Are we actually chasing anyone or working to re-sign anyone? Don't we have like half a squad's worth of vacancies next year?
The club may well already have made some signings, would be nice to hear who some of them are. The club does seem to make announcements late in the year these days though.
Who knows, but one thing that could be of interest in terms of the comings and goings are the development players... broncos seem to bring the young guys through on development deals and then they come into the top 30 the following year or year after.
Development players at the moment according to NRL.com (pretty shit source, but what else can we use)... Antonio Verhoeven isn't on the list, but I think he's signed for a couple years, so maybe he'll come onto the dev deal list next year... same with Innes and those other young guys that have been playing Meninga this year.
Bailey Trew
Cameron Bukowski
Hayze Perham
Jett Bryce
VJ Semu
So 5 guys on the dev deal list... I think this is the second year on this list for Bukowski and Semu, and possibly Trew?
So I'd expect those guys to come straight into the Top 30 and you'd imagine they're coming in on a reasonable contract... so if we lose someone like Baker and his higher than minimum contract is gone, he is effectively replaced by someone like Semu on a much lower deal and no need to go to market.
Bukowski comes in for Smoothy or Paix, but either way one of those salaries can be replaced with a different position, because next year we will have Mozer, Bhunt and Billy, along with Bukowski.
Trew if he is in his second year of a dev deal could come in for a Leota, Hoeter, etc. but I think we need more outside back depth and it seems like Ganderson is coming.
I believe I read somewhere that a player that has been on the dev list for 2yr gets a 10% salary cap saving for their first top 30 deal... so if all these guys have been on dev deal for 2yr then they're all coming into the top 30 on a slight discount and no need to replace outgoings.
Jett Bryce is getting some game time beyond Meninga, but I daresay we'd be looking to keep him on a dev deal next year, because of the above salary cap savings, but you can also use your dev players whenever you want, instead of the round 11 clause.
Perham I'd keep around on a dev deal again.. he's done his ACL so give him another go next year instead of turfing him... it's also hard to find those players that can fit as a hybrid 6/1, and he can also cover the outside backs, so he brings a lot of versatility.