2025 Recruitment And Retention

BTP said:
As for POS, with Hastings and potentially KPP money becoming available in 26 and Brails, we'll have a glut of money to do what we want with.
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Thats a huge 26' war chest. Where would it be best spent?

If we get Pezet I suppose that rules out another half? Other than that I'd happily spend big money on two marquee middles, Joe Tapine and a Cam Murray type. An injection of two quality middles of that kind immediately pushes us into Premiership contention, assuming Pezet works and our young guys actually come through.

Some dominoes to fall but there is a pathway to success now
 
You can count the number of current rep players the knights have signed in the last ten years on one hand.

A broken down Hodko
Pearce
Klem
Friz

So it's all good to have a stack of cash but history shows it's unlikely a big name will want to take it.
Not to mention there's not exactly many big names off contract for 2026 anyway.
 
Yeah the amount a guy is being paid literally doesn't matter in a vacuum. It's not your money so you shouldn't feel a sense of being "ripped off" if you're not getting what you feel is the correct value (and shouldn't it also follow that if the club has underpaid players, it would be good and proper for them to be upgraded immediately, rather than squeezing all the juice you can out of them while they're still a bargain?).

All that matters is results at the end of the day, if you've got a competitive team out of the resources used. Do you think a single Panthers fan gives a **** that they were still paying Reagan Campbell-Gillard $400K a season to play for Parra when they were winning premierships?

If you anticipate having a fair number of players on cheap contracts in coming years, it actually makes more sense to overpay Leo to retain him than it does to hold firm and let him walk. It just does. What will the club do with the money if he doesn't stay? People keep saying "oh we'll sign someone better for the same money". Okay. Who? Where from? The Prop Store?

It's frankly weird to see that one of your players is the most highly sought after free agent of an off season, attracting huge money offers from multiple clubs, and then come to the conclusion "it would be very easy to sign a better player for less money". Gee, better not tell those other clubs who are coming after Leo that! They'll steal that guy from us too!
 
Pahulu a good signing for the Dogs, that's who I would have wanted the Knights to look at if we lost Leo. I don't think he's as good but I was impressed from what I saw of him. Anyone who can play for the Titans and not be complete *** as a rookie is probably at least okay.

This may be a sign they're giving up on getting Leo, hopefully.
 
Les Misérables said:
Thats a huge 26' war chest. Where would it be best spent?

If we get Pezet I suppose that rules out another half? Other than that I'd happily spend big money on two marquee middles, Joe Tapine and a Cam Murray type. An injection of two quality middles of that kind immediately pushes us into Premiership contention, assuming Pezet works and our young guys actually come through.

Some dominoes to fall but there is a pathway to success now
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All depends on Pezet and Leo I reckon. Plus KPP and his development to a lesser degree.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Pahulu a good signing for the Dogs, that's who I would have wanted the Knights to look at if we lost Leo. I don't think he's as good but I was impressed from what I saw of him. Anyone who can play for the Titans and not be complete *** as a rookie is probably at least okay.

This may be a sign they're giving up on getting Leo, hopefully.
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I'm more concerned about the Raiders poaching him than I am of the Dogs tbh
 
slotmachine said:
Going back to this list got me thinking, they were all at the tail end of their rep careers.
Trying to think of a rep player we signed in their prime and I can only come up with BK (and what a signing it was, our best ever imo).
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KPP was an international when he signed, who is yet to hit his full potential imo. But geez id love a new BK! Dumbest thing we ever did letting him go.
 
Beatell said:
KPP, Beau Scott, Gags version 2, Jeremy Smith was he still a Kiwi international? SKD. A few i could think of.
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Yep Jeremy Smith was a Kiwi when he signed, he might not have played any more while he was with us, though.

Tyson Frizell would be one of the bigger ones.
 
slotmachine said:
Hilariously (and granted a very different player) the next best prop available for 2026 might be John King.
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In other words there are no replacements for Leo.

You'd expect POS would be aware of the lack of off-contract options. Unless he's got something brewing no one knows about (not very likely) you'd think they wouldn't be letting Leo go anywhere, particularly with a 1 year contract advantage
 
Last I heard is Leo is overseas and he went basically as soon as he finished playing for NZ. He obviously isn’t going to make a decision when on his offseason holiday.
 
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