Recruitment and Retention for 2025

[Dave03]

Gutho skillset is ideal for my type of fullback. Big yardage, heaps of support play & class to finish or create tries with his passing. All with great communication skills in defence & desperation. If there's anyone young like that then we should go for him.

 

[RedVHeartbeat]

• Club to decide to keep 1 of either Sione Finau or Corey Allan on a 1 yr deal
• JDB to re-sign on 1 yr deal
• Club yet to decide whether to re-sign David Klemmer
• Jacob Liddle to re-sign until 2028
• Also heard the club is set to offer a 2 yr deal to Titans Prop Josiah Pahulu

Jeez BigRig please be on the money with this 3, namely Jacks extra yr, Lidds extension plus targeting that big bodied bookend Jo and I keep banging on about. But why for only six months.

Finau or Allan, surely the younger and more agile man is the better option. But why only the extra 1 yr as Finau is worth a longer contract than that. Flanno even gave the inferior Matt Feagai two.

Pahulu a '22 Aussie schoolboy rep, from same h/s as Loko Jr. Cant find any Ressie stats but his three NRL games shows he is a willing middle. Fairly small for a bookend at 104kg tho.

Seems our BOD has run out of patience with Vili Fifita. Pity the guy has no engine as he will find it difficult to find another club.

 

[Eric]

Agree mate. It was hoped Klemmer would be that enforcer, but he has been a powder puff compared with what we need.

jodragon40 would call you, "a hard marker".
If there is one thing Klemmer does well, it's the tough stuff. Running hard, as hard as he can, tackling as hard as he can.

 

[Edward]

Finau or Allan, surely the younger and more agile man is the better option. But why only the 1 yr? Flanno gave the inferior Matt Feagai even more than that.

I agree with you but Flanno obviously doesn't see it that way.

 

[Mailroomsgi]

Gotta say Sharpe is such a good fullback, so much in common with Ponga, almost dont need the 1million dollar man.. they are hoping to make Sharpe work as a 6 or 7 I guess.. but not sure it will.

Sharpe’s a brilliant player.

They have a really tough decision to make with Ponga/Sharpe/Votano very soon as it’s 3 very talented fullbacks and 2 have to be shoehorned elsewhere

Can see the dogs making another move for one of those 3 to replace Tracey, they’ve already tried once for Votano 12 months ago

 

[Edward]

Sharpe’s a brilliant player.

They have a really tough decision to make with Ponga/Sharpe/Votano very soon as it’s 3 very talented fullbacks and 2 have to be shoehorned elsewhere

Can see the dogs making another move for one of those 3 to replace Tracey, they’ve already tried once for Votano 12 months ago

Never heard of Votano. I'd be surprised if Sharpe is a really good first grade fullback. He's built similar to Sloan. I think he's get belted on kick returns.

 

[Edward]

Gutho skillset is ideal for my type of fullback. Big yardage, heaps of support play & class to finish or create tries with his passing. All with great communication skills in defence & desperation. If there's anyone young like that then we should go for him.

I'm a big Gutho fan but he isn't as good as Ponga and he isn't getting any younger.

 

[jodragon40]

jodragon40 would call you, "a hard marker".
If there is one thing Klemmer does well, it's the tough stuff. Running hard, as hard as he can, tackling as hard as he can.

In my personal view Klemmer has been a bitter disappointment . Avg 8 runs, 75m per game, 28m post contact , has not made 1 linebreak and has 1 tackle break in his 8 games.I don't believe that apart from his experience he has added any go forward . Just my opinion

 

[RedVictory]

Pahulu a '22 Aussie schoolboy rep, from same h/s as Loko Jr. Cant find any Ressie stats but his three NRL games shows he is a willing middle.

Played a lot more than 3 career games. He's a gun.

 

[Wild383]

Jeez BigRig please be on the money with this 3, namely Jacks extra yr, Lidds extension plus targeting that big bodied bookend Jo and I keep banging on about. But why for only six months.

Finau or Allan, surely the younger and more agile man is the better option. But why only the extra 1 yr as Finau is worth a longer contract than that. Flanno even gave the inferior Matt Feagai two.

Pahulu a '22 Aussie schoolboy rep, from same h/s as Loko Jr. Cant find any Ressie stats but his three NRL games shows he is a willing middle. Fairly small for a bookend at 104kg tho.

Seems our BOD has run out of patience with Vili Fifita. Pity the guy has no engine as he will find it difficult to find another club.

3 career games? He played almost every game last year... Primarily off the bench, 30min average with about 65-70m a game (which hes improved so far this year with shorter minutes) and good defence. He's a good solid player, he's not a big bookend but a very strong middle.

 

[RedVHeartbeat]

3 career games? He played almost every game last year..

Three games this year pal.

 

[RedVHeartbeat]

Those Grubs have grabbed Galvin. We cant even snare one good player and Gould snaps his fingers and they come running.

 

[jodragon40]

Those Grubs have grabbed Galvin. We cant even snare one good player and Gould snaps his fingers and they come running.

Gould is smart the Dogs are travelling well but now with Galvin starting it will give them that extra weapon in attack.

 

[Mailroomsgi]

Galvins overhyped, I’m not saying that as a salty dragons fan.

Genuinely he’s not worth the 750k price that’s been touted, still has many flaws to his game

Parramatta have fumbled their way into an upgrade, their 2 halves from SG ball this year -Talataina + Fletcher are massive talents and they should be sticking with them over getting Galvin

Dogs thankfully have made their first bad move in the player market for a little while

 

[TheRev]

I think Galvin is more of a longer-term investment, though I agree I think its a real headache for what they will do with sexton/burton/tracey/whoever..

Gus is very good at moving players on when they dont work out though.. and make it seem like it was all their idea.

 

[blacksafake]

I haven’t seen anything from Galvin that makes me go wow as of yet. Good player with a higher ceiling? Yes but I’ll save my judgement of him for a couple of seasons.

 

[Dragons Chris]

I haven’t seen anything from Galvin that makes me go wow as of yet. Good player with a higher ceiling? Yes but I’ll save my judgement of him for a couple of seasons.

He takes the ball right to the line before passing and he throws long passes reasonable well. Those are the only good things he does from what I've seen. Rarely breaks a tackle, kicking game is average and defence is average though as he gets bigger that will probably improve. In the combination between him and Luai, Luai is by far the more dangerous player.

All these in my view overpaid signings like Galvin to the Dogs and Brown to Newcastle should in theory open them up to poaching raids on their best young players.

 

[Justadragon]

I think Galvin is more of a longer-term investment, though I agree I think its a real headache for what they will do with sexton/burton/tracey/whoever..

Gus is very good at moving players on when they dont work out though.. and make it seem like it was all their idea.

If that is the case Rev we should be making a play for Sexton !!!

 

[Mailroomsgi]

Dogs letting Mahoney and Sexton leave
Lots of changes to the spine for them

That means Sandon/Sexton/Duffy are all available for 2026

 

[Dragons Chris]

Dogs letting Mahoney and Sexton leave
Lots of changes to the spine for them

That means Sandon/Sexton/Duffy are all available for 2026

Forget about all 3. Look for salvation within. Reed and LKT.