EMERGING forward Justin Horo will have to take a hefty blow to the hip pocket to remain at Parramatta next year, with NRL rivals prepared to offer him significantly more lucrative deals than the Eels.
The 23-year-old, enjoying an impressive rookie season in the top grade, is off contract at the end of the season and is the subject of an attractive offer from the Knights, and has attracted interest from the Cowboys and the Bulldogs.
He spent yesterday in Newcastle meeting Knights coach Rick Stone and inspecting the club's facilities.
The Knights' proposed deal for Horo is substantially more than the two-year package Parramatta have offered Horo at this stage to stay beyond 2010, with the Eels' spending capacity stretched to the limit by their courting of Wallabies star Quade Cooper.
However, the son of former Parramatta forward and New Zealand international Mark Horo is understood to be considering making the financial sacrifice to remain at the Eels under Daniel Anderson, who gave him his NRL break in round three this year. He is tipped to decide on his future this week.
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I imagine that if the QC deal falls through, the club will up the offer to Horo to be more in line with what other clubs are offering.
It's fair to argue that the club should have secured Horo months ago, however, when news of the Storm debarcle emerged, the club needed to position themselves to have a shot at Cooper Cronk. The subsequent emergence of QC's interest has stalled the club's ability to offer Horo a more substantial deal.
As good as Horo is and as much as the club and fans want his signature, I think most reasonable folks would be prepared to trade his services for those of either Cooper Cronk or Quade Cooper if that opportunity arose and as much as members such as 'The Slippery Eel' decry, you can't secure the services of top flight halves like CC or QC without throwing bucket loads of money at them.
As we do need a top half it would be just palatable to lose Horo. With Hindy retiring in the next few years it would be worth Horo staying on less coin now and then capitalizing later though. Horo is a bloke we could easily build a dominate pack around.
we r losing Caylo 400k, Mateo 230k, INU 270k, Keating 120k, Oake 80k Guru 200k.......please, we have over 1 million in the kitty, dont tell me we cant match offers to keep Horo? this wreaks of Ozzie incompetence as per usual......the mind boggles. at this rate, why dont we just let go of half the squad!
we seem to be back-loading Tahu's contract upwards 400k next year considering he was on peanuts this year, Poore 350k, Morts 250k.....the 3 most under-perforrming guys this season are taking up 1 million in cap space!. So thats the only explanation - Tahu back-ended contract. The guy better pull his finger out if its gonna cost us Horo.
Mateo probably didnt even get an up-graded offer, meaning Warriors will give him almost double his Eels contract. Dosen't make too much sense - players perceived as "mid-tier" are given insulting contract offers, while so-called "stars" like Tahu and Morts and Poore and now QC are offered ludicrous amounts....
Another player offered less than rivals basically being told we cant afford him and you lot want him to turn down his golden earning years for us.
You should be blogging please DA and Ozzie make the guy a proper offer. Which if we had done at the half season mark would have cost us a lot less
Please Justin make sure you get a good deal, and we demand that you give him one Ozzie and DA
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