Recruitment And Retention Discussion

Who cares if Pryce, Cogger and Gamble all leave at the end of the year

You don’t not sign a current international half because just maybe one of the juniors might come good.

Halves take a long time to develop. It’s probably going to be 5 years before any junior is ready anyway. Who knows wtf could happen between now and then.

Pezet literally just chose to sit in reserve grade for two years because he wanted to be at a winning club.

I’d say the club will have more chance retaining juniors if the club is performing well than they would as a middle of the rung team.
 
If I was a parent of a junior coming through, go to Manly or another Sydney club. If in Newcastle, you now know you have no pathway. What a great incentive 😂😂😂. With the size of our nursery, one of the biggest, and we can’t develop at 6 or 7 in Newcastle since Joey, questions need to be asked. Pezet could have been the one to fill the void, and for years, but we will have to wait and see.
I hope Brown goes well but 10 years is insane. DCE had runs on the board and ticked a lot of boxes, apart from a running game, I wonder???
People will still whinge about Knights losing players, again it goes back to management. Young Butler and Loza, go elsewhere boys.
I’m sure Pryce, Gamble and Coggers agents are on the phone already. Very clear message sent to all today!
What club would Pryce, Gamble or Cogger start at? They leave they end up in the same situation as they are here.

Gamble could play 13 or 14 for us, he is a competitor so that may stand him in good stead if he wanted to stay for the rest of his contract. Pryce is rocks and diamonds plus on massive money, if he goes he goes. Cogger was signed as a replacement for Adam Clune, so he goes back to being a back up half. I don’t see the drama!
 
We haven’t had a junior half pan out in like 20 years. I don’t know why anyone would be assuming anything is going to be suddenly different with the ones we have in the lower grades now. It’s always good to be optimistic, but thankfully the club are realistic.

IF one comes through that is an absolute gun in the next 10 years we’ll find a spot for them…it’s extremely unlikely though.
 
What club would Pryce, Gamble or Cogger start at? They leave they end up in the same situation as they are here.

Gamble could play 13 or 14 for us, he is a competitor so that may stand him in good stead if he wanted to stay for the rest of his contract. Pryce is rocks and diamonds plus on massive money, if he goes he goes. Cogger was signed as a replacement for Adam Clune, so he goes back to being a back up half. I don’t see the drama!
Eels can have Pryce
 
We haven’t had a junior half pan out in like 20 years. I don’t know why anyone would be assuming anything is going to be suddenly different with the ones we have in the lower grades now. It’s always good to be optimistic, but thankfully the club are realistic.

IF one comes through that is an absolute gun in the next 10 years we’ll find a spot for them…it’s extremely unlikely though.
Yeah there are so many things which could happen before we get to the point where it’s even an issue. If he’s a screamingly obvious Cleary-like prospect then yeah maybe some tough decisions will need to be made. But we now have breathing room to think about it.

Also, we’ve just seen with Jonah: something which makes staying at a club into a player’s 20’s an easier sell is a winning environment & top tier stars to learn off. As others have said on here before: the prospect of playing with and/or learning from Hastings, Gamble, Cogger etc just doesn’t seem to be very attractive… and which talented juniors did we keep? Which position was the one where we attracted highly touted prospects from overseas? Fullback! Because Kalyn is a guy young fellas want to train with and learn from.
 
There are many IFs about our plan. And there's some aspects to it which seem somewhat low percentage.

But aside from that, if the plan even remotely works we're suddenly a legitimate force. Sharpe on the improve and Brown as threat from anywhere, then Ponga as well, damn.

We DESPERATELY need forwards though. I get the feeling Hopwood will take years to really find his groove.
 
What club would Pryce, Gamble or Cogger start at? They leave they end up in the same situation as they are here.

Gamble could play 13 or 14 for us, he is a competitor so that may stand him in good stead if he wanted to stay for the rest of his contract. Pryce is rocks and diamonds plus on massive money, if he goes he goes. Cogger was signed as a replacement for Adam Clune, so he goes back to being a back up half. I don’t see the drama!
Never said currently they are the answer. More concerned with the message that is passing on to others inspiring to play for Knights, it’s now a roadblock.
My question is why can’t we develop premiership players like Panthers. Similar nursery size.
 
Sure, let’s just keep doing exactly what we have been doing that hasn’t been working rather than signing a legitimate established half.

I bet if Dylan Brown was from Newcastle you’d have a different opinion.
Lets hope his game improves. Oh well he has 10 years to show it
 
If our Prem window opens next season, we will be without Gagai in 2027.

That's a monstrous hole. He's been one of the best centres in the comp for a while and especially his latest stint with us.

We're gonna need another star centre and also two new star middles as we're already a middle short and we lose Leo for 26'

Many holes to fill for 26/27
 
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Never said currently they are the answer. More concerned with the message that is passing on to others inspiring to play for Knights, it’s now a roadblock.
My question is why can’t we develop premiership players like Panthers. Similar nursery size.
I would hope that aspiring players would be happy to put in the hard yards and earn a jumper.

There is zero point worrying about 5 or 6 years time when we need a quality half and one is available now. In one afternoon our 2026/2027 premiership window opened right up.

We just need to keep developing players, keeping those who we want and fill the gaps in the roster with brought in players. Even Penrith buy in players including halves. It’s about balancing the roster.

Success breeds success. Success keeps players keen and willing to take less money to enjoy that success.
 
If our Prem window opens next season, we will be without Gagai in 2027.

That's a monstrous hole. He's been one of the best centres in the comp for a while and especially his latest stint with us.

We're gonna need another star centre and also two new star middles as we're already a middle short and we lose Leo for 26'

Many holes to fill for 26/27
Connor Votano comes on by then hopefully.
 
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Yeah doubt we'll go looking for a Gagai replacement elsewhere unless all options here fail. Got a lot of talented outside back prospects - Votano, McCarthy, Aoake, De Courcey, Hunt, maybe Annan. The hope will be at least one of them emerging as a first grader preferably as early as this season. Schiller apparently wants to be a centre as well so he might just shift in, but all of the above names have experience at both centre and wing.

If I'm predicting right now I'd say McCarthy.
 
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