Sydney Roosters refuse to put a deadline on chase for Michael Jennings

[TDK]

Lafai is good. The Dogs will be reluctant to let him come to us.

Believe it or not the Dogs are making way for Folau and must release a few of their bright young stars, if Morris elects to stay, they will have a glut of centres and Lafai prefers to play centre.

[Guest]

i would accept pretty much any left centre running around at the moment.
bulldogs - lafai
panthers - jennings
broncos - reed
cowboys - linnett
raiders - croker
sharks - leutele
eels - morgan
tigers - ayshford
souths - farrell

i would take any of these centres

[stephenj]

id like to see ayshford back at his homne club, born and bred in renny st paddington with his uncle a rooster, hed fot right back into the culkture! and would show pride in the jersey he grew up with! another bonus is he wouldnt have to play with braith!

[Guest]

id like to see ayshford back at his homne club, born and bred in renny st paddington with his uncle a rooster, hed fot right back into the culkture! and would show pride in the jersey he grew up with! another bonus is he wouldnt have to play with braith!

too right stephen. if we miss our on jennings, i hope ayshford is no. 2 on the list

[Rooster_6]

It's obvious from the press conference video that Jennings is coming.

R6 you're fishing right? ;-)

Not at all and for a few reasons.

1) When a promising young centre goes down with injury at your club you don't sign a 24 year old rep player on big money and a lengthy contract. That's overkill, we need to add some depth no doubt but I'm not convinced quality is the issue.
2) Having 1 mil of your cap tied up on two centres is poor cap management imo.
3) He's not even what I'd consider one of the elite centres and he'll be earning those wages in the 2nd, 3rd & 4th ears of his contract.

I rate him highly, after Inglis & Lyon I think he's ranked in a group of blokes as the next best centres in the game (all be it quite a drop in quality). I have little doubt he'd perform for us but when you look at the best clubs over the past 5-10 years they've valued depth over quality and it's worked.

Melbourne certainly didn't suffer this year from not having star 3/4's but they had a lot of depth, and decent quality depth at that. That's where we should be heading imo.

Linnett & Graham were smart buys for our club in 2010... this is what we should be looking to do again. Don't have to be superstars but blokes who are ready to perform at first grade level.

[Vasco]

Not at all and for a few reasons.

1) When a promising young centre goes down with injury at your club you don't sign a 24 year old rep player on big money and a lengthy contract. That's overkill, we need to add some depth no doubt but I'm not convinced quality is the issue.
2) Having 1 mil of your cap tied up on two centres is poor cap management imo.
3) He's not even what I'd consider one of the elite centres and he'll be earning those wages in the 2nd, 3rd & 4th ears of his contract.

I rate him highly, after Inglis & Lyon I think he's ranked in a group of blokes as the next best centres in the game (all be it quite a drop in quality). I have little doubt he'd perform for us but when you look at the best clubs over the past 5-10 years they've valued depth over quality and it's worked.

Melbourne certainly didn't suffer this year from not having star 3/4's but they had a lot of depth, and decent quality depth at that. That's where we should be heading imo.

Linnett & Graham were smart buys for our club in 2010... this is what we should be looking to do again. Don't have to be superstars but blokes who are ready to perform at first grade level.

I think we need class out wide, not toilers.

[Guest]

When you have far and away the best fullback, halfback and hooker in the game you do not need star power out side. We are average in all three of those crucial positions - terrible in two - we need star power in other positions if we are to compete.

[TDK]

I think we need class out wide, not toilers.

If you don't have your big dollars spent amongst your players in the spine, then there is no use having class out wide. The only teams that have followed the big bucks out wide strategy have been Parramatta and Penrith and look where they have ended up. We need big money spent on a hooker and a fullback, friend and mini would be in the bottom of the NRL barrel, spending 1.7million on Jennings,SKD and SBW is a gamble at best. Teams like Souths and Dogs have pent same money on a 1,7, 9 with change.

