Kalyn Ponga discussion

Oliver said:
I think it might come down to what we re-sign Lucas for. You just know Moses will try to squeeze every dollar out of us. What’s a fair price for Lucas? It might be an unpopular opinion but I wouldn’t get into a bidding war for him. Second rowers are one of the easier positions to replace.
Click to expand...
The talk a while back is Moses tries to move around his players to 'better' clubs. In order to maintain a better value (also get better 3PA which is also organised by the agent), A bit like the Galvin situation but this one was a bit grossly misjudged. If you take care of his players he takes care of you.
Still perhaps a fall out when they lost Moses/Woods/Tedesco and I think it was Cleary at the time had their offer on the table and it was a take it or leave it or else its pulled by this date so we can plan accordingly.

Some players (let's say Connor Watson for example) may say 'get me the best money deal' even if it's the Bears/PNG and even if they will unlikely play finals football for 5 odd years, and they won't care and go to the highest bidder because he hasn't been on really high money for a few years, and potentially is after one last payday. He may also have some value as a utility going to a new team...no doubt.

In Lucas' case is it really worth potentially a couple of extra hundred Ks to play for worse teams when he's younger and has the chance to earn money, and more money at the Knights with the usual player turnover and the cap going up? Probably not.
 
R_A said:
The talk a while back is Moses tries to move around his players to 'better' clubs. In order to maintain a better value (also get better 3PA which is also organised by the agent), A bit like the Galvin situation but this one was a bit grossly misjudged. If you take care of his players he takes care of you.
Still perhaps a fall out when they lost Moses/Woods/Tedesco and I think it was Cleary at the time had their offer on the table and it was a take it or leave it or else its pulled by this date so we can plan accordingly.

Some players (let's say Connor Watson for example) may say 'get me the best money deal' even if it's the Bears/PNG and even if they will unlikely play finals football for 5 odd years, and they won't care and go to the highest bidder because he hasn't been on really high money for a few years, and potentially is after one last payday. He may also have some value as a utility going to a new team...no doubt.

In Lucas' case is it really worth potentially a couple of extra hundred Ks to play for worse teams when he's younger and has the chance to earn money, and more money at the Knights with the usual player turnover and the cap going up? Probably not.
Click to expand...
Him being a massive Knights fan hopefully helps as well
 
  • Like
Reactions: R_A
Owey said:
On the fair dinkum side of things, if we resign Ponga we may be saying bye to Best to even out the cap for a bit. Best has similar injury issues to KP. Plenty of good juniors coming through in the outside backs including a couple of potential superstars in Seve and Winter. McKewn has been earmarked as the priority upgrade right now. Best may just be a disposable luxury when the time comes.
Click to expand...
I was thinking the same. Two of our highest paid outside of the spine is Best and Saifiti, I feel we have enough young guys coming through to potentially fill a void there if we had to let them go to fit in Ponga. It would suck, but Penrith have done the same letting good but not essential players go to keep their match winners
 
Tubby said:
I was thinking the same. Two of our highest paid outside of the spine is Best and Saifiti, I feel we have enough young guys coming through to potentially fill a void there if we had to let them go to fit in Ponga. It would suck, but Penrith have done the same letting good but not essential players go to keep their match winners
Click to expand...
Guys like Critchon or Burton I'm sure if they could they would keep. But others such as Luai/RCG/Kikau etc I dont think they lose sleep over them going elsewhere.
 
frankLauda said:
Fletcher is the ace in deck. They will think we have a good side. His money will go to upgrading some players internally and buying what we need.

If KP goes we will have a spine of Brown, Sandon, Fletch and Crossland. 9 we are well placed with what we have.

Someone mentioned we buy and elite half, but I rate Sandon. He’s only young, 50 games in and is showing great signs of a quality half that can create heaps of opportunities.
Click to expand...

That was me and that was with a view to a premiership window in the next few years.

I rate Sandon as well. I see good things in his eyes up instinctive footy and with some maturing and time in the role he could develop in to a very handy 7.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Yeah and also... we have an elite half. We're locked into one for a decade. Dylan Brown is like Shaun Johnson if he could tackle. I think it's silly how caught up people got with "if he's a 6, you can't pay him all that money". I think it's just because Cleary and Cronk kept winning the comp so that meant everyone thinks you need the best 7 if you're going to win. But we've just seen a fullback almost single handedly carry a team to a comp while his geriatric #7's both tragically died mid-game. Just because Penrith kept doing it one way, didn't mean that's the only way to do it. No one was saying you can't make a 6 your most expensive spine player when Lockyer, Fittler & Maloney were leading teams to premierships.
Click to expand...

