Die Hard
Dave Woods
Again, Brown is not 1.3m long term, he will be roughly 8-900k at max long term with his maximum ratchet cap and increasing salary cap, the knights are doing absolutely fantastic having him signed long term at his price
Knights’ Recruitment Manager
- Thread starter Lefty
- Start date
You’re now assuming that POS didn’t increase the offer to Best.
We don’t know who increased Best’s offer. All we know is he now has an upgraded contract offer
Also who ever the new recruitment manager is knows before they arrive about Brown’s contract. So if they thought it was an issue, they wouldn’t take our recruitment managers job
If anything, Brown’s contract makes our recruitment job even more attractive
We don’t even make the grand final if Brown plays half instead of Smith in the preliminary.
Gotta say I was thinking the same. Smith got us there
Brad tighe
Owen Craigie
Completely disagree we played only a couple of games with our full strength team we would’ve finished top 2 if we didn’t have injuries
Manuleleua was still an unknown quantity at that point. He had played 3 games at the time Lucas re-signed, one of them being an 11 min stint in the middle.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
It's a pointless hypothetical because Brown being fit for every game changes how every game goes, Crossland probably never breaks Cleary's leg and we don't have a 12 on 13 victory off the back of a couple of extremely against the run of play tries.
We kind of beat the Warriors in spite of Sandon. It cuts both ways.
Fair enough
We don’t win that preliminary final against Penrith with Brown at halfback instead of Smith. I spoke about the difference between the two a while back, and in the end it was Smith’s eyes up footy that got us home.
Amazing, after one successful season, to see talk of blowing up the roster based on assumptions that players who improved this year will continue to do so without a step backward next year and/or we'll have cover with the juniors coming through....I'm sure Jonah "I couldn't even make FG at the Eels with Mitchell Moses injured" Pezet says hi.
After winning the spoon last year, maybe a couple of seasons as top 4 contenders are in order before we take a scalpel to the roster.
After winning the spoon last year, maybe a couple of seasons as top 4 contenders are in order before we take a scalpel to the roster.
Billy
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
`The problem is, most of the squad added 50% to their next contract asking price. The salary cap works against sides that have great results - as it is designed to do.
If we can find a big saving that won't kill our chances, we have to think about it.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
If you tried to punt Dylan Brown one year into a ten year deal every player agent in the NRL would adopt a "never deal with the Newcastle Knights again" approach to conducting business. There, thought about it.
Vagabond89
Max Chapman
Exactly, it's part of being a strong club. Penrith lost Burton before they even won a premiership and were fine. Replaced from within and get growing. Just need the strong juniors coming through.
Newygirl
Sean Rudder
Burton was there when they won in 2021, he left the year after
Vagabond89
Max Chapman
You are correct, probably should have fact checked that and not relied upon the die hard panther fans in my life.
bremsstrahlung
Jason Allen
I think we need another season sample size before we make any drastic calls. As great as 2026 was, we had lots of stop gap solutions - and a bit of luck that they all panned out. Almost everyone played out of their skins and reached new levels - 2027 tells us whether this is their new trajectory, or if it’s a flash in the pan.
On Smith - We have a great opportunity to get Smith training at 7 all pre season. Also a great chance for Butler as he’s probably next man up at this point. So will get a lot of reps in pre season I imagine. I don’t think Brown gets back to his best in 2027 (more than happy to be proven wrong though…) as the first year back post ACL is often tentative. May hit some form come finals if we make it, but it’s more likely we don’t see him back to his best until 2028. So Smith gets a full pre season, half a season without any pressure to show what he’s capable of week in, week out. I think any club that wants to be there in September/October needs depth in key positions - there’s no way we make the GF without Smith as next up last season. He kept us ticking over when players were out. If Smith looks to leave at the end of next season - he will have had a brilliant season - which probably means we have done alright if he’s being handed the keys somewhere. To be brutal, if he doesn’t develop into a starting calibre half by the end of 2027, or at least look good with the calibre of players around him, he’s probably destined to be a bench utility.
