Paul Osborne has declared that the club is determined to keep Feleti Mateo, although the prodigiously talented Eel knows salary cap pressures may make it tough for Parramatta to retain him.
"Feleti's a Parramatta junior, a Parramatta supporter and his family are big fans of the club, so we're determined to keep him," Osborne told The Daily Telegraph.
"But we know there is interest from other clubs".
Mateo said he wanted to stay at the Eels but "whether they can fit me in is another thing", he said.
While Osborne has declared that Daniel Mortimer is his next target, my preference would be to see the club tie up Mateo before any of its other off-contract players.
Like Hayne, Mateo has that X-factor and the ability to create points against even the most rigid of defences. The Eels now have options across the park, but a player like Mateo is a rarity and almost impossible to replace.
I don't think we've seen anywhere near the best from Mateo. His best days are ahead of him and, for me, it would be gut wrenching to see him play in anything else but Blue and Gold.
Replies
Mortimer appears to be a really dogged competitor and played better in the top grade than I thought he would, but he seems a little limited in terms of actual ability.
As you say Mateo has boundless ability and with a bit more maturity will probabaly come into his own. Lets not forget that he was the talk of the town in 2008 for a good part of the season and people were talking about him in almost as glowing terms as Hayne for a little while.
Cheers
My gut tells me that he would struggle to leave the club but lets hope that he receives an offer that reflects this.
Surely holding on to a 22 year-old outside back of immense talent and a 25 year-old X-factor like Mateo should have been higher on the list of priorities than signing an injury prone 30-year-old coming back from another code for 3 years?
You can't blame them for wanting to sign a proven strike weapon.
Would they have signed Tahu at the end of last year? Maybe not with all of the forward purchases they made.
But at 30 and with a few years playing Rugby which is a lower impact sport, Tahu could have 3 or even 4 really big seasons ahead of him.
MoiMoi led the charge up front and dominated that's why he is now considered the best prop in the game if we did not have MoiMoi and Hayne do what they did last year we would have never been in the position where we finished!!!
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