Buzz: Matt Lodge to Roosters

[BigCok007]

Some conflicted feelings for me but as a player Matt Lodge is certainly a good addition for us

Think that’s where I am on it tbh

[ism22]

A heated altercation with Warriors owner Mark Robinson in May led to Lodge leaving the club - remarkably with a $700,000 golden handshake.

'I don't want to play park footy,' he told the Daily Telegraph recently.

'I'll keep myself as fit as I can and I'll be ready if there is an opportunity at any of the clubs.'

[Ever Hopeful]

Warriors fan here (cue laughter).

I thought I'd add some more perspective to the signing.

Lodge is a very, very good player. In my opinion he was easily the Warrior's best to start the year. He has issues with the judiciary, but the wiping of carry over points from last year has nullified that.

I think most Warrior's fans had started to accept that he was moving on with his second chance in life, and though many were staunchly opposed to him wearing our shirt, others respected him maturing and valued what he brought to our footy side.

The issue has been that he is part of the holy trifecta of NRL's morally bankrupt. You are not just getting Lodge's baggage, but the influence of Isaac Moses and Peter O'Sullivan. Three people banned from the game because of their shadiness.

As fans we are not sure what happened due to a confidentiality clause, but we do know that there was an argument between Lodge and our increasingly idiotic owner Mark Robinson. We also know that Moses and O'Sullivan have an axe to grind against the club. Moses had a complete stranglehold on our club three years ago, in which he was able to manipulate the club far beyond his station. A decision was made to cut all players and staff that were represented by Moses and his agency, which has been the best thing to have happened at the Warriors for a very long time. O'Sullivan was given a public back-hand serve from our owner when he was told to move on last year. It seems that the club were concerned by a continuation of O'Sullivan's shadiness. O'Sullivan is of course Lodge's father in law and a man you would know well from his time at the Roosters.

What has transpired is the Moses/O'Sullivan combination playing our naïve and reckless owner like a fiddle and we have now lost arguably our most important player, are still paying for him this season and through absolutely bizarre and secretive reason are paying a big salary for him ($500k) in 2023 despite him informing the club he would NOT be taking up his option for 2023. Now we have a situation where the Roosters can pay $100k for him (it boggles my mind that the NRL is so loose on all of this contract stuff these days) whilst two other clubs he walked out on pay him as one of the highest paying props of the game (I believe the Broncos are still paying him this year too).

As a Warriors fan the last three years has been horrendous. The NRL goes on abut the player's sacrifices yada yada, but the really debilitating thing that is happened is that we have not had a reserve grade side or any other age group side for 3 years. Most of our juniors have moved on to other clubs. Our feeder side is the Dolphins who obviously have no interest in allowing more than a token amount of our players to receive game time, which means if the players are not playing first grade, they are not playing. This is becoming acutely obvious on the field as our young guys are getting schooled week after week. Lodge's replacement is the 178cm, 95 kg Jazz Tevaga. The other props (now boosted by the return of AFB) are all second-rowers that have been converted in desperation.

Anyway the crux of this is that the Warriors fans are hurting immensely at the moment, and having Lodge walk away (and I'm not sure how much culpability he himself has in all of this, perhaps none) ended our ability to be competitive overnight after all the club has been through. $500k off our cap next year plus no juniors to call up for probably a couple of years at least means that it has completely knee-capped us and lifelong fans are giving it away because of the enormous hole the club is now in. The Warriors are a joke, but the fans are extremely loyal and bruised.

So the sight of Matt Lodge rocking up to the Roosters on $100k and playing finals football, leaves a very, very bad taste in some of our mouths that is nothing to do with ill-feeling against the Roosters or sour grapes etc.

Sorry for the rant, I just really think the NRL needs to do more to fix this contract merry-go-round.

Good luck for the finals, I have no doubt that Lodge will give you good value on the park.

[Easts75]

Warriors fan here (cue laughter).

I thought I'd add some more perspective to the signing.