I was the one the mentioned an elite 7, and I never wrote off Dylan Brown I think he is a fine player. I don't believe he is an organising 7 though. You have taken a comment and drawn your own conclusions from it and gone on some tangent.

Ponga does create as a ball player, I never said Fletcher Sharpe was going to suddenly become Andrew Johns, but "if" Ponga goes we will no doubt be playing Sharpe from the 1, that means we are swapping a ball playing 1 that doesn't really play the traditional fullback role, for Sharpe that does play that fullback role, and very well, but isn't a ball player. The net effect is we lost some ball playing ability in the team, which is where that elite halfback comes in.

As I posted I rate Sandon, but he is no Cleary. Sandon could in time develop in to a very good 7, but if we have a window now and lose KP, we lose that window and need to do something to open it again. That being, buying an elite strike player that can be the difference in games.

I also said elite 7's aren't exactly plentiful, and also said I was just spitballing!
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
I wouldn’t blink at paying Lucas over $700K. I think he’s special. I know it’s not in the spine or the middle but I think this is a Boyd Cordner or Brian To’o situation, sometimes a guy transcends positional importance.
Click to expand...
I love Braddy but I'm not losing Lucas for him. Be great to keep Braddy, but he'd have to stay at what he's on now or a bit less and play for (hopefully premierships here) Importance of keeping Braddy though is bigger due to Gags moving on, replacing one centre is tough, replacing two is a bit ridiculous.
 
Best is a weapon, we just haven't used him too much this year so far. Which is surprising given the change in play style. The players have been taking turns having a big game, one day soon he'll have a ripper. Could see another team outbidding us for him. Would hate to lose him, but ultimately he's a centre, have to prioritise other positions. Hopefully he sticks around, but it did seem like he came close to going to the Tigers? a few years ago. At the end of the day, it'd be hard to not take an extra few 100k to move on.
 
Joshhh said:
Best is a weapon, we just haven't used him too much this year so far. Which is surprising given the change in play style. The players have been taking turns having a big game, one day soon he'll have a ripper. Could see another team outbidding us for him. Would hate to lose him, but ultimately he's a centre, have to prioritise other positions. Hopefully he sticks around, but it did seem like he came close to going to the Tigers? a few years ago. At the end of the day, it'd be hard to not take an extra few 100k to move on.
Click to expand...
It was well told that Best turned down the Tigers and $800k to stay with the Knights for $700k, it was stated Best wasn’t close to signing for the Tigers.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
I wouldn’t blink at paying Lucas over $700K. I think he’s special. I know it’s not in the spine or the middle but I think this is a Boyd Cordner or Brian To’o situation, sometimes a guy transcends positional importance.
Click to expand...

One was a backrower the other winger? How did the transcend anything positional?

Neither would be anything special outside of their unique position.
 
Usually one would be wary of paying a winger or a back rower big money, the most valuable players are the spine and the middles. However, a winger like To’o or a back rower like Cordner can be important on a level that a winger or back rower would not usually be. Didn’t think I was speaking in code with that one tbh.
 
Grandpa Joe said:
One was a backrower the other winger? How did the transcend anything positional?

Neither would be anything special outside of their unique position.
Click to expand...
I think that is what he is saying Joe. You spend your cap big on your spine, but then there are some guys who play positions outside the spine in such a special way that they are worth big money.

I heard Penrith ceo Brian Fletched talk about it once. He said he sets a mill aside for centres and doesn't break that rule. If they had a special centre who was worth 800k and decided to sign him for that, the other starting centre would only be on 200.
 
Owey said:
I think that is what he is saying Joe. You spend your cap big on your spine, but then there are some guys who play positions outside the spine in such a special way that they are worth big money.

I heard Penrith ceo Brian Fletched talk about it once. He said he sets a mill aside for centres and doesn't break that rule. If they had a special centre who was worth 800k and decided to sign him for that, the other starting centre would only be on 200.
Click to expand...
Yeah it’s an interesting approach at Penrith, I’m not sure anybody else does that. I guess they have the luxury of that conveyor belt of talent so they can replace departures. But it must have been an interesting convo with Luai. “The cap structure allows for only $2 million on halves, therefore we can never pay you more than $700K.”

I also kind of think they relaxed this hard and fast rule when Fish requested the release, once that happened they just went after the best, most industrious forward they could get, after crying poor over Kikau’s extension because it didn’t fit the cap model.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top