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captainsutto said:
The problem is, who’s going to play halfback next year if he’s being punted.
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Not our problem, for a change. 🤣🤣🤣 They do have options though. For the halves Jesse Marschke 7 and Kyle Flanagan at 5/8. Or Kyle Flanagan 7 and Jack Bird 5/8 would be good. They could make an offer to Illias. Either way they would have about a million to strengthen some other spots.
 
Percy Horne said:
Why would they extend him he is 1000 years old. I get that he can play but at some stage they have to think about the future.
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That would make his DOB 1224. He could have met William Wallace.
His extension is for 2026. They can let him go now if he wants to, which he probably still does.Why don't they? Win win.
 
Percy Horne said:
Last I heard Bird had signed with the Tigers
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Yes I forgot. He's there 2025. Go back to my first STG halves suggestion. Or there was talk that Mitchel Moses wanted to leave Parra. That would be interesting.
 
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Bruster said:
Hunt requested a release earlier this year. Now he is not getting an extension? Am I the only one who can see a win win situation here. That is unless Flanagan has some kind of Hoarding Disorder.
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Broncos halfback next year?........will the roosters make an offer?
.
 
southsport said:
Broncos halfback next year?........will the roosters make an offer?
.
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STG probs will keep him for 2025, hence the Hoarding comment. Reynolds still has a year to go at Broncos. Doubt he ever returns to Broncos. They will probs get Walker anyway. I think he will go to Gold Coast when he does leave STG.
 
Punt Hunt now I say. Always a smart strategy. Especially when you don’t have any proven halfback alternatives. What could possibly go wrong?
 
Pplspoet said:
They’ll have these old halves out there on zimmer frames as long as the quality coming behind stinks.
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Yep, must be a hard gig being a half staring in juniors with dreams of playing in the NRL. The couple that do make it stay there for 15 seasons now so there are generations of halves that will never make the grade.

Shows how lucky guy like Hawkins are to play some NRL. If you get my drift.
 
Percy Horne said:
Yep, must be a hard gig being a half staring in juniors with dreams of playing in the NRL. The couple that do make it stay there for 15 seasons now so there are generations of halves that will never make the grade.

Shows how lucky guy like Hawkins are to play some NRL. If you get my drift.
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If you were a young player playing the odds, you’d be mad to want to be a 7.

It’s already near impossible to have an NRL career (percentage of lower graders that play 50+ games).

Playing the numbers your bet is to be a winger/centre/edge depending on body shape. Then if you happen to be supremely gifted migrate to 1 or 6 and make bank. Or if you fill out/slow transition to the middle.

7 or bust for a lot of these talented young players. With a transition to 9 if you have the physique and attitude.

Gould has been calling for an elite NRL halves academy for years to no avail (instead we have a bunker).

Ditto specific salary cap space purely for halves. So clubs aren’t left to their own accord to spend top heavy with no depth - considering it’s such a specialist position.

They should prioritise 3-4 bands specifically for halves to encourage development and participation.

So your top 26 cap might be X - do with it as you will.

But for the sake of the game, tier 1 half 800k-1.3m, tier 2 half 550k-800k, tier 3 and 4 half 300k-550k. Your 3 and 4 are playing lower grades and getting paid good coin just to develop their game. No pressure at all to be first grade ready.

And I’m talking specifically 7 there. 6 and 1 dev is working for the above mentioned reasons.
 
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Percy Horne said:
Yep, must be a hard gig being a half staring in juniors with dreams of playing in the NRL. The couple that do make it stay there for 15 seasons now so there are generations of halves that will never make the grade.

Shows how lucky guy like Hawkins are to play some NRL. If you get my drift.
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It's just the way it is now. How many halves couldn't get a run at Storm because they were behind Cronk. Not only NRL either. Steward McGill arguably could have had a great career for Australian had he not been stuck behind Shane Warne, and rightfully so I add.
 
Pplspoet said:
If you were a young player playing the odds, you’d be mad to want to be a 7.

It’s already near impossible to have an NRL career (percentage of lower graders that play 50+ games).

Playing the numbers your bet is to be a winger/centre/edge depending on body shape. Then if you happen to be supremely gifted migrate to 1 or 6 and make bank. Or if you fill out/slow transition to the middle.

7 or bust for a lot of these talented young players. With a transition to 9 if you have the physique and attitude.

Gould has been calling for an elite NRL halves academy for years to no avail (instead we have a bunker).

Ditto specific salary cap space purely for halves. So clubs aren’t left to their own accord to spend top heavy with no depth - considering it’s such a specialist position.

They should prioritise 3-4 bands specifically for halves to encourage development and participation.

So your top 26 cap might be X - do with it as you will.

But for the sake of the game, tier 1 half 800k-1.3m, tier 2 half 550k-800k, tier 3 and 4 half 300k-550k. Your 3 and 4 are playing lower grades and getting paid good coin just to develop their game. No pressure at all to be first grade ready.

And I’m talking specifically 7 there. 6 and 1 dev is working for the above mentioned reasons.
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An interesting perspective.

An academy for halves was/is a good idea. Not hard to set up.

I can only assume the clubs didn't want to parade their pathways talent to be poached by the Roosters, other clubs.

On your point with regards to a specific cap for halves...what problem would it solve, in your mind? I'm struggling to understand how it would solve the problem of clubs keeping halves until their zimmer frames give out.

And seeing as the NRL are incapable of policiing the cap as it stands (not one salary cap breach was discovered by the NRL auditor), how would they manage the added cap complexity?
 
Prowsey said:
An interesting perspective.

An academy for halves was/is a good idea. Not hard to set up.

I can only assume the clubs didn't want to parade their pathways talent to be poached by the Roosters, other clubs.

On your point with regards to a specific cap for halves...what problem would it solve, in your mind? I'm struggling to understand how it would solve the problem of clubs keeping halves until their zimmer frames give out.

And seeing as the NRL are incapable of policiing the cap as it stands (not one salary cap breach was discovered by the NRL auditor), how would they manage the added cap complexity?
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At the moment we have a problem where clubs need to make a call on halves too quickly, and any quality in the position is paid beyond their value in the cap too early. Which only emphasises the rate at which clubs move them on. Its cyclical.

Clubs: ‘We need a half, pay overs for the next big thing so we don’t miss out, oh he isn’t Nathan Cleary a year in, move on and try again.’ Ditto, ‘oh, our half is too old, out with the old in with the new and cross our fingers it takes instantly or we sit on the bottom of the ladder for 2-3 years.’ Which actively weakens the competition.

As it’s easily the most unique position on the field an additional, allotted, tierd approach would a) attract the best players to stay engaged in the position at a competitive market value (as opposed to falling short early and either transitioning to another position or out of the game), and b) provide a premium pay packet to keep halves with potential, who aren’t ready for elite level first grade, happy in lower grades, developing their game at market value pay.

I think every club in the NRL should have a marquee half, a veteran on the way out, a cusp first grader, and one a few years off, all earning their appropriate market value (even though only 1 is going to line up for first grade each week).

But if you just give the clubs more money, they’ll spend it all on the top 8 players in the side and complain that they don’t have a good backup half.

As it solves a problem for the game as a whole (more elite 7’s makes for a better, more competitive game), I think it’s worth the deviation. You aren’t giving any club an advantage, you’re putting a system in place to encourage them to take a more measured and quality approach to halves development.

The players are rewarded, encouraged financially, and given appropriate time to develop.

The same would probably happen if we just had an abundance of halves talent, but until we get there, something like this could help IMO.

It also has the flow on effect of improving lower grade footy.
 
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