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
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.
I think $500-550k is reasonable for a good winger these days, but Jenkins has a couple of value options that could push him to $600k as he can play FB, he kicks, is fast and powerful. Usually you're compromising on 1-2 of those capabilities, but he is a complete elite winger in today's game, so I think he can command a bit more.
We can afford that by saving some money on our left center (Nanva or Samrani).
$500k is overs but I can tolerate it for Jenkins. Particularly if he plays Origin.
Muttman reckons he can play 5/8... that could be a huge incentive to throw at him to sign with us.
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?
If we didn't have Brian Kelly I'd suggest him instead. But we've already got that one sorted.
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?
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