Recruitment And Retention Discussion

[Celticman98]

Our deal for Dylan Brown will age well compared to a lot of other teams who will actually overpay players who don't deserve it as much.

I'm already accepting Manuleulua is a player we will lose to salary cap reasons in a few years so I hope he can at least win a premiership with us before he gets his paycheck. Similar to when Penrith couldn't keep Kikau.

 

[krustykraz]

Just looking at off contract list for 2027, most good players are locked up till 2028.
What id like,
• Matt Arthur-offload early if possible
• Bradman Best- Hopefully re-signs soon
• Mat Croker- offer 2 year extension
• Harrison Graham- offer 2 year extension
• Fletcher Hunt- Offer 2 year extension
• Asu Kepaoa- let go
• Jacob Saifiti- offer 2 years
• Elijah Salesa-Leaumoana- easy either way
• Pasami Saulo- easy either way
• James Schiller- already gone?

 

[luke46]

Just looking at off contract list for 2027, most good players are locked up till 2028.
What id like,
• Matt Arthur-offload early if possible
• Bradman Best- Hopefully re-signs soon
• Mat Croker- offer 2 year extension
• Harrison Graham- offer 2 year extension
• Fletcher Hunt- Offer 2 year extension
• Asu Kepaoa- let go
• Jacob Saifiti- offer 2 years
• Elijah Salesa-Leaumoana- easy either way
• Pasami Saulo- easy either way
• James Schiller- already gone?

I wouldn’t pay saulo a cent over minimum wage

 

[mullenmagic]

Best: A lot is being said and I'm no more or less confident than I was a few months ago. Gut feeling is still that he stays.

Croker: Seems like the most likely starter to make way trying to solve the Lucas/Manuleleua/McEwen problem. If that's the case it seems unlikely he'd be offered starting money here, and probably would get it elsewhere.

Graham: Reckon next year will be his last here with Hagan replacing him.

Hunt: Sounded unlikely he'd be re-signed by O'Sullivan but new recruitment guy means new ideas so who knows. Don't think O'Sullivan had a big opinion of him generally but both AOB and Holbrook clearly did.

Saifiti: If another club wants to pay good money for a 32+ year old giant I would wish him well. Like Croker, think he could be a casualty of trying to retain the younger (and better) prospects.

Salesa-Leaumoana: I'm a fan but it's a big year for him, and it doesn't seem like he'll be any closer to the top 19 in round one than he was last year as things stand.

Saulo: Been leapfrogged by Crouch but still a solid depth player who probably won't get a bigger opportunity than that elsewhere so I assume he re-signs. Maybe England.

 

[HarVeeGee13]

Best: A lot is being said and I'm no more or less confident than I was a few months ago. Gut feeling is still that he stays.

Croker: Seems like the most likely starter to make way trying to solve the Lucas/Manuleleua/McEwen problem. If that's the case it seems unlikely he'd be offered starting money here, and probably would get it elsewhere.

Graham: Reckon next year will be his last here with Hagan replacing him.

Hunt: Sounded unlikely he'd be re-signed by O'Sullivan but new recruitment guy means new ideas so who knows. Don't think O'Sullivan had a big opinion of him generally but both AOB and Holbrook clearly did.

Saifiti: If another club wants to pay good money for a 32+ year old giant I would wish him well. Like Croker, think he could be a casualty of trying to retain the younger (and better) prospects.

Salesa-Leaumoana: I'm a fan but it's a big year for him, and it doesn't seem like he'll be any closer to the top 19 in round one than he was last year as things stand.

Saulo: Been leapfrogged by Crouch but still a solid depth player who probably won't get a bigger opportunity than that elsewhere so I assume he re-signs. Maybe England.

I think you have it right re: all of them.
Saulo is not gonna get an offer to be anything but a depth prop, not a regular rotation player, with an appropriate salary, so there's no incentive for him to leave. Sneaky important one to retain because yes I don't think we're too many years away from a middle rotation of Mooney, Hopwood, Crouch, Niukore, Crossland (playing a lot of lock forward) and one out of McEwen and Manuleleua. Saulo the guy who comes in and plays 15 minutes in case of injury.

 

[Billy]

zero tackle reporting NSW cup prop Tamakaimoana Whareaorere has signed for South Sydney.

He is a Kiwi who is 22 next year amd played Mathews, Ball, Flegg and 12 games of reserve grade for us and the big guy has pretty much always been used as impact off the bench for short minutes.
This year he was behind players like Taulani, Woodford and Graham.
Seems a nice guy, but no loss.

Rabbitohs poach impressive Knights youngster for 2027

He played 12 NSW Cup games in 2026, and has a big future ahead of him.

www.zerotackle.com

 

[HarVeeGee13]

1. Ponga $1.4 million
2. Young $300K on our books, $200K on Easts'
3. Winter $80K
4. Best $750K
5. Marzhew $400K
6. Sharpe $5-700K
7. Brown $1.3 million

13. Croker $350K
12. Manuleleua $3-400K
11. Lucas $700K
10. Mooney $550K
9. Crossland $550K
8. J Saifiti $700K

14. Smith $500K
15. Hopwood $2-350K
16. McEwen $3-400K
17. Niukore $550K-650K

18. Crouch $200Kish
19. Graham $250K
20. Hunt $200Kish

My best guess as to the current cap situation, which would leave roughly $2 million split across the remaining ten top 30 spots (if I'm going with low estimates on a lot of these salaries), factoring in that there is wiggle room in the cap rules where young/fringe players can be paid part of their salary via the club paying tertiary education or traineeship fees for them (which is something every single club in the NRL does); can be included as part of their renumeration but doesn't count on the cap (eg, let's say the club is paying for Tommy Cant to do an accounting degree at Newcastle Uni as a full fee payer for example, they lop $20K off his NRL salary and pay his fees and that amount is not counted on the cap).

