Now let me tell people something, although I've been a big fan of Sua, Parramatta can't keep going down the road of signing 29 or 30 yeae olds.
People are going to say that injuries happen to anyone, but thats incorrect, as players get past 27 or 28 on average they become more injury prone
Now, look at the Panthers, they hardly if ever sign players over the age of 27 hence their low injuries. When their current players get to around 28 they let them look around for other opportunities and concentrate on keeping younger players for example, Liam Martin at 28 is becoming heavily injury prone hence they are allowing him to go to November 1. Thats how its done. You don’t let players like Sam Tuivaiti get to nov 1 bs
Now the reason im saying this is because im hearing we're on the verge of signing another player very experienced but over the age of 30. Not sure who but Penrith would never do this.
Sua faces up to 6 months on the sidelines depending on the severity of the calf tear
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But you are comparing us to Penrith though.
You’ve said “Penrith would never do this”, “look at the Panthers” and “Parramatta should follow Penrith’s model”.
That is comparing the clubs from a recruitment and retention perspective.
You also said we cannot go down the road of signing 29-30 year olds but it's fine to sign Walker year by year? But you also knock the club for missing out on Keaon yet he is 29 next year?
Again, just be consistent, i agree with you 100% that we need to get younger, as to why i always hesitent on Barnett
Im taking about external signings. For internal signings id be prepared to offer the majority of 30 year old plus a year by year, unless he is at the top of his game like Moses for example
What id like to see is for Parramatta to offer more younger players on the up contracts. If we could find a Finefeuiaki somewhere out there wow, he's the next million dollar back rower
Walker was an external signing at 31. But yeah i agree, same when we got de Belin. We need to get younger. Hopefully by 2028 our pack is:
8. Tuivaiti
9. Da Silva
10. Brown
11. Petrus
12. Su'A
13. Koina/Hopgood
That is a pack that is young and by 2028 has a decent amount of experience. Now i wanted a top notch Prop long term. But at the same time i think the intent is to get a Prop for 2 years until the likes of Talagi and Koina are fully ready to go. Issue is, what if any of Brown, Koina or Talagi do not work out? Then you are behind in a spot. Now if you have a top quality Prop, then it is a battle between those three and the best two get spots. With Hopgood off-contract in 2027, one of them can be a full-time starter.
That seems to be what we are banking on. Not blocking the paths of these forwards coming through.
Hopgood still here in 28?, i hope not, mate he is pretty much washed and is nowhere near the player he was before doing his back 2 years ago.
Hey when you begging you cant choose....we aint the roosters/Penrith/storm(well not so much now).
I see the Dolphins and Wahs as teams on the rise
Well I don't know about that Chief. You would think that would be the case, but of our players over 30 (de Belin, Walker, Paulo, Moses, Addo-Carr), none have missed games due to injury so far (touch wood!). Hopgood and Simonsson are 27, Doorey is 25, Penisini 23, Kautogo 23, Smith 23, Iongi 22, Tuivati 20. Other injured players are also young. I'm sure there is more the club can do to keep our players injury-free, but without a doubt we have been struck by some bad luck this year.
You make some good points but it's not so black and white. While Parra definitely needs to get better at identifying and retaining junior talent, a balanced roster needs some age and experience in there.
And as an example, Koloamatangi will be 28/29 next year and I'm sure we all would've loved if Parra managed to sign him.
So it's not so much a problem with player's ages, but the quality of our recruitment targets as a whole - internal or external.
Sua is in the sweet spot of his career . 29,30,31 years are a great time to get him.
Good, the less games he plays for the dragons this year the less wear and tear on his body.
We do need to sign some older experienced players, particularly forwards as we have quite a few young inexperienced players coming into first grade, particularly forwards. It usually takes young forwards 3-4 years to become hardened first graders that can produce week after week in the grind of the NRL.
29-30 is not too old, after 32 different story.
Panthers have Gardner (30) and Papali'i (28 this year). I suppose we could swap recruitment for you Chief, hypthothetically. Them for Su'a, Wiliams, Kautoga, Samrani, Tuilagi.
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