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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I specifically mentioned player options, I was not talking about mutual options or club options. A player option is an option the player holds.
Everyone understands the option is in the player's favour. That's why it's called a player option. You need to understand why clubs agree to this sort of thing.
What if a PO would've gotten Koloamatangi over the line? What if it had gotten Moses to re-sign for $100k/year less than what he eventually accepted? Clubs don't give these options away for nothing.
Using them to lure a player from another club is one thing but to give them to players already at your club like the eels did with all 7 they had in 2024 is absolutely insane and it hurt our club.
They are not widespread across the league and that's because clubs know there is no benefit to the club and it gives all the power to the player. The eels now have non and we can thank ryles for that. O'Neil is holding this club back.
No, you would only give them to players you know and trust. That's why they are used for player retentions more than new signings.
If there was no benefit to the clubs, they wouldn't be rare, they wouldn't exist. They are offered to players when the club's salary cap is tight and they can't increase the monetary component of their offer. Player options are something the club can give to the player that doesn't count under the cap.
And who are the seven players with supposed POs in 2024? I've been recording this stuff in a thread on LU since 2019 and I'm only tracking five:
Talagi (2025)
Brown, Penisini, Matterson (2026)
Moses (2027)
Only three of them came due in the same year and that was the three for next year. None of them hurt our ability to recruit. What hurt our ability to recruit for 2026 was letting Lomax go during pre-season, and that had nothing to do with player options. He was locked in for another three years and still fucked us around. That's why you should only give POs to players you trust.
Lane was #6 i can't remember who #7 was but there were definitely 7. I read it on an article at the time and all 7 were named.
It didn't hurt our ability to recruit but it did hurt our ability to maintain a roster and keep juniors who thought their path was blocked by players on long term contracts but actually weren't.
If player options were beneficial to clubs they would be rife through the league, the fact they are rare is proof they are not. If you want to believe they are good go ahead.
Dylan Brown didn't need to be on a long term contract to block Talagi or Sanders. He only needed to be here in the year after those two were off contract to block them. And he was. The PO was irrelevant there.
With respect HKF I think you should at least realise there is more to options than your rhetoric and critique.
I think it is fair to say that fans, public and media actually have a very limited understanding. The way Lomax left us could actually imply everyone has an option to leave when they want to. Now that is something you could hang your hat on.
Get upset with MON for everything you can think of is fine, but keep it at a level of competence, not something that has been happening for years.
I supposedly am an apologist (laughable in your words) for MON . What you don't understand or accept that when BA exited I thought that MON should as well and said so. Subsequently he is still here and you/we need to understand WHY? I dont know but when he is criticised for what people do not understand I will defend him, because that is not the reason he should have been moved on.
As human being's when we want to knock people or think of reasons to sack them, then we bring every piece of argument out to reinforce that view.
Its the human way and that is why I am a contrarian.
I and have traded in options since the futures exchange happened. I also lectured at the Securities Institute on their usage. I doubt that MON technically understood them but would be surprised if Saratinos did not have a comprehensive understanding of them, but it is hard to convince people when they have already made up their minds
Sometimes people should just learn to shut up(meaning me) or are you uncomfortable in my expressing an opinion?.
Let's just forget the fact that Ryles himself said it's MONs job during an interview discussing the acquisition of Joash. And all the usual suspects told us " see MON is the man responsible for the recruiting " . Myself and a few other MON knockers tipped our hats to him for getting that one done.
But when it's a missed target it all of a sudden is because Ryles was playing it smart and realised it wasn't in our best interest to pursue the player .
So when Arthur was here we missed all these players because of BA , and now we are still missing players and BA is gone. Theres only two common denominators and ones job title litterally includes heading up the R&R segment and the others is R&R .
do you realise how misleading it is for you to be quoting facts wiz, between the hyperbole and deep fakes you are hardly a credible person......
Mate I'm angry, we let Lomax go without getting someone we couldn't even get Garrick, Galvin, Keaon to come yet we couldn't keep Pezet for additional years. Yet this recruitment has the balls to say we never offered 4 years. The R&R from BA era had to fuck off completely.
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