Just to provide an update on the intrigue over signings.
Firstly, my information remains that Barrett will sign for next year and that it will be announced next week. I just read jpav's comment that the Sunday Telegraph is reporting likewise.
However, and this is what has been doing my head in, is that I've had people close to the Dogs camp tell me that Kimmorley is a done deal, too.
Which is exactly where I was when I first reported this nearly a week ago and why I was hedging my bets a bit in the initial report.
My initial thoughts was we couldn't possibly be signing both of them. However, I'm starting to re-think...
If you look at out Top 25 for this year, we had six hooker/halves - Mortimer, Robson, K Keating, Humble, M Keating, Mitchell. We'll need that many again next year, especially given we won't have the fallback position of Mateo to six if needed.
Right now, we have four signed for next year - Keating gone and Mitchell almost no chance of being re-signed. So there are definitely two spots in the halves up for grabs.
From what I'm hearing neither Barrett or Kimmorley are going to be on massive money. You have to think we had $400k up our sleeve if we were going to make a bid a bid for Cronk or Inglis. I think we were also still in play for Cronk when we offered KK a deal about the $150k mark. We've also had a few kids really step up in NYC - like O'Hanlon and Sio who we can confidently make a part of our top 25 of cheap dollars. We've got a fair bit still in the kitty, I think.
I believe a central part of Anderson's recruitment strategy has been to shift dollars into our key positions. Hence why players like Eric Grothe and Feleti Mateo were not offered serious contracts because he doesn't want big money spent on positions like wing or lock. I think money has been freed specifically for the halves and I think we could likely get the two of them for not much north of $500k, which I believe is definitely doable and was what was budgeted for when we were targeting Cronk.
And I can't help but think that Barrett and Kimmorley who have played together at Origin level would be attracted to the opportunity of one last year going around in the same team.
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While I am devastated to be losing KK, especially after his reported performance tonight, it does appear that some sort of plan was in motion.
Hopefully it all works out. I would definitely love to have Barrett in the blue and gold.
Please keep us posted!!
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