Morgan
SGI NSW Cup
He was injured and set to leave at the end of last year. It wasn't a case of letting him go a year early. Only a couple of months when he wouldn't have played anyway. Losing him wasn't great but letting him go early was good.
2026
- Thread starter jodragon40
- Start date
Frank Facer
SGI Jersey Flegg
I tend to agree, he looks like a 5/8, but I think some of his best performances for Souths, Lebanon and last year Wests have all been at halfback. Wests could have kept Luai at halfback and played Doueihi at 5/8 where he played one game for them last year, but when moved to halfback he played the best football I have seen him play for many years. I am pretty sure, even certain he debuted for Souths at halfback, when Reynolds was injured. He doesn't have the body shape of a halfback, similar to Nathan Cleary, but he has often performed very well there. AI says, 5/8 is his preferred position. If he starts the season at halfback, I plan to start with him in my Supercoach team. That is the only position he has got in Supercoach right now. Galvin is another one who is an out and out 5/8, but played halfback for Canterbury last year and that is his only position in Supercoach this year. I would also like to have him in my team, but I currently have Atkinson who is at 225K and will be the dominate half and Doueihi at 556K and kicking goals. Galvin is at 555K and will be playing in a top 8 team and I think is underpriced. I would like to fit them all in and wished at least one of them had the 5/8 option. I have got Pezat as one 5/8. He is 235K and will made some money, but after looking at his past season stats and playing second fiddle to Moses, I am not as confident about him scoring well, as I am about Atkinson, Doueihi and Galvin. I expect Doueihi and Galvin to be averaging around 70 or more this year and Atkinson to be around 60.
In my opinion, an Atkinson Doueihi halves combo would be better than a Atkinson Flannagan combo or a Atkinson LKT option.
Maybe I should start a Supercoach thread? Although I don't like giving too much away about my supercoach. If I don't finish is the top 10 000, I consider it a failure. Last year I was finished in the top 4000, after dropping back from the 1000's in the last 2 or 3 rounds and running out of trades with about 6 rounds to go. You also need a bit of luck in Supercoach. I will be in a hurry to get Cleary in for Atkinson, after Atkinson gets to around 500k. I am hoping one of Atkinson, Doueihi or Galvin get the 5/8 option early in the season.
Regarding Galvin, I think the deal was already done for him to move to Canterbury long before he said he wanted out. As soon as he was leaving and the media were saying he was going to Parra on a million dollar plus contract, I said I thought it was out of either Canterbury or Easts that he would end up. It was all smoke and mirrors. It was all played out like a scripted production. Criticise the coach, was the perfect way out, then get the rest of the team offside with his comments and make it "untenable". Then play the media like a fiddle and then for him to take a reported 400k less a season than he was reported to be able to get at Parra or what Wests were prepared to offer him to go to Canterbury, didn't ring true to me. I think he has got some other 3rd party deals or undisclosed money as part of the Canterbury deal, in which Gould said long before signing him that he will earn more out of Rugby League than any player to have played the game. Right now I believe Purdue could get a mil dollar deal and be on more than Glavin at younger age. I rate Galvin very highly, but would take Purdue over him.
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Morgan
SGI NSW Cup
Supercoach thread would be good cause I don't understand how it's played.
Frank Facer
SGI Jersey Flegg
Yeah, I am not convinced he is a halfback. I thought we bought him to play 5/8. I am hoping he does succeed at halfback this year.
jodragon40
Staff
You pick your best 17, a cpt and vc within a budget, hope this helps
jodragon40
Staff
In my personal opinion I hope so too but his lack of time as a genuine game manager in 1sts may come back to haunt us especially if our engine room is not going consistently in the right direction. Time will tell
jodragon40
Staff
Haven't heard that word used since my days as a ressies coach lol
Frank Facer
SGI Jersey Flegg
I would love us to get Koloamantagi this year, but I can't see Souths/Bennett doing us any favors and at the same time weakening their side. I am still counting down the days until the 12th of Jan. I can't remember the last time I was counting down the days like this.
