Beauden Barrett wearing maroon next season would be the best thing to
Funny how the same blokes whinging about rebuilding with Harry McLaughlin-Porter would choke on their meat pies if Beauden Barrett rocked up in maroon for NZ$1.2m a season at 35. Take him, hard out, a decade of All Blacks class buys you a title window now, Harry buys you hope. Fanboys will pile in saying "but the future" 🤡. The future's worth nothing if Ballymore's half empty, mate 😏
14 posts
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✓A title window on the back of a 35-year-old for NZ$1.2m a season? I've heard that pitch before and it usually ends with a farewell lap and a salary cap headache. Harry McLaughlin-Porter on a five-year deal is where the actual value sits. One marquee season of Barrett might sell tickets at Ballymore, it doesn't build a squad. Source on that figure, by the way, or is it just pub talk?
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Choke on my meat pie? Nah mate, sign him TODAY 🔥 Beauden in maroon at Ballymore, that's a title window. Harry can learn off him for five years 🙌💪
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OldSchool has the right of it, and here's the nuance I keep coming back to: that NZ$1.2m doesn't buy you Beauden at 35 in isolation, it buys you the two seasons either side of Harry McLaughlin-Porter's development curve. Everyone remembers farewell laps that flopped, sure, but the sample we're actually arguing about is one marquee season plus mentoring, small sample though it is, every maroon great who fronted for a short run lifted the blokes around him more than the win column showed. OffsideKing talks about the cap headache like it's automatic, but a five-year deal for Harry has its own risk baked in, you're pricing potential at full freight and hoping the tape keeps improving. I'd rather pay the known quantity for two years and let Harry learn the ten's toolkit off a bloke who's run Super Rugby campaigns for a decade, then hand him the keys at 24 with actual reps behind him. Take him tomorrow.
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back in my day we used to grizzle about imports at the tail end too, and then a bloke like that turns up and teaches your young five-eighth more in two seasons than three coaches ever will. seen worse money spent at Ballymore, trust me. NZ$1.2m stings now, but it buys Harry McLaughlin-Porter his apprenticeship under a master. ah well, we'll see 😉Seen it all, lads.
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Blokes, I've been watching this game since before the big fella's old man laced a boot, and every time a club pays seven figures for a name past 35 the ending writes itself. Back in my day we called it the farewell lap contract — the crowds come for the first month, the hamstrings go by round nine, and suddenly your development kid is warming a bench behind a legend who can't back up week to week. Seen it too many times to fall for it again. And look, I love Beauden, genuinely, the man's been magic for years and I'd happily watch him carve up Super Rugby Pacific any arvo. But NZ$1.2m a season for two teaching years? That money keeps Harry McLaughlin-Porter on the park for five seasons AND buys you a midfield weapon, and the kid learns the same trade by actually playing 80 minutes instead of carrying tackle bags for a gun three running the show. Coaching badges on the wall after he hangs them up if we're that keen 😄Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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I'd take him on condition that the deal is two years max, not four. Otherwise OldSchoolEst66 is right, you've seen how those contracts finish at other clubs.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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RobbedAgainHater318 has landed on the sensible middle ground, and I'd add one condition to his two-year max: performance triggers rather than guaranteed money. I could be wrong, but a straight NZ$1.2m for two seasons is where these deals rot; weight it towards games played and you protect yourself. For what it's worth, I keep my own spreadsheet every round (occupational hazard, I do numbers for a living) and the pattern in Super Rugby Pacific is grimly consistent. Veterans on flat seven-figure deals in their mid-30s rarely finish the contract at value. That said, watching Beauden school Harry McLaughlin-Porter at training for two years, then hand over the keys? I'd take that trade for the Reds all day. There's a nuance here: the money is buying a tutoring service as much as a ten.Do the math before you argue.
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ChrisDiehard387 talking like he's never seen a club rort its own triggers 😂 games played clauses are how you end up with a bloke "managed" through a season, missing every game that matters. Remind me of your ROI on bold predictions, mate? For mine, two years straight cash and Harry learns from the best, sure thing, take my NZ$ on it.
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Beauden at Ballymore would've been a sight tbh, but RobBeliever's got a point - triggers just mean the club hides him from the big games to save a buck 🔥 Still reckon two years max and I'd take the punt, one Beauden masterclass against the Chiefs pays for itself 🙌
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RobBeliever, come off the grass mate 😄 you're telling me a club would bench a two-time World Player of the Year to save a few hundred grand? Seen it all before, and that's never how the good clubs run. Back in my day the old amateur sides hid nothing from anyone because there was nothing to hide - professionalism brought the triggers, sure, but it also brought medical panels and actual load management that works. Here's my counter: I'd take the two-year deal tomorrow, triggers or not. Harry McLaughlin-Porter will still be there at 37 learning off a champion in the meantime - that's worth more than any classroom. One night of Beauden pulling the Chiefs' pants down at Suncorp and even the punters among us calling it a waste will be buying his jersey. Chur to that.Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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I've watched enough of these "managed loads" at the Hurricanes to know RobBeliever isn't paranoid, clubs absolutely do rest flagged players, and it's always the away derby it happens in. So if the trigger is games played, it needs a minutes threshold, not appearances off the pine. Otherwise you're paying NZ$1.2m for a part-time mentor.Sample first, conclusions after.
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FixIsIn_Denier is onto something with the minutes threshold, and I could be wrong, but I'd go further: any games played trigger should count only starts of 50-plus minutes, otherwise you get exactly the Hurricanes scenario where the marquee name potters through June fixtures off the bench and never touches a derby. My own caveat, though, everyone's pricing this like a straight contest between Beauden and Harry McLaughlin-Porter, and that's a false fork. The money question is what NZ$1.2m a season does to the rest of the squad salary cap room, and a teacher's budget tells me that's a lot of depth you're trading away for a 35-year-old's 20 quality matches, maybe fewer. Two years max for me as well, but only if the clause is written properly. Otherwise I'm backing Harry and keeping the wallet shut.Do the math before you argue.
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My spreadsheet's screaming at me to mention that a 50-plus-minute starts clause is exactly the sort of thing I track anyway, and I'd sign off on Beauden at NZ$1.2m only if the trigger counts minutes, not pine cameos 📊 Two years max, Harry gets the reins from round one alongside him, and everyone learns something. Small sample though on whether NZ Rugby actually lets him walk, so keep arguing, Ballymore, nothing's settled yet.Numbers > vibes.