Dane Gagai Re-Signs with Knights until 2017

TyroneFan said:
I think the injury he may have been referring to is when he slid down that railing in town....remember? It was at the very beginning of pre season.

Or I may be way off the mark too.
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Yes. At the time it was reported as being an injury that could see him miss a lot of the pre season at least.
 
From the Daily Telegraph

Newcastle skipper Kurt Gidley says Dane Gagai should be the clubs priority signing for next year and will take into account the amount of young talent off-contract at the end of the season in making a decision on his own future.

“Dane has been great ever since he came down from Brisbane,” Gidley told Foxsports.com.au.

“We need to get him re-signed and the Mata’utia boys and Jake Mamo.

“Dane is our starting centre.

“He has a good core group of mates around Newcastle.

“He loves his surfing and he is one of the more passionate surfers now.

“I’d like to think he enjoys the town and playing for the Knights so hopefully the club and Gags can come to an agreement and he can sign a long-term deal.”


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...-transfer-centre/story-fnp0lyn3-1227257149659
 
I hope with all the talk of the backs needing to be re-signed the club hasn't forgotten about the forwards. I think Snowden and Sims are off contract too. I highly doubt either will go elsewhere but still, you'd want to hope the club is aware it's starting front rowers are off contract.
 
We've got a heap of players off contract this year, and only a handful we need to re-sign. There should be absolutely no reason why we can't keep every player of priority. Structure the contracts as back ended, do whatever, just make sure Gagai, Sione, Mamo, Korbin and Snowden are here next season. They're all settled, happy and have little reason to leave. Aside from perhaps Mamo, who's position in the team becomes questionable if Gagai is resigned
 
I think we will be re-signing more than we'll be losing

Re-sign: Gagai, Mata'utias x 3, Snowden, Sims, Mamo, Togiatasi, Yates, Redman, Fitzgibbon, Feeney

Release: Gidley, Fa'alogo, Smith, Filipo, Elias, Newton, Steele, Pakau

The only way we re-sign them is to lose Gids. His money alone should be able to extend all Mata'utias, Mamo's and Gagai's contracts alone. An extra 200k for Gagai, extra 300k for Sione, the other brothers should have their contracts stay similar to what they are maybe an extra 50k each, 100k extra for Mamo.

Probably way off but it makes sense to me.
 
Not sure what to think of Jah Pakau.

It seems like he's always injured now and when he finally does play, he's underdone, but I really rated him a couple of years ago in NYC and had high hopes for him.

Perhaps he just stood out in a poor team then, but I thought even last year he had a great start to the season, looking bigger and more powerful than ever and then he ended up with a serious knee injury and hasn't been the same since.
 
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Yeah I wanna give Pakau every chance but he's just nowhere to be seen.

We have guys like Togiatasi who's looking great, Vaivai, Mataora, Taylor. The NYC boys look impressive, King, the Saifiti brothers, Yates. I just feel like he's falling way behind. Hopefully he gets back into it because he's showed how good he can be but right now I don't think he's worth re-signing.
 
Yeah, I want to give him a chance as well but I have to agree.

Yates certainly looks the goods. I really liked him in the front row last year but I thought he flourished even more at lock on Saturday with the bit of extra freedom. He was a constant threat in attack which I haven't ever seen from him. He's always been pretty damaging, but not to that level.
 
Junior11 said:
I think we will be re-signing more than we'll be losing

Re-sign: Gagai, Mata'utias x 3, Snowden, Sims, Mamo, Togiatasi, Yates, Redman, Fitzgibbon, Feeney

Release: Gidley, Fa'alogo, Smith, Filipo, Elias, Newton, Steele, Pakau

The only way we re-sign them is to lose Gids. His money alone should be able to extend all Mata'utias, Mamo's and Gagai's contracts alone. An extra 200k for Gagai, extra 300k for Sione, the other brothers should have their contracts stay similar to what they are maybe an extra 50k each, 100k extra for Mamo.

Probably way off but it makes sense to me.
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Pretty sure Gids is only on 400k, but with Smith's money too we should have enough to re-sign and upgrade the players we want. I don't think Snowy will get an upgrade. As important as he is to us he'd probably consider himself lucky if he wasn't asked to take a pay cut after his less than stellar form for us during a lot of his past contract.

I'd love for us to be able to throw some money at a good prop but given we wouldn't get one I don't mind just using our money to re-sign those we want of the current crop. Anyone we lose we can fill internally (apart from the halves but they're not off contract).
 
Aidos said:
Yeah, I want to give him a chance as well but I have to agree.

Yates certainly looks the goods. I really liked him in the front row last year but I thought he flourished even more at lock on Saturday with the bit of extra freedom. He was a constant threat in attack which I haven't ever seen from him. He's always been pretty damaging, but not to that level.
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I saw an interview with Yates where he said he covered for Birch in the centres and enjoyed having room to move.
 
I see best case scenario as keep Gagai, Sione and Chanel and lose Mamo and Pat. I saw Sione say in an interview you have to go where the opportunities are, hopefully he means for his brother(s).