It seems incredibly unlikely we move Sharpe to fill in at FB or Centre in 2027. So we also get a long look at him in the 6 long term. I’m not sure what Sharpe’s pre season was last season but from memory we had him at FB and 6? - seems certain he will be doing all his reps in the halves and look forward to seeing his improvement. It’ll be good for him to have some consistency in training and games.
On offloading Brown - i get it was a bit of an off season question. But to play along, I think it would take a VERY special season from Smith/ or Butler for that matter, to put the Knights in a situation they consider letting Brown go. Especially when he’s only gonna get half a season post ACL surgery. There’s no way we consider it in 2027. Maybe if he has a poor 2028 it starts to cross our mind. He’s also got to want to leave… by my calculations if we asked him to look elsewhere at the end of 2028 - he’d be settling for nothing short of a 5 year contract somewhere and we’d probably be stumping up some cash if he’s stinking it up that bad we want him out. I think it’s safe to say we won’t be trying to offload Brown anytime soon. We went all in on him for a reason and he hasn’t shown me anything that makes me doubt that.
The 4 year contract for Smith may prove to be an interesting bargaining chip at some point.
I’m much more interested in how we shuffle our forwards around, and how they perform in 2027.
Other players that 2027 will be important for…
Croker - started the year as good as we have seen him. Clearly Holbrook unlocked and simplified his game. Dropped off a little towards the end, so I’m very intrigued to see how he starts 2027. I think his spot on the team probably depends a bit on the next guy…
Manuleleua - obviously the name on everyone’s lips at the moment. If he can come back, hit the preseason hard and start 2027 firing, he makes it very difficult to let him go and I agree, probably shoots to being a priority.
McEwen and Lucas - Manuleleua’s emergence has overshadowed what a great year these 2 had as well. There were doubts if McEwen could handle a full season of FG - well he did, and then some. Lucas made it impossible not to pick him in Origin with his performances too - even if he was scapegoated out of position and into a system that didn’t play to his strengths. Recency bias kind of associates Lucas with his stints off the bench coming back from what should have been a season ending injury - which is far from what he’s capable of.
The 3 into 2 dilemma is more interesting to me than our centre debate.
Hopwood - not for him, we are locking him down. But his progress next season probably determines a few players’ futures or at least the number on their contract. Would be nice if we had another year of him before we made a call on Safs. Safs looked good the other night for Fiji - just injuries might start creeping in. Shame he was suspended in the end, I think we would have much clearer opinion of him if he played those big matches.
Hagan - similar to Hopwood, his performance probably has implications for Crossland’s next contract. If Hagan kicks on, I’m curious where that leaves Crossland. Probably depends on Manu/Croker. Bit of a juggling act there.
On Smith - We have a great opportunity to get Smith training at 7 all pre season. Also a great chance for Butler as he’s probably next man up at this point. So will get a lot of reps in pre season I imagine. I don’t think Brown gets back to his best in 2027 (more than happy to be proven wrong though…) as the first year back post ACL is often tentative. May hit some form come finals if we make it, but it’s more likely we don’t see him back to his best until 2028. So Smith gets a full pre season, half a season without any pressure to show what he’s capable of week in, week out. I think any club that wants to be there in September/October needs depth in key positions - there’s no way we make the GF without Smith as next up last season. He kept us ticking over when players were out. If Smith looks to leave at the end of next season - he will have had a brilliant season - which probably means we have done alright if he’s being handed the keys somewhere. To be brutal, if he doesn’t develop into a starting calibre half by the end of 2027, or at least look good with the calibre of players around him, he’s probably destined to be a bench utility.
It seems incredibly unlikely we move Sharpe to fill in at FB or Centre in 2027. So we also get a long look at him in the 6 long term. I’m not sure what Sharpe’s pre season was last season but from memory we had him at FB and 6? - seems certain he will be doing all his reps in the halves and look forward to seeing his improvement. It’ll be good for him to have some consistency in training and games.
