Toohey's News

KPGreatness said:
☢️Long Talk incoming☢️

KP - Ok, many argue without KP our premiership window closes but I’d argue if we give to much and resign him we could lose other important pieces and that will also close it up, Ponga won’t win us a title himself we know this from the years of him trying.

If reports are true, we are going to be losing Sullivan (MR), Gagai, Frizell, Gamble and Brodie, the combined money will help us with Lucas and Best who are non negotiable resigning’s, although some money has already gone to Niukore you’d imagine, if we can get Ponga to take a pay cut to $1m flat or $1.1m that helps a lot more as well, I know the cap is expected to go up but that makes the pay cut even greater, plus that’s still great money for a super injury prone player that struggles to stay on the field for 20 games in a year and haven’t in a while.

He has been on millions for a long time now, mix in sponsorships and third party deals, he should be able to live on the $1m-$1.1m, it’s time like this we really do just have to hope he wasn’t lying and actually does love the town and club that has bent over backwards for him, I’ve seen $1.5m-$2m thrown around and if we pay that we are stupid and will make us lose multiple top talents which in turn will defeat the purpose of the KP resigning.

If we can also offload Arthur who is reportedly on good money for his place in the team, we have a steady hooker in Graham and Crossland as well as the rising star in Hagan, so if we can offload Arthur that will help a lot.

For years people on here have stated we need to put talent around Ponga as he can’t do it himself, well now we have Best, Lucas, Young, Brown, Sharpe, Smith, McEwen etc, so we have done that now the ball is in Ponga’s court

It will be interesting as let’s not be naive Ponga is far from poor, he is rich and can live the rest of his life happily so it’s not like he will ever need the money plus let’s be real if he wanted he could get a job at the Knights once he retires if he decides to take a pay cut and stay.

It’s time like this a player can go from great to a legend in a club which is still a legacy which is what he clearly wants talking about bring a premiership to Newcastle.

It is what it is, at the end of the day it is his decision and his alone, the Knights can only try.

Just my two cents
Click to expand...
Agreed, I don’t believe we are in a position to be offering KP more than his current contract with the amount of young stars we have coming off in the next few years, he almost has to take a pay cut in my opinion or worse case scenario get the same amount he is already on which for me is a stretch as well given his ability to stay healthy. Imo though if we do lose him I think we will stay one of these teams who contend for the 8 but do nothing come finals time. I’ve also seen many people say they would be happy to see him go because we have sharpe who can takeover at fullback but I don’t believe sharpe at his best could replicate what KP can do at his best, there are not many players in the competition who can go on a stretch where they are considered a top 3 player in the game. Unfortunately though if he thinks he should get more than he is currently on, he has to go.
 
KPGreatness said:
☢️Long Talk incoming☢️

KP - Ok, many argue without KP our premiership window closes but I’d argue if we give to much and resign him we could lose other important pieces and that will also close it up, Ponga won’t win us a title himself we know this from the years of him trying.
Click to expand...
Yep. It's about striking a winning balance.

Look at how good Wests are doing now and it's on the back of that elite forward pack they've spend the last few years bringing through. If we lost Kalyn tomorrow and swapped him for Fonua Pole and Terrell May, putting Sharpe at 1, Brown + Smith halves, are we better or worse than our current team with Kalyn 1, Sharpe + Brown halves? I think we'd instantly be better and I don't see an argument against this.
 
mullenmagic said:
Again, was never framed as though he was actually reporting anything new on the situation (beside maybe the "quiet optimism of a financial sacrifice part") or even giving an opinion on what he thinks will happen. Was just an overview on Ponga's contract situation and how it will affect the rest of the roster that any of us could've written.
Click to expand...
And yet still more accurate then anything the Sydney media say
 
Well you could easily compare KP to Walsh. His amazing run almost single handily won them the premiership. If no Walsh they don’t beat Canberra.

That’s my argument to keep Ponga by almost any means necessary. Without him I’m not so sure we win a premiership.

