Wayne Bennett confirmed as 2015 coach of Brisbane Broncos

[Foordy]

WAYNE Bennett will only have seven weeks to lock down the best crop of young talent the Broncos have produced since he left the club.

It is understood Broncos officials have told player managers this week that negotiations with their clients will be put on hold until September when Bennett finishes his duties with Newcastle.

The best of the Broncos young talent, including 17-year-old prodigy Jayden Nikorima, are off-contract at the end of next season and can negotiate with rival clubs from November 1.

The Knights last game is on September 7.

If Bennett wants to extend contracts of the current roster before rivals tempt them with mega offers, he will have less than two months to do so.

If anyone can rope in prodigies however it is Bennett.

Ben Hunt has already spoken of his desire to test the market and Bennett's commitments to the Knights mean key targets Corey Oates and Josh McGuire will likely meet with NRL rivals.

Player managers have long-spoken about a "Broncos spell" that sees players sign for less without even negotiating with rival clubs.

There is genuine anger in the Broncos playing group that Anthony Griffin has been fired and for several of the younger players it has been a blunt realisation that loyalty doesn't exist in the NRL.

There are also players at the Broncos who were off-side with Griffin and welcome Bennett's arrival.

While Bennett will have little time to try and secure the roster, the depth at the club is its strongest since 2008 when their under-20s team made the grand final under Griffin.

The club's fullback logjam is the most pressing issue at Red Hill.

Ben Barba and Josh Hoffman will be joined by star custodian Anthony Milford next year.
Milford said this week he would play wherever Wayne Bennett wanted him too but it is obvious his best position is fullback.

Hoffman is also off-contract at the end of next season.
The traffic jam for the No.1 jersey could cost the club its most talented teenager, with Jayden Nikorima set to test the open market during the off-season.

Nikorima is one of several young Broncos who had been negotiating with the Broncos prior to Anthony Griffin's dismissal.

Nikorima, whose older brother Kodi is also on the Broncos' books, is off-contract at the end of next season.
Brisbane officials have met with the 17-year-old Australian Schoolboys fullback in attempt to negotiate a contract extension but the dynamic playmaker is concerned about his pathway to firstgrade.

He now wants to concentrate solely on football for the rest of this season and then discuss contracts in the off-season.

Griffin wanted to secure Nikorima long-term and it is understood the club views him as Barba's eventual replacement.

Nikorima's representative performances suggest he should play first grade as a teenager but that is unlikely to happen at the Broncos.

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what the hell are the club doing ... I understand and support the coach getting the players he wants, but we shouldn't risk losing our young stars.

I hope this doesn't mean they are going to hold of on the likes of Hunt and McGuire

 

[Porthoz]

Another November 1 bullshit deadline. If other clubs want to woo a player, they can do so at any time. They'll still be subject to the round 13 rule, which really how much time Bennett has to lock in the players he wants...

 

[Super Freak]

Another November 1 bullshit deadline. If other clubs want to woo a player, they can do so at any time. They'll still be subject to the round 13 rule, which really how much time Bennett has to lock in the players he wants...

I guess they didn't read this article posted by the NRL explaining it all.

We’ve had a few high profile player signings of late so thought it worthwhile to explain the NRL's guidelines around player transfers.

The current ‘anti-tampering’ guidelines state that clubs are able to talk to players at any time, however the NRL will not register a player’s contract with a new club until after Round 13 in the final year of that player’s existing contract with his current club. The only exception to this is where the existing club agrees that the new contract should be registered. Unless that agreement is given, the NRL by not registering the contract ensures that the player’s existing club has a fair chance of retaining its player by putting forward another contract.

Prior to this system we had a strict anti-tampering deadline of June 30 which meant that no club could talk to a player under contract at another club until after June 30 in the final year of the player’s contract (unless his club gave prior approval).

While good in theory, the difficulty of the system is that it is virtually impossible to police and there were frequent news reports suggesting secret meetings between player representatives and clubs. It became impossible to differentiate between a general conversation about a player’s future and an actual negotiation. The speculation that grew around the June 30 date and about who was seen talking to who attracted more media speculation than the existing system. This was further fuelled by the significant number of players who suddenly signed with clubs immediately after July 1. All of this was seen as putting players and clubs under significant pressure.

In 2006 the game announced it was moving to a more transparent approach that would allow clubs and players to talk in the open and give fans and all parties an awareness of what was happening.
It is accepted that nobody likes to see players negotiating with a new team, but there is also the reality that players in the game do change clubs and that those discussions can take place over an extended period.

The gap between one year’s Grand Final and the next year’s pre-season training is now so small that it is impractical to wait until the end of a year to determine where a player will go the next season.
The added pressure is the need for clubs to finalise next year’s roster as early as possible. This is particularly so for teams looking to re-build.

This all leads to the professional reality that players will from time to time move clubs, and the NRL’s current approach is the most transparent system to accommodate that reality and to give existing clubs the opportunity to retain the stars they most value.

Any system that relies on restricting contract negotiations to a specific period will in time suffer from speculation that talks are taking place in the background between parties before the deadline itself.

NRL.com - Origin News - Article

 

[Super Freak]

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what the hell are the club doing ... I understand and support the coach getting the players he wants, but we shouldn't risk losing our young stars.

I hope this doesn't mean they are going to hold of on the likes of Hunt and McGuire

I think it's a slow day at the office and they needed something to write about so they just pull whatever they can think of out their ass and write a story about it.

 

[Porthoz]

I've posted links to that NRL article a gazillion times...

I cannot believe how clueless aussie sports journos are. This information on the official site of the NRL is over 4 years old.

 

[broncos4life]

I've posted links to that NRL article a gazillion times...

I cannot believe how clueless aussie sports journos are. This information on the official site of the NRL is over 4 years old.