Lodge is a very, very good player. In my opinion he was easily the Warrior's best to start the year. He has issues with the judiciary, but the wiping of carry over points from last year has nullified that.

I think most Warrior's fans had started to accept that he was moving on with his second chance in life, and though many were staunchly opposed to him wearing our shirt, others respected him maturing and valued what he brought to our footy side.

The issue has been that he is part of the holy trifecta of NRL's morally bankrupt. You are not just getting Lodge's baggage, but the influence of Isaac Moses and Peter O'Sullivan. Three people banned from the game because of their shadiness.

As fans we are not sure what happened due to a confidentiality clause, but we do know that there was an argument between Lodge and our increasingly idiotic owner Mark Robinson. We also know that Moses and O'Sullivan have an axe to grind against the club. Moses had a complete stranglehold on our club three years ago, in which he was able to manipulate the club far beyond his station. A decision was made to cut all players and staff that were represented by Moses and his agency, which has been the best thing to have happened at the Warriors for a very long time. O'Sullivan was given a public back-hand serve from our owner when he was told to move on last year. It seems that the club were concerned by a continuation of O'Sullivan's shadiness. O'Sullivan is of course Lodge's father in law and a man you would know well from his time at the Roosters.

What has transpired is the Moses/O'Sullivan combination playing our naïve and reckless owner like a fiddle and we have now lost arguably our most important player, are still paying for him this season and through absolutely bizarre and secretive reason are paying a big salary for him ($500k) in 2023 despite him informing the club he would NOT be taking up his option for 2023. Now we have a situation where the Roosters can pay $100k for him (it boggles my mind that the NRL is so loose on all of this contract stuff these days) whilst two other clubs he walked out on pay him as one of the highest paying props of the game (I believe the Broncos are still paying him this year too).

As a Warriors fan the last three years has been horrendous. The NRL goes on abut the player's sacrifices yada yada, but the really debilitating thing that is happened is that we have not had a reserve grade side or any other age group side for 3 years. Most of our juniors have moved on to other clubs. Our feeder side is the Dolphins who obviously have no interest in allowing more than a token amount of our players to receive game time, which means if the players are not playing first grade, they are not playing. This is becoming acutely obvious on the field as our young guys are getting schooled week after week. Lodge's replacement is the 178cm, 95 kg Jazz Tevaga. The other props (now boosted by the return of AFB) are all second-rowers that have been converted in desperation.

Anyway the crux of this is that the Warriors fans are hurting immensely at the moment, and having Lodge walk away (and I'm not sure how much culpability he himself has in all of this, perhaps none) ended our ability to be competitive overnight after all the club has been through. $500k off our cap next year plus no juniors to call up for probably a couple of years at least means that it has completely knee-capped us and lifelong fans are giving it away because of the enormous hole the club is now in. The Warriors are a joke, but the fans are extremely loyal and bruised.

So the sight of Matt Lodge rocking up to the Roosters on $100k and playing finals football, leaves a very, very bad taste in some of our mouths that is nothing to do with ill-feeling against the Roosters or sour grapes etc.

Sorry for the rant, I just really think the NRL needs to do more to fix this contract merry-go-round.

Good luck for the finals, I have no doubt that Lodge will give you good value on the park.

Pretty good post and Warriors fans frustration is completely understandable

[QWERTY]

Warriors fan here (cue laughter).

I thought I'd add some more perspective to the signing.

Lodge is a very, very good player. In my opinion he was easily the Warrior's best to start the year. He has issues with the judiciary, but the wiping of carry over points from last year has nullified that.

I think most Warrior's fans had started to accept that he was moving on with his second chance in life, and though many were staunchly opposed to him wearing our shirt, others respected him maturing and valued what he brought to our footy side.

The issue has been that he is part of the holy trifecta of NRL's morally bankrupt. You are not just getting Lodge's baggage, but the influence of Isaac Moses and Peter O'Sullivan. Three people banned from the game because of their shadiness.

