Peter O'Sullivan Appreciation thread

Apey said:
Problem with Schiller is we signed him to replace Dom, didn't we? Not saying he'd on the same wage, but I don't think he's some cheapie either, and it's clear he is very far down the outside back pecking order now.

Niukore I think we're all hoping to be pleasantly surprised.
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Schiller started on the right wing for the first half of the 2025 season until Dom Young returned to the club in Round 16.

Dragons actually offered Schiller the chance to go there not long after Dom came back to the Knights which he said no and that was the wrong call in terms of first grade opportunities as he has hardly played much NRL since.
 
Apey said:
Problem with Schiller is we signed him to replace Dom
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I don't remember that narrative. Yes, Schiller has dropped down the pecking order because he played poorly when he got his shot. But not every player is going to be successful, no matter who the recruitment manager is....his potential is still there, though; he's shown it in the reggies. He'll probably get another shot because of that, but just maybe not at the Knights.


We also had Jenkins, and that didn't work out either...at least for us.

"Pleasantly surprised"... already sounds like Marta will be the new go-to for when things go wrong....Tommy Cant will be relieved.
 
Apey said:
Cap is a much better place than when he joined. We were paying Hastings nearly 800k to play reserve grade, Brailey 600k to be an okay hooker, and stuff like KPP on 700k for potential and to play under a coach that basically considered attacking football blasphemy.
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That was what it was at the time. POS probably finds a way to get Klemmer off the books like he did with Saifiti as Klemmer was a casualty from the Saifiti's emergence and them needing to find a halves guy to replace Pearce.
Everyone loved the Brailey re-signing at the time (myself included) as he was just starting to come back from his injuries but it's tough when you have a guy with who has the potential to rise as one of the elite hookers instead has a very mediorce rise like Brandon Smith (for the dollars they're on)
KPP yes, was a mistake though I don't think anyone would have sneezed at 450-550k, and probably a lesson for those jumping the guns on young english prospects.

You'd take someone like Dylan Brown on $1.3m instead 11 times out of 10
 
Seano said:
Schiller and Kepa'oa were low-risk, high-potential-reward bets. Time is probably running out, but either could still crack it for a steady run in the NRL.

Niukore hasn't even walked in the door yet; I wish people would give him a chance.
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Lowkey a positive for the Niukore signing is he can also fill in at right centre or backrow if players are out. You can slot him right next to Brown, whom both have alot of experience playing next to eachother at Parra.
 
Why would the club let him go? The quality of decision making around contract negotiation, cap management, player retention, identification of junior talent, retention of junior talent etc etc, all falls away upon his departure.

I don't understand the thinking. We risk losing the success in large part. The job is never done. We now need to stay at the top for an extended period
 
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Les Misérables said:
The job is never done.
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How does the club stand in the way when family reasons are raised as the issue? And even if they weren't, any chance we force a contract to be completed and the bloke phones it in from there?

We've seen what happens with "principled" stands * when the Eels denied Lomax to the Storm; no matter what the offer, the end result was A) they got nothing, B) more importantly, changed nothing.

POS has been a great servant to this club, I'm sure they did the "Is there anything we can do to keep you?"....Parr's not stupid, but at the end of the day if he wants to go, he wants to go....hopefully the club management have learned the lessons he taught them: keep feeding young talent in at the bottom...move anyone on asap if they're not going to work out; you pay for key positions and to fill gaps....oh and no one, no matter how storied their career is bigger than the club and what the club needs rn.

* Not saying there's never a case for principled stands, but that pragmatism is usually by far the best approach.

PS. And as you say, the job's never done...so we were going to lose him at some stage.

Note "principled" is in quotes because clubs will always find excuses to move on players they want gone ....although tbf to the Eels have so far stuck by Fox when Gould had him out the door quicker than you can say NRL Integrity Unit.
 
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It’s notable that POS has never stayed in one place that long. Clearly he’s good at his job, he’s connected, and he’s done a good job of being the face of some tough calls the club needed to make. But he is not the only recruitment guy and he’s not the only guy who’s made a good signing or unearthed talent. If this ****s us we have way bigger problems than a recruitment guru can solve.

If you pressed me on it I would say that the best recruitment guy in the biz is actually the fellow at the Raiders, sorry check that, the one who’s now at the Roosters.
 
slotmachine said:
How can they make him stay? He's not a player that the NRL can refuse to register if they walk out on a contract
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It’s a bit of a catch 22 isn’t it.
Like what’s the point of contracts these days - they really just guarantee the contractee to $$/time. I get frustrated with this as much as anyone, still dirty on Upton (more the carry on when she got to Brisbane).

Similar to players I guess- if we signed Grant to a 3 year contact. He comes and tries to earn his spot. He’s dissatisfied with relieving Crossland for 30 minutes each week and says he wants to leave a year into his 3 years.

What do you do?

Keep a player against their will?

If POS didn’t want to be here, he’s probably not giving his best efforts and deteriorating the relationship.
We get a reputation as being inflexible and difficult to work with.

It’s frustrating. But as it’s come out, he is seemingly in a position where he can just resign like most of us. The Knights probably could make this a bit more difficult and try and enforce non compete or something - but it doesn’t sound like it’s worth the hassle.

Outside looking in, if it were as simple as $150K, it would’ve been worth it - even if you view it as a $150K bonus for performance this year. But there’s likely other factors and potentially moving to Brisbane is one of those.

Part of me thinks we are well positioned for the next few years - so what’s he going to be doing? Maybe we keep the relationship and we can lure him if we need a bit of a hand in the future.
 
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This is honestly a pretty good haul, if you brought these six players to the Tigers they’d probably finish 9th. As I said above, Gold Coast is the Bermuda Triangle of footy, or the ruins of Carthage. Nothing good can happen or grow there.

Just keep Bozo Fulton the hell away from my club.
 
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