Could Bennett take Taylor from Titans?

[CaptainHook]

I'm normally pretty optimistic, but at that point I thought we were cooked to be honest. We hadn't done anything particularly spectacular that season, even if you take into account the Knights annihilation the weekend before. If anything, 2006 had been a pretty average regular season.

2002 is probably harsh yes... I kinda forgot we did get closer than most other years.

That's a good point. I knew something was up when we smashed the Bulldogs about a month before the finals. It was 30-0 or something like that. Bulldogs were premiership favourites that year.

I remembered thinking if we can stay fit we would be hard to beat.

 

[gordjw]

I think Porthoz is spot on, we don't have a structure to speak of. We do have talent to take advantage of tired forwards and small defensive gaps, but we don't seem to create 2 on 1 situations all that often.

Which is why you see us struggle against disciplined teams that can maintain a defensive line for 80 minutes. We can't smash them through the middle and force them inwards to defend. Without the gaps in the line, our plan doesn't work, and we don't have a plan B.

TBH I think this is the best we can do with the players we've got (and it's worked pretty well), but I think if Bennett had stayed here instead of leaving us with Henjak/Griffin, we'd have a totally different lineup, especially in the forwards.

All this is to say, come home Ashley.

 

[pagey]

Probably but he won't. The game is throwing a million dollars plus a season at Ben Hunt who hasn't and won't achieve the heights that people believe Taylor will reach.

If we don't or can't throw a million or thereabouts at him, he won't be playing for us. End of story unfortunately.

Letting him go was extremely admirable. But being decent people doesn't lead your club to premieriships. Ruthlessness does.

Maybe. But hunt took us to a GF , taylor is just potential atm . Would be stupid to spend that on someone to build around.

 

[PerthBrissy987]

Blair is good as gone if a rival offers him a long term contract with the warriors and dragons prepared to offer him a 4 yr deal

 

[Sproj]

I think we need to be prepared to offload guys like Blair if we are to win a premiership. He is better than average but we have a good forward pack even without him. If Boyd wants a million (and I am sure he will stay for far less than that), I would be prepared to let him walk too. We have guys who can do a job in Blair's and Boyd's positions, (no I am not saying they will do it as well or better, no I am not saying I want these guys to go, no I am not saying I want to pick potential over experience) but what we don't have is a halfback who can organise, kick and run a team and THAT is what we need and THAT is what Taylor offers. We need to sign him, even if it means losing a Blair or a Boyd or even both due to salary cap issues, we need to be prepared to make those kind of ruthless decisions.

 

[winslow_wong]

Blair is good as gone if a rival offers him a long term contract with the warriors and dragons prepared to offer him a 4 yr deal

Would be sad to see him go. I feel every player part of that 2015 squad (including hunt) deserves to win a premiership with the broncos

 

[pagey]

I think we need to be prepared to offload guys like Blair if we are to win a premiership. He is better than average but we have a good forward pack even without him. If Boyd wants a million (and I am sure he will stay for far less than that), I would be prepared to let him walk too. We have guys who can do a job in Blair's and Boyd's positions, (no I am not saying they will do it as well or better, no I am not saying I want these guys to go, no I am not saying I want to pick potential over experience) but what we don't have is a halfback who can organise, kick and run a team and THAT is what we need and THAT is what Taylor offers. We need to sign him, even if it means losing a Blair or a Boyd or even both due to salary cap issues, we need to be prepared to make those kind of ruthless decisions.

I think bird should be punted and give the $750k to Taylor. Milf might think he can run a team , but i haven't seen anything to suggest he can.

 

[Foordy]

I think bird should be punted

we can't punt Bird, even if we wanted to .... at least not without carrying a good portion of his salary on our cap, which would defeat the purpose of getting rid of him in the first place.

and i'd much rather he be on our team than paying him to play against us for the next 4 years

 

[pagey]

we can't punt Bird, even if we wanted to .... at least not without carrying a good portion of his salary on our cap, which would defeat the purpose of getting rid of him in the first place.

and i'd much rather he be on our team than paying him to play against us for the next 4 years

Not unless he wanted out aswell !

 

[PerthBrissy987]

we can't punt Bird, even if we wanted to .... at least not without carrying a good portion of his salary on our cap, which would defeat the purpose of getting rid of him in the first place.

and i'd much rather he be on our team than paying him to play against us for the next 4 years

If he wanted out of the deal would we have to still pay some of his contract ?
Meaning if he wanted a release?

 

[Foordy]

Not unless he wanted out aswell !

a. he doesn't want out.

b. he would still need to be paid 750k a season for the next 4 years, meaning any of the other teams could come in with a low ball offer and have us pick up the rest of the tab... no thanks

 

[Super Freak]

Not unless he wanted out aswell !

We would still have to pay..

 

[PerthBrissy987]

We would still have to pay..

Hes playing lock anyways and moose can replace blair in the front row

 

[Foordy]

If he wanted out of the deal would we have to still pay some of his contract ?
Meaning if he wanted a release?

we would have to ensure he gets paid at least 750k ... if another team was to offer him more than that, then we wouldn't have to pick up any of it. but that's unlikely since the other teams know this and would just make a low ball offer to get Bird cheap.

we have just got several players that we were paying to play against us off our books ... i'd rather not waste cap space like that again

 

[Super Freak]

a. he doesn't want out.

b. he would still need to be paid 750k a season for the next 4 years, meaning any of the other teams could come in with a low ball offer and have us pick up the rest of the tab... no thanks

The other team would need to pay a significant chunk of his salary to get him. The NRL won't allow that anymore.

The Roosters tried it with Farah and the NRL blocked it.

 

[winslow_wong]

4 years sounds like such a long time for bird to commit to the broncos. Signing doesn't sit well with me but I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Foordy]

Hes playing lock anyways and moose can replace blair in the front row

we don't know where he will play ... that is all speculation by the media at this stage.

and as good as Moose is there is still many things that Blair does much better than him. a Blair/Moose staring front row would be formidable for us

 

[Super Freak]

4 years sounds like such a long time for bird to commit to the broncos. Signing doesn't sit well with me but I hope I'm wrong.

It's really a 3 year deal with a 4th in his favour.

The 3 years is for 750k, the 4th is for $1 million.