I had a neighbour while growing up. He was an old Maltese guy. He was a fanatical Balmain fan. He would hop out of his car and see me or whoever else and say "TIGERS". He took me to my first game of footy when I was 8 years old, a game at Endeavour Field (Shark Park), Cronulla vs Balmain (I was already a Saints fan). He would also pack his car up with his 2 sons who were Balmain fans and his sons mates and take them all to the footy (he had one son who was a Saints fan. That son would joke that he was the milkman's son). All his grandchildren were Balmain, then Wests fans. He wouldn't wear a seat belt and drove around for years without a licence He even had a few cars coloured Gold. He was a character also one of the funniest guys I ever knew. He hated the offseason and would complain about Cricket. He hated test matches. He would say "block, block, block and say after 5 days, you get a draw. He would also say things like "70 days to go", I would say 70 days to what? He would say. "Until footy season starts again". He would literally count down the days until footy started again, at the end of the last season. Like who kids count down the days to Christmas. For his 80th birthday, I got him a framed picture of Benny Elias with a plaque on it and had Benny Elias personally sign it for him, as one of my sister knows Benny personally and Benny was happy to oblige. Benny was his favourite play, maybe Pearce second favourite. He used to love Marshall too and call him Benji. He has pet names for lots of footballers and horses or even jockeys.
Frank Facer
SGI Jersey Flegg
I don't think we could give Blocka away for free.
Going back after we got rid of the player I said I wouldn't talk about again. I may have been anti Dan Hunt, who Doust referred to as a marquee signing when they re signed him along with Brett Morris and Nightingale who he referred to as marquee re signings. I thought you don't have marquee players as wingers and Dan Hunt wasn't marquee prop.
Then Aitken came along and I worked out very quickly, he didn't pass the ball. Nightingale was playing outside him and wasn't scoring any tries. I became anti Aitken. In 2018 I started a thread titled If I was coach. We were leading the comp, Aitken was even being spoken of as a State of Origin candidate in the media. I said I would have dropped him to the bench and said he could then cover second row or centre if an injury occurred, I also said he was a forward playing centre. I copped some flake about that idea, some even said he was our best performing back, another said he was the form centre of the comp, another said "It would seem nonsensical to move Aitken anywhere given he has been a star so far this year, I can understand the thought behind it and the idea of strengthening the bench". Another said "Aitken, one of the form centres in the comp. Lets chuck him on the bench, where he might play 20 minutes?" Then when Aitken finally signed for another club in 2020, one of the posters on the other forum said to me, something like. "Who's your next target"? I said Blake Lawrie. lol. I have wanted him gone since he started. I didn't even see him as a bench prop. He would take it up and get his by the defence and made zero post contact metres. Many thought he was good or would become good. It has been a long 6 years with him entrenched in our squad and taking up valuable salary caps space and a top 30 spot. Now everyone wants him gone. We have been trying to offload him for the last 2 years, but no one wanted him, not even in the UK. He certainly is no Steve Roach, who was the original Blocka and one of the best props I have seen play the game.
Morgan
SGI NSW Cup
Not really. How does one 'win' and how does it work with 'selling' players.
Morgan
SGI NSW Cup
Nothing wrong with being anti this or that player. Aitken was a bad centre cause as you said about passing. I thought Dan Hunt was good.
jodragon40
Staff
So you win by beating the opponent h2h. Each player has a $$$ value so you can't pick the best 17 because your budget won't allow it.
So your individual players score points based on their performances, goal kicking, try scoring, try assists etc.
