Broncos Player Movement and Rumours 2020

[Galah]

We need solid wingers, surely the club can’t let it happen. I seriously rate Herbie, he’s the no bullshit winger we’ve been screaming for.

 

[1910]

So you’re not confident he will stick around?
As a player, it would be pretty hard to knock back the roosters with their on-going success, which looks like it will continue for many years to come..

I am not saying that, I am just saying he's the perfect outside back signing for another club- ability, bit older, cheap, low maintenance smart and could be a player for 10 years.

He will be a risk to go back to England too I guess, or the Titans he was on the Coast when Brisbane found him in 2017.

 

[Footy Fanatic]

I am not saying that, I am just saying he's the perfect outside back signing for another club- ability, bit older, cheap, low maintenance smart and could be a player for 10 years.

He will be a risk to go back to England too I guess, or the Titans he was on the Coast when Brisbane found him in 2017.

Well I hope we can hold onto him, just love the energy he plays with and has the ability to play at a high level as well.

Also 1910, do you know what the go is with Reece Walsh? I really rate him as a fullback prospect. What does the club think?

 

[BroncsFan]

So you’re not confident he will stick around?
As a player, it would be pretty hard to knock back the roosters with their on-going success, which looks like it will continue for many years to come..

You would think Broncos can find $200k if that's what it would take to pry him away.

I suspect Herbie may be on the $110k minimum which means finding an extra $100k... this is why it is important to get Macca off the books.

If Macca plays well at Newcastle and secures a new contract we suddenly get ~$400k back... $115k of that can go to Issac for another year whilst adding depth, but we still have ~$300k or so available for upgrades.

Boyd will be off the books creating another $400k-$800k (NSWRL media need to make up their minds with this)... Boyd's spot in the top 30 can go to Nui who's on a development contract (also I believe if a player is on a development contract for 2 years we get 10% discount on contracts moving forward??... this would apply to Bullemor and Riki moving forward as well and starts to become a good pathways program for cap management).

That leaves Boyd's leftover cash for a Fifita upgrade who I suspect is on $250k-$350k (he signed his current contract in 2018 whilst in NYC I believe)... getting him up to $700k-$750k can be achieved from Boyd alone potentially.

That pretty much gets us through 2021 unscathed at which point Bird and Milf are off contract and we start to have some flexibility in which juniors to lock down on longer upgraded deals whilst also scouting the league for a bigger signing if needed.

Unfortunately Staggs, Dearden and Coates are off contract, but Isaako and Oates are off contract end of 2022, so they would be free agents in 2021 and may secure a release??

 

[Wolfie]

I am not saying that, I am just saying he's the perfect outside back signing for another club- ability, bit older, cheap, low maintenance smart and could be a player for 10 years.

He will be a risk to go back to England too I guess, or the Titans he was on the Coast when Brisbane found him in 2017.

As you say, Herbie is exactly the type of low maintainence footy player who just gets the job done that we lack. I've been saying it for a while now, Our obsession with seeming to want superstars all over the park is going to cost us good young players. The balance of this squad is all wrong.

 

[1910]

Well I hope we can hold onto him, just love the energy he plays with and has the ability to play at a high level as well.

Also 1910, do you know what the go is with Reece Walsh? I really rate him as a fullback prospect. What does the club think?

Shoulder op, was due back in the middle of the year to finish MM season.

 

[BroncsFan]

As you say, Herbie is exactly the type of low maintainence footy player who just gets the job done that we lack. I've been saying it for a while now, Our obsession with seeming to want superstars all over the park is going to cost us good young players. The balance of this squad is all wrong.

I think there has been too much obsession with loyalty in the Broncos management... rather than moving players on earlier we have continually plugged along with extensions and upgrades regardless of whether their usefulness to the team was warranted or not. It's like they have a retention FOMO where they don't want to let anyone go in case they become a superstar elsewhere, but there needs to be a point where you have to figure out if the player is representing value for money or fits into the team's plan moving forward.

Cases like:
Kodi - been uncertainty about where he fits in the team (too expensive for a professional utility, we already had milf as our 6, too small for hooker and potentially too small for fullback)... they needed to figure out what his role was moving forward and pay him accordingly... if he doesn't want that role let him move
Glenn - looked promising as a junior and had some good years as a starter, but appeared to start becoming a bit of a plodder when he lost his position in the NZ team... needed to be retained as a depth signing for awhile now or let him move on
Macca - has had a mortgage on the 9 jersey seemingly since he came onto the scene, but was he really worth letting other prospects go and having no contingency plan in place in order to give him automatic extensions?
Oates - he doesn't look to be a winger and was only shoe horned into the position by Griffin due to mass injuries.. and now we have potentially better options in the second row and wing. Does he warrant the kind of money he's on when we don't even know if he's a starter moving forward?
Offa - showed great potential in the juniors but has struggled to replicate that in first grade. Does he warrant automatic extensions and upgrades in order to retain him?

