Parramatta Eels front-rower Junior Paulo continues a contract standoff with the Parramatta Eels after losing the Perth Bears deal.Contract talks collapsed between Paulo and the Bears in August after his management asked for a two-year deal at $900,000 per season.
This led the Western Australian-based club to pursue Corey Horsburgh from the Canberra Raiders after he had a falling out with Ricky Stuart.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a deal has been offered to extend with the Parramatta Eels.
Parramatta have offered Junior Paulo $650,000 per season, which still doesn't meet his expectations.
Paulo missed most of the season after having minor knee surgery.
There had been whispers that Super League clubs believed Paulo was available for the 2027 season, according to The Daily Telegraph.
"Junior is super important for us in terms of experience in the middle third of the field; we are quite young there," Jason Ryles said at the end of the season about closing Paulo on a new deal.
If Paulo stays at Parramatta, he will join his co-captain at international level, Jarome Luai, who is heading to the Eels in a 12-month stopgap deal for 2027.
Another Samoan star, Jaydn Su'A, will also arrive at the club on a three-year deal from the St George Illawarra Dragons.
It is likely that at this stage, Paulo will remain at Parramatta; however, money is a major factor for the 32-year-old in his next year.
Replies
Perth pulled the offer and found a preferred option that's the difference.
So what and who are we going to get for the said money that's our issue how can we pull the offer when we flopped chasing Barnett and Kolomatangi and have spoken to Lenui but all of a sudden that's gone quite.I mean this is the clubs recruitment in a nutshell.It's a god damn embarrassment and we haven't even talked about outside backs yet.
That doesn't mean we must pay Ploddo 900k . Thats what got us here in the first place. You obviously have to have other options , hence why we pay people hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to know what these options are.
Paulos been average all season, he's not that hard to replace . The other option is to advise him his offer will be reduced as soon as we feel the money can be used to upgrade another player. Pulling it doesn't necessarily mean cutting ties with him. It can simply be pulling one and replacing with another.
Perths a great example, they had the lazy ungrateful Ploddo on the table , who they'd reportedly made a fantastic offer to. Ploddo used their offer to try to force us into matching it or upgrading our offer so he didn't have to move . They then obviously thought the same about the guy as we are now, and they went with someone who wanted to play for them.
Exactly how you do business with people like Jnr. Now he's totally fucked himself and looks silly. Perth did it right and do you think the next player mangers going to back their player to play the same games with the bears ? No way.
we should tell him his offers going to another player in a week. And follow through and upgrade a kid or target another prop to make a statement. You don't even have to land the signing , just use his money to chase someone . If it falls through junior can come to us to reinstate his offer.
Where have I said pay him that all I'm saying is we can't attract a suitable replacement so where does this leave us that's the whole point of not being able to recruit.
Paulo obviously has some value on and off the field and wants to be compensated in that manner.This isn't about what Paulos worth it's about being in a position to start off with.
Parra misse Barnett didn't want to pay Kolomatangi Leniu god knows where that's going nd now Paulo this is the problem we can't recruit we seemingly always end up in the same spot.Hate on DB all you 2ant how's that replacement gone for the club exactly.To me it's the same old shit Parra always come up short nothing to see here and then wonder why they lose Lomax and Brown as examples the team wets the bed for mother season.
This shit has only just begun because we've still got to fill spots in the outside backs yet.
Where have i said you said it ? However you did say we shouldve paid Brown and seem to be insinuating that we stuffed up by not paying Brown dumb money as you claim we cant replace him.
What are we trying to replace out of curiosity ? As the Knights have shown, you dont need a 1.3 million flop to be a success. Wow brown can tackle. You are seemingly claiming as we dont have a ready made International we must keep Paulo yeah ? You realise he isnt wishing to sign for the money weve offered . Whats your next move ?
You wanting to keep the dope, and yet when im puttimg out methods to push his signiture , youre still arguing with me lol. He wont sign as he thinks a better offer is out there , so you start reducing his time or money and he starts to rethink his game plan.
