St George Illawarra have landed a huge recruitment scalp by securing Australian star Keaon Koloamatangi to a long term near $5 million deal.
It is understood that Koloamatangi has told the Dragons he will join the club from 2027 on a five year deal. The contract is now in the cooling off period.
It is a clear circuit breaker for the Dragons who were in the market for a marquee player.
Koloamatangi’s current club South Sydney wanted to secure him as did Parramatta.
The Dragons though look set to land the prized recruit after gazumping the Eels and Rabbitohs with a monster five year deal
MORE TO COME
Replies
5 years is too long fong. Its a desperate move by the dragons that not even Bennett would go near, not saying mon is safe though.
I wouldn't be complaining if the club swapped him for Shane Richardson
The 5 years means zero chief , when you are a shit club like the eels and dragons you have to pay overs or give a extra year to get certain players. The dragons have shown that they had a big name target and got him , so now other players will take a bit of notice of the dragons and maybe be attracted to go there.
Parramatta on the other will be seen by the footy world and other players as a club who desperately tried to lure a rep player and failed yet again and the club's reputation has taken another big hit . If Parramatta payed what us fans called overs for KK and got him what we think would mean zero , all that would of mattered was that the club had a big name target and got him and this would of helped the club restore it's reputation a bit .
I honestly thought Parramatta would of got him and payed whatever was needed just to stop damaging the club's reputation of always failing to get their target . Parramatta would of been in a much better position if they payed overs for him and showing that they can target a rep player and get him than the position they are in now .
I understand the opportunity that a key signing like Kolomatagi could attract other key players.
The most successful club in the 2020s Panthers couldn't attract or didn’t want to spend huge dollars on external signings so it can be done. The only big names they signed leading up to their premierships were Api Corisau and James Tamau.
Now Taumau was pretty much at the back end so he didn't cost much, and Corisau they would have gotten for around 700k in a super key position. Also they bought kurt Capewell hardly a big name, but another player who could do a job.
Are we in the same position the panthers were with our jnrs, well we did very well in Cup and under 20s, and many good judges are saying there's a few stars in the making coming through.
I know the Panthers also had Gus, but he didn't buy many superstar players.
I think this year is a huge year for our development to make a statement . I think our spine could be pretty much set up with Joash batteling it out with Fletcher to get the 6 jersey for 27.
We need to be in the 8 to attract players at a lower price tag.
You lost as soon as you mentioned Penrith 🤣🤣 Look at the people the panthers had working behind the scenes and look at who Parramatta have ? One was paved with gold and the other is paved with rusted steel .
Penrith were able to hold on to their kids , if Parramatta develop players that other clubs want then how are Parramatta going to keep them ? If any other club wants a Parramatta player be it a up and coming junior or a established first grader then we have about a 35% chance of keeping them .
What the hell is wrong with this club honestly, we were favourites for Galvin, Pezet and Keaon and we managed to stuff it all up. We currently have no backline depth with Lomax leaving and Russell soon to be leaving and all we have signed is Brian Kelly, that's not even confirmed yet. And we are still fiddling around with this five-eight bullshit after Pezet leaves. We haven't signed anyone for 27. We sure as shit not signing Tino and probably won't even sign Murray Taulagi or Jason Purdure.
we are a worse team than last year then in 27 we might even look like an even worse team then 26 and Mitchell Moses is getting up their in age he won't keep his dominant performances for very long
All those issues are nothing to losing KK when we didn't really know whether we were do the right thing.....what actually do you think the R&R did wrong in this case?
PS i would probably would have liked him and can see the benefits as well as the dangers, but it seems we were outbid...shit happens!
Pops I think your just playing the otherside to keep people honest. I cannot believe that you are not a little bit concerned about the amount of players they have negotiated with to come up empty. I for one don't need to know exactly what they did wrong in R&R, i just need them to know what they did this time and previously and go about quickly fixing it.
'Even if they are doing nothing wrong , then they are not doing enough and that maybe just as bad. Either way at the very least, the optics are terrible and reputation damage is happening to whomever is in charge of negotaiating and closing the contracts. Like a snow ball rolling down hill the problem is just going to keep getting bigger as time goes on. The more players that shun us,the more our reputation as a destination is diminished.
So where the fcuk is all the money going? Fcuk this crap irritates me.
Super Fund
-
7
-
8
-
9
-
10
-
11
of 17 Next