Recruitment And Retention Discussion

Les Misérables said:
Honestly if we could somehow sign Healey to play 9 and put Crossy at 13 Id expect us to be a top 6 club. Not just because Healey is a very very good hooker (considerably better than Crossy) but because Crossy is considerably better at 13 than he is at 9.

We'd not only be picking up a first class hooker we'd be picking up a first class 13. Its two for the price of one and both players landing in positions of greatest need for squad balance.

Healey is a speculative dream ofc but it makes so much sense.
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I generally agree with sentiments above that we should keep the powder dry - but this is one of two circumstances we should attack a signing if the opportunity arises. I was the one who put 2+2 together to get 9 a few months ago and speculated that Healey may be the mystery signing we were pursuing (it was Sandon Smith - I was wrong).

If an NRL-ready prospect arises at 9 or 13, it's worth pursuing. Examples I use here would be Healey/Finau Latu - Latu is obviously a hypothetical substitute where we imagine he was still on the market - I had a quick look the other day and couldn't find a good equivalent so to make the point I'll pretend he didn't brush us for the Dogs.

If we secured a Healey/Latu, we immediately get to lock Crossland into a position long-term. I also prefer Crossland at 13, so I would prefer a Healey, but I'm not in the camp that we couldn't win a comp with Crossland at 9. We don't have a long-term 13 prospect - At this stage I see Hopwood as a prop who could play an "extra prop" 13 role if he fulfills his potential, but not as a "genuine" 13, so if we find a Latu-type I'll happily lock Crossland in at 9.

Flow-on effect of this signing is that whoever we currently have starting the 2026 season at 13 (Friz/Mooney/Croker/etc) shifts into the prop rotation, and suddenly our depth doesn't rely on Crouch/Hopwood/Hola/ESL having an immediate breakout season. There's also an assumption in-built within this reasoning that Sandon Smith plays halfback, while this is beginning to prevail on the forum (and I've come around to it), it's not necessarily the case - if Sandon plays 9 this flow-on effect is irrelevant because Crossland will be at 13 anyway.

I'd imagine cap constraints would prevent us from securing a Healey, but this is IMO the final puzzle to solve in our squad.
 
Getting Healey would be huge for us, locks down a rapidly rising young hooker we could have for 6+ years, i agree that would allow Crossland to go to 13 where i think he surprised everyone with how good he is there.

I dont think our cap is as out of shape as people suggest, i mean people were going crazy after the Brown deal with many saying our cap would be broken, than we went out and signed Smith, Mooney, Hola and Saulo.

I think we do have enough to go for him but questions are asked.

Will the Warriors be dumb enough to let such a talent go.

Do we make the deal better for them like swapping hooker for hooker and letting Davis go? The club for whatever reason doesn’t want to use him.

And last, are we even looking at him in the first place?
 
Signed until end of 2027. Same as Egan. Surely they view him as a pretty great hooker to transition in over the next year. Reported (zero tackle) Egan is on 600k - presumably he’s on less/would accept less.

Perhaps he’d be interested in pushing for a starting role sooner than later.

From England too, so no real affiliation with them right? Looks like he was at Newtown NSW Cup prior.



Shameless plug - In other recruitment news, for those that don’t scroll down to the bottom of the forum, currently recruiting anyone that wants to participate

 
KPGreatness said:
Getting Healey would be huge for us, locks down a rapidly rising young hooker we could have for 6+ years, i agree that would allow Crossland to go to 13 where i think he surprised everyone with how good he is there.

I dont think our cap is as out of shape as people suggest, i mean people were going crazy after the Brown deal with many saying our cap would be broken, than we went out and signed Smith, Mooney, Hola and Saulo.

I think we do have enough to go for him but questions are asked.

Will the Warriors be dumb enough to let such a talent go.

Do we make the deal better for them like swapping hooker for hooker and letting Davis go? The club for whatever reason doesn’t want to use him.

And last, are we even looking at him in the first place?
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I don't think there's been any suggestion we're actually looking at Healey, and I don't see the Warriors as much chance of letting him go.

Regarding the cap - you make the point pretty well, we've already gone out and signed Young/Smith/Mooney/Hola/Saulo on top of Dylan Brown. The chance of us having more in the bank to sway a Healey/Latu prospect for 4-500k is extremely low.
 
Do we all think M.Arthur is not ready? I thought he would have got more of a run in FG. Holbrook will be keeping an eye on him in preseason. Him and Crossland, Crossland moves to 13 later in the game.
 
Owey said:
It is a massive preseason for Tom Cant. He will come out of it either as a Holbrook favourite or on the scrapheap Knights wise.
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And become the next Zack Hosking? Simi Sasagi? This is the issue with what we expect of players. Cant is a player like Croker and Jones, keep working on them and they’ll be valuable top 30 members. Find your explosive players who may grab the headlines like McEwen and Francis, Elijah. And mix it with the Cants who will build on there abilities of being very reliable.

