convinced what the coaches would see is something that wouldn't come close to working in a real game.
 
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