2026 Recruitment And Retention

Yes I know he was penalised but it was a strategy they were happy to employ because they know the refs will only penalise things so much. In the end Coates didn’t score a try and they won the game

The Raiders aren’t constantly penalised for taking the **** in the ruck either. The Storm deliberately give away six agains, the Bulldogs and Panthers are constantly offside. You do what you have to win
 
Staggs was too deliberate. It is something you can get away with on an occasion. You can bet the NRL will crack down on it soon and players will end up in the bin.
 
If smith does infact go to halfback the club does needs some credit for pulling some of these deals off, all of a sudden we go from 2 reserve grade halves to 2 really talented halves with there best footy well in front of them at 22 and 24 years old, i feel the reported price of smith is a steal given his age and potential by year 3 and 4 of his deal and it somewhat offsets browns overs in the first 2 yrs of his deal as We are now only spending 1.7m per year for a our 6 & 7, which is middle of the road in terms of cap expenditure.
I think the clubs done as good as they could of over the last 12 months to improve these key positions.
 
You could argue that with the cap space it turns out we had, we could have been in for Jamal Fogarty as well as Brown. But chasing Fogarty now would involve AOB admitting he was wrong all those years ago. Not just a bit wrong but catastrophically wrong. We’re also the club that told him he was going to get a top 30 contract lifeline and then pulled the rug out from under him shortly after. So maybe that was a non-starter.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
You could argue that with the cap space it turns out we had, we could have been in for Jamal Fogarty as well as Brown. But chasing Fogarty now would involve AOB admitting he was wrong all those years ago. Not just a bit wrong but catastrophically wrong. We’re also the club that told him he was going to get a top 30 contract lifeline and then pulled the rug out from under him shortly after. So maybe that was a non-starter.
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I think id still go the way we have gone, fogarty is a yr or 2 away from decline, we now have 2 guys (despite the brown negativity) who are on the up and years away from their peak. As knights fans the only thing we have is hope and that in itself fills me with plenty.
 
I reckon Fogarty has 5 years in him as a half whose game is not built on athleticism at all but with a sport like this you definitely never know. It’s also the case that when a guy doesn’t have the athleticism to begin with, when the decline starts, a guy can very quickly become not just bad but awful (see: Townsend, Chad). As we saw with Pearce, it’s a crap shoot. We signed a guy right when a halfback usually hits their absolute prime (and when the signing was announced I believe the club statement literally said we were excited to potentially have him for the next 8 seasons) but he hit the wall hard on the other side of 30.
 
krustykraz said:
$500k a year is good for Smith considering Brailey was rumoured to be on $750k.

I'd still prefer Smith in the halves. I haven't seen him play hooker but his defensive stats aren't the best.
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No, he cant defend in the middle, at all. I dont think he is built for it, physically, either. Some players just arent. His defence on the edges needs work as is it.
 
Les Misérables said:
No, he cant defend in the middle, at all. I dont think he is built for it, physically, either. Some players just arent. His defence on the edges needs work as is it.
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Yep and ultimately that’s why Phoenix took to it. He can defend with high physicality and high work rate for 80 minutes. He doesn’t start struggling to throw accurate passes out of dummy half as he gets fatigued. We all love the idea of having an Api Koroisau style slick dummy half but at the end of the day if your halves have a consistent idea of where and how their hooker is going to get them the ball, and the passes are going to hand consistently, and the forwards are running good lines, you can have a good attack even if the 9 is a bit bread and butter. Switching between two dummy halves mid game (which is going to need to happen with Sandon there, he is not ready to play 80) would be yet another adjustment for halves who will be adjusting to new roles next year to make.
 
For me Phoenix starts the game at 9. First 30mins. Then bring in Arthur. I hope he is ready!?

Sandon is the 7. I would swap out Trey Mooney and Crossland at 13. Is Trey Mooney an 80min player?
 
Trey Mooney is only paying 13 at raiders mainly as they had so many other forwards they could play him there

He will 99% most likely be in front row with Saf as we will need his running more than his possible ball playing and it would more than likely be Saulo, Hopwood and Jones/Crokes as third forward on bench
 
Is it peculiar that he’s signed on without knowing who the coach is? Or not really?

Does it suggest they may have already have made a decision/fair idea of who will be coach.
I probably have my thinking cap on too tight but 😂
 
knights80 said:
Trey Mooney is only paying 13 at raiders mainly as they had so many other forwards they could play him there

He will 99% most likely be in front row with Saf as we will need his running more than his possible ball playing and it would more than likely be Saulo, Hopwood and Jones/Crokes as third forward on bench
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True, but he goes between prop and lock in NSW Cup too.

I think either way he's more of a true ball player than Frizell is, and I don't think there's no reason that POS has gone harder at Mooney than he did at Pahulu. He wants that versatility.

No reason why a 13 can't be a primarily running forward that does a little bit of ball playing, rather than primarily a ball playing forward. That's Carrigan and he goes pretty well there.
 
frankLauda said:
For me Phoenix starts the game at 9. First 30mins. Then bring in Arthur. I hope he is ready!?

Sandon is the 7. I would swap out Trey Mooney and Crossland at 13. Is Trey Mooney an 80min player?
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Arthur is nowhere near FG ready.

Hence why I reckon we'll be chasing a new hooker once the new coach is picked. The first thing they'll do is call POS and tell him we're short a starting 9 - assuming they arent happy with Crossy at 9.

But dragging Crossy back to 9 means we're now short a middle forward. And being realistic, to replace Crossland at 13 you'd need spend about as much or more as it would cost to buy a starting 9

Whether all that happens next month or halfway through next season, it's inevitable imo.
 
J Saf at prop, Mooney at 13, one of Saulo or Friz in the other starting prop jersey (I would lean Saulo, Friz off the bench). Pasami had no difficulty doing a big shift of work at Canberra, just better players in front of him there. He is a lot better than guys like Croker and Brodie these days, trust me. Fantastic defensively.

Scope for guys like Hopwood and Crouch to win regular first grade jerseys once they earn them.
 
slotmachine said:
I've seen people say he's an upgrade on Leo which is laughable. I'll be pretty happy if he's a week to week 55 minutes, 11 runs for 110m, 30 tackles player.
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You’ve just described Leo’s output except for the 6 weeks or so a year he spends suspended.
 
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