Bradman Best discussion

Finals series showed, for me, that Bradman is one of the best "big game" players in the comp. Only Rob Toia who's the best defensive right centre in the NRL, and had just pocketed Farnworth in the prelim, kept him from having a big impact on a result. I actually think he's more important than J Saf. We keep the Big Three in the spine + a few match-winning edge players, and we should have a durable, year-on-year premiership contender.

Retention priorities for me going forward, totally ignoring their actual contract status:

Tier 1 - Keep at all costs: Ponga, Brown, Sharpe, Hopwood, Lucas
Tier 2 - Try very very hard to keep but there's a $ amount where you have to say no: Crossland, Best, Young, McEwen, Crouch, Mooney
Tier 3 - Would be very nice to keep but if you have to lose someone/do not match a big money offer: Croker, Saifiti, Graham, Smith, Marzhew
Tier 4 - Marata Niukore: Niukore

Tier A - Here for a good time, not a long time; would LOVE to keep but this is a future $1 million+ player elsewhere: Manuleleua
Tier Z - Huge future, not widely known across the league, should be easy to lock down: Winter, Hagan, Mulherin, Nonu etc etc etc

Think about the kind of team we'll have if we enter the 2030 season with all of the guys in tiers 1 & 2 still under contract - difficult but hopefully not impossible to achieve - supplemented by guys from tier Z. You've got your big three in the spine + reliable, tough hookers, Best & Lucas on one edge with McEwen and Young on the other, and Hopwood, Crouch & Mooney as the three very good to elite middles you need - and that's the magic number for me, three, supplemented by a bunch of honest toilers who defend their guts out, you should have a good rotation if you have that. Open question if you think those three will be good enough but I have been so impressed with all three this season, and you have to factor in we have *elite* edge forwards (contrast with say the Broncos winning the comp with three great middles, veeeerrrryyy questionable edge forwards, and a forward rotation of honest toilers, including a seemingly infinite spawning pool of 9/13 utilities), so the burden on our three best middles is lessened a fair bit.

Outside back definitely a place where you can economise to balance the cap, but if you have any that are really special you want to keep them IMO. Two strike OB's + cheap pathways talent is how you balance it.

Basically, spend big on:
Fullback
An elite half
One of the other spine players
Middle forward leaders
2-4 edge/wide strike players

Economise:
One spine position (usually one out of hooker and five-eighth)
Rotation/depth forwards
1-2 outside back starters + your outside back depth
Spine depth

Very very hard thing to balance but we couldn't be in a much better position to be able to do it.
 
slotmachine said:
Brown is here until the heat death of the universe so it's not really a point to discuss, but we just made a GF with Sandon playing 7 and being motm in a prelim so I don't see him as Tier 1. Like I'd swap him for Payne Haas in a second if such a thing were possible.
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I think we would have won the comp if Brown didn't get hurt so agree to disagree I guess. I think we smoke the Wahs with him fit.

That Panthers game is such an outlier/one-off too, like if Brown is in the team Crossland likely never gets sent off. Butterfly flaps his wings and all that.
 
Grandpa Joe said:
Does my forum shutdown idea have legs?
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Once Best makes a decision and the World Cup is over!

Tackleslikeagirl said:
Call me cynical lol, but I reckon the Sydney media are still recovering from the shock of Newcastle actually having a good season!
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Don't forget the 'exodus' of staff when it's only been POS lol.

“I reckon they’re in a world of pain,” Rothfield said on NRL 360 on Monday night.

“(Josh) Hannay’s knocking them back."

“You manage Willie Peters,” Rothfield said, speaking to host Braith Anasta.

“I hear he’s not keen. Minus 300 for and against. They are in so much pain that footy club. No green shoots, whatever you call them. There’s nothing there.”

“They didn’t have Kalyn for half the year. He’s their best player,” Read said. “Did you see them playing when he was on the field this year?” Rothfield asked.

“He was poor.” Read was prepared to give Ponga the benefit of the doubt. “He was down on form but he’ll be better next year.”

"Dad why did Buzz retire last year?"..."Son, see above ^" - Josh Hannay wasn't even on the short list of interview candidates so Buzz was wrong there as well.

“No one has moved on this yet, he wants out, guarantee you he wants to explore other options. He is exploring other options."

“Maybe he is afraid to leave the safety net of the $1.4 million and the life he has in Newcastle. I can tell you now, he definitely is thinking ‘is the grass greener elsewhere?’."

Then you get idiots like Chammas acting like they know what he is thinking when they clearly don't, see him re-signing in April several months before becoming a FA

The receipts are always fun
 
R_A said:
Once Best makes a decision and the World Cup is over!


Don't forget the 'exodus' of staff when it's only been POS lol.

“I reckon they’re in a world of pain,” Rothfield said on NRL 360 on Monday night.

“(Josh) Hannay’s knocking them back."

“You manage Willie Peters,” Rothfield said, speaking to host Braith Anasta.

