Chooks clear decks to sign another star?

[Guest]

Love wade graham to see the light and head to Bondi. Very very talented young bloke with a cool head on his shoulders.
Shawn Fenson is another and of course shawn Johnson. Imagine him, Jennings and RTS, what a freakish couple of players there

[Guest]

Brad Deitz - SG Ball rake & Aust Schoolboy. He might be a few years away but he's one for the future.

What's his background G?

[Vasco]

I like Symonds. An old school type player that actually has some skill.

[Guest]

I like Symonds. An old school type player that actually has some skill.

Agree...actually all 3 players mentioned strike me as that. Would be a shame to lose any of them IMO.

[Guest]

Symonds is useless and injury prone. Too slow to play anywhere but second row and not tough or busy enough to take up a backrow position in FG and make consistent and worthwhile contributions.

He is one the highest paid reserve graders in the business. His loss would be quickly forgotten and accepted except for the fact that he is a local junior. You don't win comps on sentimentality.

[Thirteen]

Yep I cannot understand why we would do that as well, especially with our"youth policy". If we had to loose 1 of these guys my vote would be Symonds, I just don't think he will ever make it as a regular 1st grader, and we need to give cherro a chance.

Screw the youth policy its garbage! We only went down the 'youth policy' track cause we have been unable to attract players at the club until now.
I say sign him. Give him a one year contract. Piss off Arona and let Ginger Megs go over to England for a year to harden up and learn how to defend. If either Jarrod or Teletubby Marty get injured, we could be short in the front row.

[theGman]

What's his background G?

We're fortunate to have Deitz because he's actually a Parra junior and attends Holy Cross Ryde but he's been in our system for a few years now. His old man is/was tied up with our junior development too. He's in the same mould as Farah. He will definitely feature in our U20's once SG Ball commitments are over.

[Guest]

realistically what would cherro be signed for they should offload arona their pay couldnt be too different

Arona is on minimum wage. Cherro is most definitely not.

[Guest]

I think having squad depth is better than signing LOD. Giving away 2-3 Back-Rowers for one 32 old year player isn't good salary cap management.

Don't get me wrong i see the up side of having an older head coming off the bench and adding starch to the back row stocks but Tom Synmonds has plenty to offer this side if used properly. Think season '10 and other appearances where he has added attacking flair.

I'd prefer to have Tommy Synmonds and Anthony Carrington playings combined 15 first grade games leading into next season and developing than having LOD play 16 bench games at an average of 30-35 minutes a game and retiring at the end of the season and losing potentially good players and local juniors at that at other clubs.

SBW isn't a long term back row signing, so once he leaves his mark on the team one could possibly step in. Rather than losing SBW, LOD and all 2 sacrificed in the deal.

If we can get him without losing two players I'm all for it.

[davos]

Symonds is useless and injury prone. Too slow to play anywhere but second row and not tough or busy enough to take up a backrow position in FG and make consistent and worthwhile contributions.

He is one the highest paid reserve graders in the business. His loss would be quickly forgotten and accepted except for the fact that he is a local junior. You don't win comps on sentimentality.

I agree.

We need to make some tough decisions on our club's premiership aspirations. Cordner and Guerra are far more developed and down the road in their careers than Symonds. I think O'donnell is a must for our forward pack, especially if he comes cheap. He can add some good mongrel off the bench. I can't see symonds breaking into our top 17 this year. A lot of injuries would have to happen for him to get a shot. We also have some good quality of backrowers in our 20s. Samisoni Langi played some good games last year and if worse came to worse we could get him to make his debut.

[davos]

Love wade graham to see the light and head to Bondi. Very very talented young bloke with a cool head on his shoulders.
Shawn Fenson is another and of course shawn Johnson. Imagine him, Jennings and RTS, what a freakish couple of players there

We can't sign every player off contract and we already have Cordner to play lock for the next few years.

[Guest]

Isn't Langi a half?

[Cockadoodledoo]

Isn't Langi a half?

He played with the number 6 on his back but is a 100kg + guy who played really as an extra backrower.

[Yak]

He played with the number 6 on his back but is a 100kg + guy who played really as an extra backrower.

Yeah he really didn't strike me as a playmaker. And this was at a time that we really needed someone to back up Jacks. The kid knows how to run a line though and seemed to have pretty decent hands for such a young guy with the way he held onto a few tough inside shoulder hole runs. I guess he's still only 18 so he hopefully develops his ball playing a little more if he's going to play in the halves all year.

On signing LOD, a very good point was made a few posts back that both SBW and LOD are short term propositions. If we were to offload two of these young players then come 2014 we could possibly be without SBW, LOD and those two players. That's 4 backrowers gone with Bosden, Maubs and FPN off contract. We could definitely use LOD's experience this year. I think Cordner will be a true forwards leader by 2014. I'd only go for it if we could trade him for a year and get that young player/s back the year after. I personally don't think Symonds will ever be strong or tough enough to play first grade in the backrow but it would take more than him to get LOD and I think both Taka and Cherro offer too much to this squad now and in the future.

[stephenj]

lease them off to english supoer league?