What we don't want to do is the Coryn tactics of giving him money because we don't have some magical international to replace him. That stuff comes after you fix the culture of players taking the piss.
Well we did stuff up leaving the door open didn't we as we still don't have a replacement 2 years later.I mean as soon as him and Lomax are gone we are looking for reciprocal if not better players to replace them aren't we or what's the whole point of letting them go.
Much like Paulo if we don't want to pay fair enough but we better have a better option if not how are we improving the team.
The whole point in my post is if we can't or don't have a plan to improve the team or execute a plan to do so we've stuffed nd have to cough up.Much like the chases for Kolomatangi Barrett and Galvin if we can't execute the mentioned we've stuffed up because as above we are worse off as a team.
Also with all that spare cash how have Parra improved the team.
What we don't want is the Wiz let's going shopping at the Mall mentality argh he's not worth it don't pay him.The Wiz mentality let's go bargain shopping for elite talent and finish 11th every year.
Hey guess what you and the club think the same and what do you know we finishing 11th-13th the last 2 years.Look how stupid Newcastle are giving DB the richest contract in nrl history anyone would think a contract like that hinders a team.
Spoon to a major semi in a year Newcastle you dopes why not adopt the Wiz method and head back to the swamp meet trying to win a premiership with Asi Footy Dean Volkman Pezet types in the halves that's a tried and true fail.The Wiz way of thinking Parra have adopted it and it's shows.
More holes than a Swannies hotel room in that rant.
Your whole wall of text is based on Paulo not being another year older than that plod king we saw for 90% of 2026.
Secondy of all people I'm far from the guy endorsing bargain shopping. I've literally been here jibbering on about our lack of top tier recruiting and how we need to fuck our current dickheads in charge of recruiting and football management off since 2019. Including during 2022 and the start of 2023 when all and sundry were dishing out the " now eat your words Wiz " as we sailed off into our next chapter of The Dynasty ". I'd challenge you to find a bigger supporter of recruiting top end talent with proven credentials at any cost than I. Obviously within the return on investments guardrails.
Again , your desired method of pay them what they want as we don't have anyone better is exactly how we got here , and exactly how we ended up giving dunces like DylBoobs the out in the first place.
It's a snowball effect.
Browns been gone for a year lol, he sat on the sidelines most of this season. What exactly have we not replaced ? 10 games or whatever he played of tackles ? Ryles even had so much faith in his ability to change our fortunes he had him carrying the teams jock straps for a season.
Thank god he's gone , if he stayed and spent the time injured here instead of there , you'd be carrying on about how his injury derailed our season the same as you were crediting him for turning the knights around lol. Remeber that earlier in the season when you were on your box chest pumped out lecturing us on how dumb we were for letting the immortal go , and how I was wrong 😂 turns out a reserve grader can do a better job , just like Footy dean and Asi did here .
Myth busted
Well considering he will miss most of preseason due to the World Cup and annual leave, it's only fair to start paying him from mid January. 700k tops.
Paulo is a deadset thief. $900,000 for 2 years - he has to be kidding.He should be paying Parra for fraud damages..
Paulo needs Spencer & Spencer will be a waste without Paulo. Don't think for one minute we would be better off without this wreaking ball. An agreement needs to be reached, it's no use trying to build the squad, then allow a senior player walk out. Getting rid of the old boys RCG & co but it set us back, but we all agreed it had to happen. Losing Brown & Lomax was not expected & those two would have made a huge difference with them in the side. Now your happy to lose Paulo to save $300 000, for what? It's no like we can replace his experience, sure we could pick up another prop but not his experience & what he does for the club & team. Some people here are truly sponge heads, no idea what a player like him will set us back. Then next year you'll be blaming recruitment and retention so stop it. He needed & need to get this deal done. Sure go for a lower price but we need to make it happen.
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