now lets compare this years recuitment drives. Heck, even Melbourne have done better, now thats what i call irony....they will actually field quite a strong team and should make the 8. slater duffie stanley champion o'neill kelly cronk lowrie manu blair kostijyn hinchcliffe norrie. there back-line is way better than ours. How on earth did they afford Champion at 300 grand per season? i thought they had released just enough players to be under the cap?.... the NRL will have egg on there faces if Storm do well next season.
Cowboys Sharks Warriors and Raiders, if they get Orford, have all had great recruitment drives, and will perform far better than this year. Sharks - Jeremy Smith, Colin Best, Wade Graham, j. williams....Cowboys - Tate, Sims brothers, g.cooper, winterstein, dallas johnson etc. and Warriors - shaun berrigan INU Mateo, steve rapira.....Raiders - Ferguson, brett white, orford......u see the theme? all these clubs have recruited 1 or 2 stand-out players, whereas we have recruited journey-men. Champion, who stood out for City versus Country and could've made SOO,would have been this stand-out buy.I also think we gave up the chase for Orford too easily. Betting agencies now have us at 26 to 1, near the bottom betting rung.....i'm not being a doom-sayer, and do actually think we can make the top 8 with our current squad. I'm just expressing dissapointment that after all the HYPE surrounding our recruitment drive, we are probably the club who has fared the worst in this process, now isnt that ironic?.
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I agree!
I just dont understand any of it.
We are sitting around doing nothing with so much money left under the cap and we just let quality players pass without making even a play for them.
Champion needed to have his final year contract paid out by whoever took him! He is not worth $300k!!!
I wish people would stop whinging about our recruitment! Everyone of why quality is off contract at the end of 2011. There was no one decent this year!!!,
Easy. Champion is not nearly at the end of his career, he isn't anywhere near 30. He would also be asking for more than $150k and is not looking for a second chance + he is not from the Super League. Those are the players we are interested in!
champion is a decent player! There I named 1.
If Melbourne can afford him, then we certainly could and we are ridiculously short of quality in the centres,
There is no logical reason we couldnt have pursued him. We have money to burn and could have given him a front loaded contract also.
What people need to realise is that we do indeed have plenty of room under the cap for 2011, but what about the following years? If we sign Champion on 300k for 3 years, then it puts a dent in our ability to recruit a big name in 2012. People are bagging the signings of Hicks, Whatuira and Walker, but what we get with those guys are experienced outside backs (all with SOO or GF experience) at a bargain price, and the biggest advantage, for 1 year. We can discard them in 2012 if we are able to sign a big name halfback and outside back. Don't get me wrong, Champion is a good player, but from what I can gather Parra are looking at securing an elite half and outside back, and with all due respect Champion is not an elite player. People can talk up Souths and Melbourne all they like, they will start well however neither has much depth (especially Melbourne), so I expect them to fall away as the year goes on and they pick up a few injuries. Look what happend to Souths in 2010 when a few of their stars were injured, they couldn't win an arguement. We do not have backs that will blow sides away, but we now have some depth now, and given SK has stated we will play a structured game if we pick up an injury or 2 then the effect will not be as dramatic.
I am not saying we will win the comp, but we will be competitive and we will make the 8. We now have one of the better forward packs in the comp. Poore, Shackleton and Mannah will provide plenty of go forward, Fui and Webb will provide A LOT of intimidation, Hindy will tackle everything that moves and Horo and Maitua will provide some creativity and hole running.
I don't get it either. Storm refused to pay GI's legal fees(rightly so) saying it would put them over the cap. Now they sign Champion. Surely he's worth more. Can someone explain it?
do you think melbourne signed champion for 300k? i think not
also we could have front loaded his contract - we have so much money simply not used - do something like 250k first year, then 200k for next 2 years and you have a quality centre for not over the top in 2012.
surely something could have been done??
it appears as we are sitting around doing nothing
Yes there is NO WAY melbourne signed Champion for 300 grand. This is what disturbs me. The NRL make them shed just enough playing talent to be under the cap, yet they somehow grab Champion for 3 years?
His signing wouldn't have affected our 2012 ambitions as we could've front-loaded his contract. We have over 2 million space in our cap for 2012 once all these 1 year "journey-men" see through this years contract, so im sure we could've "squeezed" Champion in.....LOL....Point of fact is Kearney didn't want him. Champion actually wanted to stay in Sydney....but why didnt he want him? Reddy is injured in the 1st few rounds is he not? So our amazing centre depth has our opening round pairings as whatuira hicks? wow! exciting! Look, may be Kearney has the plan to un-earth LOKO early on, this would be the only way this all makes sense.
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