Cotric signs with Bulldogs on $2 million three year deal

[Old School Green]

Any chance the delay is because HQ is going to give him the extra 25k?

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Or he has had a rethink and called stick tail between legs.....
Probs not but a bit bizarre they haven’t announced. Maybe they were waiting til
after their game ie: announce tomo.

[Botman]

Any chance the delay is because HQ is going to give him the extra 25k?

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Doubt it. It's basically the beginning of mass extortion of the club.
Once you say yes to 25k over what you're willing to pay, then comes the next request, for another 25, and now that's just how all managers start to treat the club.

They made a really good offer, he elected to go another direction. No issues with that, he'd be mad not to take that dogs offer and i wish him all the best. He's a good kid and really good player. He'll be missed.

[greeneyed]

Any chance the delay is because HQ is going to give him the extra 25k?

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Not now they've withdrawn the offer and come out publicly confirming it.

[greeneyed]

Their saying on the kennel that they signed oldfield as well


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I'm a big Oldfield fan but I'd just shrug at that and genuinely wish Oldy all the best. Just promote HSS and Valemi and go to market for similar journeyman if we don't think Raps will be right for one more year.

I like the cut of Oldies jib but he's just a stock standard winger- strong on speed and physicality, questionable on hands and defence. No glaring issues in his game but he's no more than a solid winger. Dicey hammies seem to haunt him too.

Agree with that, very nice bloke, seems top quality person. But he's a depth player and has been at every club he's been at. We should be generating outside backs internally and we have players to give opportunities to.

[greeneyed]

With contric moving on i reckon we should sign rapana and oldfield for another year as a priority. Then put feelers out for a promising jr if the opportunity arises.. someone like isako would be good at the right price

I am starting to think this will be Rapa's last year in green. We have our own promising juniors. Certainly would be happy with a young player like Lomax from other clubs though.

[Neeeegz]

Sucks, but Ricky must see enough in the young kids coming through like semi and Harley and timoko to stand firm on what they will pay a winger.
Nick does do some good things sometimes to help and score tries, I'll miss him in green..
As one door closes, another one will open.. excited to see who the next nic is

[greeneyed]

Could code hopper Curtis Rona quit union to join Canberra Raiders

Wallabies winger Curtis Rona is to quit rugby union to make an NRL comeback — possibly at the Canberra Raiders.The 28-year-old former Bulldogs and Cowboys star has been playing union in London. His agent contacted Canberra recruitment boss Peter Mulholland to pitch him as a replacement for Nick Cotric.

Interestingly, Cotric wanted to move to Sydney to play for the Roosters, but the premiers wouldn’t offer him anywhere near the $650,000 a year he’s getting at Belmore.

Read more: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport ... e645b448d7

[Dr Zaius]

So many different stories about this.

Wanted to stay, but Bulldogs offered more money

Always wanted to move to Sydney for family reasons

Now always wanted to move to play for the Roosters but dogs are offering more

[greeneyed]

So many different stories about this.

Wanted to stay, but Bulldogs offered more money

Always wanted to move to Sydney for family reasons

Now always wanted to move to play for the Roosters but dogs are offering more

Starting to think there is a bit of substance to each. And sadly, that some people have got in his ear. It must have been confusing for the young bloke. The whole thing is sad. I don’t think leaving the Raiders is in his interests as a player at least.

[cat]

I thought his family was in Canberra?

[Old School Green]

If this is true, it says a lot about his character that he is desperate to play for the team that beat us in GF last year. Forget digging in with your teammates to try and win it all, just jump ship first opp you get.
Save your change room crocodile tears champ. No wonder sticky brushed you; should have run over to the roosters change room and you and your buddy Teddy could have embraced and cried in each other’s big arms.

[Dusty]

Champed


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[Botman]

If this is true, it says a lot about his character that he is desperate to play for the team that beat us in GF last year. Forget digging in with your teammates to try and win it all, just jump ship first opp you get.
Save your change room crocodile tears champ. No wonder sticky brushed you; should have run over to the roosters change room and you and your buddy Teddy could have embraced and cried in each other’s big arms.

I knew we’d get here eventually.
Perfect

[Botman]

I thought Rona was a really really good winger back at the dogs when he left for RU.
No idea if he’s any good now but I’d be keen to find out

[BadnMean]

This Rona story is interesting.

Time is there for him to have the full pre-season and his instincts would all be league. I don't watch heaps of rugby but my mates who do say Rona was pretty decent in his last Super season, amid a godawful NSW team.

He's a massive unit, which would be handy given the rest of our back 5 is not really big at all (assuming Rapana not there again).

Would be well worth the punt at a decent price.

[BadnMean]

I thought his family was in Canberra?

That certainly used to be the case (unless they moved in the last few of years).

He's always played well for Canberra. Been good for the club. I wish he was staying.

