Recruitment and Retention for 2025

[TheRev]

we need multiple positions... and we will go after all of them.. the only thing left to be determined is the quality.

also remember that each guy we land makes the next one easier.

 

[RedVHeartbeat]

we are talking to a big name prop that we would all be happy with (early days)

Is official it is Stefano as you suspected TheRev, a cool 4.5 m over five years. That is 100k per year more than his club have offered. Reading between the lines, the Tigers are confident he will accept their offer.

 

[RedVHeartbeat]

Wonder who the Super League prop is?

 

[RedVHeartbeat]

Who is Ryda?

Another forward who will go into our Matts Cup squad if he is 17. The Eels MC finished third in the comp on 16 points, we Steelers 8, Saints 6, so our clubs could sure use an injection of talent for next year..

 

[TheRev]

Is official it is Stephano as you suspected TheRev, a cool 4.5 m over five years. That is 100k per year more than his club have offered. Reading between the lines, the Tigers are confident he will accept their offer.

It seems like we are chasing a few (so not all our eggs are in the same basket), but Stefano seems a possibility.

Even if we assume the Sydney/NSW for family reasons is legit.. there are 2 scenarios I could see spoiling the party:

Scenario 1) The Tigers just match whatever the best offer is.. and we are sunk.
Scenario 2) Gus has a pub-share offer in the shadows, its just that he's managed to keep it out of the media

They reckon if he does come to us the Tigers are interested in Lawrie as a replacement (assumably were paying a chunk of that), but that would be a win-win-win-win-win-win scenario if that came off.. but lets not get our hopes up lol.. Stefano has a tonne of options yet.

 

[GCRV]

It seems like we are chasing a few (so not all our eggs are in the same basket), but Stefano seems a possibility.

Even if we assume the Sydney/NSW for family reasons is legit.. there are 2 scenarios I could see spoiling the party:

Scenario 1) The Tigers just match whatever the best offer is.. and we are sunk.
Scenario 2) Gus has a pub-share offer in the shadows, its just that he's managed to keep it out of the media

They reckon if he does come to us the Tigers are interested in Lawrie as a replacement (assumably were paying a chunk of that), but that would be a win-win-win-win-win-win scenario if that came off.. but lets not get our hopes up lol.. Stefano has a tonne of options yet.

No.2 was funny in it's stupidity and arrogance the first time.

No.1 is probably true. If they get some more
wins over the next few weeks and we don't.

I still think No.3, Roosters are going to swoop in and offer him 800k along with a 200k job for 5 years after he retires for which he doesn't need any qualifications.

 

[Dave03]

Thoughts on Daniel Saifiti, on 750k until 26. Say Knights chip in 150k/season then it's 600k for 25 & 26. An experienced powerful prop who has been rep quality. I'd take a punt on him, considering the young gun middles we have coming through. He would give them great guidance & we're not hampered by a long term deal.

 

[Edward]

Thoughts on Daniel Saifiti, on 750k until 26. Say Knights chip in 150k/season then it's 600k for 25 & 26. An experienced powerful prop who has been rep quality. I'd take a punt on him, considering the young gun middles we have coming through. He would give them great guidance & we're not hampered by a long term deal.

There are 2 of them. One was playing Origin a year or two ago and one is fringe first grade. Is Daniel the former? Still not enthusiastic. He's declining. We need to get younger players still coming into their best, not past it.

 

[Eric]

Thoughts on Daniel Saifiti, on 750k until 26. Say Knights chip in 150k/season then it's 600k for 25 & 26. An experienced powerful prop who has been rep quality. I'd take a punt on him, considering the young gun middles we have coming through. He would give them great guidance & we're not hampered by a long term deal.

If Cook wasn't signed I'd be in favour but as is, we have more than enough veterans in the pack next year.

 

[Ryan]

Thoughts on Daniel Saifiti, on 750k until 26. Say Knights chip in 150k/season then it's 600k for 25 & 26. An experienced powerful prop who has been rep quality. I'd take a punt on him, considering the young gun middles we have coming through. He would give them great guidance & we're not hampered by a long term deal.

Is that until 26, including season 2026?

 

[Just a Mug Fan]

Early stages but we are in talks with Mat and Max.

 

[TheRev]

Early stages but we are in talks with Mat and Max.

I heard this from MCaryannis, but even if we offload Ravalawa I dont see where they could fit.. not unless he wants Max to replace Lomax's position.

Would make sense to me if it was train & trial type contracts.

 

[Dave03]

Is that until 26, including season 2026?

Yes.

 

[Chris M]

Early stages but we are in talks with Mat and Max.

They've been much better this year. Much better centres than Bird.

 

[Just a Mug Fan]

I heard this from MCaryannis, but even if we offload Ravalawa I dont see where they could fit.. not unless he wants Max to replace Lomax's position.

Would make sense to me if it was train & trial type contracts.