“I hear he’s not keen. Minus 300 for and against. They are in so much pain that footy club. No green shoots, whatever you call them. There’s nothing there.”

“They didn’t have Kalyn for half the year. He’s their best player,” Read said. “Did you see them playing when he was on the field this year?” Rothfield asked.

“He was poor.” Read was prepared to give Ponga the benefit of the doubt. “He was down on form but he’ll be better next year.”

"Dad why did Buzz retire last year?"..."Son, see above ^" - Josh Hannay wasn't even on the short list of interview candidates so Buzz was wrong there as well.

“No one has moved on this yet, he wants out, guarantee you he wants to explore other options. He is exploring other options."

“Maybe he is afraid to leave the safety net of the $1.4 million and the life he has in Newcastle. I can tell you now, he definitely is thinking ‘is the grass greener elsewhere?’."

Then you get idiots like Chammas acting like they know what he is thinking when they clearly don't, see him re-signing in April several months before becoming a FA

The receipts are always fun
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Do you have a spreadsheet of all these comments? 😂. Great to bring out in these times!

We were kind of like the Tigers - a bit of an easy punching bag. Except we have performed this year.

Dragons could do similar to us next year.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
Do you have a spreadsheet of all these comments? 😂. Great to bring out in these times!
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Not difficult to find lol, even google AI summarises it pretty well how wrong they have been every step of the way
bremsstrahlung said:
Dragons could do similar to us next year.
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Crazy how Flanno copped it far less when he has had full control and the final say of the roster and signings, and the team got worse under his watch. Which is kind of funny considering how bad they were before him and he was supposed to fix things up. They didn't even make the finals lol.
bremsstrahlung said:
We were kind of like the Tigers - a bit of an easy punching bag. Except we have performed this year.
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A few coaches have gone, then gone on to improve elsewhere (Cleary, Madge) so that may be understandable. We held onto Brown, AOB a bit too long which is a fair statement. Neither will be a first grade coach any time soon.

What was also funny was Tallis squirming on 360 with how dumb it was for the Titans to sack him, with Holbrooks improvements at the Knights, when they have gone through how many? 2-3 coaches who've also again finished at the bottom when Holbrook took them to the finals and was 6-7 when they fired him...
 
Owey said:
Yeah, let the individual choose if they want to contribute over the summer or not. Plenty of young knights players to run the rule over in preseason.
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Personally, I really enjoy coming on and having a read of everyone’s opinions. (I’ll avoid the politics thread - sorry, the grinds my gears one).

Some comments I agree with, some I don’t, some spark more conversation or I want to clarify things. Some make great points that changes the way I think about things. But it definitely improves my mood, for the most part. I found great joy coming on here during the finals series, made it very enjoyable.

I guess if coming here gets you riled up, or feeling less than happy, maybe it’s time for an off season break. Or as a general rule, if you have to reply to the same person 3 times in a row - you either agree to disagree or take it to DMs haha.

Or I can point you in the direction of a Newcastle Jets forum if you are craving a team to get you hopes up and some arguments to channel your frustrations 😬.
 
jamesgould said:
I’d definitely prioritise Best over J-Saf if it came down to those two contracts being balanced out, I think J-Saf is already on the verge of being replaced by the young forwards we have coming through, and at 30 he doesn’t have many good years ahead of him.
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It will be interesting to see what they do with J-Saf. Originally he said he’d just take what was left over from the others being re-signed but he appears to have changed his tune and is going to market.

Yes we still need him at the moment, but we needed him the most this year, and he wasn’t available. Given they were still able to make a GF without him, kind of puts him in a precarious spot.

He’ll be 32 in 2028, so how much do you pay someone that age who has only averaged 17 games per year, the last three seasons when you’ve got younger players that need to be prioritised?
 
Newygirl said:
It will be interesting to see what they do with J-Saf. Originally he said he’d just take what was left over from the others being re-signed but he appears to have changed his tune and is going to market.

Yes we still need him at the moment, but we needed him the most this year, and he wasn’t available. Given they were still able to make a GF without him, kind of puts him in a precarious spot.

He’ll be 32 in 2028, so how much do you pay someone that age who has only averaged 17 games per year, the last three seasons when you’ve got younger players that need to be prioritised?
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PNG will probably offer him a big deal to retire on. They've only got one prop signed and will there be any other decent ones available.
I'd be happy for him to go get a massive pay day after winning a comp with us next year
 
jamesgould said:
I’d definitely prioritise Best over J-Saf if it came down to those two contracts being balanced out, I think J-Saf is already on the verge of being replaced by the young forwards we have coming through, and at 30 he doesn’t have many good years ahead of him.
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Not so sure on jsaf being on the verge of being replaced, as good as the young guys effort was in his absence he was sorely missed, without him and mooney we were dominated. you move him on you need to buy a top shelf pack leader, we have one in jsaf, and he will come at a discount as opposed to going to market.
Best is a take it or leave it for me, you cant blow budget on any centre, you lose him and you wrap up hunt for a fraction and ideally 4+ years.
 
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