Hunt Signs with St George Illawarra

[Brent81]

but not in 1999 when we limped into 8th spot??

1999 was a bit like 2007 and last year.

Injuries and things going wrong from start to finish.

Ps we didn't limp into 8th, we won some amazing number of games in a row to get there....

Also uncovered some useful players in 1999, Berrigan, Walker, Tuqiri....

 

[TheDrumBeat]

Valid points, I just think that is as strong as it gets if we can't afford or find another decent half come 2018. I trust the club and I think we'll be fine.

Hunt could not kick... Fact.

 

[austin71]

Bahaha I'll pay that!

 

[johnny plath]

1999 was a bit like 2007 and last year.

Injuries and things going wrong from start to finish.

Ps we didn't limp into 8th, we won some amazing number of games in a row to get there....

Also uncovered some useful players in 1999, Berrigan, Walker, Tuqiri....

true, i guess it was a reverse limp..... shit start and strong end but still went out week one from memory.

 

[Super Freak]

It's happened before.... it could happen again.

No, it won't.

Bennett tried Boyd at 6, it failed.

He won't be doing it again.

Not when he is the best fullback in the world.

 

[Mister Wright]

You cannot blame Hunt for taking such a massive contract, with a young child and only 7-8 years left of his playing career you have to take the $1M. Unfortunately with Thurston in decline and Smith & Cronk at the very back end of their careers, when we should be challenging for a premiership with the likes of Penrith with an experienced spine, we will be back in the pack developing a halfback. Hopefully I'm wrong, but unless we somehow win a premiership this year, I can't see it for a while.

 

[Accept]

1999 was a bit like 2007 and last year.

Injuries and things going wrong from start to finish.

Ps we didn't limp into 8th, we won some amazing number of games in a row to get there....

Also uncovered some useful players in 1999, Berrigan, Walker, Tuqiri....

1-8-1 after 10 games followed by a 13 game unbeaten streak. One of the Bronco's most memorable seasons IMO despite the lack of hardware. Limping into 8th would be a better description for the 2014 season.

 

[Foordy]

We all know what Bennet does to players who sign elsewhere.
If he starts poorly than he will find himself in QCup for either Benji or another youngster that puts his hand up in QCup with a few handy performances

why, because he did that to a ROOKIE once. A rookie who he had planned on using to replace the departing Sailor.

The only reason he did that was to develop the player who would replace Sailor and not continue to develop the departing rookie for another club.

these are completely different circumstances and you don't drop your halfback out of spite, especially when you don't have anyone even remotely close to being as good as him

 

[Morepudding]

I hate how everyone keeps saying there aren't any halves as good as Hunt. They don't need to be as individually talented or whatever, they just need to be a better fit for our team. I'm honestly convinced we would do a lot better with a player who can at least sometime do a kick that isn't a bomb landing 20m from the tryline and grubbers that don't hit opposition legs 80% of the time.

 

[Foordy]

I hate how everyone keeps saying there aren't any halves as good as Hunt. They don't need to be as individually talented or whatever, they just need to be a better fit for our team. I'm honestly convinced we would do a lot better with a player who can at least sometime do a kick that isn't a bomb landing 20m from the tryline and grubbers that don't hit opposition legs 80% of the time.

name one currently on our books that is a better fit for our team than hunt

 

[Cult]

I hate how everyone keeps saying there aren't any halves as good as Hunt. They don't need to be as individually talented or whatever, they just need to be a better fit for our team. I'm honestly convinced we would do a lot better with a player who can at least sometime do a kick that isn't a bomb landing 20m from the tryline and grubbers that don't hit opposition legs 80% of the time.

Uh oh, more made up stats. Do I dare bite?

 

[Foordy]

I've been gathering my thoughts on losing Hunt and here is what I've come up with:

Hunt leaving

I am extremely disappointed to lose Hunt, while he isn't the perfect halfback by any means, he is super talented and there any that many in the NRL better than him.

That said, i don't think he is worth a million a season just yet, and i would never sign a player to a 6 year contract. However the offer from the Dragons would have been far too good to refuse, and i don't blame him accepting, especially given the limited shelf life of rugby league players.

