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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A great spot - mmmm sorry Eli but i just don't see it. If we continue to miss out on signing class players and keep missing out on signing youngsters Ryles wants to keep within the club then that is not a great spot. Ryles is building but the sheer amount of players he has wanted and the club couldn't land them is astonishing.
Keeping money in the bank or in reserve on the cap for 2027 is not really an option when you absolutley must spend the salary cap your given within reason. All this means is that the lesser players less skilled players that we are left with, will be payed more because we must spend the cap. Keeping a million or so in the bank does not help us secure a premiership or play finals footy.
I love your positive outlook but seriously, we are supposed to be in the business of winning.
Keeping money from the cap helps as we have extra to spend the next year. Issue is not much to spend on.
Since Dragons sign Keaon I would look at their forwards, Couchman, Egan, Halangahu, Pasifiki-Tonga, the lot.
Cap space is useless if nobody we are after comes here.
Our new more logical motto is : The future is always a few years away!
Lomax one it seems Ryles doesn't want a lot of money tied up on Wingers so that one I'm sort of ok with.
But yeah Pezet only getting him for one year when we wanted him long term, Anasta admitted it in interview don't care what anyone says, Galvin last minute went to Dogs and then Keaon.
This is on MON and Sarantinos, the coaches BA and Ryles do all they can in getting the player interested but MON's job as well as Sarantinos is to get it over the line.
Kelly deal even is a bit of a what the hell from me. We have a team full of young 20's and over 30's. Such a weird age bracket.
When did Anasta say Ryles wanted him for longer.
On the podcast he does with Maitua. Maitua said "The Eels wanted him long term?" Anasta replied "Of course they did".
LB,
Sure, but “Wanting something” and "realism", understanding it won’t work, are very different things.
Ryles may well have wanted Pezet long term, but he also would have known the club aren’t the best fit with Moses locked in as the General for the next four years. It’s the same reason Pezet left the Storm with Hughes in front of him for four years. The Broncos are the perfect fit. Anasta knows it. Ryles and the club know it.
Ryles speaks regularly with Pezet. He’d know Pezet wants to be a seven. The club knows it too. So why would they seriously draw up and negotiate a long term deal knowing that? Once you stop and think about it, it makes no sense. It's a waste of time.
Also, Anasta did say that “of course they wanted him long-term” earlier in the podcast. But if you scroll further down in the same podcast, he also talks about negotiations with the Eels centring on a one year deal. Then on another podcast, he openly admitted it (contract negotiations) was always short term. That context keeps getting ignored.
People are getting caught up in absolutes and making too much of a single line. There's is zero nuance with that approach. Some are permanently up in arms over the club and will grab anything to throw poo and advertise. A few almost never say anything positive year after year. It’s pot stirring advertisement on loop, like a broken record or a tractor stuck in first gear in the mud.
This one-year deal was spruiked as something “only dumb cuckolded clubs do.” Really? What about the Storm? They just did it. Sometimes you need to fill a hole. Sometimes short term solutions are better than no solutions. And more depth is better than less. Pragmatism, realism and context matter.
But that's the point Eli, we want all players wanting to join no matter what. Wests Tigers managed to get some decent players, now they haven't done that well, but still attracted players. We struggle more than them, why?
One positive, if there is one, is it seems players once they are here are more inclined to stay. Not all but more than normal. Getting most of them in is an issue.
I think when you step back and look at it, 5 years 5 million you'd be paying Keon at age 35 1 million dollars. As good as it would be to sign him some issues with that. That's probably why they are hesitant to match years with dragons. I do want to see what our young middles can produce this next year as well. Maybe Moretti and Tuaviti can provide decent production for way less cost. Be great to have Keon but we don't need to offer insane deals just to get him
I agree, absolutely wrapped we didn't offer 5 years. Ryles went after Keaon with a red lne he wouldn't go past. Dragons my be paying for 5 years but it will be 6 years of footy.
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