I'll wish him well and can manage to cheer for him anywhere except the Roosters. That would just be another blue and red shirt.

Can't really begrudge a kid who wants to live out in another city or take the financial opportunity. You can question the wisdom but he hasn't done badly by the club.

[AUSTEZER]

I'm all for offering Oldie and raps another year

[cat]

I'm all for offering Oldie and raps another year

Pretty confident they both will stay.
Certainly raps, with cotric gone there will be more than enough to give him a fair contract

[-PJ-]

All I'm hearing is crickets..

When's someone going to announce something ?

Anything ?

[BadnMean]

He's going I think. Dogs just want to get the announcement right and be able to give it a bit of fanfare since they really need a media win or two just now.

This interview that GE summarised for us in the game day thread is revealing. It mentions that the main reason is really that Nic just wants to go live in Sydney. Itch to get out into the big city, be a star, all that stuff.

https://www.abc.net.au/radio/canberra/p ... /episodes/

Because he mentions that it was a decision worked out with his family, people have interpreted that as moving to be with family and become confused. They said a decision come to with the support of his family- e.g. Mum and Dad have told him they support him if he wants to strike out and push himself and see the world and be more independent than just living down the road all his life.

Short version. Cotric wants a taste of that Sydney life. Cue Belmore jokes. Nuh, he'll live near Bondi, party with Teddy and make the trip out more west when he has to.

[gerg]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the CHN decision is impacting on this announcement. Bulldogs possibly trying to leverage that situation into us releasing Cotric now, as a kind of exchange. Just guessing though.

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[Seiffert82]

Interesting that Mulholland was approached about Rona.

I think he'd be a really good, experienced, replacement for Cotric.

Not sure what's happening with Nick, but the whole thing seems messy. I was obviously very, very wrong about him actually wanting to stay. Good on the club for offering a decent salary and withdrawing it when things got silly.

[greeneyed]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the CHN decision is impacting on this announcement. Bulldogs possibly trying to leverage that situation into us releasing Cotric now, as a kind of exchange. Just guessing though.

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Given we only have about 20 fit players, the Raiders couldn't possibly agree to it though.

[julian87]

Isaako would be worth a shout.

Jesus tap dancing christ. He's been one of the worst players in the competition for 18 months. I know he did some miraculous stuff 2 years ago but he's an absolute bum.

[Roger Kenworthy]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the CHN decision is impacting on this announcement. Bulldogs possibly trying to leverage that situation into us releasing Cotric now, as a kind of exchange. Just guessing though.

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Given we only have about 20 fit players, the Raiders couldn't possibly agree to it though.

Also why would Cotric agree to join a team that will be doing well to win 3 games this season? Early releases are usually mutually beneficial.

[julian87]

I've only just read few the last 2 days worth of stuff. I knew deep down on Thursday night it was happening because those murmurs from the press just don't happen for no reason.

On a few of the things discussed here:

- There is surely no way Canberra would release him early, for anyone. They're trying to win the competition this season and he is a major part of that. Besides the club's side surely he'd have no interest in an early exit either.

- The Easts rumours have been around for a couple of seasons. I actually like that the club is trying to emulate some of what Easts do in terms of evaluating a player and not letting them hold the club ransom and ruin the salary cap. So money wise it all makes sense to me and the 25k story smells like a bit of Bull that the club just didn't buy into.

- The wanting to play centre thing (if it is true) really hits me hard for a number of reasons. It was obviously his best position as a junior (right centre) and we were all worried how he'd perform on the wing and then loved how well he went there. He's become incredibly safe and despite what anyone here says he's top tier on the flank. I still think he will end up a centre, the 'lack of skill' some have alluded to is off the mark for mine.

It also irks me that there are still people in the game that rate centres as more important or worth more money than wingers. It is definitely the opposite now and that doesn't look like changing any time soon.

The other part of it that has irked me so much is how I 100% believed the team would be better with him at centre than signing Curtis Scott. He's better in every facet of the game than Scott and even before Rapana was back the team would have been better with Cotric at 4 and Oldfield/Simonsson on the wings. That has pretty much been proven so far with Curtis Scott being predictably ordinary to the point where he was replaced by a 30 year old winger.

You really can't criticize Stuart for his squad building. Post FPN pretty much everything has come up Millhouse besides some gambles on fringe players not coming off like Gubb, Hingano, Collins and Turner which really didn't hurt the club at all. But the decision to spend at centre and acquire Curtis Scott has led to 4 main things so far for the club:

1) Dragging our name through the mud due to the Australia Day Incident before he'd even played a game
2) Indirectly led to losing John Bateman
3) Indirectly led to losing Nik Cotric
4) Potentially stunted the development of some good junior outside backs who can't play while there is no reserve grade this season.

