Raiders player signing speculation 2020

[FROG]

Id be wrapped if we signed isaiah papalii and chn. I reckon we are covered with havili and starling at hooker

Agree.
You look for players that will be part of a longer term strategy.

See that’s the tricky thing. Next year the only hole in our roster is Bateman. A replacement for him or his elite level role is not coming mid season (bar potentially CHN).

If you were Papalli, there isn’t a spot for you next year when our roster is fit. We have great quality depth without injuries, so we would t be that attractive. It’s the ne t level down that may co e to us, the nsw cup level players.

Papallii competing with our existing middles, makes us better by virtue of the fact we have higher level competition among the squad.
Also, Sia cannot possibly continue to be relied on with his age..
It's basically an insurance policy for the future.

This is my thinking as well. Sia may have 1 additional year in him at best. Papalii is an extremely promising middle who has played for the kiwis despite being in his early 20s. His best years are no doubt ahead of him. If you got chn id love to use him as a strike weapon off the bench. Would allow tapine to return to the back row which is prob where he is better suited

[FROG]

Id be wrapped if we signed isaiah papalii and chn. I reckon we are covered with havili and starling at hooker

Agree.
You look for players that will be part of a longer term strategy.

See that’s the tricky thing. Next year the only hole in our roster is Bateman. A replacement for him or his elite level role is not coming mid season (bar potentially CHN).

If you were Papalli, there isn’t a spot for you next year when our roster is fit. We have great quality depth without injuries, so we would t be that attractive. It’s the ne t level down that may co e to us, the nsw cup level players.

Papallii competing with our existing middles, makes us better by virtue of the fact we have higher level competition among the squad.
Also, Sia cannot possibly continue to be relied on with his age..
It's basically an insurance policy for the future.

This is my thinking as well. Sia may have 1 additional year in him at best. Papalii is an extremely promising middle who has played for the kiwis despite being in his early 20s. His best years are no doubt ahead of him. If you got chn id love to use him as a strike weapon off the bench. Would allow tapine to return to the back row which is prob where he is better suited

[Coastalraider]

Id be wrapped if we signed isaiah papalii and chn. I reckon we are covered with havili and starling at hooker

Agree.
You look for players that will be part of a longer term strategy.

See that’s the tricky thing. Next year the only hole in our roster is Bateman. A replacement for him or his elite level role is not coming mid season (bar potentially CHN).

If you were Papalli, there isn’t a spot for you next year when our roster is fit. We have great quality depth without injuries, so we would t be that attractive. It’s the ne t level down that may co e to us, the nsw cup level players.

Papallii competing with our existing middles, makes us better by virtue of the fact we have higher level competition among the squad.
Also, Sia cannot possibly continue to be relied on with his age..
It's basically an insurance policy for the future.

This is my thinking as well. Sia may have 1 additional year in him at best. Papalii is an extremely promising middle who has played for the kiwis despite being in his early 20s. His best years are no doubt ahead of him. If you got chn id love to use him as a strike weapon off the bench

I agree it works for us, but look at it from the players point of view. We have a full bench with depth in our current squad. Why not aim for a team who doesn’t, so you can have a higher likelihood of game time?

[Sydney_Raider]

According to David Riccio we are getting a player from Newcastle. Anyone got any further information? Josh King?

[Dusty]

According to David Riccio we are getting a player from Newcastle. Anyone got any further information? Josh King?

BBQ Sauce??

[Sydney_Raider]

According to David Riccio we are getting a player from Newcastle. Anyone got any further information? Josh King?

BBQ Sauce??

He tweeted it out this afternoon.

[Cape_Duke]

He is talking about Starling here

[Seiffert82]

Agreed.

If we could jag CHN on $250k less than Bateman's offer (say around $450k) there should be room in our cap to secure a decent middle on around $400k rather than a bloke on minimum wage of $150k.

[Botman]

I vaguely remember the name Josh King?

[FROG]

Bateman is on 600k. If min wage players are paid 150k, all things being equal, it would mean we could sign chn on 300k and have 450k left to spend on someone else.

[Neeeegz]

Still have 3 squad spots to fill, guys on sick leave, injuries etc, guys that have left, plus us paying freight on bj... leaves us a bit thin.
We need a few players soon, might have to loan a few off the warriors at this rate...

[daley6]

Sonny Bill Williams for this year anyone??

[Matt]

Bateman is on 600k. If min wage players are paid 150k, all things being equal, it would mean we could sign chn on 300k and have 450k left to spend on someone else.

You wont get an international player for 300K.
S82 has the figures the other way, and thats more realistic.

[Dusty]

I'd like to see some sort of announcement soon.

Are we going to get anyone this year?

[bonehead]

I'd like to see some sort of announcement soon.

Are we going to get anyone this year?

