This is good news for us. Having $800k a season tied up for 5 years on someone who is nowhere near an elite level prop would have been a disaster.
Correct. I’d been worried about the $ amount since it came to light.
Good luck to him, be we can’t afford to overpay for someone who isn’t a game changer.
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What the hell 🤔
Yeah this is when we see if he's the bees knees or not. If we have nothing else lined up, it's warning signs.Initiate Operation Richo
Glad that Stef decision is done.
Frees up a spot and a lot of cash.
We need to shake up the forward pack and I think Pole and Sammy Finau have been out best forwards anyway - with Porter and Finau adding good value
Hopefully Richo has a crazy pommy forward lined up
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I am glad that the decision has been made but even with his current form, I think this could be a disaster.
This could lead to an exodus of our few good players that we should be extending.
great news, Woods 2.0
not a good front rower for money
went from wanting to be captain to out the door,
hope we do not play him again for the year
Look,I dont think its much of a loss. In terms of value for contribution, its just not there. But then again I remember thinking the young hooker in 2004 who everybody was raving about was a dud. Got that one wrong, so what do I know.
I think he's a good player, with plenty more to come. There's a reason why he's already played origin. And as such, this is not great for us.
But his attitude over the last couple of months has been absolutely pathetic, and his lack of effort has been a big part of us getting run over through the middle. I don't begrudge him moving on, but he'll forever be the guy that mailed it in whilst trying to leave. Good riddance.
We've now got $2m in the cap for next year. More confident with Richo at the helm than either McDonnell or Fulton. With a few more likely to be moved on as well, we should see a fair bit of turnover over the summer.
@jedi-tiger at least woodsy captained us and loved the club
Elite players are elite players no matter who they play for. They make the team around them better. Take Stephen Crichton. Goes to the Dogs and shows he is elite despite (at least on paper) being in a less superior team than Penrith.
Plodders are better (at times) when they have good players around them. I put will put Brooks, Blore and Stef in this category.
Stef played origin last year. Amongst all those quality players and he looked average. So average he only got 14 minutes..
I think first point of business should be to lock in Pole, Sione Fainu and Porter. I have been impressed with the effort of these 3... should not cost too much $$$
Then go into the market.
Sione should be starting this week. Give him the challenge of having first shot at replacing Stef. I just have a feeling it's what he is craving and will step up. That will lead into a huge preseason for him. His development from last season is extraordinary, if he can continue that then he will be a very good front rower. He and his bother will lead the pack along with Pole.
The game is changing. Stef and Klemmer are a dated prototype of a forward.
I'm willing to call it and that is that Stef knows he can't play much better than he has been so needs to be in a better team to taste success. All the talk of potential, well that was last yr, this yr he should be delivering to that potential, but has regressed if anything and thats on him not the coach as he has been regularly outplayed by Pole/Sam/Sione. I think we dodged a bullet, especially the 5 yr deal component.