As fans we are not sure what happened due to a confidentiality clause, but we do know that there was an argument between Lodge and our increasingly idiotic owner Mark Robinson. We also know that Moses and O'Sullivan have an axe to grind against the club. Moses had a complete stranglehold on our club three years ago, in which he was able to manipulate the club far beyond his station. A decision was made to cut all players and staff that were represented by Moses and his agency, which has been the best thing to have happened at the Warriors for a very long time. O'Sullivan was given a public back-hand serve from our owner when he was told to move on last year. It seems that the club were concerned by a continuation of O'Sullivan's shadiness. O'Sullivan is of course Lodge's father in law and a man you would know well from his time at the Roosters.

What has transpired is the Moses/O'Sullivan combination playing our naïve and reckless owner like a fiddle and we have now lost arguably our most important player, are still paying for him this season and through absolutely bizarre and secretive reason are paying a big salary for him ($500k) in 2023 despite him informing the club he would NOT be taking up his option for 2023. Now we have a situation where the Roosters can pay $100k for him (it boggles my mind that the NRL is so loose on all of this contract stuff these days) whilst two other clubs he walked out on pay him as one of the highest paying props of the game (I believe the Broncos are still paying him this year too).

As a Warriors fan the last three years has been horrendous. The NRL goes on abut the player's sacrifices yada yada, but the really debilitating thing that is happened is that we have not had a reserve grade side or any other age group side for 3 years. Most of our juniors have moved on to other clubs. Our feeder side is the Dolphins who obviously have no interest in allowing more than a token amount of our players to receive game time, which means if the players are not playing first grade, they are not playing. This is becoming acutely obvious on the field as our young guys are getting schooled week after week. Lodge's replacement is the 178cm, 95 kg Jazz Tevaga. The other props (now boosted by the return of AFB) are all second-rowers that have been converted in desperation.

Anyway the crux of this is that the Warriors fans are hurting immensely at the moment, and having Lodge walk away (and I'm not sure how much culpability he himself has in all of this, perhaps none) ended our ability to be competitive overnight after all the club has been through. $500k off our cap next year plus no juniors to call up for probably a couple of years at least means that it has completely knee-capped us and lifelong fans are giving it away because of the enormous hole the club is now in. The Warriors are a joke, but the fans are extremely loyal and bruised.

So the sight of Matt Lodge rocking up to the Roosters on $100k and playing finals football, leaves a very, very bad taste in some of our mouths that is nothing to do with ill-feeling against the Roosters or sour grapes etc.

Sorry for the rant, I just really think the NRL needs to do more to fix this contract merry-go-round.

Good luck for the finals, I have no doubt that Lodge will give you good value on the park.

Thanks for taking the time to post this, much appreciated

[player 1]

Warriors fan here (cue laughter).

I thought I'd add some more perspective to the signing.

Lodge is a very, very good player. In my opinion he was easily the Warrior's best to start the year. He has issues with the judiciary, but the wiping of carry over points from last year has nullified that.

I think most Warrior's fans had started to accept that he was moving on with his second chance in life, and though many were staunchly opposed to him wearing our shirt, others respected him maturing and valued what he brought to our footy side.

The issue has been that he is part of the holy trifecta of NRL's morally bankrupt. You are not just getting Lodge's baggage, but the influence of Isaac Moses and Peter O'Sullivan. Three people banned from the game because of their shadiness.

As fans we are not sure what happened due to a confidentiality clause, but we do know that there was an argument between Lodge and our increasingly idiotic owner Mark Robinson. We also know that Moses and O'Sullivan have an axe to grind against the club. Moses had a complete stranglehold on our club three years ago, in which he was able to manipulate the club far beyond his station. A decision was made to cut all players and staff that were represented by Moses and his agency, which has been the best thing to have happened at the Warriors for a very long time. O'Sullivan was given a public back-hand serve from our owner when he was told to move on last year. It seems that the club were concerned by a continuation of O'Sullivan's shadiness. O'Sullivan is of course Lodge's father in law and a man you would know well from his time at the Roosters.