Train and trial contract are excatly that Train and Trial very few last past pre season. We have Loko and LKT on them.
Guys like Webster and Lui only did pre new year then guys like Reed Tsougranis and Latu finished at end of pre season.
They are designed to see what young guys can offer or if fringe top 30 from other clubs are a fit for us.
Feagais are not going to drop back to a 40 week max contract 60k plus match payments. At full strength 30 + 6 we fill our two teams. We are not paying guys 1500 a week to play party footy. Shereb on SL contract was playing park footy at stages this year.
As you said with Zac Sav and maybe Rava leaving and no signings we have no depth. Who would be playing last weekend if we didn't have the twins.

 

[TheRev]

Train and trial contract are excatly that Train amd Trial very few last past pre season. We have Loko and LKT on them.
Guys like Webster and Lui only did pre new year then guys like Reed Tsougranis amd Latu finished at end of pre season.
They are designed to see what young guys can offer or if fringe top 30 from other clubs are a fit for us.
Feagais are not going to drop back to a 40 week max contract 60k plus match payments. At full strength 30 + 6 we fill our two teams. We are not paying guys 1500 a week to play party footy. Shereb on SL contract was playing park footy at stages this year.
As you said with Zac Sav and maybe Rava leaving and no signings we have no depth. Who would be playing last weekend if we didn't have the twins.

o I do hear ya.. but from Matt/Max's perspective, 'if' they have no other offer on the table (Im assuming that might be the case... but I dont know)... and the alternative is a boring 9-5 job or working on the tools.. would they not be interested in $1500 per week and keep playing footy? The other clubs run up to 11 T&T's in a year, and I think it gives us a way to maintain some depth while still going for some better quality in our Top30.

o 100% Agree that the Top30 is very forward heavy for 2025.. and Flanno is discussing buying 2 more middles.

o In terms of dev/supp positions.. NickT&Ackers are locked in.. but there are 4 more spots that I believe need to give us depth in our backs (and possibly hooker), I think Buchanan, Williams, LKT are 3 of the 4 remaining spots.. unless were recruiting externally.. and these young backs would add our emergency depth for positions 1thru7 next year..

o But the only way signing both Feagais makes sense to me is if we dont sign Blaize or Holmes or some other gun centre to replace Lomax, but I cant see Flanno doing that. If Ravalawa leaves thats room for 1 Feagai, Tamales spot is already gone to forwards... I dont understand how we fit a 2nd Feagai.

o If Bird left.. that would free up room for both Feagais.. Bird himself is also depth for next year... otherwise we could try to sign a unicorn like Blaize who could cover 1-7 position on his own... but there arent many who can do that.

 

[Morgan]

o I do hear ya.. but from Matt/Max's perspective, 'if' they have no other offer on the table (Im assuming that might be the case... but I dont know)... and the alternative is a boring 9-5 job or working on the tools.. would they not be interested in $1500 per week and keep playing footy? The other clubs run up to 11 T&T's in a year, and I think it gives us a way to maintain some depth while still going for some better quality in our Top30.

o 100% Agree that the Top30 is very forward heavy for 2025.. and Flanno is discussing buying 2 more middles.

o In terms of dev/supp positions.. NickT&Ackers are locked in.. but there are 4 more spots that I believe need to give us depth in our backs (and possibly hooker), I think Buchanan, Williams, LKT are 3 of the 4 remaining spots.. unless were recruiting externally.. and these young backs would add our emergency depth for positions 1thru7 next year..

o But the only way signing both Feagais makes sense to me is if we dont sign Blaize or Holmes or some other gun centre to replace Lomax, but I cant see Flanno doing that. If Ravalawa leaves thats room for 1 Feagai, Tamales spot is already gone to forwards... I dont understand how we fit a 2nd Feagai.

o If Bird left.. that would free up room for both Feagais.. Bird himself is also depth for next year... otherwise we could try to sign a unicorn like Blaize who could cover 1-7 position on his own... but there arent many who can do that.

Feagai's biggest issue was always defence. One or both might go ok if Buchanan or someone else isn't good enough next year. If we can sign Talangi, that will be huge.

 

[Just a Mug Fan]

I do hear ya.. but from Matt/Max's perspective, 'if' they have no other offer on the table (Im assuming that might be the case... but I dont know)... and the alternative is a boring 9-5 job or working on the tools.. would they not be interested in $1500 per week and keep playing footy? The other clubs run up to 11 T&T's in a year, and I think it gives us a way to maintain some depth while still going for some better quality in our Top30.

Mat has had a few offers the last few months. They are both better than players in most clubs top 30
Even Roosters for example Matt would be a handy replacement for Jennings on 200 to 250.

No clubs run 11 T&T players. I don't know where you got that info from but it's wrong. You are talking about a close to a million dollar budget on ressie players.
All on filed payments have restrictions and caps.
Teams might start preseason with that many but as I said they get striiped down to just a couple.

 

[TheRev]

If Matt has other offers, thats a completely different kettle of fish.. hes obviously the more versatile one in terms of backup.

Here this is a link to a dailytele list of this years T&T's, I dont know if its accurate, it has a whole bunch of our players that I didnt know had such deals, but 11 is about the max: https://archive.md/1JwQ5, this was from Nov 2023, so maybe stripped down as you said during the year.

 

[Ryan]

First time I've seen Damien Cook play in a while. I think he's going to be a disastrous signing. At this stage of their careers, I'd say Jacob Liddle is far better.