2026 Recruitment And Retention

Couldn’t care less about the rack he’s hardly in the minority there. The concussions are the big concern. The Chooks have been incredibly negligent. He should’ve retired about 6 head knocks ago. Even by a footy players standards his brain would be mush.
 
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Unless you've got a ****load of space in the salary cap and can afford to be loose with it, I genuinely believe that right now the worst mistake you can make with your cap is dropping a hefty wage on a 9, with the exception of literally two, maybe three at a push, guys running around right now who are actually worth proper money. The Cameron Smith/Robbie Farah/Isaac Luke era, peak "hooker is the most important position" propaganda times, is dead and gone. Everyone goes on and on about the dearth of quality 7's these days but I reckon that position is actually the second most stacked with talent right now behind fullback. It's just that 7 is the hardest position in the game to play. Hooker has the least talent and it's not close. Harry Grant is a massive outlier and I think Blayke Brailey is a sensational player who's maybe, literally, half as good/valuable as Harry. You can throw a blanket over a lot of the other guys IMO.

Penrith realising they would absolutely be fine with Mitch Kenny there on his relatively cheap contract is yet another way in which they are ahead of the game. Meanwhile Parra kick off their rebuild dropping $650K on a guy who looked good playing for 20 minutes but turned into a pumpkin under the fatigue of playing for 40. Womp womp. I have really liked the look of Blake Mozer & I think talked about us chasing him in the hopes he could be a Harry Grant type, back when it looked like we would just never, ever sign a good half and needed to think outside the box, but now we have a gun 6 and a great prospect at 7, I hope we just look to save money at 9.

If we sign a 9 I'm starting a riot. We have the right players in place already. It's fine.

PS I am not a crackpot.
 
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Just saw a headline, courier mail, can’t read it, 16 players on the chopping block at the Titans. Photo of Hanny and Dave Fafita. So we will have lost about 7-8 players for the starting group. Not a full overhaul but good chunk, which we needed. The only one I’m a bit disappointed about leaving is Brailey.

On the SEN interview, they talked about the good relationship Holbrook and Fafita had and he played his best footy under him. If we could get the best version of Fafita on a cut price deal could be worth considering.
 
Even a cut price deal for Fifita is likely to be outside the price range & I think we’re honestly set in that positional group, in terms of having enough dynamic, tackle busting, try scoring talent.
 
On the looking for a 9 topic, could Gamble be an option there for us.

Problem would be he hasn’t played much, if any hooker. I think he may have played a little bit off the bench at the Broncos or Tigers, but I’m really not sure on that. Which means we would be going through the turn someone into a 9 thing again

My reasoning is I can see him being like a Billy Walters type of 9. I don’t think he is a first grade standard half and we have much better options at 13
 
Who knows, Holbrook might take a shine to Arthur or Davis is the pre-season and pick one of them, Harrison is another that we got after Silva joined the Eels.

It’s all up to the coach we have three realistic 9 options Arthur, Davis and Graham

Makeshift options are Crossland and Gamble

Holbrook first move would be wanting to lock down a spine, now it’s obvious that spine contains
1. Ponga
6. Brown
7. Smith

So he just needs to figure out what hooker and as I mentioned about he would be looking at all 5 options but my money is him going for a genuine hooker so that leaves Graham, Arthur and Davis for mine.
 
Phoenix starting at hooker and moving to lock wouldn't shock me (the player I'd bet on Holbrook picking at 14 in this case? Harrison Graham). Phoenix as an 80 minute hooker wouldn't surprise me. The only thing Holbrook could do which would shock me, given his track record, is play him as a full time starting lock forward (unless as an answer to an injury crisis). I'm with slots here.

Maybe something to revisit down the line if someone like Arthur massively kicks on in reggies.
 
frankLauda said:
Just saw a headline, courier mail, can’t read it, 16 players on the chopping block at the Titans. Photo of Hanny and Dave Fafita. So we will have lost about 7-8 players for the starting group. Not a full overhaul but good chunk, which we needed. The only one I’m a bit disappointed about leaving is Brailey.

On the SEN interview, they talked about the good relationship Holbrook and Fafita had and he played his best footy under him. If we could get the best version of Fafita on a cut price deal could be worth considering.
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