Best thing would be to sort out Gagai ASAP, if he's going to go, let him go now so we know what money we have and we know if there's a spot vacant. I'm worried we will work to keep all three, Gagai will decide to leave in August or something and Mata'utia and Mamo will have left already cos they can't see extra money or a spot being available. Then we have
 
BrianWilson said:
Best thing would be to sort out Gagai ASAP, if he's going to go, let him go now so we know what money we have and we know if there's a spot vacant. I'm worried we will work to keep all three, Gagai will decide to leave in August or something and Mata'utia and Mamo will have left already cos they can't see extra money or a spot being available. Then we have
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I agree...but Gagai in particular I can't see making any decisions until mid year. I say his manager will tell him told hold off making a decision either way until he sees if he gets picked for Qld because if he does it could increase his asking price. I don't think Mamo and Gagai's situations are too connected though since they play different positions. Mamo's position will be more effected by Gidley's decision I'd say. If Gids stays I'm 98% sure Mamo will be gone.
 
I may get fried by this but just giving my opinion.
I honestly don't see Jake Mamo making it as a winger, yes he has speed but if you look at the top wingers in todays game they're all either tall or big and strong. Which Mamo is neither.
The only way i can see Mamo making it is a FB and in a Slater type roll, otherwise out on the wing i think he'll get beaten 1 on 1 and under the high ball.
And taking into consideration that Gidley will retire, if we sign Sione for FB then Mamo is going to be waiting a long time, however if Gagai or BJ were to leave and Mamo was our main FB thats the only way i see it can work out for him.
 
Mamo is still growing to be fair, he's one of those players that are going to take years to get bigger with a lot of training. I think there's a future for him in the wings. Guys like Alex Johnston, James Roberts, David Mead show what fast, smaller guys are still capable of out wide. He's actually got an insanely good jump on him, he's scored plenty of tries from out leaping his opposition but of course he'd struggle with wingers like Vatuvei but who doesn't.

I've never seen a rookie play with so much passion and eagerness and dedication into everything they do. He's shown what an absolute star he can be when he's not injured, he's got plenty of tricks that he likes to pull out at fullback and he's always hunting hard for a try for the entire 80 minutes, everything is 100kmph with him which is exciting.

I think a year in NSW Cup will do him good. Playing against bigger guys, working more with the first grade players, continuing to get bigger and stronger. I think by the time he's 22 or so we're gonna have another real star in our backline - and let's hope its ours and not someone else's.
 
Billy said:
Yes. At the time it was reported as being an injury that could see him miss a lot of the pre season at least.
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Gagai was injured the night of the 4 nations final which was in Nov.
You post about Pat and his amazing skills and that he should start ahead of Gagai was back in Sept.

You're a funny one Billy.

Since both are off contract at the end of the year.
If you had to re-sign one of them, who would it be?
 
manager said:
If you had to re-sign one of them, who would it be?
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As with all contract situations, depends on what they are asking. They both seem to be guys who are asking too much if you believe reports. Pat wants firstgrade money and he isn't yet a firstgrader, and Gagai wants rep standard money, and he isn't really a rep player yet.
As a general rule, if they are good value for money, i'd prefer players who have a long history with the club as juniors. Wayne Bennett tried to buy any quality locals he could from other clubs, and pretty much all his premierships with Brisbane and Saints have been won with largely local squads, because when the big games come around you need to be playing for more than money.
For that reason, if the Mataútia brothers can be signed for the sort of money they are actually worth, they would be guys i'd like to see signed by the club, and Pat in particular has shown he will put in extra effort to win us titles.
The problem is, the brothers seem to be wanting more than they are currently worth if you believe reports.

In short, if we can get a local to do the job for the right sort of money, i'd go for the local, because they win premierships, and mercenary sides might get you to the finals, but they don't win them.
 
I've always said it and I'll say it again - Sione is not a FB, he lacks the pace and his athletic ability is much better suited to the centres

To be a successful NRL fullback you need to be a particularly talented sprinter, be extremely agile and then have a footballing mind and ball playing ability

If we resign Gagai I'd be look at putting him to FB for 2016 when Gids leaves
 
Billy said:
As with all contract situations, depends on what they are asking. They both seem to be guys who are asking too much if you believe reports. Pat wants firstgrade money and he isn't yet a firstgrader, and Gagai wants rep standard money, and he isn't really a rep player yet.
As a general rule, if they are good value for money, i'd prefer players who have a long history with the club as juniors. Wayne Bennett tried to buy any quality locals he could from other clubs, and pretty much all his premierships with Brisbane and Saints have been won with largely local squads, because when the big games come around you need to be playing for more than money.
For that reason, if the Mataútia brothers can be signed for the sort of money they are actually worth, they would be guys i'd like to see signed by the club, and Pat in particular has shown he will put in extra effort to win us titles.
The problem is, the brothers seem to be wanting more than they are currently worth if you believe reports.

In short, if we can get a local to do the job for the right sort of money, i'd go for the local, because they win premierships, and mercenary sides might get you to the finals, but they don't win them.
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Lol @ Pat will put in the extra effort to win us titles.
Not sure if you are being serious here.
 
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