Now I really hope Scott makes me look like a grade a goose and takes some personal responsibility for these outcomes and try and right them but I won't hold my breath.

[BadnMean]

Isaako would be worth a shout.

Jesus tap dancing christ. He's been one of the worst players in the competition for 18 months. I know he did some miraculous stuff 2 years ago but he's an absolute bum.

When recruiting you have to look for upside and potential OR pay top dollar to lure players at their peak at top clubs.

Isaako is not having a great season. The Broncos as a whole are having a stinker. His error count has crept up by it's playing at FB amid a team getting slaughtered. Hasn't been that way his whole career.

In terms of potential upside- he was an NRL rookie of the year not long ago. That's Cotric territory. He's up there in the tackle busts and line breaks charts at his club- he's still got something. Something we will need replacing on a wing without Cotric.

We'd be betting he can go back to playing to his potential and less errors like he used to be, in the more positive and settled environment at the Raiders. Look at the rejuvenations of Jennings, Fergo, Tupou etc. At 21 year old kid may just be affected by outside things for a season or two and still have the ability to bounce back.

Otherwise- yeah lets just go buy Teddy and Sivo, should be easy.

[RedRaider]

Because he mentions that it was a decision worked out with his family, people have interpreted that as moving to be with family and become confused. They said a decision come to with the support of his family- e.g. Mum and Dad have told him they support him if he wants to strike out and push himself and see the world and be more independent than just living down the road all his life.

You reckon his folks want him out of their fridge BnM? A young bloke wants to see life away from home. He gets more money to do it. I hope the new environment does not bite him. His parents support their adult son in seeing a different world. I wish him luck but not so much against the Raiders.
DFJ must be grinding his gears on this one. Go through all the junior development only to see a quality junior leave.

Curtis Rona is a big unit. I didn't see enough of him to remember if he had a good leap and was safe under the high ball which is a staple for modern wingers. If those skills are no longer there then center it is. Either way we need some outside backs and if he does come to the Raiders I hope he makes a fast transition to Rugby League.

[Colk]

I've only just read few the last 2 days worth of stuff. I knew deep down on Thursday night it was happening because those murmurs from the press just don't happen for no reason.

On a few of the things discussed here:

- There is surely no way Canberra would release him early, for anyone. They're trying to win the competition this season and he is a major part of that. Besides the club's side surely he'd have no interest in an early exit either.

- The Easts rumours have been around for a couple of seasons. I actually like that the club is trying to emulate some of what Easts do in terms of evaluating a player and not letting them hold the club ransom and ruin the salary cap. So money wise it all makes sense to me and the 25k story smells like a bit of Bull that the club just didn't buy into.

- The wanting to play centre thing (if it is true) really hits me hard for a number of reasons. It was obviously his best position as a junior (right centre) and we were all worried how he'd perform on the wing and then loved how well he went there. He's become incredibly safe and despite what anyone here says he's top tier on the flank. I still think he will end up a centre, the 'lack of skill' some have alluded to is off the mark for mine.

It also irks me that there are still people in the game that rate centres as more important or worth more money than wingers. It is definitely the opposite now and that doesn't look like changing any time soon.

The other part of it that has irked me so much is how I 100% believed the team would be better with him at centre than signing Curtis Scott. He's better in every facet of the game than Scott and even before Rapana was back the team would have been better with Cotric at 4 and Oldfield/Simonsson on the wings. That has pretty much been proven so far with Curtis Scott being predictably ordinary to the point where he was replaced by a 30 year old winger.

You really can't criticize Stuart for his squad building. Post FPN pretty much everything has come up Millhouse besides some gambles on fringe players not coming off like Gubb, Hingano, Collins and Turner which really didn't hurt the club at all. But the decision to spend at centre and acquire Curtis Scott has led to 4 main things so far for the club:

1) Dragging our name through the mud due to the Australia Day Incident before he'd even played a game
2) Indirectly led to losing John Bateman
3) Indirectly led to losing Nik Cotric
4) Potentially stunted the development of some good junior outside backs who can't play while there is no reserve grade this season.

Now I really hope Scott makes me look like a grade a goose and takes some personal responsibility for these outcomes and try and right them but I won't hold my breath.

100% agree on the summation of Scott. Notwithstanding the fact that he is just rubbish, the amount of money spent could have been easily spent on a winger for depth (it’s easier to find a cheap winger than a centre) with Cotric moving infield and the rest of the funds to either keep Bateman or more likely to be spent on a really good middle or edge forward.

You look at the clubs on the bottom and the primary cause has been a mistake or mistakes in recruitment - Broncos with Boyd and Milford; Hunt with the Dragons for example.

The decision with Scott is not as bad as they are; although Milford and Hunt have at least played some good games at their current clubs, but the repercussions are already there what with his signing being a direct or indirect cause of at least Leilua and Cotric leaving

[julian87]

Isaako would be worth a shout.

