NEWS Lodge: love you Brisbane

Matthew Lodge has another year on his $700,000 (rumoured) contract, and two more as options. Coach Kevin Walters has invited him to leave to free up some cap space, but Matt wants to remain and prove his worth:

“To be honest, I love it here. I owe a lot to this club for giving me another chance. I‘m always grateful to be at the Broncos. I came here four years ago with a 20kg suitcase and I was on Centrelink payments, so whatever happens happens. I don‘t want to leave the club. I will play as hard as I can and give my all until the day I walk out of here.”

“I don’t know what’s going on. I will keep our chat private, you can ask Kevvie what he said to me. He is obviously still thinking about things and obviously they want to sign a halfback and he has made that clear to me."

Cult following

“Something has to give with the salary cap, but I’ll be giving 100 per cent as long as I am at this club. Four years ago, I had nothing and my career was up in the air. I don’t know what happens but as long as I keep playing well there is hope for me. I never not turn up. I always try and play hard for the Broncos jumper so as long as I’m here, I won’t be letting the club down. I’m happy to put my body on the line and I care about the club so I’ll be trying my best for Kevvie. Hopefully I can stay here a while yet.”

Tevita Pangai Jnr:

“Lodgey has put three or four good games together and we’ve seen what he can do in the middle. With his charges in the middle, he inspires all of us. Hopefully he can stay but it’s up to him and the club.”

McHunt

 

[pagey]

If we wanted to ask Lodge to play for less money then I'm sorry, but the time to do that was when we were negotiating his contract. Coming back to him 18 months down the track with a problem that we created and expecting him to take the haircut for it is not only incredibly unprofessional (in thoroughly keeping with the current Broncos standards) but it's also morally a pretty weak thing to do too.

If we want guys to stay for less money then it's now up to the current Administration to put their big boy pants on, earn their damn pay cheque and negotiate that with the guys currently up for renewal.

We've been enough of a laughing stock over the last few years as it is. We don't need to add to it by asking the players themselves to pay for the mistakes of the people who actually made them. If Isaac Moses and the player agents are such master negotiators that have been able to bend us over so badly for so long, maybe the question needs to be why isn't one of them working for us instead of the same clowns who negotiated our shitty end of these deals?

Yeah I mean it's not like we were the only club to give him a chance after his **** up .

 

[Foordy]

I want to know how we don’t have an absolute ridiculous amount of spare cash next year?

depends which reporter and which article you read these days ... some say we have a war chest others say we don't have 2 sticks to rub together.

truth probably somewhere in the middle ... but looking at it realistically we, get Bird's & Macca's money free, not to mention that if we even offer Milf a contract it won't be a million a season

 

[Skyblues87]

it doesn't matter if Kev needs coin or not. he has a contract effectively until end of 2024.

if he wanted to dig his heels in and stay, nothing Kev or anyone else can do about it.

theoretically he could take a pay cut, but he has no obligation to

Is suspect the club looked after Lodge with his contract in light of the compensation he had to pay in America. That said Lodge has played up to his contract value apart from last season when Seibold played him when he was busted. It is possible Lodge would repay the club and not excercise his player options but there is no guarantee of this. I like Lodge particularly his go forward from kick offs. Unfortunately due to Vlandys changing the rules every 5 minutes Lodge type players are becoming extinct and players like Radley and RCG appear to be the way fwd.

 

[Galah]

Is suspect the club looked after Lodge with his contract in light of the compensation he had to pay in America. That said Lodge has played up to his contract value apart from last season when Seibold played him when he was busted. It is possible Lodge would repay the club and not excercise his player options but there is no guarantee of this. I like Lodge particularly his go forward from kick offs. Unfortunately due to Vlandys changing the rules every 5 minutes Lodge type players are becoming extinct and players like Radley and RCG appear to be the way fwd.

He just needs to get trimmer instead of deliberately packing on weight. He’s got a big frame and a lean lodge is a tasty proposition as he does possess ball skills, to suit this version of nrl.

 

[McHunt]

They still have careers after football, they don't just stop working. If lodge plays 5 years @ $750k that's 3.75mil
How long will it take me on $100k ???
Perspective huh ?
Sorry if I don't feel for the guy

No one's asking for you to feel sorry, but he has a right to act in his best interests. As does everyone. But a contract is a contract. It's meant to mean something.

 

[Kooly87]

No one's asking for you to feel sorry, but he has a right to act in his best interests. As does everyone. But a contract is a contract. It's meant to mean something.