What has transpired is the Moses/O'Sullivan combination playing our naïve and reckless owner like a fiddle and we have now lost arguably our most important player, are still paying for him this season and through absolutely bizarre and secretive reason are paying a big salary for him ($500k) in 2023 despite him informing the club he would NOT be taking up his option for 2023. Now we have a situation where the Roosters can pay $100k for him (it boggles my mind that the NRL is so loose on all of this contract stuff these days) whilst two other clubs he walked out on pay him as one of the highest paying props of the game (I believe the Broncos are still paying him this year too).

As a Warriors fan the last three years has been horrendous. The NRL goes on abut the player's sacrifices yada yada, but the really debilitating thing that is happened is that we have not had a reserve grade side or any other age group side for 3 years. Most of our juniors have moved on to other clubs. Our feeder side is the Dolphins who obviously have no interest in allowing more than a token amount of our players to receive game time, which means if the players are not playing first grade, they are not playing. This is becoming acutely obvious on the field as our young guys are getting schooled week after week. Lodge's replacement is the 178cm, 95 kg Jazz Tevaga. The other props (now boosted by the return of AFB) are all second-rowers that have been converted in desperation.

Anyway the crux of this is that the Warriors fans are hurting immensely at the moment, and having Lodge walk away (and I'm not sure how much culpability he himself has in all of this, perhaps none) ended our ability to be competitive overnight after all the club has been through. $500k off our cap next year plus no juniors to call up for probably a couple of years at least means that it has completely knee-capped us and lifelong fans are giving it away because of the enormous hole the club is now in. The Warriors are a joke, but the fans are extremely loyal and bruised.

So the sight of Matt Lodge rocking up to the Roosters on $100k and playing finals football, leaves a very, very bad taste in some of our mouths that is nothing to do with ill-feeling against the Roosters or sour grapes etc.

Sorry for the rant, I just really think the NRL needs to do more to fix this contract merry-go-round.

Good luck for the finals, I have no doubt that Lodge will give you good value on the park.

Very thoughtful and interesting post.

Hope the warriors get a good break or two soon.

[Waylander]

Lodge is exactly what our football team needs, but I can't bring myself to celbrate this. I know he has seemingly done nothing wrong for many years now, but his apparent lack of contrition, shown by his refusal to pay the court-ordered reparation for several years after, does not show him in a good light. As a father of 3 (beautiful) daughters, I abhor what he did and condemn his actions afterwards. I would prefer those that don the RW&B to be of higher character.

Somehow he reminds me of Martin Kennedy .... might be the touch of Neanderthal I detect.

[Jacks Fur Coat]

Ever Hopeful ....I wont quote your whole post again, but thanks for dropping by and contributing that. The whole game owes a big debt of thanks to your team, hope there's some good times ahead.

[Eggspert]

Warriors fan here (cue laughter).

I thought I'd add some more perspective to the signing.

Lodge is a very, very good player. In my opinion he was easily the Warrior's best to start the year. He has issues with the judiciary, but the wiping of carry over points from last year has nullified that.

I think most Warrior's fans had started to accept that he was moving on with his second chance in life, and though many were staunchly opposed to him wearing our shirt, others respected him maturing and valued what he brought to our footy side.

The issue has been that he is part of the holy trifecta of NRL's morally bankrupt. You are not just getting Lodge's baggage, but the influence of Isaac Moses and Peter O'Sullivan. Three people banned from the game because of their shadiness.

As fans we are not sure what happened due to a confidentiality clause, but we do know that there was an argument between Lodge and our increasingly idiotic owner Mark Robinson. We also know that Moses and O'Sullivan have an axe to grind against the club. Moses had a complete stranglehold on our club three years ago, in which he was able to manipulate the club far beyond his station. A decision was made to cut all players and staff that were represented by Moses and his agency, which has been the best thing to have happened at the Warriors for a very long time. O'Sullivan was given a public back-hand serve from our owner when he was told to move on last year. It seems that the club were concerned by a continuation of O'Sullivan's shadiness. O'Sullivan is of course Lodge's father in law and a man you would know well from his time at the Roosters.

