Recruitment And Retention Discussion

Newygirl said:
Jesus can’t really comprehend why he’d pay that much for him. I thought about $400k

Considering Barnett was willing to come for less than Bronx offer this seems an odd deal, especially for 3 years. Hard to be too critical given all the hits POS has made, hopefully it works out ok
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Yeah, i think Barnett became available after this deal unfortunately.
 
Who are we filthy at here…? PoS, Holbrook, the club in general? We made a decision at the time based on our forward depth. I think it’s over’s but I recall there wasn’t much out there and it was almost a given Friz would leave (he’s not been in last weeks form all season……). The club has done remarkably well recruiting the last 2-3 years. And retention. Maybe Niukore is one we’ll get wrong. Maybe not.
 
Die Hard said:
$600k for a versatile, experienced forward who Brown knows, Holbrook can use in multiple roles, and who can help this young pack compete. Might not turn out too bad. After the tv rights deal 600k won't be too much. Barnett wouldve been so much better though.
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I like that thinking plus had we lost Friz (hopefully not) and never signed Niukore with Jones retirement - our forwards look a bit light, yes Hopwood, Crouch, Mooney and Manu have improved but I guess it could be worse. If he can be fit every week and do a job, then I’m cool.
 
Yeh, I’ll forgive if it doesn’t work out.
I don’t think we could have predicted Manu to stand up and give us the idea we can push McEwen to middle.
There was even a bit of suspense if McEwen was ready to be our starter for the whole season. Coupled with Hopwood and Crouch improving beyond what we thought possible at the start of the year (I don’t think any of us thought they’d be getting so much game time with suspensions and injuries to Safs and Mooney).
Croker also stepping up under Holbrook.
Frizz has also kept up and perhaps performed better than expected.

I think we would have been very critical if we didn’t make a play for another forward for next year. I think our playing style has somewhat masked our lack for forward punch through the middle. We don’t try and go through the middle like a Penrith.

As for the player himself. I’m more than happy to give him a pre season in the red and blue, and a few games under his belt before I start labelling him as overpaid or surplus to requirements. I hope we are all in the Niukore thread next season, saying what a great pick up he has been.

We’ve seen what Holbrook has done with the team as a whole. No less Croker. If he can do similar with Niukore - we will be cheering.

It’s only when we start to hear things like we could lose Best for say 100k that we perceivably overpaid for Niukore, but unfortunately those questions can only be answered in a few years when we see how it all turned out.

Trusting the process. But we all have trust issues with the club haha.

I still hope there’s a way we can keep Frizz on. He’d be invaluable to have around the club post footy, so I hope we do things respectfully, whatever our decision.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
It’s only when we start to hear things like we could lose Best for say 100k that we perceivably overpaid for Niukore, but unfortunately those questions can only be answered in a few years when we see how it all turned out.
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I don’t think it works like that with POS. I think he feels $600k for a granite hard middle forward who has a real presence about him and who can mentor younger forwards is the right price. If he got him for 100k less then what he thinks he's worth, then great. But that wouldn't change the Best negotiation. He will have a value of what he thinks Best is worth. If Best wants another 100k, he isn't going to bend the salary cap to accommodate him. He'd much prefer to move on and get someone at their right value. The 100k he has saved on the original deal is more likely to be spent keeping another player in a key position rather then overpaying for an outside back. To us it seems like spending it on Best is the easy answer, to POS it is a way to bend your salary cap and lose the players who are going to win Premierships.
 
Look, to me Nuikore's value is this. A Blake Brailey type opposition hooker senses a bit of momentum for his team and thinks he can pull the trigger on a big play on the back of it. He sends one of his yardage men with a quick play the ball in to the ruck and moves in to position with anticipation. Then he looks down and the ball carrier is on his back with his head pointing towards his own try line and the hooker thinks "well, not this set". It goes as one tackle to the tackler, but what it means to the game is so much more.
 
The issue is I’m not sure Niukore has been that player for a good while now.

I agree that that’s the hope and that’d what it looks like if it goes right, he’s this injection of physicality in the middle who allows the team to get better at winning in different ways. Better at winning those physical wars where points are at a premium, which can happen in big games. On that money he should probably be a starter next year.
 
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I read somewhere else that it’s a foregone conclusion that Manuleleua won’t re-sign. Can’t recall whether that is cap pressure or just it being accepted he may prefer to go somewhere closer to home. But given our situation in the forwards now, and a couple of strong young centres coming through, Best leaving so we can tie down Cody and Francis early may not be the end of the world. And who knows if Niukore is a plod as everyone thinks he is, I’m sure there’ll be a sensible release in final year of contract so he can pursue ESL.
 
The Artist Formerly Known as Aku'd said:
Who are we filthy at here…? PoS, Holbrook, the club in general? We made a decision at the time based on our forward depth. I think it’s over’s but I recall there wasn’t much out there and it was almost a given Friz would leave (he’s not been in last weeks form all season……). The club has done remarkably well recruiting the last 2-3 years. And retention. Maybe Niukore is one we’ll get wrong. Maybe not.
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Hmm.. maybe. The jury is still out on the Dylan brown contract for mine. Do we look markedly worst with 6. Sharpe 7. Smith? Arthur signing didn’t work out. Etc.
 
luke46 said:
Hmm.. maybe. The jury is still out on the Dylan brown contract for mine. Do we look markedly worst with 6. Sharpe 7. Smith? Arthur signing didn’t work out. Etc.
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Brown is a big part of the reason KP re-signed and while Smith has been a great fill in, he’s definitely not a Dylan Brown level talent as good as he’s been.

The problem is we didn’t actually get very much of Brown, KP and Sharpe because of them all being injured. Look forward to seeing it one day hopefully before KP retires, they can string a full season together
 
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