His biggest thing to work on this pre season is his base strength in defence. So he isn’t getting rolled. Take Crosslands route, he went from a string bean to one of the stronger defenders in the comp with initial contact.
 
BTP said:
And become the next Zack Hosking? Simi Sasagi? This is the issue with what we expect of players. Cant is a player like Croker and Jones, keep working on them and they’ll be valuable top 30 members. Find your explosive players who may grab the headlines like McEwen and Francis, Elijah. And mix it with the Cants who will build on there abilities of being very reliable.

His biggest thing to work on this pre season is his base strength in defence. So he isn’t getting rolled. Take Crosslands route, he went from a string bean to one of the stronger defenders in the comp with initial contact.
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Yeah, i like the bloke and back him to make it. He is the type of player that a new coach will either love for their work ethic or see as instantly expendable though. Therefore, his first impressions on Holbrook are going to be make or break for him because of the sort of player he is.
 
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NAS has been released from the Storm. Is he worth the risk, and could we afford him? It would be nice to have a big impact forward.
 
Warbs said:
NAS has been released from the Storm. Is he worth the risk, and could we afford him? It would be nice to have a big impact forward.
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He was an overweight reserve grader before he went to the Storm - struggled to keep fit at the Storm - and will be 15 or 20 kg over his playing weight by kickoff next year.
He is the very definition of a Storm player who's form will fall off a cliff anywhere else.
 
Kickitoverhere said:
Where did this chat come from about Healy?
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I just keep bringing it up speculatively. There's absolutely no 'there-there'.

That said, Wade Egan is 28 not 38 and the Warriors have two FG/rep standard starting hookers imo and we need one, it follows that the Warriors is the best place to source a hooker.

I dont think Arthur will make the transition. Just my opinion. Crossy is a better 13 than 9 and either of Healy or Egan would improve our team immensely in a key spine position.

And honestly, we've got the money, I dont buy the story that we are fully tapped, its a constant assumption on here based on some quote given by someone from club admin like 2 seasons ago. As it stands, every forward in our pack bar JSaf (700k) is on 500k or a lot less (Lucas perhaps more than 500k). Every back bar Best (750k reported) is on 500k or less. We've got two players on over $1m, with our 7 and 9 on a combined figure of probably another mil. And yes I think we re-signed Sharpe for less than his talent deserves, largely because we dont have a fixed position for him and have been playing him as a utility, or were at the time of the re-signing.

Lastly, POS wanted Sandon to play 9. Holbrook seems to want him a 7. That means POS still needs a 9 and obviously doesnt think Crossland is the right player for that position. Holbrook may disagree but I get the feeling that a crafty hooker would better suit the type of fast footy, utilising quick ruck speed, that Holbrook likes to play and Crossy just isnt that profile. He plays 9 more like a forward would, but with a large boot, and less like a guy who played 7 in the juniors
 
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MullosLefttoRight said:
I don't think there's been any suggestion we're actually looking at Healey, and I don't see the Warriors as much chance of letting him go.

Regarding the cap - you make the point pretty well, we've already gone out and signed Young/Smith/Mooney/Hola/Saulo on top of Dylan Brown. The chance of us having more in the bank to sway a Healey/Latu prospect for 4-500k is extremely low.
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Our cap is in good standing. Sydney media talk **** and have zero idea!
Name our top five highest paid players?
I think you’ll find player like Jones, Crocker are all on very little.

I’ll say one thing if we kept Leo our cap would be ****ed with an 850k prop who is worth about 500
 
Whether or not Phoenix is the right 9 long term, certainly happy with him there week to week while young guys develop, in a way that I wouldn’t be with Cogger, Gamble or even Phoenix himself in the halves while we try to develop promising young 6’s & 7’s beneath him.
 
KPGreatness said:
Getting Healey would be huge for us, locks down a rapidly rising young hooker we could have for 6+ years, i agree that would allow Crossland to go to 13 where i think he surprised everyone with how good he is there.

I dont think our cap is as out of shape as people suggest, i mean people were going crazy after the Brown deal with many saying our cap would be broken, than we went out and signed Smith, Mooney, Hola and Saulo.

I think we do have enough to go for him but questions are asked.

Will the Warriors be dumb enough to let such a talent go.

Do we make the deal better for them like swapping hooker for hooker and letting Davis go? The club for whatever reason doesn’t want to use him.

And last, are we even looking at him in the first place?
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Surely the Warriors wouldn’t let Healey go? He was an investment to them and they used him wisely!

Letting Davis go? No idea why they didn’t use him but the club seemed to bypass him this year for Arthur. That may change now Arthur’s not backed by AOB but think Davis was only on a Cup deal so he’s not taking up a spot. If they wanted to free up a spot they would get rid of Arthur!
 
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