2023 Recruitment & Retention Thread

packo said:
Gagai isn’t the problem. Funny how he is great every where else he plays.
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He suits a certain type of team that can cover his deficiencies and utilise the best of his strengths, Souths did both brilliantly and last year he reaped the rewards of being on the best edge in the comp with Cody having his best every year.

In saying that, he has been one of the worst players in Origin for the last 2 years - Latrell absolutely annihalated him all series in 2021, Wighton killed him in game 1 this year despite being rubbish at centre previously and Burton did the same in game 2 despite not having played centre all season.

He's not our biggest problem, but the fact that multiple other backs of less pedigree and coming from more difficult circumstances (Young moving from England, Edrick not playing for 2 years) have comprehensively outplayed him despite being in the same challenging environment is fairly disgraceful.
 
We do love to localise a lot of the blame on the outside backs, for their 1-on-1 misses near the goal line etc, and TBF they’ve all had some moments they’d like back defensively, and that includes likely the best defender of the lot in Hymel. But watch the better sides and tell me how often, for example, Stephen Crichton, Izack Tago or, hell, Conor Tracey is left alone on an island the way Dane, Enari etc are constantly stranded for us. Are all our outside backs at or near the top of the ‘line breaks conceded’ stat (per Fox Sports Lab) because they’re all especially incompetent, or is it just something is going wrong with the team as a whole and they’re the ones made to look the worst by it?

You know who led the ‘line breaks conceded’ stat pretty much every year? Kyle Feldt. This year he’s ranked about 57th. Now that’s a miraculous turnaround. Probably nothing to do with the team getting way, way better as a whole…

Stephen Crichton got given a bath defensively in Origin too - it happens. It’s the best players in the NRL playing at the fastest pace rugby league is played, sometimes you’re get owned.
 
At the end of the day, if we get a bit more of a functional attack going, Dane is a guy who knows how to play - really good ball player who runs great lines and makes great decisions, plus his tackle-breaking ability and change of direction at speed give him that but if extra X factor. He’ll be an asset if we can be more physically dominant, play less dumb, and give him a bit more space and time on the ball. But if we’re gonna keep sucking the only players who’ll look good out wide for us are absolute physical specimens like Dom Young. Can’t exactly drive down to Tesco’s and buy another 6’6” Jamaican though can you 😂
 
If Gagai at age 31 is still reliant on everyone else playing good to even be competent at his job then maybe he’s not the leader people were hyping him up to be upon signing. Defence I understand to a degree, he’s always been a weak defender and it’s exacerbated in a terrible defensive team, but he hasn’t been sighted in attack either since round 2. AOB hasn't helped with his refusal to even try tinkering with the backline when his plan A clearly hasn't worked. Maybe Dane can still look good in a decent team but his last 2 Origin series’ have been his worst by far as well.

Thought it was a bad idea to give him 3 years at the time and if the Dolphins want to bail us out we shouldn’t stand in his way.
 
Maxibon said:
Would love for Gagai to go to the Dolphins.
I don’t want us to lose Best but I doubt we would let him go, he’s a beast, a local junior and still only 20.
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Best is on his way to being Sione mark 2, gun junior that doesn’t realise he can’t trample men like 18 years old, offers nothing and doesn’t appear to be adding more strings to his bow.
 
Lord of the Skraelings said:
Best is on his way to being Sione mark 2, gun junior that doesn’t realise he can’t trample men like 18 years old, offers nothing and doesn’t appear to be adding more strings to his bow.
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He gets given the ball with no space, no momentum in the set, and gets swamped by defenders most of the time. Same thing happens to Fifita at the Titans. It’s because the work inside him is terrible and the coach has no idea.
 
So does that NRL list confirm the players have taken the options for 2023?

Fitz, Tyson and Johns?

