Recruitment and Retention for 2025

Chris M

Chris M

SGI NSW Cup
Losing one aging journeyman at the end of the season (BMM) and I believe Eisenhuth is only on a one year deal so lets assume he's not re-signed. So off the top of my head, the forward pack ages will be something like this:
  • JDB (33)
  • Blocka (28)
  • Frank Molo (27)
  • Luicano (28)
  • RFM (32)
  • Su'A (26)
  • Cook (33)
  • Liddle (28)
  • Ryan and Toby Couchman (21)
  • Saifiti (30)
I hope I'm wrong but I think the young Tigers pack might give this pack a bath. Specially because the Couchman's will be on the bench if in the 17 at all.

I'm sorry to be negative but it's just how I honestly see it. Flanno like Griffin just loves aging journeymen and hates to promote young players.
 
Eric

Eric

Staff
Chris M said:
Losing one aging journeyman at the end of the season (BMM) and I believe Eisenhuth is only on a one year deal so lets assume he's not re-signed. So off the top of my head, the forward pack ages will be something like this:
  • JDB (33)
  • Blocka (28)
  • Frank Molo (27)
  • Luicano (28)
  • RFM (32)
  • Su'A (26)
  • Cook (33)
  • Liddle (28)
  • Ryan and Toby Couchman (21)
  • Saifiti (30)
I hope I'm wrong but I think the young Tigers pack might give this pack a bath. Specially because the Couchman's will be on the bench if in the 17 at all.

I'm sorry to be negative but it's just how I honestly see it. Flanno like Griffin just loves aging journeymen and hates to promote young players.
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I love the smell of negativity in the morning. No less a Monday morning.
Fran Healy Monday GIF by Travis
 
Chris M

Chris M

SGI NSW Cup
Ryles to move on Trent Barrett and give Talangi the fullback job. So he probably won't be coming to the Dragons. Unless....... he's promised 5/8. Then what position is LKT being prepared for? No, I think we can forget about Talangi.
 
TheRev

TheRev

SGI Jersey Flegg
Other rumours are that Talagi wants centre.. which is what we are offering him (atleast initially), but ultimately going to be very hard to pull him and his family out of the club hes grown up with. Supposedly Moses wants him to take the cash and leave but its a tough call. Time will tell.. hopefully its resolved this week so we can move onto Plan B or C if needed.
 
Chris M

Chris M

SGI NSW Cup
TheRev said:
Other rumours are that Talagi wants centre.. which is what we are offering him (atleast initially), but ultimately going to be very hard to pull him and his family out of the club hes grown up with. Supposedly Moses wants him to take the cash and leave but its a tough call. Time will tell.. hopefully its resolved this week so we can move onto Plan B or C if needed.
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Agree. Hope we can get him but doubtful.
 
AyiosYiorgos

AyiosYiorgos

SGI Jersey Flegg
TheRev said:
Other rumours are that Talagi wants centre.. which is what we are offering him (atleast initially), but ultimately going to be very hard to pull him and his family out of the club hes grown up with. Supposedly Moses wants him to take the cash and leave but its a tough call. Time will tell.. hopefully its resolved this week so we can move onto Plan B or C if needed.
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There was a story in the papers on the weekend about the parents of a player not happy with the manager trying to get there kid to move clubs, pretty sure it was about Talagi and Isaac Moses, so not holding out hopes he moves, but would be a great get if we could score both brothers, as they say Time Will Tell
 
Edward

Edward

SGI Jersey Flegg
AyiosYiorgos said:
There was a story in the papers on the weekend about the parents of a player not happy with the manager trying to get there kid to move clubs, pretty sure it was about Talagi and Isaac Moses, so not holding out hopes he moves, but would be a great get if we could score both brothers, as they say Time Will Tell
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Is he really that good? Maybe he will turn out to be that good but right now signing him on a long term big money deal would be a huge risk.
 
TheRev

TheRev

SGI Jersey Flegg
I'm not seeing us being able to pull a proper 1st grade marquee.. hence why we are looking outside the box @ a 19yr old... I think Talagi is our longterm 1 or 6, footwork and physicality is immense. In 2025 though... hes left or right centre, whichever he prefers given Suli can do both.

But I dont want to get excited, we still would be less than 50% of pulling it off. We may still end up with someone serviceable like Max Feagai, but I think Flanno will continue to hunt to pull 'something better' out of one of the clubs.. there are enough of them in cap crisis..
 
Chris M

Chris M

SGI NSW Cup
TheRev said:
I'm not seeing us being able to pull a proper 1st grade marquee.. hence why we are looking outside the box @ a 19yr old... I think Talagi is our longterm 1 or 6, footwork and physicality is immense. In 2025 though... hes left or right centre, whichever he prefers given Suli can do both.