I thought donny and stick mentioned cavalry

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[greeneyed]

I'd like to see some sort of announcement soon.

Are we going to get anyone this year?

I thought donny and stick mentioned cavalry

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They keep talking about “a couple of players”.

[FuiFui BradBrad]

I'd like to see some sort of announcement soon.

Are we going to get anyone this year?

I thought donny and stick mentioned cavalry

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Maybe they’re buying the Baseball team? #Sargeleadsthecharge

[-PJ-]

Sonny Bill Williams for this year anyone??

At what cost to the club ?

A massive NO from me..

[zim]

He's getting paid 5 mill to sit on his butt. Going to be a hard sell.

[Seiffert82]

Josh King and CHN would be handy right now.

Half the season is gone, so we'd be in a pretty good place to secure both, given the $150k cap relief for Bateman and the fact we released a bunch of players before the season restarted.

We'd only need to pay new recruits less than half their contract value for the remainder of the season. That'd be around $300k for both King and CHN...with plenty of capacity to extend them using the money set aside for Bateman.

Not sure how good King would be. Better than nobody, but he's a bit of a ploder. Doesn't break tackles or play big minutes.

[Sydney_Raider]

Josh King and CHN would be handy right now.

Half the season is gone, so we'd be in a pretty good place to secure both, given the $150k cap relief for Bateman and the fact we released a bunch of players before the season restarted.

We'd only need to pay new recruits less than half their contract value for the remainder of the season. That'd be around $300k for both King and CHN...with plenty of capacity to extend them using the money set aside for Bateman.

Not sure how good King would be. Better than nobody, but he's a bit of a ploder. Doesn't break tackles or play big minutes.

Josh King was only a suggestion after reading tweet from David Riccio. Turned out he was talking about Tom Starling.

[BJ]

I thought he was Jo King not Josh King.

[zim]

Keiran Foran's price has dropped to 400k. We could have him at 6 and move Jack to centre where he's always wanted to play.

[afgtnk]

Keiran Foran's price has dropped to 400k. We could have him at 6 and move Jack to centre where he's always wanted to play.

Looking for the white troll text here but there doesn't seem to be any....

[zim]

Is the troll text meant to be white these days ? Noted. I've always preferred the more deadpan approach.

[Raiders666]

Never heard of him

[Seiffert82]

Josh King and CHN would be handy right now.

Half the season is gone, so we'd be in a pretty good place to secure both, given the $150k cap relief for Bateman and the fact we released a bunch of players before the season restarted.

We'd only need to pay new recruits less than half their contract value for the remainder of the season. That'd be around $300k for both King and CHN...with plenty of capacity to extend them using the money set aside for Bateman.

Not sure how good King would be. Better than nobody, but he's a bit of a ploder. Doesn't break tackles or play big minutes.

Josh King was only a suggestion after reading tweet from David Riccio. Turned out he was talking about Tom Starling.

Ahh, fair enough. Good outcome then.

[Botman]

Keiran Foran's price has dropped to 400k. We could have him at 6 and move Jack to centre where he's always wanted to play.

Let me know when it's come down to $120k p.a
And i might be interested in kicking the tyres as a back up to Jack and George

[zim]

Come on now.

[Brew]

Now that Cotric is gone hope we go after Alex Johnson


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[Wiki Special]

I'm a hard no on Alex Johnson.

[Johno]

Now that Cotric is gone hope we go after Alex Johnson


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Nahhh, hes a lightweight, decent finisher but not what we need.

Hope the cub unearths the new Fijian flyer, the young kid last night was shaky but he could grow into a very good player

[Raiders666]

I'd go for Crichton from the Panthers

[SeeBee101]

So who do we target (off contract at the end of 2020):

Ctr/Winger:
Alex Johnson*
Sione Katoa*
William Kennedy
Brendan Elliot
Nicho Hynes (Could play wing/back up FB/Halves)*
Marion Seve
George Jennings*
Malakai Watene-Zelezniak
Euan Aitken*
Tristan Sailor
Ryan Hall
Matt Ikuvalu
Morris Brothers*
Robert Jennings
Brad Takairangi

2nd Row/Fwd:
Corey Oates*
David Fifita*
Raymond Faitala-Mariner
Adam Elliot
CHN*
Tony Williams
Jesse Bromwich*
Christian Welch
Isaiah Papali'i*
Tautau Moga
Jacob Saifiti*
John Asiata*
Mitchell Dunn
Peni Terepo*
Kane Evans
James Tamou*
Josh Kerr
Matthew Eisenhuth*
Chris Lawrence
Chris McQueen
Elijah Taylor

My Main targets are marked with a * .

FYI - It also looks like both Havili and Starling are both off contract at the end of this year so we will need to resign them most likely.

[GreenMachine]

I'd go for Crichton from the Panthers

Funnily enough, the dogs were after him.