[Guest]

1.Sheck
7.Pearce
9.Friend fit and running is plenty

[Rooster_6]

1.Sheck
7.Pearce
9.Friend fit and running is plenty

I don't disagree entirely but we need a creative player in that spine. I'd put Maloney & Jennings money together just to sign someone like Jaryd Hayne or Shaun Johnson.

Spending 1mil+ on our centre pairing is just a band aid fix to a spine that lacks creative ball playing options. And that's nothing against Maloney, Pearce, Friend or RTS who I think are all great players there's just not a great balance there imo.

[Guest]

Lets just wait and see how RTS turns out i think he could be like a Hayne+Johnson in one

[Rooster_6]

Lets just wait and see how RTS turns out i think he could be like a Hayne+Johnson in one

He's certainly something special, the sooner he gets a go at fullback the better.

I'm certain he's a great ball runner but I'm not so convinced he has the vision to ever be a good ball player.

[milanja]

He's certainly something special, the sooner he gets a go at fullback the better.

I'm certain he's a great ball runner but I'm not so convinced he has the vision to ever be a good ball player.

thats a massive statement about a 19yr old kid who has played 4 or 5 first grade games and played league for only one yr. hope u give him a chance to get to 24-25 before u really lose faith in him.

friend will look good if the forwards play good, i dont think he has a creative bone in his body but nobody will bag him if the forwards make him look good by just making yards.

Pearce (if jennings signs) should now have confidence to throw the ball out wide with skd,mj,rts and sbw lurking somewhere in the open instead of having to rely on inside short balls to mini.

this could be the one yr where pearce excels because we have never had as much speed and potency in a backline since maybe hodges,mini fletcher and mullins were around together? I think 2013s is more potent but there is no freddie to distribute it, so maloney should be able to chime in enough to help pearce compensate.

[Yak]

thats a massive statement about a 19yr old kid who has played 4 or 5 first grade games and played league for only one yr. hope u give him a chance to get to 24-25 before u really lose faith in him.

friend will look good if the forwards play good, i dont think he has a creative bone in his body but nobody will bag him if the forwards make him look good by just making yards.

Pearce (if jennings signs) should now have confidence to throw the ball out wide with skd,mj,rts and sbw lurking somewhere in the open instead of having to rely on inside short balls to mini.

this could be the one yr where pearce excels because we have never had as much speed and potency in a backline since maybe hodges,mini fletcher and mullins were around together? I think 2013s is more potent but there is no freddie to distribute it, so maloney should be able to chime in enough to help pearce compensate.

Friend has enough passing skill to create plenty for his halves. You watch the difference that James Maloney will make to his form. He definitely needs to have better awareness of when a pass from the ground is required. His attack gets criticised a lot because of his slow service and obsession with the short side (a lot to do with Anasta) but he is one of the best hookers in the league at throwing an outball, which is an extremely important skill for a good dummy half. When Carney was at 6 he used to run an in- to outside- shoulder line on the left side of the ruck and Friend's pass is what would make that run effective. Think of any Carney try from first receiver close to the line and I guarantee it was off the back of a beautiful outball from Friend. Last year Pearce was our only tight player with the speed and football brain to take advantage of that sort of passing skill but the problem was because Pearce was essentially the sole playmaker he could not afford to be tackled on the 4th or 5th tackle which is the most common time that you're going to try and run a play like that. With a running five-eighth for Friend to target on the left this play will come back as an option. And if you want a more recent example of Friend's creative passing game you only have to think about the amount of tries we scored off forwards running doubles off Friend close to the line. He is very good at hitting the right player when he has options and that shows through those tries. I'd mainly just like to see him given a greater reign in long kicking and improve his service to his halfback.

[Thirteen]

Friends lack of leg speed is my main concern. We need him to make the occasional 15-20 metre dart from dummy half when it's on.
His efforts are always appreciated. If everyone tried as hard as him we'd be very hard to beat.