Broncos Roster, Signings and Rumours Discussion 2023

[Kooly87]

I'm fine with Haas exploring his opportunities. What irks me is the timing, the club is up against it and Haas' management knows leaking this will have negative consequences but they don't care.

If he follows that up with flat footed soft options where he doesn't take the forwards on the fans should be filthy with him.

Realistically though, he’s almost never served up those kind of performances though?

The reality is that if he’s not actually been our absolute best and most consistent player over the entire last 6 years, he’s got to be bloody close.

 

[Kooly87]

I still think its swings and roundabouts with Payne. He's been payed way less than his market value at times, but he's also been way in excess of his market value at the start of his career , and he has been an absolute **** at times so it evens its self out really. Totally agree though very little loyalty on the clubs side these days. You can see why very few players have the same loyalty towards the clubs.

Still dont buy all this about him needed to explore the market. He knows full well what he can get already. He's doing exactly what Staggs did and looking for a bidding war. Luckily for Payne, i dont think it will backfire on him like it did with Kotoni. Its not like he wont be getting what he is worth at Brisbane anyway.

I'm still not convinced he is a man of his word tbh. I guess we will see if its about money ( which he is claiming it isnt ) or not in the end. As i said before, if its genuinely not about the money, and its about winning premierships, where is he going to move where he has a better chance than at Brisbane? We are on a par with most clubs at the moment, and his mates are all at Brisbane.

I’ll answer your last point. It’s simple really: the Roosters…

He can go there on whatever figure the club decides to leak to the NRL media simps in Sydney who would gladly trip over one another to get to deepthroat that story for Uncle Nick.

Nobody could question his motives or blame money because the Roosters have ‘culcha’ they can pay in remember, and he could then just run around in their star studded squad and quietly collect on every single bad game of golf Uncle Nick can drag his haggard old ass out of bed for over the next 5 years while he waits for them to illegally amass enough talent to win yet another Premiership and absolutely nobody in the entire NRL circus will have even the slightest concern about how it all came to pass.

 

[Big Pete]

Realistically though, he’s almost never served up those kind of performances though?

The reality is that if he’s not actually been our absolute best and most consistent player over the entire last 6 years, he’s got to be bloody close.

That's what he was serving up last year, so while he was getting through a lot of work, he wasn't really doing his job for the team.

He's largely been much improved, but every so often you see those plays in him. Where he just lumbres, softly fends off an opponent and throws an offload when the play called for him to take the contact and take those defenders out of the line.

 

[Kooly87]

That's what he was serving up last year, so while he was getting through a lot of work, he wasn't really doing his job for the team.

He's largely been much improved, but every so often you see those plays in him. Where he just lumbres, softly fends off an opponent and throws an offload when the play called for him to take the contact and take those defenders out of the line.

So what you’re saying is that during the last six seasons he has, on occasion, put in some soft performances or taken some easy options, the kind that basically every single Forward under 25 that has ever played the game usually dishes up at this point in their career, notwithstanding that 99% of them would do it on a far more regular basis than he has. Almost like he is in fact human?

He’s not a 200+ game veteran and I think that gets forgotten on here so often because we hold him to such an incredibly high standard based on the incredibly high level performances he’s made us become accustomed to. He’s 23 and he’s already shown consistently that he has potential to finish up as the best Forward to ever play the game. I can cop a lot of the criticism around him in most other aspects of his character etc, but I draw the line at bagging his footballing performances because, with a handful of exceptions, they’ve been almost without peer across the entire NRL in his role for a bloody long time now.

 

[Big Pete]

So what you’re saying is that during the last six seasons he has, on occasion, put in some soft performances or taken some easy options, the kind that basically every single Forward under 25 that has ever played the game usually dishes up at this point in their career, notwithstanding that 99% of them would do it on a far more regular basis than he has. Almost like he is in fact human?

He’s not a 200+ game veteran and I think that gets forgotten on here so often because we hold him to such an incredibly high standard based on the incredibly high level performances he’s made us become accustomed to. He’s 23 and he’s already shown consistently that he has potential to finish up as the best Forward to ever play the game. I can cop a lot of the criticism around him in most other aspects of his character etc, but I draw the line at bagging his footballing performances because, with a handful of exceptions, they’ve been almost without peer across the entire NRL in his role for a bloody long time now.

No, what I'm saying is that he can't allow this to result in a dip in form like last time otherwise it's going to reflect poorly on him. He's already put the club under pressure by having his manager come out with this, if he doesn't do his job it doesn't bode well for his future at the club.

 

[Kooly87]

No, what I'm saying is that he can't allow this to result in a dip in form like last time otherwise it's going to reflect poorly on him. He's already put the club under pressure by having his manager come out with this, if he doesn't do his job it doesn't bode well for his future at the club.

Sure, that’s fair enough. But it’s also fair to point out that 23 year old Middle Forwards DO have dips in form, and most of them, even the really good ones, have them far, far more regularly than he does - and they do so under a far lower workload than he’s been put through at this stage in his career.

 

[Super Freak]

Haas is doing what’s right for him, can’t really blame him for that.

It’s a smart thing to do to gauge just how much you’re worth and there’s only one way to do that and that’s to go to the open market.

It doesn’t mean he’s leaving. He could come back after all of that and say yep the Broncos offer is good enough and re-sign or he could see he’s worth a little bit more and work to get that bit extra. If it’s $1.1-$1.5 million he’s after, we should absolutely give him that. Got to remember the cap is going to increase.

I imagine a part of it is also his manager wanting a bigger amount for his 10%.

 

[Big Pete]

Sure, that’s fair enough. But it’s also fair to point out that 23 year old Middle Forwards DO have dips in form, and most of them, even the really good ones, have them far, far more regularly than he does - and they do so under a far lower workload than he’s been put through at this stage in his career.