Not surprising then that the only remaining spots are for minimum wage.

How much space is magically created by a huge hike in the cap will really depend on how many players have those ratchet clauses. I will give you unbackable odds Kalyn Ponga, Dominic Young, Fletcher Sharpe, Bradman Best and Dylan Lucas do; I think it's more likely than not that Francis, Jermaine, Phoenix, J Saf, Greg also do. A few of the others, I think it's conceivable Brown isn't the only player where the accounting trick of: "I'll pay you overs right now to not have those clauses in there" was part of negotiating - Mooney, Smith, Niukore.

The cap going up by $6 million will not mean that we free up $6 million in new space, won't be that for any other club either. Some clubs will free up barely anything I reckon.

If I was going to put a ballpark estimate on "how much space will be created by the cap going up to $18 million, the number I would write against the wall with a stream of **** because I am talking out my **** here, would be $1.5 million, $2 million if we're being very very optimistic.

If you just kind of treat Best as someone who's already occupying a large salary slot, a certain % of the cap before and after ratchets, I don't see that keeping him blows your cap structure apart. I would imagine they plan to pay Fletcher Sharpe out of the space freed up by the cap increase & Dylan Brown's salary not going up.

 

[Lynchyknight]

Don’t think they will offer Graham another deal. Crossland starting and Smith with Hagan backup is all we need

 

[jamesgould]

Don’t think they will offer Graham another deal. Crossland starting and Smith with Hagan backup is all we need

And Grant there if we need to call on him too.

 

[Wicket]

1. Ponga $1.4 million
2. Young $300K on our books, $200K on Easts'
3. Winter $80K
4. Best $750K
5. Marzhew $400K
6. Sharpe $5-700K
7. Brown $1.3 million

13. Croker $350K
12. Manuleleua $3-400K
11. Lucas $700K
10. Mooney $550K
9. Crossland $550K
8. J Saifiti $700K

14. Smith $500K
15. Hopwood $2-350K
16. McEwen $3-400K
17. Niukore $550K-650K

18. Crouch $200Kish
19. Graham $250K
20. Hunt $200Kish

My best guess as to the current cap situation, which would leave roughly $2 million split across the remaining ten top 30 spots (if I'm going with low estimates on a lot of these salaries), factoring in that there is wiggle room in the cap rules where young/fringe players can be paid part of their salary via the club paying tertiary education or traineeship fees for them (which is something every single club in the NRL does); can be included as part of their renumeration but doesn't count on the cap (eg, let's say the club is paying for Tommy Cant to do an accounting degree at Newcastle Uni as a full fee payer for example, they lop $20K off his NRL salary and pay his fees and that amount is not counted on the cap).

Not surprising then that the only remaining spots are for minimum wage.

How much space is magically created by a huge hike in the cap will really depend on how many players have those ratchet clauses. I will give you unbackable odds Kalyn Ponga, Dominic Young, Fletcher Sharpe, Bradman Best and Dylan Lucas do; I think it's more likely than not that Francis, Jermaine, Phoenix, J Saf, Greg also do. A few of the others, I think it's conceivable Brown isn't the only player where the accounting trick of: "I'll pay you overs right now to not have those clauses in there" was part of negotiating - Mooney, Smith, Niukore.

The cap going up by $6 million will not mean that we free up $6 million in new space, won't be that for any other club either. Some clubs will free up barely anything I reckon.

If I was going to put a ballpark estimate on "how much space will be created by the cap going up to $18 million, the number I would write against the wall with a stream of **** because I am talking out my **** here, would be $1.5 million, $2 million if we're being very very optimistic.

If you just kind of treat Best as someone who's already occupying a large salary slot, a certain % of the cap before and after ratchets, I don't see that keeping him blows your cap structure apart. I would imagine they plan to pay Fletcher Sharpe out of the space freed up by the cap increase & Dylan Brown's salary not going up.

I don’t think you’d be far off with your figures

I think it’ll all depends on how all the contracts are structured. Some will have ratchet clauses like you said, some will not

I’d assume most of, if not all contracts with ratchet clauses will have a cap on how much they can increase by, like Brown does. If that is the case it is very smart, screwed recruiting. Which is something I reckon POS would have been doing

They could also put a percentage on the percentage of the cap increase. Eg if the cap goes up we will increase your salary by 50% of the cap increase, so cap increases by 10%, your salary goes up 5%

Every percent you don’t have to increase the players salary by is money saved for other contracts

Point being, there is no way we no for sure at the moment and there are a few ways to skin the cat

Some clubs will get this horribly wrong. I think having POS here when we did would have put us in the best possible position to get it right

 

[Joel]

Some clubs will get this horribly wrong. I think having POS here when we did would have put us in the best possible position to get it right

Bingo. If there was a time where POS would be at his most valuable it would be before a considerably large cap increase and the addition of Perth/PNG majorly inflating salaries.

With the big fish more or less out of the way, we’re gonna be eating good with his lowball contracts before he bounced.

We’re already running downhill next year with our momentum and young team, but 2028 is gonna be where POS will be truly goated I reckon.