That's just a few but because we have this FOMO obsession with retention we could lose potentially valuable players whilst other guys are seemingly past their usefulness in the team... they still clearly have usefulness with other teams, but we needed to have seen the players coming through for their position or made the call to double down and commit to them (I.e. Oates as a second rower).

Had we been better at saving money we might've been able to keep a guy like McGuire who would be able to serve a purpose in this team, instead we are counting down the days till some of them are off the books whilst hoping promising and proven prospects like Herbie hang around until the money is available

It seems the current coach is putting the cards on the table for players about their role moving forward and is happy to let players move on in order to keep the ones he wants moving forward, but it may be too little too late when considering some of the immovable contracts he's having to deal with.

 

[ivanhungryjak]

You would think Broncos can find $200k if that's what it would take to pry him away.

I suspect Herbie may be on the $110k minimum which means finding an extra $100k... this is why it is important to get Macca off the books.

If Macca plays well at Newcastle and secures a new contract we suddenly get ~$400k back... $115k of that can go to Issac for another year whilst adding depth, but we still have ~$300k or so available for upgrades.

Boyd will be off the books creating another $400k-$800k (NSWRL media need to make up their minds with this)... Boyd's spot in the top 30 can go to Nui who's on a development contract (also I believe if a player is on a development contract for 2 years we get 10% discount on contracts moving forward??... this would apply to Bullemor and Riki moving forward as well and starts to become a good pathways program for cap management).

That leaves Boyd's leftover cash for a Fifita upgrade who I suspect is on $250k-$350k (he signed his current contract in 2018 whilst in NYC I believe)... getting him up to $700k-$750k can be achieved from Boyd alone potentially.

That pretty much gets us through 2021 unscathed at which point Bird and Milf are off contract and we start to have some flexibility in which juniors to lock down on longer upgraded deals whilst also scouting the league for a bigger signing if needed.

Unfortunately Staggs, Dearden and Coates are off contract, but Isaako and Oates are off contract end of 2022, so they would be free agents in 2021 and may secure a release??

Don’t forget the Kahu money.

 

[Jason Simmons]

Don’t forget the Kahu money.

The way we’ve been going, we’ll probably re-sign Kahu ON that money...

 

[Big Pete]

There's a Peter Badel article in the Courier Mail with the 'leaked' figures for Ponga's deal at the Cowboys.

2015 - $27, 800
2016 - $91, 000
2017 - $110, 000

If that's the case, then Brisbane screwed up big time.

However, something about that doesn't add up to me. Namely he actually signed a four year deal in 2013 and it was supposedly a better deal than the QRU, Lions (who were the favourites), Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne offered. It wasn't like he was just some unheard of kid either, he went viral that year.

 

[pagey]

There's a Peter Badel article in the Courier Mail with the 'leaked' figures for Ponga's deal at the Cowboys.

2015 - $27, 800
2016 - $91, 000
2017 - $110, 000

If that's the case, then Brisbane screwed up big time.

However, something about that doesn't add up to me. Namely he actually signed a four year deal in 2013 and it was supposedly a better deal than the QRU, Lions (who were the favourites), Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne offered. It wasn't like he was just some unheard of kid either, he went viral that year.

I thought he went to the cows because of family reasons .

 

[Kooly87]

For anyone who thinks Milford isn't too bad for the money and worth persisting with, it's worth remembering now that you could have bought Ponga for basically exactly the same money.

I certainly know where I see more upside in that scenario.

 

[Kooly87]

So next year, aside from the guys on essentially base salary who will either be renewed or replaced with more base salary guys, we have Boyd and Kahu coming off contract, which must be just short of $1 million dollars worth of salary, then we potentially also have Macca off the books, which adds around another 500k worth of salary to that mix.

Then after 2021 we have Milford and Bird both due for renewal, so you could add just shy of $2 million worth of salary cap space to that mix too.

That's 5 players with around 3-3.5 million dollars worth of salary cap tied up, all potentially coming off our books at the same time. That's about a third of our overall salary cap space.