How many of them have held their club to ransom for over a million?

Haas can't have it both ways.

 

[Morkel]

I actually believe him when he says money is not his motivation, but that doesn't mean it's not his family's priority. These scum would rather force their kid in to sacrificing his own ambitions so that they can suckle at his bank account.

 

[Morkel]

And, we've said it before, if you want to win a premiership, you can't go squeezing every last dollar out of them. The more of the cap you take up, the less there is for the rest of the team. Patty gets it.

Just because the cap has gone up doesn't mean their living costs have. Imagine if they were all to accept their pre-cap-rise salaries and allow the club to retain or attract better talent.

 

[Wolfie]

Haas is doing what’s right for him, can’t really blame him for that.

It’s a smart thing to do to gauge just how much you’re worth and there’s only one way to do that and that’s to go to the open market.

It doesn’t mean he’s leaving. He could come back after all of that and say yep the Broncos offer is good enough and re-sign or he could see he’s worth a little bit more and work to get that bit extra. If it’s $1.1-$1.5 million he’s after, we should absolutely give him that. Got to remember the cap is going to increase.

I imagine a part of it is also his manager wanting a bigger amount for his 10%.

Again, he knows what he is worth. The offers would already be on the table. Going to market just creates a bidding war , which from his point of view is a smart move but it goes against his claim it's not about money. Nobody can be stupid enough to think he is going to market to gauge his value.

 

[BroncsFan]

I think one thing about the whole situation is that we can't stop our recruitment and retention plans just for him.

If he wants to go to Nov 1 the risk is that we start to run out of cap space re-signing or signing players moving forward. So if tigers do stump up $1.5m it won't matter because we ain't going any higher.

We don't have many left off contract at the end of this year that haven't already made a decision, but we've still got a ton off contract at the end of 2024.

I think Pereira and Bayliss are the only ones off contract end of this year?? (Rogers, Smoothy and Frei are development for this year as well).

For the end of 2024 I think we have 11 players off contract at the end of next year, including Mam, Reynolds, Capewell, Riki and Piakura.

We need to retain Mam (hopefully not at a ridiculous cost), but Riki has become important to our team and a decision needs to be made on Piakura.

Oates has an option for the next 2yr, and then there's the veterans in Reynolds and Capewell.

Walsh also due a big upgrade and extension to make sure he doesn't get near a November 1 deadline any time soon... he is so vital to our future now that Patty has been locked down.

 

[Manofoneway]

Its a worry that Payne seems to trust their advice tbh. He was stupid enough to think last years episode was reasonable and seemed genuinley confused and upset when the backlash came and like you say, the timing of doing it right now is just ridiculous. As much as i get they want to make money, they have to have their clients best interests at heart and i think Payne is just a cash cow for them.

It's weird they put last year's saga down to performance.. we were on a 7 game winning streak at the time from memory... weird thing to do after winning 7 games in a row

 

[Sproj]

Let's say we lose Haas, we still have a decent starting middle to call on in '25, albeit nowhere near as good without Flegs and Haas in Jensen, Carrigan and Hetherington.

We also have Willison and Te Kura coming through who both look they could be gun middles but there will be a gap of course. Just got to fill it with some experience around it. This is likely where Baker will prove to be of benefit too and I think Bayliss (though he isn't signed for next year either) could be a solid first grader in the interim as well.

If Mo becomes available though, we just have to snap him up. Same as Arrow (would love to bring Arrow home). Then look at some other players too like Skelton, Hamlin-Uele, Ese'ese, Stimson, Eisenhuth squared, Tatola, Twal.

I mean, if you could flip Haas plus other bits and pieces into Arrow and Mo + upgrades for Walsh, Riki and Mam, I would take it.

 

[ozzball]

If Haas stays ... ok ... if he goes ... see ya later, but the guy's a walking headline and, sad to say, he's almost got that air of self-destruction about him. Staying in Brizzy gives him stability and a sense of belonging. Go to Sydney and you're lost in the mix and surrounded by some pretty unsavoury characters. The Broncs shouldn't be held to ransom, no player is bigger than the club and he really needs to think about what the rest of his career will look like ... regardless of the cash he'll make. At the end of the day I don't personally give a flying crap either way, I just want the whole circus to be over.

 

[Santa]

he is ... in fact, i'm pretty sure he has promised us a premiership this year ... isn't that right Santa

100%! Broncos premiership guaranteed!

 

[Kimlo]

That's what he was serving up last year, so while he was getting through a lot of work, he wasn't really doing his job for the team.

He's largely been much improved, but every so often you see those plays in him. Where he just lumbres, softly fends off an opponent and throws an offload when the play called for him to take the contact and take those defenders out of the line.

Are you ignoring the fact that he was playing with two busted shoulders? His dip in form was immediately after he injured his shoulder, then he had a bit of a break, had a really good game then did the other shoulder and never really recovered until he had a real break.

He then very unselfishly skipped the world cup to get himself right for this year and it's paid off, he's went up a level.

 

[Big Pete]

Are you ignoring the fact that he was playing with two busted shoulders? His dip in form was immediately after he injured his shoulder, then he had a bit of a break, had a really good game then did the other shoulder and never really recovered until he had a real break.

He then very unselfishly skipped the world cup to get himself right for this year and it's paid off, he's went up a level.

Even before the injury, you couldn't say he was playing his best footy. His career had stagnated for a couple of years and he wasn't separating himself from the pack. He was already below his standard, the shoulder issues exacerbated the problems.

He did get back on track, but I'm not sure how unselfish it was given this is a contract year. If he's going to be worth the hassle, he's going to have to step it up.