I also think the pressure on Milford to become a complete half has just skyrocketed, given he won't be able to hide behind Hunt anymore (since Hunt seems to cop all of the blame for our perceived playmaking woes)

Hunt's Replacement

Of the off contract halves for 2018, i would be going hard at Shaun Johnson. he has his deficiencies as well, but maybe a change of club and change of culture would work wonders for him.

other potential replacements are:

Luke Brooks - I'm not sold on him TBH, but that could be just the shitty Tigpies system that he is in.

Mitchell Pearce - Problem child, shit rep player, decent club player

I also don't know why people keep mentioning players that are still contracted for 2018 and beyond. while players are released from contracts frequently, the clubs have to still be prepared to grant the release, and very few clubs (if any) will release a quality playmaker. Milford is a perfect example of this, we wanted him a year early, the Raiders said **** you he is going nowhere and he played that final season with the Raiders before joining us. (Ponga is another example of this)

so that leaves us with either chasing uncontracted players, nuffies or sacrificing a season to wait for a good halfback to come off contract

 

[BroncsFan]

I love how everyone thinks signing a new player is like a video game. You can't just assume Shaun Johnson will pack up and leave his junior club and New Zealand to join the broncos for at market or unders. Same with cleary, elgey, Pearce, Reynolds, brooks, etc.

I can see us going down the signing Benji for a one year extension and offering money at Taylor for 2019

 

[Foordy]

I love how everyone thinks signing a new player is like a video game. You can't just assume Shaun Johnson will pack up and leave his junior club and New Zealand to join the broncos for at market or unders. Same with cleary, elgey, Pearce, Reynolds, brooks, etc.

I can see us going down the signing Benji for a one year extension and offering money at Taylor for 2019

no one is assuming that we will just sign Shaun Johnson, but this isn't the '70s players do leave their current clubs.

What some of us are saying though is we should make sure we are in the hunt to sign Johnson though. and you can't just assume Taylor will pack his back and come back up the M1, after the Titans gave him his chance in first grade. your theory also basically sacrafices the 2018 season.

we need to be looking at the halves that are off contract at the end of the year.

based on your theory, we would only ever sign players that we have developed. It doesn't work these days.

 

[BroncsFan]

no one is assuming that we will just sign Shaun Johnson, but this isn't the '70s players do leave their current clubs.

What some of us are saying though is we should make sure we are in the hunt to sign Johnson though. and you can't just assume Taylor will pack his back and come back up the M1, after the Titans gave him his chance in first grade. your theory also basically sacrafices the 2018 season.

we need to be looking at the halves that are off contract at the end of the year.

based on your theory, we would only ever sign players that we have developed. It doesn't work these days.

My point is more along the lines of the effort required to sign an off contract player from another team... so if you're going to go down that path (which many have been wanting since half way through 2016) you had better pick the right player to target cause you might be paying overs, losing players, etc. to get them.

Then names like clearly, reynolds, brooks and pearce are thrown around like we could actually get them without paying overs just because we're the broncos.

Only have to look at what drags have had to pay to pry hunt away from us

 

[BroncsFan]

For what it's worth I think the broncs should already be in Taylor's ear about 2019. If it becomes apparent early on that he's ours for 2019 onwards then everyone has seen what can happen to contract as the rumours circle about a player's future

 

[winslow_wong]

but not in 1999 when we limped into 8th spot??

Grand final hangover. It's a thing. We did win it 97(super league I know), 98 and 2000.

 

[Marty Deutschmann]

I say it again.. why does everyone think we can't get Taylor back for 2018??
Because he's contracted..? So what!
A few things will determine it... we need the eels to not make a huge play for Hayne (which they could now Semi is leaving) so that the GC have to pay big to keep him then not being able to keep both Elgey and Taylor.
It also depends how well Elgey goes this year... i hope he has a blinder! That way there is real competition for top half spot (like we had) and we can offer him an extended deal.
So we need Parrah to lock up their money somehwere else and at this stage Corey Norman looks like their biggest asset (uh oh)
Why I'm hoping the tigers beat out the roosters for Tedesco, meaning Brooks has to be squeezed to the Eels. Parra might want to go after a strike Centre now since they will no longer have a game changer on their hands in semi though