We might have a window for a genuine push next year. But, we need Hopwood, Manu, ESL to come on strong to replace Frizz. And Hunt, McCarthy, etc to replace Gags. Although may consider extending Gags one more year, maybe Frizz also.
 
frankLauda said:
Well you could easily compare KP to Walsh. His amazing run almost single handily won them the premiership. If no Walsh they don’t beat Canberra.

That’s my argument to keep Ponga by almost any means necessary. Without him I’m not so sure we win a premiership.

We might have a window for a genuine push next year. But, we need Hopwood, Manu, ESL to come on strong to replace Frizz. And Hunt, McCarthy, etc to replace Gags. Although may consider extending Gags one more year, maybe Frizz also.
Click to expand...
I 100% agree with no KP, no premiership.
 
Worth noting though that a grand final win being that overwhelmingly attributable to one player doesn’t happen that often at all. And also Payne Haas was way more important to their win over Penrith in the prelim than Walsh was.

Before that, the 2024 grand final was mostly a testament to how hard even a great attacking team can be shoved into a locker by an opposition with far more relentless physicality. 2023, another one player carry job to a large degree. 2022, probably the greatest side ever ending the contest within 3 sets. 2021, coin flip of a game decided mostly by a horrible Cody Walker error. 2020, one team not quite ready for the bright lights vs another holding its nerve.

To summarise, it usually takes a lot of good to elite players to put you in position to win a comp. Then once you get there it can go so many different ways.

I’m not going to sign onto “to win a comp you need the Reece Walshiest player you can find” because Reece Walsh has only Reece Walshed his way to a comp once.
 
Nightsondee said:
Geez Sandon was chased down to sign with everyone all for the signing and now we want to get rid? 3 more years everyone! In fareness he was clearly courted to be here and he’s played as expected to his capacity, not the dream everyone hyped him to be. Including our recruiter.

Holding off on signing Harrison Graham for 2 years? Geez we have Arthur as the top 30 hooker on very decent dollars and for another year yet and although has been injured, Graham was showing better potential (and since proven) in first grade than he was. We still have Arthur for next year and we now are saying we won’t sign a player who has been solid as a “development” signing due to a kid coming through? I’ve seen many a kid come through our system and come a years time we are the looking at the next kid. Lock up Harrison otherwise he’s off elsewhere and making us look stupid!

Lock up Sharpe before Ponga - clearly proven he’s potentially our most valuable asset. Show him his value!
Click to expand...
I dont think we have seen Sandon play the role he has been recruited to play yet. From the beginning POS was chasing a hooker because they felt phoenix was better suited to 13. A guy to come off the bench after Crossland plays the first whatever minutes and moves to 13. We have seen Sandons ability to step into the 6 or 7 after an injury. But we are yet to see ponga brown and Sharpe stay on the field long enough to know how Sandon affects the team playing from hooker, like the round 1 plan was. I'll say this though, Sandon was at hooker for that beautiful short side raid that led to dom's try against the dogs. Crossland wouldn't have seen that. I cant wait to see the 4 of them play together (and god I hope it happens this year... surely 🤞)
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
Yep. It's about striking a winning balance.

Look at how good Wests are doing now and it's on the back of that elite forward pack they've spend the last few years bringing through. If we lost Kalyn tomorrow and swapped him for Fonua Pole and Terrell May, putting Sharpe at 1, Brown + Smith halves, are we better or worse than our current team with Kalyn 1, Sharpe + Brown halves? I think we'd instantly be better and I don't see an argument against this.
Click to expand...
Balance is the key word - but it's so hard to do for every club other than 3 or 4. Wests do have a great pack, but they don't have a spine that is going to put them in serious contention to win the comp. Even if they manage recruitment as well as possible over the next couple of years to get them there on the spine front, are they going to be able to keep the pack together for that long? A lot of players will be wanting upgrades based on 2026 form...

