Recruitment And Retention Discussion

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.
 
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?
 
krustykraz said:
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?
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I wouldn’t pay saulo a cent over minimum wage
 
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.
 
mullenmagic said:
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.
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👍
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.
 
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.

www.zerotackle.com

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 www.zerotackle.com
 
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.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
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.
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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 🤞🏼
 
Wicket said:
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 🤞🏼
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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.
 
Bloke pod went over all the teams’ upcoming free agents. Guru (who is very much not a guru but obviously has connections in the game and media) first said he’s heard the Knights have been sounding out outside backs as possible replacements for Best, and then more specifically was pretty bullish that Bostock is on the radar and a red-hot chance. Didn’t sound like he was just speculating or putting 2+2 together.

Hadn’t heard anything since the initial link to him a month or two ago, and kind of assumed O’Sullivan leaving might’ve put an end to that, so interesting if there is legs to it.
 
Actually not sure that's the right move. Market for Bostock is heating up to the point where he may actually get bigger offers than Bradman. I think both of them are going to get million dollar offers, and that's million dollar offers *before* the cap hike.

Herbie Farnworth is going to be attracting offers in the $1.3 million+ range, Bradman's offer from Parra is gonna be $5 million+ over 5 seasons with ratchet clauses I would guess, Bostock similar...

There are actually heaps of centres coming off contract this off season and I would be looking to identify guys on the next tier down from them if we need to look for a replacement.
 
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