Matt Lodge given permission to train with Broncos

[big k]

im pretty sure if he declares bankruptcy he will need to forfeit any money in excess of earning $55k a year to the bankruptcy trustee, either until the debt is paid or he is discharged from bankruptcy after 5 or 7 years. i cant remember exactly but its something along those lines.
so even if he shows up in a few years time he will still have to pay if he is in that timeframe

You are bankrupt for 3 years before getting discharged. The trustee can request it be longer, but this rarely happens. If you have a house the trustee has an interest in the house for a further 6 years, so anytime during that entire 9 years, if the value goes up they can force the sale. For the 3 years you are bankrupt you pay 50% of your after tax wage/salary after a certain weekly amout to the trustee. The amount you can earn before having to pay depends on number of dependants. For the record... been there done this many years ago.

I can understand his move. If he declares bankruptcy now and signs a league contract, the lawyers from the states may push to have the bankruptcy extended time and time again until the full debt is paid, as mentioned extensions are rare, but big league contracts and greedy lawyers could see it happen. No league contract and any ruling on an extension on the bankruptcy will take into account his situation and loss of preferred career.

 

[Broncs_Fan]

Lodge will play NRL again. He has a lot of talent as a forward. No way he is walking away from that. Just wants to be closer to his immediate family most likely.

 

[Battler]

Call me paranoid, but this WREAKS of the Roosters. Maybe Poltis or one of his mates can pay off his bills and sign him for a six year contract at 100-200k a year. I wouldn't rule out the Rabbits either.

 

[barker]

lodge and ese'ese were the long term front row future. its a hell of a mess now

Something just doesn't make sense about the Lodge/Ese Ese contract debacle. It says in tonight's article that Bennett privately contacted the NRL a fortnight ago to try and register Lodge's contract before the 30th June. In other words the Broncos knew full well about the struggles and hardship Lodge was experiencing and they must have been talking through his options with him.
When the NRL knocked back Lodge's registration before the June 30 deadline, Bennett must have known there was a possibility that Matt Lodge would have to walk away from rugby league.
Why then, did Bennett end negotiations with Ese Ese so suddenly in the first week of July? Ese Ese's manager stated that he hadn't actually signed with Newcastle so Bennett could have asked Ese Ese's manager to wait a little bit longer in case the Broncos found they suddenly had Lodge's money left over and could have offered Ese Ese a little bit more money.
How badly did they want to keep Ese Ese?

 

[Kimlo]

Lodge's money doesn't exist.

Just because Lodge isn't there anymore, it doesn't mean Ese is worth anymore than what Bennett thinks he is worth. If Bennett sees him as a 300k player, he's not going to pay more than that because someone else walked out, that's what desperate clubs do, overpay on juniors and when most of them turn out to be flops they end up a rabble. And most of them do not turn out to be stars.

Out of all our juniors in the last 5 years, who has come into grade, stayed in grade, and became a genuinely good NRL player? Not many.

Oates is one, Kahu is another... Struggling to think of anyone else who has come in and proven themselves?
TPJ, Kodi, Ese, Offa? All show potential, but far from proven or genuine main-stay first graders.
Taylor would have, but that's been done to death.

 

[Number6]

Smart move from Lodge. He should have made sooner. If it's only 3 years then go bankrupt asap. Study, save your body and sit it out with family on Centrelink then come back as a redemption story for the rorters once everyone forgotten about his assault on huge coin closer to his prime as a front rower. Why slog it out far from home to pay ridiculous US damages (what he did was terrible and he deserves to make amends to society but money doesn't solve people's problems, except perhaps which new Beamer their lawyers should get).

Why didn't the Broncs see all this? Very questionable decisions being made in recruitment.

 

[Sproj]

Oates is one, Kahu is another... Struggling to think of anyone else who has come in and proven themselves?

Beale, Norman, Wallace, Copley, Hoffman (on the wing), JYY, Granville, Baptiste

Some of these guys are now stars in Wallace, Granville, Norman. Some others are genuinely good players in Baptiste, Beale. JYY would have been the best of the lot by a country mile but anyway.

How many of those guys though are actually still at the club?

Fast forward five years and you will likely be able to add Ese2, Su'a, Fai, Arrow, Joffa but how many of them will be with us?

We can talk all we want about not paying overs and I whole-heartedly agree but we should definitely not be trying to rip players off like it seems we were with Ese'ese. I reckon another 30-40k and he stays.

 

[Socnorb]

This situation begs the question. What was the plan for Lodge moving forward?

