Recruitment & Retention 2027

[Gippsy]

Harris-tavita is apparently looking for a 12 month deal. Would help Reed into first grade and send a postive message to him.

 

[RedV01]

Gutho goes okay though I said early last week, centre is definitely not his position. Dragons coaches sometimes come across as being so stupid. Anyway, the problem is:
1. The game has sped up so much. Now he is too slow to be a fullback.
2. He was being asked by Flanno to be the main playmaker and fullback to cover up for the halves at the time lack of playmaking ability.
3. Might be able to get away with a slowish fullback if the wingers were very fast. But most of the time Gutho has had CT and Feagai as wingers. I'm not saying those 2 are very bad but they are slow for wingers.

As for Metcalf, it's a hard one. It'll be a bitter pill for Reed to swallow if Metcalf is signed for 3 years let alone longer. It will inspire him to pack his bags and wouldn't surprise me if it comes back to bite the Dragons badly.

Some truth to all of that.

1. He struggled in the second half of last year too. But the new rules have exacerbated the problem. No doubt.
2. True
3. Sloan is very fast but yeah, as with #1. Slow wingers have exacerbated the problem.

No decent halfback is going to sign for a year or two. So either give up on Reed after 2 games playing inside the worst 1~5 in NRL history or back him. If I was deciding, I'd back him for a while yet. I'd back him for several more weeks at least. As for having Metcalf play 5/8; Sign him long term on big money to play out of position? Not a good idea.

Actually even to forget about Atkinson and LKT and if Ah Kee leaves, there is Hammoud in the lower grades. He hasn't stood out as much as Reed in the lower grades but that dude just keeps getting better. Wouldn't surprise me to see him become a very good first grade 5/8 when he's 22 or 23. He's 20 now.

No, this team needs 2~5. This has to be the priority.

 

[Inverted63]

Recruit Metcalf to play 5/8? Can he do that? Does that mean giving up on Atkinson? I know most have given up on LKT though I certainly haven't.

I haven’t given up on LKT yet either, although he is playing well below what I think is his ceiling and well below what we would need from him on an ongoing basis. I’m hoping that we land a decent coach and his form improves dramatically, but time will tell on both of those fronts.

Every club needs quality halves to steer the team around, get the ball to where it needs to be and convert opportunities into points. Clubs also need depth in the halves to cover for injury and absence. I don’t think any combination of our existing halves quite provide what the team needs. I also don’t think we have quite enough depth in the halves. So we should be recruiting at least one half of quality.

If we were to end up with Reed at 7 and Metcalf at 6, Atkinson could still contribute either at 1 or maybe even at 9. Maybe Metcalf is just what we need - his form at the Wahs was very impressive prior to injury. But his injury history is a worry.

 

[Dragons Chris]

Harris-tavita is apparently looking for a 12 month deal. Would help Reed into first grade and send a postive message to him.

For one year, that should work but has Dan Atkinson been that bad? I thought he played quite well in the first 2 or 3 rounds. LKT could probably go back and work on his game for a year in reserve grade but Dan Atkinson is too old for that.