But I dont want to get excited, we still would be less than 50% of pulling it off. We may still end up with someone serviceable like Max Feagai, but I think Flanno will continue to hunt to pull 'something better' out of one of the clubs.. there are enough of them in cap crisis..
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But the clubs with cap problems tend to let go of their aging players past their best. Even if they still have one or two good years left in them. I think he should start taking a punt on some of the best U19s or U21s who haven't played NRL yet. It's a risk because look at the number of lower grade Dragons -players who never made it or who proved to be nowhere near as good as we hoped. Sullivan and Amone for example.
 
TheRev

TheRev

SGI Jersey Flegg
Chris M said:
I think he should start taking a punt on some of the best U19s or U21s who haven't played NRL yet.
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Yar thats really what we are doing, only Talagi is miles ahead of where most 19yr olds are at, with a bonus year of first grade blooding under his belt...

But anyway lets see what happens first, and we can contemplate what comes next if we miss out... whoever it is though.. they cant be 2-3yrs away... we need someone ready to go for 2025. This person is Lomaxes replacement.. and we can just play Max Feagai there, but imo we need atleast 1 bloke in that backline who can rip games open.. cant just play it safe across the park.. we will never score points.
 
GCRV

GCRV

SGI NSW Cup
TheRev said:
Yar thats really what we are doing, only Talagi is miles ahead of where most 19yr olds are at, with a bonus year of first grade blooding under his belt...

But anyway lets see what happens first, and we can contemplate what comes next if we miss out... whoever it is though.. they cant be 2-3yrs away... we need someone ready to go for 2025. This person is Lomaxes replacement.. and we can just play Max Feagai there, but imo we need atleast 1 bloke in that backline who can rip games open.. cant just play it safe across the park.. we will never score points.
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TBH, judging by Flanno's record so far, if Talangi was already at the Dragons, he'd be playing Jersey Flegg.
 
TheRev

TheRev

SGI Jersey Flegg
I understand what you mean, but if the kids are good enough.. i.e. they clearly dominate the grade they step into... it forces your hand.. Tonga is 19 and went to cup very quickly.. LKT played some cup last year and almost straight away again this year.. neither has yet shown they are so good they need to step up again..... Buchanan virtually skipped Flegg.. Latu/Halangahu are younger but i think they will be there next year.

Talagi however from his very debut just making first graders look like idiots with his footwork and strength to break tackles.. I do agree he's probably still in nsw cup if he was at our club.. but tbf hes much better than the 19yr olds we have currently (at that age).. not sure about his attitude.. but physically hes a good'en.

Actually Tamale might be a closer example than our SG kids, he has been getting better as the year has gone on.. rly starting to look good in cup now.. he would be ready for 1st grade debut if he was staying.. that said im still not 100% sure his style will work in 1st grade.. and we have quite a few very good wing options already.... he does make reserve graders miss though.. I think wing is his spot for now.
 
GCRV

GCRV

SGI NSW Cup
TheRev said:
Talagi however from his very debut just making first graders look like idiots with his footwork and strength to break tackles.. I do agree he's probably still in nsw cup if he was at our club.. but tbf hes much better than the 19yr olds we have currently (at that age).. not sure about his attitude.. but physically hes a good'en.
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I agree with all of that completely. Including the part in bold which is the crux of the problem I have with Flanno. I think he'd be in and out of NSW Cup/Jersey Flegg like Buchanan if he was at the Dragons.
 
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R

Red T

SGI Jersey Flegg
How much is Rava on ? Flanno wants to move him on. Eyeing the salary cap space in order to sign Saifiti from Newcastle ?
 
Just a Mug Fan

Just a Mug Fan

SGI NSW Cup
Ok let's try this again and see if the information I post in here stays in here.

Whether is about signings, training news, Ramsey updates or Juniors we are chasing the information I have is only in here, so if it ends up in other forums I know it's came from here.

Saifiti and Knights have agreed to our terms. Papers still have to signed lodged and approved by salary cap auditor as well.
Knights chipping 1/3 that has to be approved so still not 100% done deal.

We are still in the hunt for Blaze, talks with Max F are on hold so that tells me we are hopeful on Blaze.

LKT will be on Supplementary list next season

Sav wanted 400k so that's why we didn't extend him.
 
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D

Dave03

SGI Jersey Flegg
Just a Mug Fan said:
Ok let's try this again and see if the information I post in here stays in here.

Whether is about signings, training news, Ramsey updates or Juniors we are chasing the information I have is only in here, so if it ends up in other forums I know it's came from here.

Saifiti and Knights have agreed to our terms. Papers still have to signed lodged and approved by salary cap auditor as well.
Knights chipping 1/3 that has to be approved so still not 100% done deal.

We are still in the hunt for Blaze, talks with Max F are on hold so that tells me we are hopeful on Blaze.

LKT will be on Supplementary list next season

Sav wanted 400k so that why we didn't extend him.
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Thanks for the info. We've done well to get the Knights chipping in 1/3. 400k is overs for Sav.
 
TheRev

TheRev

SGI Jersey Flegg
I feel like Max might be preffered to Bird as that 30th spot for 2025.. But Bird is in contract.. I still think both is not out of the question, but we still need to chase a bit of a gun somewhere in that back 7... I think we're a bit too safe.
 
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