Kickitoverhere
Darius Boyd
Hopefully niurkore and another year develop hopwood soften the blow of friz leaving. I agree though another prop who can play 20 minute stints and make pcm’s is what we need to really step up next year
2026 Recruitment And Retention
- Thread starter HarVeeGee13
- Start date
Seth Gecko
Rod Whitaker
Kalyn speculation is non stop. It is hard to see him leaving now. He will be 30 the first year of his next deal. It will take something big to get him to go or else we make the call. Interesting times.
Agree, I was one of them as well, for his size the bloke absolutely has a high ceiling. But it's a bit to be expected for a guy who was working his way in to first grade.
Should we get more controversial? Im not saying hes been average but I think theres still plenty of improvement in Lucas and we havent even been close to seeing the best of him, to date this season.
Always funny when literally none of it has been right.
They haven't had any ammo since the last contract he signed had no ratchet union clauses (when it was initially speculated) and there was only speculation because his last contract had a player option, but the club quashed it and got a deal done.
Lucas getting through a mountain of work , but prob not the highlights for Origin selection?
KPGreatness
Justin Holbrook
Yep, his floor is that much higher, being solid and a high workrate is the norm. Thats why in the best way possible I dont think (yet) we've seen the best of him, as guys all take turns having their standout games, and Lucas' solid no nonsense games get a bit lost in it.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Common theme with the Kalyn chat is that we are for sure going to be outbid if someone chases hard enough. Thinking about it, this may not be true.
The funny thing about POS is that he’s not at all backwards about coming forwards about cap stuff. If you spot him at a local pub and ask him about how we’re doing cap space wise he’d probably just tell you. He let slip in the paper that we were paying Brailey a fortune for example.
If there’s a reason for optimism about the cap situation now it’s that the contracts he moved on were all the ones which were preposterously bloated. It turns your stomach but add Hastings, Brailey, KPP, Will Pryce, Adam Elliott, Jack Hetherington and Jack Cogger together, and you’re probably looking at about $4 million in cap space or close to it, for those 7 players. Wests Tigers areas.
The big outlays this off season were Brown, Smith, Mooney. Approx $2.35 million total. Add Pasami Saulo, Lachlan Crouch, Peter Hola and Asu Kepaoa and you probably have the 7 replacements for those 7 spots in the top 30 right there. Add those guys together and we’ve essentially swapped out four first choice 17 guys (Cogger, KPP, Elliott, Brailey out, Brown, Mooney, Smith, Saulo in) and three fringies/reserves (Hastings, Pryce, Hetho for Crouch, Hola, Kepaoa)… and I would bet that cumulatively we’ve shaved around $7-800K off the cap.
I think some of those $ would have already been spent on or earmarked for extensions. Similarly I would bet Friz/Gagai out, Niukore in shaves a few hundred K off the cap, which is likely earmarked for De Courcey and McEwen.
So… will we be able to keep Ponga, Brown & Sharpe together for longer than people are guessing? Honestly, maybe? The big thing which ****s your cap isn’t the real pricey guys because they tend to make over a million for a reason. It’s that when you look around the league, you would be truly shocked by what a lot of guys are making. Way more players than you think are in that 7-900K range. For us it would just be Jacob, Bradman, maybe Sharpe and I think that’s what it will be to extend Lucas.
But at other clubs, look at any player where you’re like, they’re pretty good, they’re probably on about $4-600K… it’d genuinely blow your mind how many of them are actually on about 800. That’s what POS is avoiding like the plague as far as I can see. Some players are worth that all day but think of it this way: a lot of Dragons would be on that. A lot of them. Like, a lot a lot.
The funny thing about POS is that he’s not at all backwards about coming forwards about cap stuff. If you spot him at a local pub and ask him about how we’re doing cap space wise he’d probably just tell you. He let slip in the paper that we were paying Brailey a fortune for example.
If there’s a reason for optimism about the cap situation now it’s that the contracts he moved on were all the ones which were preposterously bloated. It turns your stomach but add Hastings, Brailey, KPP, Will Pryce, Adam Elliott, Jack Hetherington and Jack Cogger together, and you’re probably looking at about $4 million in cap space or close to it, for those 7 players. Wests Tigers areas.
