2026 Recruitment And Retention

Frank McWilliams said:
Letting Frizell go and replacing with Niukore doesn’t leave us the same as this year, would have to expect that our young forwards such as Mooney, Hopwood, Manu, ESL and Crouch will be better and stronger in 2027 along side our more experienced Safiti, Saulo and Hola who have another couple of seasons in them
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Very similar position**

Does that sound better? Going off current games, we are replacing a 288 gamer with a 161 gamer. Mooney will have another 15 games (give or take) so he won't even be at 50 career games, Saulo currently at 66 games and on his 9th NRL season. Hopwood, ESL and Manu (who is an edge) will be lucky to get more than 25 mins a game without injury and lucky to average 10 games each for the rest of the year. And Crouch might not even get a run yet, like yes we will be in a little bit better position, but not really considering we are losing 600 games of experience from two blokes alone. We still need MORE depth, Friz on a cheap contract offers help in that department IMO.

And as I'm typing this I hope Die Hard is right, I'm not doubting they'll be better players next year. I just think Friz could easily still play a role even if it is at less minutes because of our emerging talent.
 
I'd still sign both Frizz and Gags on close to minimum. Perfect squad members
If one or both of them end up in reserves, good. That means our young guys are developing well.

I'd be giving Schiller and Arthur the tap on the shoulder and hope they can find deals elsewhere. That'd be more likely to see first grade in Perth than Newy.
 
It is a worry, loosing experience and young up and comers not coming up.
If I had my choice yes Frizell for 2027 especially in preference to purchasing a player that likely is very much like what we have
 
Junior said:
You beat me to it, I think recency bias may be clouding our judgement on Gags after getting destroyed by Troll but he would do that to most and Gags has never been known for his unreal defence so it wasn't a shock. I mean minimum contract or very close to would not be a crazy idea especially if he helps develop the next gen more.

As for Friz, he's doing his job well this year, I think we know how slim our depth is atm and replacing friz with an experienced player is only gonna keep it at the same level. We would definitely not lose anything by re signing him. Gagai may be a different story but Friz is still playing his role well.
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I think Gags has lost a step or two myself, but Trell has literally smashed every opposing centre this years. Gags efforts weren’t that bad in defence given how powerful Trell is. What I see in Gags is he has lost the ability to regularly make clean line breaks and score tries. He has the most tackle busts I know, but most of them are stopped at the line palm off and run sideways. I do remember him having a day out getting around some team this year can’t for the life of me think who but in general his age has stopped that asset in him.
 
Beatell said:
I think Gags has lost a step or two myself, but Trell has literally smashed every opposing centre this years. Gags efforts weren’t that bad in defence given how powerful Trell is. What I see in Gags is he has lost the ability to regularly make clean line breaks and score tries. He has the most tackle busts I know, but most of them are stopped at the line palm off and run sideways. I do remember him having a day out getting around some team this year can’t for the life of me think who but in general his age has stopped that asset in him.
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Yeah it was the Dogs game wasn’t it? He had a day out against Crichton. Think he’s been playing with those rib and foot injuries ever since
 
Newygirl said:
Yeah it was the Dogs game wasn’t it? He had a day out against Crichton. Think he’s been playing with those rib and foot injuries ever since
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Dogs and Raiders game he tore them to shreds. Even in the Tigers game, he was near our best player and hard to contain when he got the ball. That was what, a few weeks ago? He's still got fuel in the tank. Cleary he's being hobbled by the injury.
 
Joey1245 said:
Gags is currently playing needling both a foot and ribs. I reckon that might be hindering him a bit 🤣
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I had him in my SuperCoach the other week. He only managed 6 runs all game which is probably the least I’ve ever seen from him. Clearly something’s not right with him physically.
 
KPGreatness said:
If he is playing injured than drop him, we have Dragons and Titans than a bye, we should be able to beat both easily without a injured Gagai that is offering nothing anyway, put Hunt in and let Gags rest for three weeks.

Hunt literally couldn’t do worse than a guy that’s injured doing nothing.
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Put Hunt in with the the full strength squad & watch him improve Gags won't get his spot back
 
I like the call. Seriously if he is getting needles up to play, get Hunt back in there for the next two games. Then we have the bye. Then way up if you want to bring Gags back in when he is at full health.
 
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