NEWS Payne: don't take my brother away

As his teammates were about to pack down again Souths, Payne Haas allegedly urged opposing half Adam Reynolds' to use his influence to keep Tevita Pangai Jr in a Broncos jersey next season.

Payne:

“I can‘t remember the whole ’convo,' we were getting pumped, but I figured ’Reyno’ could pull some strings, so I asked him to help keep Tevita."

“I really hope Tevita can stay. Tevita is like a brother to me. I hold him close to my heart. I am really close to Tevita and hopefully there is some way he can stay, I hope the Broncos can see eye-to-eye and find a way for him to be here.”

Peaches & Cream

"At the end of the day, I‘m a footy player here. I can’t control what’s going on with other players’ contracts, so I will keep training hard and putting in for the Broncos and if other players leave, I’ll roll with the punches."

“But I just feel that Tevita is one of the best forwards in the game on his day. He has probably been the most consistent he has ever been this year and I felt like it was weird that we were getting rid of him because he has been one of our best this year. Tevita brings that aggression and any opponent knows he is a pretty hard guy to handle.”

Ben Ikin is okay if he stays:

“At this stage Tevita will remain at the Broncos up until such time that we get some guidance from his agent that things may change. We are committed to getting the best we can from Tevita and all our players and creating the best environment from the players we‘ve got for the remainder of the year. We understand things will bubble away in the background and we will deal with whatever comes to us if and when any transfer deal is put to us.”

McHunt

 

[Cult]

If Haas wants TPJ to stay he can forgo some of his next contract then. 750k a year and TPJ can stay for 250k or whatever might be leftover for him until he proves he wants to be here.

**** TPJ, this club needs players who want to be here and there's no excuse for him to be contacting clubs when he is contracted for us. If they're not committed then they can leave. I'm sick of the club I love being used as a bargaining chip or a step towards signing elsewhere for money. I understand they have to plan for their future but I want to like the players at the club love. And we shouldn't even be thinking about upgrading Haas or letting him have any sway at the club until he goes an off season without doing something stupid.

 

[rnabokov]

I don't think so. He's only acknowledging they're contractually obligated to see out their deal, and that it's in the club's best interests to get value back on it by playing him. Ikin's comments are careful and guarded.

From afar, it looks to me like Kevvie's earmarked him as a destabilizing influence or someone who's too hard to bring into the fold. Whether that's aligning himself to the playbook, or around the squad, it's too hard to say because Tevita can certainly bat his eyelashes and play the game with the media.

No idea whether he was prematurely scouting for other clubs. Tevita says not. The Broncos say not. But the smoke is thick on that one, and the club is now openly flogging him for a subsidy.

That Payne wants him to stay, and the Broncos want to please Payne, makes it look like Tevita wants to stay and is being pushed out due to them either needing the money, or not wanting him around the other players. Again, no idea, but that says to me the club sees Tevita as a bad influence on Payne. That they don't want the pair of them forming a stubborn clique.

While Tevita has been one of our best this season, it's been a season in which we've lacked cohesion, and slid to the bottom of the table. Despite his flashes of brilliance, he hasn't been winning us games. Unlike the immediate transformation we saw with Staggs, Gamble, Robati and Kelly.

Again this is all pure speculation, but the message the club has been sending is it wants to attract players of a certain character, and it wants to get rid of Tevita. Reading between the lines this appears to be a comment on Tevita's character. Which is a shame because he's a fan favourite.

If (or when) Tevita is used properly as a back rower, which for mine is his best position, say as Penrith do with Kikau, he's a game breaker, and exactly what we need.

Given that Kevvie is still coaching a style of play that lost relevance last year, then TPJ is wasted. Relying on him for individual brilliance, as we do, is just a stupid waste of resources.

 

[the_next]

It's a hard one the TPJ scenario..
He can be a great player. He has the talent, it's just whether or not he wants to be consistent week in, week out.
His off field behaviour, much like his on field behaviour, can raise some eyebrows.
He shopped himself around and is now trying to make it look as though the club are the ones now shopping him around, and that they're kicking him to the kerb.
Haas coming out and putting his two cents in is certainly interesting. He has already lost his best mate in Fifita to another club, a good mate in Lodge and now it looks like another close mate in TPJ will soon be gone.
Is Haas using his quality and potential extension as a negotiating tool in trying to keep TPJ at the club?
Will TPJ actually now be better on and off field now that he and Lodge aren't around each other everyday?
Would we be paying a significant $ to his yearly contract in 2022?
Is he part of the cultural issues that DD and Ikin have identified in-house?
Another suspension on or off the field would mean what? Potentially even longer out of the 17..Can we afford that?
Sure he is a talent, but is he consistent enough? is he worth all of the issues that seem to follow him?
There are just so many moving parts here, all which have an impact on whether we can move forward with TPJ or if it is now beyond repair between he and the club.

It certainly is a tough one..

 

[Wolfie]

A years wages confident? I have no idea who called whom but it's not impossible to believe that a club, cognizant of the fact that TPJ was unhappy in 2020 and their club being in need of firepower might make a call , either directly or indirectly. Like WT might have called TPJ's agent and said they want to have a chat and TPJ simply said, sure I will listen. I mean it's possible, right?

No matter what though I don't have any issues with TPJ calling other clubs, al, 15 if he likes, superleague and jap rugby too. It doesn't mean he won't play well when he's here or that he's any less committed. You're a longtime retired and thinking a club cares is fraught. People may care about you but clubs...

If it was realistic for me to prove it on here, I'd be pretty confident to bet a very large sum of money he shopped himself around. I don't actually think it's some big conspiracy, I take fairly common knowledge what he did, especially with the roosters.

At the same time, I'm also fairly sure the club was aware of it as well and had no issues.I also don't really have an issue with him doing it either if I'm honest.

 

[simplythebest]

Haas coming out and saying he doesn't want TPJ to leave is fine - but if he was going to demand it and try to use that in a bargaining sense for his own contract then he can GTFO.

No player - nobody - is worth sacrificing the good of the club moving forward for.

IF (I'm saying IF not stating it as fact) IF TPJ is a bad influence on the playing group and part of the problem with the playing group/culture/whatever and Haas was going to try and use him as a bargaining chip for his own contract moving forward - then he isn't the type of person we want at the club, regardless of how good he is.