01 Adam Clune 2023
02 Adam Elliot 2025
03 Bailey Hodgson 2023
04 Bradman Best 2024
05 Brodie Jones 2023
06 Chris Randall 2023
07 Dane Gagai 2024
08 Daniel Saifiti 2026
09 David Klemmer 2023
10 Dominic Young 2023
11 Enari Tuala 2023
12 Hymel Hunt 2023
13 Jack Hetherington 2025
14 Jack Johns 2023
15 Jacob Saifiti 2024
16 Jake Clifford 2023
17 Jayden Brailey 2025
18 Kalyn Ponga 2027
19 Krystan Mapapalangi 2024
20 Kurt Mann 2023
21 Lachlan Fitzgibbon 2023
22 Leo Thompson 2025
23 Mat Croker 2024
24 Simi Sasagi 2024
25 Tyson Frizell 2023
26 Bevan French 2023

Leaves 4 spots

KPP and Pryce maybe take up 2
 
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Barry Toohey on Twitter seems to be saying Kai Pearce-Paul is likely for next year, Pryce 12 months away. That’s the opposite of what some of the Pommy commenters on here predicted.

At a guess I’d say it’s because paying the transfer fee for a 6’6”, fast, agile, strong offloading machine seems like a surer bet than paying it for a teenage halfback - we know the club can do well with someone with Dom-like physical attributes, but we need an experienced 7 rather than another young fella. Alternatively a player swap might be being negotiated behind the scenes.

KPP gets shuffled around in the Wigan lineup a fair bit which may indicate they’re already preparing for life without him. I can’t imagine him being anything but an edge back rower in the NRL.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Barry Toohey on Twitter seems to be saying Kai Pearce-Paul is likely for next year, Pryce 12 months away. That’s the opposite of what some of the Pommy commenters on here predicted.

At a guess I’d say it’s because paying the transfer fee for a 6’6”, fast, agile, strong offloading machine seems like a surer bet than paying it for a teenage halfback - we know the club can do well with someone with Dom-like physical attributes, but we need an experienced 7 rather than another young fella. Alternatively a player swap might be being negotiated behind the scenes.

KPP gets shuffled around in the Wigan lineup a fair bit which may indicate they’re already preparing for life without him. I can’t imagine him being anything but an edge back rower in the NRL.
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I think he will play back row too but imagine him and Young out wide together 2x2m centre and winger and both over 100kg that could be deadly in attack and painful in defence .
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
At the end of the day, if we get a bit more of a functional attack going, Dane is a guy who knows how to play - really good ball player who runs great lines and makes great decisions, plus his tackle-breaking ability and change of direction at speed give him that but if extra X factor. He’ll be an asset if we can be more physically dominant, play less dumb, and give him a bit more space and time on the ball. But if we’re gonna keep sucking the only players who’ll look good out wide for us are absolute physical specimens like Dom Young. Can’t exactly drive down to Tesco’s and buy another 6’6” Jamaican though can you 😂
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That's fair, I'm happy to stick my hand up and say I was a fan of the signing at the time and during rounds 1-3 it looked like a masterstroke but unfortunately it's definitely becoming clear it may prove to be something we regret. No doubt Gagai has some valuable experience to share with our young backline even if his form is poor and by all accounts he's a decent enough bloke so it's not like he's killing the club.

What I don't want to happen for the rest of his contract is engaging in some sort of sunk-cost fallacy with respect to his place/position in the first grade side, that is when his presence would start to become problematic - unfortunately making some tough decisions like this is not something I'd be backing the club/AOB if he's still here to make. For example, if Doms ultimate position is to be centre (which I believe) the fact that we have Gagai signed for another 2 years shouldn't preclude Dom moving to centre next pre-season just so we can lock Dane into a centre spot. Indeed this would be the same if Sasagi/Mapapalangi/etc. kills it with some extended time at centre in reggies and Gagai continues to stink it up in firsts. Now whether these situations mean Gagai plays Cup or moves to the wing is irrelevant, but if he doesn't have the form to warrant selection his seniority shouldn't set back the development of our other prospects because that would absolutely be detrimental long-term.
 
potential 2023 lineup on signed players
1. Ponga
2. French
3. Best
4. Gagai
5. Young
6. Clifford
7. ???
8. Klemmer
9. Brailey (c)
10. D Saifiti
11. Frizell
12. Pearce-Paul
13. Elliott

14. Mann
15. J Saifiti
16. Thompson
17. Hetherington

1. Hodgson
2. Tuala
3. Hunt
4. Mapapalangi
5.
6. Simi
7. Clune
8.
9. Randall (c)
10. Croker (c)
11. Fitzgibbon
12. Jones
13. Johns
 
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