Sure, the salary cap has increased to 11.45Million for the Top 30 contracted players for season 2023. On the surface Moses' $1.5million (13%) doesn't seem outrageous. Needless to say that ALL NRL clubs payments for ELITE STARS will also increase over time. But Salary Caps are not an equal opportunity increase for ALL players. STARS will ultimately gouge MOST of the 22% increases (rightly so, star power is what drives ratings and attendence figures). https://www.nrl.com/news/2022/12/23/nrl-announces-record-high-salary-caps-for-2023-season/
The true cost of landing / re-signing ANY NRL player to an ELITE contract is the players ability to be the cornerstone of a Premiership contending / winning campaign.
Question, Is Mitch Moses THAT player capable of off-setting a weakend squad as the overall DEPTH of quality in role players diminishes?
Question, Is Mitch Moses THE GUY to build a Premiership contending / winning Parramatta side.
Question, Is Mitch Moses capable of playing at a level that PROVIDES opportunities for Parramatta to WIN big games.
The answer is a resounding NO & NO & NO
Parramatta's History of Youth Development , Recruiting and Salary Cap Mamagement
Historically, Parramatta are serial cheaters, breaching the Salary cap in 2010 2012 2014 2016. Parra also have a history of PAYING OVERS for new signings that under perform compared to their contarct price, at the expense of youth development. It's early days now after the 2022 Grand Final loss where the club was forced to offload quality players prior to the 2023 season. , and we havent seen the results of shedding quality players and the overall effect of a weakend playing squad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rugby_League_salary_cap
Parra's history of top heavy salaried players at the expense of youth development have been MAJOR contribitors to Parra's lack of sustained success since 1986 because the club has been incapable of BUILDING winning squads by bring talent young players through to first grade.
In addition, historically poor recruitment of paying OVERS has been a consistant theme at Parra at the expense of youth development.
The Mitch Moses signing (paying OVERS for an average return - more on that later) is TYPICAL of this poorly run club.
The Mitch Moses Talent Conundrum - Is Mich Moses REALLY ELITE ?
There is no doubt Mitch Moses has as much natural talent as any No7 & No6 in the competition. He has blinding speed, match winning defensive capabilities, can kick a pretty ball and throws a nice pass (occassionally)
But Mitch Moses is NOT a GOOD or GREAT or ELITE FOOTY PLAYER, he is average at best, even with all that talent.
Don't be fooled ny Parra's gutsy win against Penrith wi th a historic completeion rate and many opportunities in attacking situations throughout the game - Where was Mitch Moses ? I counted 2 effective kicks that asked the opposing defense genuine questions and of course the game ICING Field Goal. Here we a truly have a great example of Moses's inability to IMPOSE himself in a big match and make game winning plays.
No deft passes, No dangerous runs, Most of his kicks were inneffective (bar a few). But a game winning Field Goal - well done btw, it was STILL a pressure play and kudos for that.
Moses, however was largely AVERAGE at best with his performance (under pressure) - no better comparison was Ivan Cleary's opposite performance, challenging the line, setting up Try's with deft passes, contactly harrassing our kick catchers with pin point bombs and of course a far more difficult 45m Field Goal to tie the game.
Moses wasn't anywhere near Cleary's class (under pressure) - we HAVE to compare Moses to Clearys performance because they BOTH earn ELITE salaries. Claery is ELITE and MOSES is NOT.
Moses began playing First Grade in 2014 and has player over 200 first grade games - He has NEVER earned the reputation as a big game performer. We are in the middle of his PRIME playing carreer, that will be diminishing by the end of his 5 year contract.
So THIS IS IT FOILKS - you wont see Mitch Moses playing any better that this RIGHT NOW.
It's NOT what Mitch Moses offers - it's what he DOESNT
Mitch Moses cannot READ a footy match (even with all that talent) - he is incapable of making the right plays at the right time. His inability to inject himself into game winning plays and to IMPOSE his will on games, his LACK of KILLER INSTINCTS and his complete situational UNAWARENESS is not only baffling, but is also a trait of a serial loser.
Mitch Moses is NOT the answer for Parra, we (fans) will ultimately regret this signing and will remain incapable of winning a GF with Moses as our marquee player.
Replies
Where did you read 1.5? I was reading 1.2 or 1.25 a season which is still a lot but it's the going rate for a quality halfback these days.
I do agree he is yet to show he can get the job done in those clutch, pressure moments and I wonder if he ever will be able to (yes he got the winning field goal last night but it was 20m out with not a lot of pressure on him, any half should be kicking that 80% of the time).
I'm neither thrilled or upset with his re-signing.
how to prove you don't know much without saying you do,
but saying a lot at the same time
Wondering how much did he lose in maybe betting with the Panthers😂
Something worth considering is that there are always new talents emerging.Many are not given the opportunity because they are simply locked out. Any talented half will now be locked out for 5 years.
Good examples of emerging talents---Hopgood and Hands-----and possibly many more to come over the next few years. The sky is not falling
Oh well there's always one. .MM is and will be among the best halves parra have produced, an Eels junior who is maturing into a better player year by year and is coming into his peak years. MM does not win us a GF alone, like last night it took the forwards to make the field goal possible. Thank fcuk you are not our coach.
Kicking game ineffective? He's the best general play kicker in the comp and routinely outkicked Cleary by about 15 metres last night.
from what i recall, the kicking metres were cleary 600 odd and moses 900 odd...
Seems about right. Moses was kicking them right to the goal line every time but Cleary was hardly reaching the 20 metre line. Sivo was actually coming forward to catch the kicks.
From NRL.com, 631m from 20 kicks for Cleary (31.55 avg), 1006 from 26 kicks for Moses (38.69 avg). I guess this doesn't tell the whole story though. Average set distance was 49.33m for Eels vs 51.13m for Panthers. So they were making slightly more yardage with ball in hand, but we were clearly gaining that back with Moses' kicking distance. They also made a lot more kick return metres (320 vs 234), but we did kick more often so that really evens out per return.
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