What has transpired is the Moses/O'Sullivan combination playing our naïve and reckless owner like a fiddle and we have now lost arguably our most important player, are still paying for him this season and through absolutely bizarre and secretive reason are paying a big salary for him ($500k) in 2023 despite him informing the club he would NOT be taking up his option for 2023. Now we have a situation where the Roosters can pay $100k for him (it boggles my mind that the NRL is so loose on all of this contract stuff these days) whilst two other clubs he walked out on pay him as one of the highest paying props of the game (I believe the Broncos are still paying him this year too).

As a Warriors fan the last three years has been horrendous. The NRL goes on abut the player's sacrifices yada yada, but the really debilitating thing that is happened is that we have not had a reserve grade side or any other age group side for 3 years. Most of our juniors have moved on to other clubs. Our feeder side is the Dolphins who obviously have no interest in allowing more than a token amount of our players to receive game time, which means if the players are not playing first grade, they are not playing. This is becoming acutely obvious on the field as our young guys are getting schooled week after week. Lodge's replacement is the 178cm, 95 kg Jazz Tevaga. The other props (now boosted by the return of AFB) are all second-rowers that have been converted in desperation.

Anyway the crux of this is that the Warriors fans are hurting immensely at the moment, and having Lodge walk away (and I'm not sure how much culpability he himself has in all of this, perhaps none) ended our ability to be competitive overnight after all the club has been through. $500k off our cap next year plus no juniors to call up for probably a couple of years at least means that it has completely knee-capped us and lifelong fans are giving it away because of the enormous hole the club is now in. The Warriors are a joke, but the fans are extremely loyal and bruised.

So the sight of Matt Lodge rocking up to the Roosters on $100k and playing finals football, leaves a very, very bad taste in some of our mouths that is nothing to do with ill-feeling against the Roosters or sour grapes etc.

Sorry for the rant, I just really think the NRL needs to do more to fix this contract merry-go-round.

Good luck for the finals, I have no doubt that Lodge will give you good value on the park.

Very interesting read. Thanks for that. Hope the Warrior's sort out their problems soon. The NRL needs a competitive NZ team.

[player 1]

Lodge is exactly what our football team needs, but I can't bring myself to celbrate this. I know he has seemingly done nothing wrong for many years now, but his apparent lack of contrition, shown by his refusal to pay the court-ordered reparation for several years after, does not show him in a good light. As a father of 3 (beautiful) daughters, I abhor what he did and condemn his actions afterwards. I would prefer those that don the RW&B to be of higher character.

Somehow he reminds me of Martin Kennedy .... might be the touch of Neanderthal I detect.

That quoted article was from many years ago - I wonder if he ever did get around to paying his victims anything since then? Mark my words, if he does sign with us, the media will be refreshing everyone's memory about the incident, after leaving it alone until now.

If he plays for us and takes a dive to win us a game I will applaud.

Saint Cameron Smith did just that many, many times and is held in elite regard by all and sundry. We are widely loathed, "roosters way" or not.

So fark them all.

[DP1990]

Ever Hopeful ....I wont quote your whole post again, but thanks for dropping by and contributing that. The whole game owes a big debt of thanks to your team, hope there's some good times ahead.

Hear! hear!

[TheLoneRooster]

Ever Hopeful ....I wont quote your whole post again, but thanks for dropping by and contributing that. The whole game owes a big debt of thanks to your team, hope there's some good times ahead.

What JFC said. I don't have a "second" team, but if I did, it would be the Warriors. Thank you Ever Hopeful for continuing to support your team. I wish them well.

[007]

We have had even worse scum play for us. Won’t mention names but we got rid of a wife basher just over ten years ago. Was never publicised and got swept under the carpet.

AC?

[Andrew Walker]

AC?

That was well publicised from memory

[ism22]

> Sorry for the rant, I just really think the NRL needs to do more to fix this contract merry-go-round.

Don't be sorry, I love a good rant!