Unfortunately with some of them they aren't clueless, but they know they average reader is and they use that to their advantage to stir up hysteria

 

[Foordy]

I've posted links to that NRL article a gazillion times...

I cannot believe how clueless aussie sports journos are. This information on the official site of the NRL is over 4 years old.

thats true ... which is why it is incredibly foolish to wait until September to start negotiations (if the report is true and that is what the club is doing)

 

[broncos4life]

thats true ... which is why it is incredibly foolish to wait until September to start negotiations (if the report is true and that is what the club is doing)

Regardless of what the media says it would be incredibly naive to think Bennett isn't already planning and dealing with retention and recruitment as we speak, in fact he probably started Sunday afternoon last week.

As if they club is going to say any different.

"Oh yeah mate Benny's already working on that while he is still employed at Newcastle, no wakkas"

That would go down well...

 

[Foordy]

Regardless of what the media says it would be incredibly naive to think Bennett isn't already planning and dealing with retention and recruitment as we speak, in fact he probably started Sunday afternoon last week.

As if they club is going to say any different.

"Oh yeah mate Benny's already working on that while he is still employed at Newcastle, no wakkas"

That would go down well...

I certainly hope your right and Bennett is working to securing the talent he wants, and that the media are spinning BS to sell papers.

but if their not, then the club needs to have a good hard look at themselves. their isn't much loyalty left in rugby league and some of the young players may not want to risk waiting and missing out on other offers, if Bennett doesn't want them

 

[Splinter]

thats true ... which is why it is incredibly foolish to wait until September to start negotiations (if the report is true and that is what the club is doing)

Bennett will have a fair idea of who wants to be there by September. I think it is a good move

 

[theshed]

I'm sure benno has already had a good long chat to the players he wants to build the team around next year.

The rest can wait until September or leave.

 

[Splinter]

I doubt he has spoken to the players, more likely told the managers September is when he will be focused on negotiations. Players won't leave before speaking to the Broncos unless they know they have not been putting in and can see the writing on the wall

 

[Porthoz]

thats true ... which is why it is incredibly foolish to wait until September to start negotiations (if the report is true and that is what the club is doing)

I don't see it that way tbh.

Pretty sure whomever wants Moose or Hunt, to name a couple, already engaged in talks with their agents. It would be silly and naive to think otherwise. But they have to contend with the round 13 rule, which means it's very unlikely anything will be signed or announced before next pre-season (see Milford's example), so WB really well and truly has more than half a year to get his men.

For the same reason, unless a player has made up his mind about leaving because of "Bennett Gate", the players will want to see what Wayne's intentions are before taking other offers seriously. And they can do that, because the demand for quality players in the NRL is well above what's available on the free market.

 

[Brett]

My 2c on recruitment... I posted this on LU, so I've just copied and pasted. Appologies if you've already read this.

My gut feeling tells me Bennett will sign Hunt, then build a team around him, much like he did with Lockyer. Bennett loves big forwards too, so McGuire might be finding himself out of a spot if he's not careful. Having said that, I'd love to keep him.

You start with a core of players: Hunt, Barba, Milford, McCullough. There's your spine. Couple good props: McGuire (?), Hannant (?), Kennedy (?), Mason (?). Throw in the worlds best Lock: Parker (Dodds or Oates to replace him if he's injured etc). I think then Bennett's biggest headache will be the Backrow. Thaiday is lazy, Glenn has not had his best year, but is always safe and toils hard, and Gillett has been injured for a while, but is the worst defender in the NRL. Bennett won't cop the missed tackles.

I think the backline kinda picks itself outside of the spine. Copley, Hodges, Vidot, Kahu, Nikorima, Drew, Maranta. I don't see a place for Reed.

Ostensibly, the team looks great. I'm very interested to see what Bennett actually does, but my gut tells me he'll build around Hunt, much like he built around Lockyer and Soward.

 

[Danoz Direct]

I just hope we don't sign Boyd, offload Hoffman and maybe Kennedy. If we don't do these things we may end up losing some of our most promising young players.

 

[Foordy]

I don't see it that way tbh.

Pretty sure whomever wants Moose or Hunt, to name a couple, already engaged in talks with their agents. It would be silly and naive to think otherwise. But they have to contend with the round 13 rule, which means it's very unlikely anything will be signed or announced before next pre-season (see Milford's example), so WB really well and truly has more than half a year to get his men.

For the same reason, unless a player has made up his mind about leaving because of "Bennett Gate", the players will want to see what Wayne's intentions are before taking other offers seriously. And they can do that, because the demand for quality players in the NRL is well above what's available on the free market.

I certainly hope your right ... i just hope Hunt, for example, doesn't get a big offer from a rival and decides to take it because he isn't sure where he stands with Bennett and the new coaching structure.

 

[Battler]

I just hope we don't sign Boyd, offload Hoffman and maybe Kennedy. If we don't do these things we may end up losing some of our most promising young players.

If the club are confident in J. Nikorima's (who seems to have the most potential out of the crop of players coming through, although I admittedly don't watch too much of the 20s) progress I wouldn't be against getting rid of Barba, Hoffman (maybe after next season if they want Nikorima to develop a bit more in the ISC/ 20s) and Kennedy. A spine of 1. Milf/ Nikorima, 6. Milf/ Nikorima, 7. Hunt, 9. McC has potential. Getting rid of Kennedy (along with Stagg and Lowrie, although that should be an obvious choice) means that we can ease blokes like Molo and Wallace into the side from the bench.

EDIT: Granville going means that we can play Nikorima from the bench, so maybe just roll with that until 2016.

 

[Danoz Direct]

It will be very interesting to see who is in the Broncos top 25 next season, who Wayne re-signs, keeps and moves on.