Some early Friday morning scuttlebutt on Facebook saying Eels have made an offer to sign Thomas Jenkins from the Panthers. I really have no idea if this is true or the validity behind the rumours, but this is a signing I can definitely get behind. Hopefully we've made him a great offer that puts Penrith in a difficult position to retain him. They have Tago and To'o on around $800k each, Alomoti and McClean on moderate deals, so it's a stacked backline and someone's gotta go, and they can't keep them all.
Jenkins is young and has a great career ahead of him, if we storm in with slightly overs for 3+ years it will be a great investment because we're shit at developing wingers. Let's hope this rumour is true 🤞
- Iongi
- Addo-Car
- Nanva
- Penisini
- Jenkins
That's a solid backline to build on.
Anyone with inside goss feel free to let us know?
Replies
It's interesting what Penrith do here. Do they start to recycle some of their older players such as To'o and Yeo for younger versions on much less money? Either way, as you say they will need to offload some players - unless they also have an Easts-style sombrero.
The guys i've included above is who I think they focus their retention effort on (except Tago), all others are expendable.
So, I think Parra have been smart here....
My assumption is Panthers would need to offload Tago first before they can afford to compete with Parra's offer. If we have made Jenkins a great offer now and put a time limit on it, then we can pull him away before Panthers have the ability to counter because they just don't have any space in the cap.
Or, Panthers can counter by offering us Tago and chipping in the overs they're paying him. Both options are good for Parra, but i'd rather jenkins as he has more upside with youth and size.
I would happily take, him has talent, at a good age and has experience. My concerns are is he a by product of a great Penrith system, as he left once before and did nothing. Secondly, how much are we paying for a Winger? If he makes Origin it is heading into $600k minimum territory
I do think wingers are more of a premium purchase these days as they probably have great impact than centres by making yardage and finishing tries. I'd personally prefer to have 2 topline wingers than centers.
Centres are just too important in defence i feel. Wingers are more valuable as they used to be but if you look at the top teams they have good Centres. How often do you have people talk about a Winger and say "He's not great in defence".
You can have a defensive Centre who is not incredible but do a job that makes your Winger better. I would rather have a weaker Winger than weaker Centre personally.
As for paying premium, for once in a generation Wingers you can go over. Would you do that for Jenkins?
But another thing to consider is Lomax was on big coin to play Wing. I know from the contact on Lomax that his price was a factor in Ryles being ok with letting him go to use money elsewhere. So Parramatta might have a cap on what they pay Wingers.
He's too young and scores too many tries. He's also way too good under the high ball. Hard pass.
Montoya could be available. Let's go hard for him.
Is that Harper music?
Does Nanva get that spot? Or do we go with Simo? I feel like Bailey with his NRL experience would be first cab off the rank if fit and Nanva provides solid backup there.
Also I doubt Jenkins gets JAC's spot. The Fox is our left winger, he's bagged 160-odd tries mostly as a left winger. You don't move him.
Milky has played plenty of halves and centre. He's not purely a winger.
Can he play 5/8?
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next