Toohey's News

I agree that the club should look after players and that that reputation is important to recruitment & retention, but on the other hand, Brodie, if he were to be offered a train & trial deal, would have to have the attitude of wanting to fight his way back to a contract and eventually first grade. Otherwise, the spot should go elsewhere.

As for Barney would love to have him back at the club, but we offered him a year less than the Warriors because of his neck injury (and what Barney himself described he had to go through just to get on the field each week in the Barry Toohey podcast seemed to justify the club's decision). I know that turned out to be a bad call, but I can't imagine Barney, just back from a long-term injury, has fewer injury concerns than when he left; he's certainly not any younger.

Edit:....or cheaper.
 
Yeah and at the end of the day, in that preliminary final last year we finally saw the first signs of Penrith not being able to physically outwork their opposition in a finals setting. Isaah Yeo and Moses Leota are now in their 30's, still amazing but in that last 15 minutes Yeo in particular was really really struggling. Payne Haas was 26, probably the very best version of himself he will ever be. Every other player in that pack in that game besides Corey Jensen for Brisbane was between the ages of 23 and 27. Father time surely played a role in the result.

Barney will be 33 in 2027. He was a very good player for us for a long time who went on to become a great player, but if we want to do something over the next few seasons, it won't be with a 33 year old as our best middle. It just doesn't work like that. Need to find players who look like they can ascend to Barney's level, Origin calibre, while their age starts with a '2'.
 
I have no issue missing out on Barney. TBH I am glad we didn’t really bother. We have proper talent emerging now. We do not need him at that price. He is great of course but we are finally making the progress we have waited years for. This group of kids look like the real deal. And others are already noticing. With the expansions we need to make sure they aren’t even a threat to poach them. O’Suliivan would be thinking similar based on this. His ultimate goal IMO is to augment the talented juniors with the right external signings.
 
Pretty simple we are not even in the ball park for Barnett. Parra has offered a 3 year deal 2.6mil. That’s 900k a year. I remember someone one here said 600k for Barney. I said he will be around 800k. Of course the club is not getting him even if we wanted too.
I think it’s 2 years with club option for 3rd year.

Melbourne have shown forever investment should be in the spine not forwards. The outlier is Hass. But Melbourne have made two Grand finals with there “average” priced forward pack.
 
Trey Mooney obviously a very shred buy. Jsaf still has a couple of years. By that time I think we can all confidently predict Cody Hopwood will be our best forward. So he is the one the club will pay to keep. Not an aging, injury prone Mitch Barnett.
 
Would love to have Barnett back but not getting into the bidding war is the right move. If he truly wants to come home he’d do it for 700 a year. I’d offer him no more than that.
 
Seano said:
I agree that the club should look after players and that that reputation is important to recruitment & retention, but on the other hand, Brodie, if he were to be offered a train & trial deal, would have to have the attitude of wanting to fight his way back to a contract and eventually first grade. Otherwise, the spot should go elsewhere.
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Brodies been predominately a NSW cup player, we should be in the business of winning not being nice guys, if he wants a cup contract sure, but with what's coming through he shouldn't be taking up a top 36 spot, we have quite a bit coming through.
 
Brisbane is not "close to family". This is so strange. Wonder how Wahs fans feel about it. If they get a really good player in exchange they'll get over it I guess.

But $2.4 million final payday and playing with Reece Walsh sounds pretty good so go for your life Barney.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Brisbane is not "close to family". This is so strange. Wonder how Wahs fans feel about it. If they get a really good player in exchange they'll get over it I guess.

But $2.4 million final payday and playing with Reece Walsh sounds pretty good so go for your life Barney.
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I think just being in the same country and on the same coast might be the main thing for him. Yes it’s just a 3 hour flight between NZ and Aus, but you have to show up to the airport two hours before the flight, go through customs which is another 1.5 hours sometimes … it can end up taking most of the day. I can understand him just wanting to move back to Aus.
 
jamesgould said:
I think just being in the same country and on the same coast might be the main thing for him. Yes it’s just a 3 hour flight between NZ and Aus, but you have to show up to the airport two hours before the flight, go through customs which is another 1.5 hours sometimes … it can end up taking most of the day. I can understand him just wanting to move back to Aus.
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Yeah I agree with you, I think I just sort of mean the decision reads a little bit like having your cake and eating it too. Like it's about getting closer to family but not *that close* if it means he has to play for Manly. Playing for Brisbane over Manly or Parra or wherever is worth making the commute twice as long. There's clearly an element in the decision of getting himself closer to winning the comp.

Which is fine, he's well within his rights. I just mean if it was my club he was leaving, I'd have some mixed emotions about it.

Anyway the path is clear now, Brisbane burned the cap space, Bears have actually already dropped a fair bit of coin on their pack and may not be in the hunt for another middle... POS, what I would like for my birthday is one (1) Ata Mariota, please and thank you...
 
jamesgould said:
I think just being in the same country and on the same coast might be the main thing for him. Yes it’s just a 3 hour flight between NZ and Aus, but you have to show up to the airport two hours before the flight, go through customs which is another 1.5 hours sometimes … it can end up taking most of the day. I can understand him just wanting to move back to Aus.
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Still reads a bit crap to me.

This is were the NRL needs to step and say yeah you can move clubs for decent reasons but it can't be for more than an existing contract (atleast for the duration.)
 
I’m still confused by this “compensation to let him go a season early”. Unclear if that’s for this year (a year earlier than the release they agreed to), or if it’s a year earlier than his contract (they will release him for 2027 if they get something in return).

I heard 1.5M for 2 years last week. Which I thought was a fair price. And something we could have hijacked for a little less - after tax, I imagine the difference between 700 and 750 would be negligible (26K-ish).

That 2.4M number is some serious overs if true. (Okay so just seeing it’s an option, so roughly 800 a year). Pretty reasonable.

i guess the wording of close to family is a bit generous. Sure, it’s definitely closer. And easier as James mentions. Tbh, I think we’d probably be the only club he could sign for that didn’t attract comments about proximity.

Anyway, can’t say I’m too displeased to miss out.
More interested in seeing if there’s any more of a domino effect.
 
Grandpa Joe said:
Still reads a bit crap to me.

This is were the NRL needs to step and say yeah you can move clubs for decent reasons but it can't be for more than an existing contract (atleast for the duration.)
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I guess it’s always gonna be the club’s discretion at the end of the day. And they’re in a tough situation. Play hardball and enforce the contract as Parra have done and they get criticised, let the player go and they cop it as well.

Don’t think there’s any blanket solution, really. Just take contracts with a grain of salt, coz that’s all a lot of them are worth, these days.
 
bremsstrahlung said:
I’m still confused by this “compensation to let him go a season early”. Unclear if that’s for this year (a year earlier than the release they agreed to), or if it’s a year earlier than his contract (they will release him for 2027 if they get something in return).

I heard 1.5M for 2 years last week. Which I thought was a fair price. And something we could have hijacked for a little less - after tax, I imagine the difference between 700 and 750 would be negligible (26K-ish).

That 2.4M number is some serious overs if true. (Okay so just seeing it’s an option, so roughly 800 a year). Pretty reasonable.

i guess the wording of close to family is a bit generous. Sure, it’s definitely closer. And easier as James mentions. Tbh, I think we’d probably be the only club he could sign for that didn’t attract comments about proximity.

Anyway, can’t say I’m too displeased to miss out.
More interested in seeing if there’s any more of a domino effect.
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My understanding was that Parra offered Barney the $2.4m over the 3 year term.
I must have misread that somewhere?
 
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