Our best chance of seriously threatening is having KP, Brown and Sharpe here in 2028/29 and having our very promising group of younger forwards come on over that time (in the way Wests have). There's a lot of uncertainty that will all happen, but I think there's a big difference between 'what's the path to us genuinely contending for a premiership?' and 'what's the path to maximising expected regular season points totals without ever appearing at the pointy end of the season?'

Probably a too wordy post to say that while there is obviously a number that is too much to justify for Kayln, I think that number is higher than most here are suggesting. The way we win a comp is to do it on his back.
 
MontyBrogan said:
Balance is the key word - but it's so hard to do for every club other than 3 or 4. Wests do have a great pack, but they don't have a spine that is going to put them in serious contention to win the comp. Even if they manage recruitment as well as possible over the next couple of years to get them there on the spine front, are they going to be able to keep the pack together for that long? A lot of players will be wanting upgrades based on 2026 form...

Our best chance of seriously threatening is having KP, Brown and Sharpe here in 2028/29 and having our very promising group of younger forwards come on over that time (in the way Wests have). There's a lot of uncertainty that will all happen, but I think there's a big difference between 'what's the path to us genuinely contending for a premiership?' and 'what's the path to maximising expected regular season points totals without ever appearing at the pointy end of the season?'

Probably a too wordy post to say that while there is obviously a number that is too much to justify for Kayln, I think that number is higher than most here are suggesting. The way we win a comp is to do it on his back.
Click to expand...
I’m with you on Wests but I think Sharpe is way better than Bula and I’ve always thought Dylan Brown a much classier player than Luai… kind of a wash between Sandon and Doueihi. I honestly do think Sharpe as a fullback projects to be a guy that could absolutely be the best player on a premiership winning team. But I’m also absolutely not arguing hey we’ve got Sharpe now we should be trying to punt Kalyn. There’s no benefit in doing that unless it’s for some kind of player swap no club would ever offer.

I think we’re all on the same page, I’d prefer to still have Kalyn over 2028/29 if we can, especially since a lot of the young fellas coming through still should be retainable on reasonable money, particularly since even if you think the world of guys like Hopwood and ESL, you’d still be optimistic to say that as early as 2028 they’ll be as good as some of those Tigers forwards are becoming now, they have a lot of guys hitting their prime years with comfortably over 50 games NRL experience at once.

I continue to lean towards pitching him like, “Look Kalyn, we’re really building something here, if you could do us a favour for a couple seasons salary-wise I think we have a real shot at winning the comp.” What that number turns out to be will depend on size of the cap spike, some predict it’ll go up to $18 million, which means top playmakers like Cleary and Moses will have their deals ratchet to around $2 million (and/or will sign new ones for that sort of money)… all of a sudden Brown’s contract which won’t ever go over $1.4 million a season looks pretty good, and keeping Kalyn for around that same amount will be a tidy bit of business.

He can’t deny we’ve always looked after him and paid him big big money before he proved he was worth it lol.

When I say, hey there may be a time when it’s actually smarter to retain players X & Y on decent coin, rather than pay big big money to Kalyn, that’s only if certain guys come along in a big big way, and yeah I’m absolutely looking a fair ways down the road.

I do still have a thing in the back of my mind however that we’ll eventually have to choose between Kalyn & Fletcher because they should both really be playing fullback but I don’t want to start World War 3 again over it lol. For now Sharpe is 21 and probably too excited to be playing NRL to care about positions.
 
22/4

Knights have taken up the option for 2027 on Manuleleua and offered him a deal for 2028
Penrith released him because they thought he was lazy and not going to make the grade. He has a point to prove this week.

Schiller had an offer from Saint George last year and chose to stay.

De Courcey reacted to being dropped by running 194 metres in 15 runs with no line breaks in reserve grade.

Cooper Votano hasn't got on the field for Melbourne yet because of stress fractures in his back, older brother Connor is still out with a hamstring strain.
 
Good on Manu for stepping up. Must have been the kick up the bum he needed. Interesting that Schiller would rather stay and play reserve grade. Shows how bad the dragons are right now
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top