Jesus tap dancing christ. He's been one of the worst players in the competition for 18 months. I know he did some miraculous stuff 2 years ago but he's an absolute bum.

When recruiting you have to look for upside and potential OR pay top dollar to lure players at their peak at top clubs.

Isaako is not having a great season. The Broncos as a whole are having a stinker. His error count has crept up by it's playing at FB amid a team getting slaughtered. Hasn't been that way his whole career.

In terms of potential upside- he was an NRL rookie of the year not long ago. That's Cotric territory. He's up there in the tackle busts and line breaks charts at his club- he's still got something. Something we will need replacing on a wing without Cotric.

We'd be betting he can go back to playing to his potential and less errors like he used to be, in the more positive and settled environment at the Raiders. Look at the rejuvenations of Jennings, Fergo, Tupou etc. At 21 year old kid may just be affected by outside things for a season or two and still have the ability to bounce back.

Otherwise- yeah lets just go buy Teddy and Sivo, should be easy.

I understand and agree with all of that.

I'm just of the opinion that he's been absolutely awful since the start of last season. Yes, he was amazing at times in 2018. But given he's contracted until the end of 2022 and his form is in the sewer it's a no from me.

[Sleek the Elite]

I knew deep down on Thursday night it was happening because those murmurs from the press just don't happen for no reason.

Well done, mate. Props from me to you for working it out so early.

The wanting to play centre thing (if it is true) really hits me hard for a number of reasons. It was obviously his best position as a junior (right centre)

Yes it was, although he did play the rep stuff at full-back.

and we were all worried how he'd perform on the wing and then loved how well he went there. He's become incredibly safe and despite what anyone here says he's top tier on the flank.

I'm sure it kept us all awake at night, that one. But yes indeed, he did do well as a winger. That's why they picked him to play rep football in that position. I think he'd stagnate if he stayed there though. Maybe he does too?

I still think he will end up a centre, the 'lack of skill' some have alluded to is off the mark for mine.

You reckon? Really?? I'm with you on that. I think he'll be there from round 1 next year. Except of course if we were to somehow retain him. To quote Ricky recently: "He's a winger in my team".

It also irks me that there are still people in the game that rate centres as more important or worth more money than wingers. It is definitely the opposite now and that doesn't look like changing any time soon.

Good centres will always be able to command more than wingers. The team that won the comp last year had a top shelf centre. So did all our premiership teams. The Bulldogs obviously don't see it your way b/c they wouldn't be paying what they will be for him to play on a wing.

Now I really hope Scott makes me look like a grade a goose

Curtis has been blamed for a lot of things, but I wouldn't go that far.

[Botman]

2) Indirectly led to losing John Bateman
3) Indirectly led to losing Nik Cotric

In what way? The club offered JB 750k a year after Scott was signed, a deal he’d have signed if it was available 3 months ago the nonsense that went on with that has nothing to do with Scott.

They offered Cotric 500k after Scott was signed. And many reports say family and the desire to be in Sydney are big factors.

Scott is obviously looking like an incredibly poor signing at this stage but I’d love to see the logic in how you could even loosely link these departures with Scott

[Raiders666]

I fail to see how signing Scott led to losing Bateman and Cotric?? Am I missing something here

[julian87]

2) Indirectly led to losing John Bateman
3) Indirectly led to losing Nik Cotric

In what way? The club offered JB 750k a year after Scott was signed, a deal he’d have signed if it was available 3 months ago the nonsense that went on with that has nothing to do with Scott.

They offered Cotric 500k after Scott was signed. And many reports say family and the desire to be in Sydney are big factors.

Scott is obviously looking like an incredibly poor signing at this stage but I’d love to see the logic in how you could even loosely link these departures with Scott

Solely based on salary cap management. The near 500k for Scott means the club has too much money tied up in the centres IMO. Obviously not his fault at all but releasing Leilua should've been done with an eye to giving the club a bit more wriggle room after making a grand final. Canberra would be spending at least 300k more on their centre pairing per season than any other team in the top 8 (bar maybe Wests depending on what they signed Mbye on) currently (not including Easts paper bags).

It's not the only reason of either departure but I think it indirectly plays a part and it's hard to take for me that we valued Cotric about the same as Scott. There are a thousand moving pieces here so I can see how you see it as an odd hot take and as I said in the same post I really can't have a crack at Stuart as his recruitment and cap manouvreing has really been top notch for 4 seasons or so now.

[Colk]

Bateman is a stretch as I think he was homesick, although he has caused the departure of Leilua and Cotric.

Leilua left only when we signed Scott and we could have swayed Cotric to stay if he was playing centre.

If we don’t get rid of him we will lose other backline players like HSS or Timoko if they do develop well due to not having the funds to upgrade them