If this is the case, it seems positively baffling that we aren't in a position to:

A) Comfortably Re-sign Fifita on a long term deal
B) Re-sign Herbie and any other minimum wage guys even on reasonably upgraded deals
C) Go to market for at least one absolute top shelf spine player, probably a Fullback or Dummy Half.

 

[something]

Yeah i think ae we will be alright financially. One thing i like about this club is we dont really lose the players we want to keep... its just the players we want to keep suddenly get shit.

I also dont think the club will make a milford mistake again. Granted, at the time, i wasnt upset about his contract ... but if youre shelling out 7 figures, maybe dont make it 4 years (Bird, Boyd as well)

 

[BroncsFan]

So next year, aside from the guys on essentially base salary who will either be renewed or replaced with more base salary guys, we have Boyd and Kahu coming off contract, which must be just short of $1 million dollars worth of salary, then we potentially also have Macca off the books, which adds around another 500k worth of salary to that mix.

Then after 2021 we have Milford and Bird both due for renewal, so you could add just shy of $2 million worth of salary cap space to that mix too.

That's 5 players with around 3-3.5 million dollars worth of salary cap tied up, all potentially coming off our books at the same time. That's about a third of our overall salary cap space.

If this is the case, it seems positively baffling that we aren't in a position to:

A) Comfortably Re-sign Fifita on a long term deal
B) Re-sign Herbie and any other minimum wage guys even on reasonably upgraded deals
C) Go to market for at least one absolute top shelf spine player, probably a Fullback or Dummy Half.

I think Fifita is looking at re-signing for 12 months which gets him through to 2021 at which point we will look to lock him down on a 4-5 year deal
In addition to Herbie we also have Nui, and at the end of 2021 we also have Dearden, Staggs, Coates, Flegler and Bullemor coming off contract.

Providing upgrades to most of them will require them to basically be making up the majority of the starting team.

I've got Herbie and Coates as my starting wing, and Staggs starting center. It seems like Dearden will be coming into the starting halves soon... and Seibold always makes a point about Nui when it comes to fullback.

But that means something needs to be done about Oates and Isaako, and left center... so do our centers become Staggs and Coates/Isaako/Nui.

To me Oates is the odd one out and they really need to transition him to the second row and then bench utility (but he won't like those conditions and would likely seek a release) OR just double down on him being a winger and be willing to let one of the young guys go.

Him being a winger is not preferred by me as I don't see him as a top line winger... I think Coates and Herbie are already better than him and Isaako could be serviceable there, but he may also seek a release if he can't get fullback.

 

[007]

Its a Shame we have so many forwards. Graham would have been an alright mid season pickup to teach some things.

 

[Kooly87]

I think Fifita is looking at re-signing for 12 months which gets him through to 2021 at which point we will look to lock him down on a 4-5 year deal
In addition to Herbie we also have Nui, and at the end of 2021 we also have Dearden, Staggs, Coates, Flegler and Bullemor coming off contract.

Providing upgrades to most of them will require them to basically be making up the majority of the starting team.

I've got Herbie and Coates as my starting wing, and Staggs starting center. It seems like Dearden will be coming into the starting halves soon... and Seibold always makes a point about Nui when it comes to fullback.

But that means something needs to be done about Oates and Isaako, and left center... so do our centers become Staggs and Coates/Isaako/Nui.

To me Oates is the odd one out and they really need to transition him to the second row and then bench utility (but he won't like those conditions and would likely seek a release) OR just double down on him being a winger and be willing to let one of the young guys go.

Him being a winger is not preferred by me as I don't see him as a top line winger... I think Coates and Herbie are already better than him and Isaako could be serviceable there, but he may also seek a release if he can't get fullback.

Oates really is ideal in that bench role as a spare Outside Back/Edge Forward. It would allow us to play two middle Forwards and a Dummy Half/Utility off the Bench to cover for Turpin, with Oates as the spare guy to be used anywhere across the park.

The scary part is, if we ever actually made it to full strength, carrying a Utility and then an Outside Back like Oates as well means we only have two middle Forward positions spare, so one of Flegler, Offa or TPJ would be missing out each week.

 

[Galah]

Oates really is ideal in that bench role as a spare Outside Back/Edge Forward. It would allow us to play two middle Forwards and a Dummy Half/Utility off the Bench to cover for Turpin, with Oates as the spare guy to be used anywhere across the park.

The scary part is, if we ever actually made it to full strength, carrying a Utility and then an Outside Back like Oates as well means we only have two middle Forward positions spare, so one of Flegler, Offa or TPJ would be missing out each week.

Offa, that’s an easy one.