On offloading Brown - i get it was a bit of an off season question. But to play along, I think it would take a VERY special season from Smith/ or Butler for that matter, to put the Knights in a situation they consider letting Brown go. Especially when he’s only gonna get half a season post ACL surgery. There’s no way we consider it in 2027. Maybe if he has a poor 2028 it starts to cross our mind. He’s also got to want to leave… by my calculations if we asked him to look elsewhere at the end of 2028 - he’d be settling for nothing short of a 5 year contract somewhere and we’d probably be stumping up some cash if he’s stinking it up that bad we want him out. I think it’s safe to say we won’t be trying to offload Brown anytime soon. We went all in on him for a reason and he hasn’t shown me anything that makes me doubt that.
The 4 year contract for Smith may prove to be an interesting bargaining chip at some point.
I’m much more interested in how we shuffle our forwards around, and how they perform in 2027.
Other players that 2027 will be important for…
Croker - started the year as good as we have seen him. Clearly Holbrook unlocked and simplified his game. Dropped off a little towards the end, so I’m very intrigued to see how he starts 2027. I think his spot on the team probably depends a bit on the next guy…
Manuleleua - obviously the name on everyone’s lips at the moment. If he can come back, hit the preseason hard and start 2027 firing, he makes it very difficult to let him go and I agree, probably shoots to being a priority.
McEwen and Lucas - Manuleleua’s emergence has overshadowed what a great year these 2 had as well. There were doubts if McEwen could handle a full season of FG - well he did, and then some. Lucas made it impossible not to pick him in Origin with his performances too - even if he was scapegoated out of position and into a system that didn’t play to his strengths. Recency bias kind of associates Lucas with his stints off the bench coming back from what should have been a season ending injury - which is far from what he’s capable of.
The 3 into 2 dilemma is more interesting to me than our centre debate.
Hopwood - not for him, we are locking him down. But his progress next season probably determines a few players’ futures or at least the number on their contract. Would be nice if we had another year of him before we made a call on Safs. Safs looked good the other night for Fiji - just injuries might start creeping in. Shame he was suspended in the end, I think we would have much clearer opinion of him if he played those big matches.
Hagan - similar to Hopwood, his performance probably has implications for Crossland’s next contract. If Hagan kicks on, I’m curious where that leaves Crossland. Probably depends on Manu/Croker. Bit of a juggling act there.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
The more I read about it, the more $18 million looks like the most likely salary cap for 2028, and it would likely not jump that much after the end of the next rights deal.
Guys who have already extended to 2030 will probably then be on deals which look like:
Ponga: $1.8 million (I have heard that, essentially, the deal he agreed to was for 10% of the cap. Which I think if anything is unders)
Brown: $1.3 million (have heard that his ratchet clause doesn't actually kick in until the cap hits $20 million)
Lucas: $950K
Young: $750K
Big scary numbers in a vacuum, but it means that there's $13.2 million allocated beyond that. Hard to wrap your head around it honestly, you have to re-calibrate your thinking lol.
If Best takes that $820K > $1 million deal which has been floated, you then have, essentially, the 2027 NRL salary cap to split between the other 25 players. But in a landscape where the average NRL salary for an experienced first grader is going to jump from $400K to closer to $600K.
So much of the results on the field from 2028-on are going to be dictated by the men in the backrooms. Whoever navigates this stuff the best.
Guys who have already extended to 2030 will probably then be on deals which look like:
Ponga: $1.8 million (I have heard that, essentially, the deal he agreed to was for 10% of the cap. Which I think if anything is unders)
Brown: $1.3 million (have heard that his ratchet clause doesn't actually kick in until the cap hits $20 million)
Lucas: $950K
Young: $750K
Big scary numbers in a vacuum, but it means that there's $13.2 million allocated beyond that. Hard to wrap your head around it honestly, you have to re-calibrate your thinking lol.
If Best takes that $820K > $1 million deal which has been floated, you then have, essentially, the 2027 NRL salary cap to split between the other 25 players. But in a landscape where the average NRL salary for an experienced first grader is going to jump from $400K to closer to $600K.
So much of the results on the field from 2028-on are going to be dictated by the men in the backrooms. Whoever navigates this stuff the best.