 

[Aldo]

Seems strange that he waited for 2 years and is getting really close to (most likely) being let back in for him to just walk away now. I agree with others that he'll be playing next year in the NRL.

 

[Foordy]

If it's only 3 years then go bankrupt asap

unless they have changed the laws around bankruptcy it is 7 years before you can be discharged

 

[Morkel]

Maybe that was the issue with Ese'Ese. Maybe the possibility of Lodge pulling the pin has been on the cards for a while, and Herman's manager was using that to play hardball. It's a fair tactic, as they were holding the cards, but it's not how Wayne works.

 

[barker]

Maybe that was the issue with Ese'Ese. Maybe the possibility of Lodge pulling the pin has been on the cards for a while, and Herman's manager was using that to play hardball. It's a fair tactic, as they were holding the cards, but it's not how Wayne works.

Very true, but now we are suddenly down two front rowers who were supposed to be the future of the Broncos. I would have thought that Ese Ese became more valuable to the Broncos once Lodge was off the scene.

 

[Morkel]

Very true, but now we are suddenly down two front rowers who were supposed to be the future of the Broncos. I would have thought that Ese Ese became more valuable to the Broncos once Lodge was off the scene.

Lodge not being here does not make Ese'Ese a better player. Paying overs because there aren't any better players is what teams like Newcastle have done and may never recover from. Paying on potential is what the Tigers did with Brooks and Moses and they paid overs to keep Tedesco and now he's gone anyway.

Seems to me that the best players for clubs to have are the ones who will accept a fair contract because they want to play here. That may still happen with Ese'Ese but he may have burn any bridges already.

How that fits with Milford and Bird I'm not sure, unless Bennett believes that their contracts are indeed fair for what they bring and how committed they'll be to our cause.

 

[Big Pete]

Beale, Norman, Wallace, Copley, Hoffman (on the wing), JYY, Granville, Baptiste

pwn did say 5 years. The only player who qualifies is Granville and he left during the previous coaching tenure. Even so, Jake was always going to be hard to keep with Green at Townsville.

Development hasn't been an issue for the club. It's a shame that a player like Ese'ese used the club's time to bolster his own interests, but that's NRL football.

 

[Sproj]

pwn did say 5 years. The only player who qualifies is Granville and he left during the previous coaching tenure. Even so, Jake was always going to be hard to keep with Green at Townsville.

Development hasn't been an issue for the club. It's a shame that a player like Ese'ese used the club's time to bolster his own interests, but that's NRL football.

But he used the example of Kahu who has been more than five years as well. In any case, if Oates is the only 'star' we've produced in the last five years, we have a massive problem with either talent identification or retention, particularly cos anyone with half a brain would have looked at Oates, watched him run and gone, that kid will be something.

Also, I don't think Ese2 was being greedy by asking for more. He is one of the most promising front rowers in the game who is already producing pretty well with massive upside. With the cap going up and rumours of what certain players are on, if the 275k offer is accurate (and it's the media so who knows), then I can't blame him for trying to get a bit more. If he was searching for 400k plus, then fair enough, let him go.

 

[Alec]

But he used the example of Kahu who has been more than five years as well. In any case, if Oates is the only 'star' we've produced in the last five years, we have a massive problem with either talent identification or retention, particularly cos anyone with half a brain would have looked at Oates, watched him run and gone, that kid will be something.

Also, I don't think Ese2 was being greedy by asking for more. He is one of the most promising front rowers in the game who is already producing pretty well with massive upside. With the cap going up and rumours of what certain players are on, if the 275k offer is accurate (and it's the media so who knows), then I can't blame him for trying to get a bit more. If he was searching for 400k plus, then fair enough, let him go.

We definitely don't identify talent as well as some other clubs. Look at Melbourne for instance, they leave us for dead. We should be doing a far better job, being the richest club with the best production line (most of SE QLD).

 

[tommy]

We definitely don't identify talent as well as some other clubs. Look at Melbourne for instance, they leave us for dead. We should be doing a far better job, being the richest club with the best production line (most of SE QLD).

Sucks even more that alot of the people Storm did get were from straight under our noses.

 

[Big Pete]

But he used the example of Kahu who has been more than five years as well.

Kahu didn't debut until 2013.

Also, I don't think Ese2 was being greedy by asking for more.

I don't begrudge either side, but it isn't the club's fault they put time into a player who walked out even though there was a deal in place for 2018. In hindsight, that time could have gone to another player and we'd probably have another name to discuss but there was no way of knowing at the time.