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
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Yep. Maybe he's worth close to a million at for a year or two at St George, but 5 years is just a dumb situation
People who don't understand that, its actually simple math. Most props don't represent post 29 or 30 yo
Saints just throwing things at a wall, they have no direction old gutho and cookie prob done by then as well. It's just a money grab from Keon and best of luck to him lol
Phew, who cares? I feel sorry for the Dragons paying all those overs.
I'm always pleased when other clubs are making monster deals.
I'd try get Xavier Willison, 3 years, 800k, get him to leave Broncos a year early.
Also the two Laulilii brothers, one is a prop.
Or Shawn Blore, push Jack Williams into the middle.
Meh
Mark and jim couldn't organise a root at a brothel
I'm glad. KK is a good player, but not worth $1M per season. To justify that sort of money you have to be a game breaker and he's no game breaker. Good news.
With kids getting bigger and stronger then adding access to sport science programs at a young age, their speed, fitness, skills and endurance are getting better as well at younger ages.
There will be a number of players similar to what Haas was when he started within 3 or 4 years at a much cheaper rate then $1million a year that saints are locked into. I don't doubt we would have been paying overs in possibly the 3rd and definitely the 4th year of the contract. The 5th year is ridiculous.
I would have liked to have gotten Koloamatangi as he would have strengthened our squad for 2027, 2028 and possibly 2029 but 4 years is a long time in the NRL.
Halves get better with age but with the speed and intensity of the game forwards are getting knocked around a lot more with less interchange leading to decline in performance at 30yo.
Fowards rarely hold top form for long periods especially with big contracts as the willingness to run into brick wall defences diminishes when you are set up with $1 million a year for multiple years towards the end of your career regardless of how you play.
Look at Jason Taumolo who was only 24 when he signed his mega deal at cowboys and he was a bigger star and better player than Keaon Koloamatangi but has struggled as he approached 30yo. Koloamatangi would be arriving at eels at 29yo. We need to find a younger player with more years whether that is internally or from another club.
Signing a stupid deal just to get it done is why the Eels have struggled for so long. Successful clubs don't ruin their cap to fill a short term gap then worry about the back ended deal or extra years later. If they don't get what they want for a reasonable price or contract length they look within or find a young player they can develop. Name a top player Roosters, Storm or Penrith have signed for massive money beside Cronk and SBW. They target players to support those they develop which is how sustained success is achieved. Buying a million dollar player rarely delivers sustained success unless they are young and amongst the game top players. Koloamatangi isn't that.
The easy option was to match the 5th year to get a deal done. If we build towards a premiership the next few years and our young players need contract increases, we would be stuck with an aging forward who isn't delivering value for money so we lose a young star and go backwards. Just like after our last few grand final appearances. Missing out has probably made us worse for 2027-2028 but I think it is the right move for the club going beyond that.
Buying players a year out is fucked. The NRL need to scrap this stupid rule of signing players a year before they start. It's hard enough to.manage the cap and gauge form, changes to rules that affect the type of player you want without gambling on form a year out.
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