Phoenix Crossland discussion

Find it hard to understand Smith coming to Knights unless it was the Coach that attracted him.
If we have a long period without injury to Brown his favoured position is taken. His next option is Hooker where he lacks a strong tackling game like Crossland plays which if he is selected means players around him have more to do..
His options at 7 & 9 will depend on injuries or shortish minutes from bench. He is a good player but he ain’t Brown and his other options don’t fill his desired option.
I think both Graham or Hunter could fill in the bench and Smith could play 7 in Cup and further develop his game or as suggested maybe look at moving to another club.
 
Did any of you actually see him at 9 for Easts? Genuinely looked really really slick. Let's just see how it goes. If he's great there for us and is also someone who can save your bacon when there's a halves injury, you're absolutely laughing. Doing what you can to hold onto him.

Certain aspects of defence also easier at hooker than at half too. Api Koroisau has filled in at halfback and his defence has looked a lot more problematic there than in the middle.
 
Oliver said:
Toohey mentioned in his column that Graham is set to re-sign for another year. Smith’s been playing some great footy but he’s also on good money. If we want to lock up Lucas and Best long term, we may have to make the tough call and let Smith go.
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Can't let Smith go.

He is the best value squad player we will ever have. And as soon as either of Browne or Sharpe are injured, suspended or selected for rep duties, Smith becomes one of the most important players in the 13.

Smith also provides an option off the bench mid game to cover for tactical changes or mid game injury to key spine players.

And, he plays quality football. All for what, $300k?

Absolute madness to consider him anything other than the best contract the Knights have secured in a long time
 
Oliver said:
I’m more concerned about finding the money to re-sign Lucas and Best.
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This 1000%.

If keeping Smith (who apparently needed to play 0 minutes last week because of his poor defence?!) means losing one of Lucas/Best I'll personally drive Smith to his next club (and I really like him).
 
Les Misérables said:
Can't let Smith go.

He is the best value squad player we will ever have. And as soon as either of Browne or Sharpe are injured, suspended or selected for rep duties, Smith becomes one of the most important players in the 13.

Smith also provides an option off the bench mid game to cover for tactical changes or mid game injury to key spine players.

And, he plays quality football. All for what, $300k?

Absolute madness to consider him anything other than the best contract the Knights have secured in a long time
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Reported deal was $500K per season.

slotmachine said:
This 1000%.

If keeping Smith (who apparently needed to play 0 minutes last week because of his poor defence?!) means losing one of Lucas/Best I'll personally drive Smith to his next club (and I really like him).
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We have no idea why he didn't play, all just conjecture. He's very young and coach might have thought he could just use the week off, could be carrying a knock, and he'd only be called on if absolutely necessary.

Still very early days with all this stuff.
 
I was surprised he signed here for 4 years given two new teams are entering the comp and the cap will go up. However he may already have no interest in moving to Perth or PNG. Don’t know his personal circumstances but he is from Central Coast so maybe it just suits him to be in Newcastle.

With the speed of the game at the moment, throwing Smith on at 9 against tiring forwards could be a nightmare for opposition teams. Smith is quite fast, add him to KP, Brown, and Sharpe back at 100%, good luck. Does sound like the perfect spine for PVL ball though

Realistically with the Knights injury luck he’s going to get plenty of time in the halves as well
 
I wouldn’t be surprised if he has some sort of clause in his contract. I’d say he was probably POS’s backup plan in case KP didn’t re-sign. He’s far too good a player to just be an injury fill in or utility, especially with how scarce quality halfbacks are in the comp.
 
Surely Smith isn’t on that much to limit offering other players more to extend them. And surely people aren’t entertaining the idea of releasing him not even 10 rounds into his newy career?? He’s a 23 year old, he doesn’t need to be playing week in week out, he offers great depth and will be back playing in no time once origin comes around, has plenty to work on but he’s still young
 
I can’t understand why we are discussing Sandon Smith and him leaving. He signed a 4 year deal, so he would have liked the pitch he was given from the club and the direction we were heading in. He is a very valuable piece to our team, which he has already proven so far this season.

We finally have depth in our halves, so you hold on to that as tight as you can.

Especially given the lack of depth we have had in the halves recently with our previous options barely reserve grade level. We were shuffling the deckchairs on the titanic last year
 
I think you really have to think about it in terms of Phoenix being a guy who's on the depth chart at both 9 and 13. It seems wasteful if you're only thinking of Phoenix and Sandon as 9's. But if they do build towards Crossland playing more minutes at 13 than 9 when everyone fit, the value is very good.

We have a similar level of playable spine depth to Brisbane - another team with a notable amount of depth - for what I am telling you will be almost the same cap hit because guys like Walters, Paix, Mozer, Duffy etc aren't on development deals, they're on top squad contracts and would all be making between $200 and 400K. Walters, Paix & Mozer I guarantee are all on 3-400K.

A lot of POS' rep is around this sort of salary cap jiu jitsu, he will find ways to fill the roster with guys who can do a job for you for basically nothing.
 
Wicket said:
I can’t understand why we are discussing Sandon Smith and him leaving
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a) will Smith be happy playing a limited role for the next 3.5 years or look for a starting gig somewhere else? I guess that all hinges on what his role ends up being and I won't profess to know what he's thinking. Time will tell.

b) JSaf, Dom, Best, Lucas, McEwen can all negotiate with other clubs from Nov 1. If we can keep them all and Smith happy days. If keeping Smith means losing one of our starting players then moving him on becomes a real point of discussion.
 
slotmachine said:
a) will Smith be happy playing a limited role for the next 3.5 years or look for a starting gig somewhere else? I guess that all hinges on what his role ends up being and I won't profess to know what he's thinking. Time will tell.

b) JSaf, Dom, Best, Lucas, McEwen can all negotiate with other clubs from Nov 1. If we can keep them all and Smith happy days. If keeping Smith means losing one of our starting players then moving him on becomes a real point of discussion.
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With our injury luck in previous years i think it would be crazy to entertain letting him go. If we lose DB for any period of time who plays HB?
 
slotmachine said:
Crazier than watching Lucas or Best go to another club?
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My point with Smith is that he is roughly 6 months into a 4 year deal. Not having a go at you, just a genuine question, has anyone heard anything about him being unhappy? I think people are just jumping at shadows.

As a club, we are not use to having depth in our halves. It’s what the big clubs have and currently we have that as well

On Lucas and Best, yes certainly you’d want to keep both especially Best as our outside backs depth is a bit shaky in my opinion for next year. But if their asking price becomes to high (more than you think they are worth) then you have to let one or both of them go.

I’m sure that whatever Smith is on isn’t going to affect us keeping either player

On a side note for both Lucas and Best, they can both find an injury, so that will likely reduce their value I little bit.

Ideally I want to keep all 3
 
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