Exactly right. You can imagine the uproar on here if Payne Haas was kicking stones and sulking because he's currently being paid huge unders on his current deal and wanted more money all of a sudden.

We'd be rightly demanding he shut up and do his job for the money he signed up for at the time because that's how a contract works and if he wanted more money that was up to his Manager to get it for him back when he signed.

 

[pagey]

No one's asking for you to feel sorry, but he has a right to act in his best interests. As does everyone. But a contract is a contract. It's meant to mean something.

But the reality is they aren't these days, and if he feels he owes the club and could help by signing a slightly lower contract to bring the team more success. It's not a big deal, if he has that option or being pushed out the door.

 

[Medic]

Is this actually fact we have asked lodge to move on?

 

[BroncsFan]

I actually think its really rich, and poor taste for the club to tap him on the shoulder. He deserves better than that, and really the one who should be getting the tap is flegler.

I hope he continues to put in good performances and stays.

I think it's all about his PO's for 23 and 24, and that he's effectively a free agent as of Nov 1 this year.

Kevvie could just be indicating that he's looking to rebalance the salary cap and at the end of his current deal they may not be able to match his current wage (Haas comes off contract around then as well).. so if he has a look around the market after Nov 1 and happens to find a more secure deal they can look to facilitate an early move.

He has 3 more years at decent wage, but if someone says they can sign him from 23 onwards for similar money and a 4yr deal that suddenly becomes more secure than the Bronocs possibly looking to cut his wage from 2025 onwards.

 

[Sproj]

depends which reporter and which article you read these days ... some say we have a war chest others say we don't have 2 sticks to rub together.

truth probably somewhere in the middle ... but looking at it realistically we, get Bird's & Macca's money free, not to mention that if we even offer Milf a contract it won't be a million a season

I’m ok for Milf to stay but I do fear it will be upwards of 500k.

 

[pagey]

Exactly right. You can imagine the uproar on here if Payne Haas was kicking stones and sulking because he's currently being paid huge unders on his current deal and wanted more money all of a sudden.

We'd be rightly demanding he shut up and do his job for the money he signed up for at the time because that's how a contract works and if he wanted more money that was up to his Manager to get it for him back when he signed.

Not even close to comparable situations. You're making out that I'm telling him to take unders because he's not up to standards, read the fucking article.

 

[Foordy]

Is this actually fact we have asked lodge to move on?

all we know for sure is that Kevvie had a chat to Lodge ... neither will say what it's about.

 

[Sproj]

Is this actually fact we have asked lodge to move on?

It’s not a fact but both Kevvie and Lodge have both heavily implied a ‘conversation’ has taken place. What said conversation was and what was discussed is up to the imagination of Basel and co.

 

[Foordy]

I’m ok for Milf to stay but I do fear it will be upwards of 500k.

If we could land Reynolds ... then 500k for Milford could become a bargain. he could play a similar role as Cody Walker does since the majority of the play making burden would be off his shoulders.

i certainly wouldn't be paying any more than 500k (and it would depend on landing a half like Reynolds)

 

[Sproj]

If we could land Reynolds ... then 500k for Milford could become a bargain. he could play a similar role as Cody Walker does since the majority of the play making burden would be off his shoulders.

i certainly wouldn't be paying any more than 500k (and it would depend on landing a half like Reynolds)

300k max for Milf. If he wants to stay, 300k is what he is currently worth.

 

[McHunt]

But the reality is they aren't these days, and if he feels he owes the club and could help by signing a slightly lower contract to bring the team more success. It's not a big deal, if he has that option or being pushed out the door.

Well they are, but it's become increasingly common for parties to agree to rescind the contract. They wouldn't be doing so if they disagreed on the terms, though. For example, if Lodge wants to leave to another competitor right now, the Broncos have to the right to prevent him from competing against them until the end of his contract, plus other financial remedies such as not paying him, fining him etc. We don't know what's in his player options, but there could reasonably be provisos that might allow the club to refuse, such as performance targets, behaviour etc. Not saying there is, but contracts aren't all shits and giggles.

 

[McHunt]

Haven’t seen loyalty for a while

Cuts both ways.

 

[McHunt]

Exactly right. You can imagine the uproar on here if Payne Haas was kicking stones and sulking because he's currently being paid huge unders on his current deal and wanted more money all of a sudden.

We'd be rightly demanding he shut up and do his job for the money he signed up for at the time because that's how a contract works and if he wanted more money that was up to his Manager to get it for him back when he signed.

I think we all feel for Payne right now. I wouldn't be unhappy if they gave him the interim captaincy as a token of appreciation.