The big outlays this off season were Brown, Smith, Mooney. Approx $2.35 million total. Add Pasami Saulo, Lachlan Crouch, Peter Hola and Asu Kepaoa and you probably have the 7 replacements for those 7 spots in the top 30 right there. Add those guys together and we’ve essentially swapped out four first choice 17 guys (Cogger, KPP, Elliott, Brailey out, Brown, Mooney, Smith, Saulo in) and three fringies/reserves (Hastings, Pryce, Hetho for Crouch, Hola, Kepaoa)… and I would bet that cumulatively we’ve shaved around $7-800K off the cap.
I think some of those $ would have already been spent on or earmarked for extensions. Similarly I would bet Friz/Gagai out, Niukore in shaves a few hundred K off the cap, which is likely earmarked for De Courcey and McEwen.
So… will we be able to keep Ponga, Brown & Sharpe together for longer than people are guessing? Honestly, maybe? The big thing which ****s your cap isn’t the real pricey guys because they tend to make over a million for a reason. It’s that when you look around the league, you would be truly shocked by what a lot of guys are making. Way more players than you think are in that 7-900K range. For us it would just be Jacob, Bradman, maybe Sharpe and I think that’s what it will be to extend Lucas.
But at other clubs, look at any player where you’re like, they’re pretty good, they’re probably on about $4-600K… it’d genuinely blow your mind how many of them are actually on about 800. That’s what POS is avoiding like the plague as far as I can see. Some players are worth that all day but think of it this way: a lot of Dragons would be on that. A lot of them. Like, a lot a lot.
Les Misérables
Adam Woolnough
If POS was planning for a Ponga exit, which two of these players would complete our roster?
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
None. Build our own thing.
The Artist Formerly Known as Aku'd
Adam MacDougall
Liam Martin
Also none.
We have the backs and the depth there
We have the halves and depth there
We have our hookers and depth there
We have our edge forwards and our depth there.
We have our front rowers and our depth there.
The only recruitment I see is needing is bridging some forwards talent in Flegg age group. If we resign likes of Kepaoa, Hola who have been great for instance our Cup forwards and top 30 forwards
Are strong. The forwards in Flegg without the SG boys are a bit off (but loss pit this down to the coaching being more from Alan Moore) 2 decent go forward props in that team changes their situation.
Billy
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
I haven't watched much Flegg this year, because our other juniors are going great and Flegg is not, but I'm really impressed with big Queenslander William Bates. He looks our best chance to score with a barge over try in a lot of games. We also have Jack Hilliar back. He looks very unfit and is probably coming back from an injury or something, but only a few years ago we all thought Hilliar and Hopwood were two great props in Mathews, and Hilliar was the best of the two. A genuine ballplaying prop.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Also there’s a Penrith Tax on every player you sign from there, when a guy comes from a winning situation they cost more.
Really we should be looking at the lower end of the ladder and identifying guys who’ve done okay in bad situations and/or have attributes that suit how we want to play. But also, the more new players you develop internally, the better off you’ll be.
frankLauda
Ben Kennedy
We are going to resign KP, if we keep playing the way we have been and make the 8 even top 4 he will want to stay. Again I need to see a few more rounds, but signs are obviously positive.
Brown has been outstanding the limited time he has played. He was the best player easily in the pac champs. Him and KP combination will blossom, add in Sharpe attacking threats all over the park. We also are building strong depth.
Brown has been outstanding the limited time he has played. He was the best player easily in the pac champs. Him and KP combination will blossom, add in Sharpe attacking threats all over the park. We also are building strong depth.
I tell ya, there’s a player by the name of Jack Cogger who’s been doing really good things off the Panthers bench, he’d be a great pick up for us.
I reckon he might straighten out attack
Also Brown has been in Ponga’s ear about joining him and playing for New Zealand.
If they are getting along that well, then that’s another reason Ponga will want to stay