Hope this helps
Morgan
SGI NSW Cup
Who assigns the value? Hope it's not Flanno. Kyle would be worth 2mil a season.
jodragon40
Staff
No the Supercoach competition company such as the D.T. or the NRL. So say Haas may be $950k to add to your team that leaves you only $9m and change to select 25 more players. Not easy, you have to have players in your team who may not even be in the run on teams. See partial screenshot I have attached
Attachments
Frank Facer
SGI Jersey Flegg
We didn't release Finau Latu. If I remember correctly. Due to a clause if he hadn't played first grade by a certain early round he was free to negotiate with other clubs. Newy were gong hard for him, as well as Canterbury. He signed with Canterbury and his manager didn't even give us the opportunity to provide a counter offer. Flanno was very disappointed about it and wanted to keep him bad. I too was very disappointed about his signing with Canterbury. I heard/read we were relocating his whole family to Wollongong and doing whatever else to keep him and his family happy and keep him at our club.
Canterbury are becoming like Easts, as in they look to always be getting their man, like Politis does. There is obviously a reason they are now so successful at getting their man now. Since Gould has taken over at Canterbury, they have signed several players who were in demand from other NRL clubs, including us. The likes of Kikau, Burton, Crichton, Thompson and Galvin all come to mind, Xerri to a lesser extent. We apparently had Kikau agree to play with us, but then dropped 50K off the agreed to price. We were in the market for Thompson. I wanted us to sign Burton, but don't know if we ever made any attempt to. If we managed to sign the above 6 players, we would be playing semi finals regularly, even a top 4 team.
In regards to Latu. In 2023, I was at an eatery at Bankstown and noticed a group a guys there, one wearing a St George juniors jersey. I asked him if he played for us and he replied no, his brother does, who was sitting there wearing an Australian schoolboys jersey. I got speaking to him and said I had heard about him and there were big wraps on him. I also mentioned a couple of other good juniors we had, who I had heard of, one being LPT. I said to him "I hope you make it". There was another guy there who said he played for Parra, but I had no interest in him and didn't even ask him his name. In hindsight, I think it was Blaize Talagi. I wonder if he didn't want to move to Wollongong and wanted to stay in Sydney where his mates and family already were? I wondered if we were located at Kogarah, if we would have kept him. I expect him to play first grade this year. I plan to put him in my Supercoach team, if he is in the top 17 for the first round. I think he will be in Canterbury's starting team by mid season. I would be going hard to sign any of Canterbury's best young talent. I think Canterbury are using Politis tactics that he learnt while coaching Easts. We now have Anderson as our recruitment officer. Hopefully he can use or employ Easts/Politis tactics and us continue to get our man.
Frank Facer
SGI Jersey Flegg
OK I will start one.
Dragon David
SGI Jersey Flegg
Hopefully one day other clubs will be following our lead. It is amazing that certain clubs adopt ways of those clubs who are able to get their man like the Dogs using Politis's tactics etc. They appear to work for the Dogs because they certainly have been able to attract some high level players.
I reckon that if we have a genuinely successful 2026, we will definitely be able to secure elite players where needed, however, maybe if our current crop shine, we may not need to get too many elites.
Once it you get the hang of it it’s fun.
Frank Facer
SGI Jersey Flegg
A players value to begin the year is pretty much based off the average from last year relative to the salary cap If the salary cap is 10 mil, and a player averages 80, their price will be around 800K. With the salary cap at 11.5 or so, an average of 80 will be priced at around 780K or so. Last year Taylan May only played about 6 or 7 games and averaged around 70. He is priced at an average of around 63 or so this year. So some may see him as value. If they have only played one or 2 games in their whole career, their price will be under their average. No games played, they start on the limit, which is around 200K. Tom Sangster is the one who assigns prices. Take a player like Cam Murray. In 21 and 22, he was averaging 70 and 71 respectively, then in 23 and 24 he was 62 both years, then last year him only played the last game off the bench. This year he starts at 548K, which would equate to an average of around 56 or so. So he a potential gun who is way under price. If he gets back to his best he should average about 70 again. He will be one of the most popular players selected.