Sometimes it can feel like its a bit of a meat market, and while most players make good, sound decisions, others base their decisions on the wrong factors.
I’ve always been a big believer on sticking with something good.
When the magic is happening, when everything is going great, don’t leave a club for big dollars. Take what you can get and be happy to know that when you retire you can say you played in an enjoyable environment in a winning side with great team mates.
It doesn’t always work out that way though, and players find themselves in less than idea situations quite a lot. So, what would happen is you could make a few moves that made everyone happy?
Here are some players moves I would like to see happen. Most of these players are off contract, some have options that allow them to move clubs if they want, while others, well they are locked in!
Brett Kimmorley To The South Sydney Rabbitohs
Physically, Kimmorley had lost a step. He no longer bounces around the field like he ones did and he isn’t as explosive off the mark as he once was. He is at that point in his career where he can no longer carry a team to victory on his own.
What he needs is a young side that needs guidance. A side with a good pack that will lay the platform for him, and just allows him to pull the strings, organize the attack, get a good kicking game and just be an on field general.
South Sydney is the perfect side for Brett Kimmorley. Almost Tailor made (Till John Lang stabbed JT in the back!). They have everything a great old halfback could want. The question is, would Noddy take a big pay cut for a couple of final shots at glory?
Israel Folau To The Melbourne Storm
At Melbourne, Folau was completely unstoppable. However he was young, he wanted to move closer to family in Brisbane and he got paid a lot of money for the privilege!
Things haven’t quiet worked out though. Injuries have stopped any chance for him to gain form. When he has played, he has either looked amazing going for the high ball, or decidedly average. His defense has actually got worse and he is not close to the daunting prospect he once was.
Salary cap constraints pretty much rule this move out, unless he was willing to take a massive pay cut. However on a team with Cooper Cronks amazing kicking game, with Slater, and Inglis worrying the defense, Folau would find himself back in the perfect situation once more.
Petero Civoniceva To The Gold Coast Titans
The Titans forward pack is one of the softest I have ever seen, and big Petero may be getting on in years, but he can still bring it.
Sure Brisbane are easily the front runners to secure his signature for what will be his last NRL contract, but the Titans should be falling over themselves to get a hardened vet like Petero on the books. A player thats done it all, a true leader and someone that will toughen up their pack.
Krisnan Inu To The New Zealand Warriors
This guy needs to be playing fullback because he does very little on the wing or in the centers. Sure Wade McKinnon currently fills that role for the Warriors, but he has not been the player he once was a couple of years ago and when you throw in his stupid on field behavior, its time to sever those ties.
There are worse players the Warriors could try at fullback than Inu. He is a big player, a great athlete, one of the few fullbacks that physically could claim to be near the level of Jarryd Hayne.
Give him a chance and see what he does.
Willie Mason To The Melbourne Storm
They can’t have everyone, but you know this move makes a lot of sense.
The Storm take fringe first grade players and turn them into very valuable performers who just grind out games for the club year after year. What could they do with a former Test and Origin player, a former Premiership winner and Clive Churchill Medalist?
Mason would provide an extra punch to the workmanlike Storm pack.I dare say he would be enough to take them to an even higher level….and that’s saying a lot. He’d have to take a huge pay cut, but you know what, I think he’d jump at the chance. As for off field issues, its a strong club with a lot of very good leaders. I think mason would enjoy the smaller role he was given.
Jonathan Thurston To The Parramatta Eels
Make no mistake, he will be a Cowboys next year, however what if he came back to Sydney to play for the Eels?
Money wise, the Eels wouldn’t be too far off his asking price. They would have to cut a bit of dead weight away but they could make it happen.
They have a good pack, some good backs and a good junior base that will fill in any holes. Hayne gives him another superstar to work with and I think the energy Thurston would provide is just what the Eels need to get them out of the lethargic funk they seem to slip into.
On top of that, being the halfback Parramatta has craved since Peter Sterling retired, well it would make Thurston the king of Sydney Rugby League!
Matthew Bowen To South Sydney Rabbitohs
At his best, Bowen makes the top ten footballers I have seen in my lifetime. I believe that had he played in a big media market, people would have been talking about Bowen as one of the all time greats a long time ago.
You get Bowen in a side where he can take advantage of a retreating defensive line and its all over. Behind Souths big pack he would run rings around players and do it one a weekly basis in front of a big TV audience. He would finally get the recognition he deserves.
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves To The Canterbury Bulldogs
The Bulldogs got old man! While some of the Doggies outside backs still have a spring in their step, the forward pack looks busted right now and just doesn’t have any spark at all.
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves would add that explosiveness to the Dogs pack that has been missing. A player that will go in at a million miles an hour and take no prisoners.
The Bulldogs are desperate for a forward like that. Someone that will put fear into the opposition and make them have to work in defense. Right now, thats not happening at all!
Anthony Watmough To The Canberra Raiders
The Raiders have the basis of a very good young team down there, but they just lack an explosive edge in their forward pack that Watmough would fill.
The Raiders pack is huge, it wears down an opposition and even when they are not playing well, they cause problems. Imagine if on the back of that the Raiders could unleash Watmough? Imagine how good he would be running off Campese!
You get him one one side and Campese on the other side of the field, you’re spreading the defense very thin and making more room for the good young backs the Raiders have. They would be a nightmare to play against!
Wayne Bennett To The Penrith Panthers
OK, OK, so he is not a player and he is not off contract, but hear me out!
The Panthers had their chance to get Bennett but didn’t come up with the money. Instead they decided to invest over a million dollars into Matthew Elliott for three years!
Bennett likes a few things. Complete control…well you want to give him that so the idiots managing Penrith has less influence. Lots of money, well, he is worth it!
A good junior base that produces NRL quality players? Fewer are better than Penriths juniors. How about a solid base to build upon? Well, Penrith has that and then some.
Bennett would have everything he wanted at Penrith!
So….how did this article turn into me pleading my case for Wayne Bennett to come and coach my Penrith Panthers?
Desperate times my friends…
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