Recruitment And Retention Discussion

If Parra outbid us on Best, then good luck to him; I can live with re-signing Dom and extending Hunt. Maybe we turn Baxter into a Bradman clone.

Exactly I am sure we have put down a great offer for Best, if someone trumps it, it isn't meant to be, pretty simple, I can see him at a Sydney club personally to be closer to the Mrs.
 
Hard on Best, he sends Marzhew away quite often, even yesterday, nice passes or flick on, Marzhew without Best is very similar worry to Young/Hunt without Gags
Yeah I thought best was very classy in putting away Marzew yesterday. I love Hunt but he’s not producing that at centre atm. I also thought he took some good tough carries, would like to see a bit more of that though. His defence was top notch as always too.
 
If it came down to it, who would you lot keep if it came down to Best or Dom?

Best - hugely important to our defence, but can have quieter games, doesn't always impose himself on the result, can certainly find an injury

Dom - can score a try from anywhere, important on starting our sets well, but will he be as effective without Gagai inside him?

Dom is going to be the cheaper one to keep, I would say. And I'm not sure we have as many wingers coming through that would be a good replacement. There's a few options for Best.

Just curious, I'd lean towards Best, but as I go through the pros and cons, maybe Dom should be the priority?
IMO Best. Just way too important for our left edge defence, and sets up his winger as best as any centre in the competition, no pun intended
 
Yeah for me it's:

Core players, must keep at all costs, non-negotiable: Ponga, Brown, Lucas, Sharpe, I think Hopwood is going to clearly be that as soon as next season, and I suspect Mooney is going to end up on this tier just because middles matter so much and I think he's going to pan out as at least a very good one.

Great players/prospects where you have to keep at least *some* but you inevitably can't keep all: Best, Young, McEwen, Manuleleua, Winter, maybe Hagan.

"Worth way more to us than to other clubs" guys, almost "auxilary core" players in the sense that they're good clubmen who help your salary cap; will always provide value which exceeds what they're being paid (our versions of Aubusson, Tupou, Sorensen, Mitch Kenny, etc): Crossland, Croker, Marzhew, maybe Crouch.

I've left JSaf off because I suspect he's going to just take whatever we reasonably offer him and that will be his last contract before he retires. He'll turn 31 next year.


If you can have a team which looks like this in 2030, we've managed it well:

Ponga
Two rep calibre or at least fringe rep calibre outside backs, strike players, and two workhorses
Sharpe
Brown

Hopwood, Mooney and one middle who's an honest toiler
Competent starting hooker
Lucas
One out of McEwen and Manu

Competent bench hooker
Impact middle off the bench
Toiler middle
Bench/middle hybrid forward
Backline utility
Halves utility


Put simply, I think with some players the *who* really matters a lot. You can't replace the skill set of our three spine guns, you can't replace the mix of stuff Lucas brings to a side unless you somehow convince Eli Katoa to come to the club once he recovers, and middle forwards are at such a premium even average ones make like $800K+ a year, so if you've got really good ones you need to hold them. That's why I put them on the hypothetical team sheet by name.

With others, the *what* matters a lot. Young is awesome but the reason we really struggled without him when he went to the Roosters is it took forever to plug someone in there who brought any of his "what" value. Sharpe did a way better job than Jenkins and Tuala because he's quicker, stronger, can beat a man 1-on-1, is way way better at moving laterally on ball in flight (Alex Johnston never gets the credit he should for how unreal he is at this)... he's not the same player, but he could do a lot of the same stuff 80-90% as good. Similarly it will leave a bad taste but yeah I think Jack Bostock for example would be closer to a like-for-like for Braddy than people think and if the price tag is hundreds of K's less, eh, I won't lose sleep. I'd prefer to keep the local junior, I think that does matter, but there's a line.
 
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