Right, be honest. Who's our next big centre?
Dreaming big is free so I'll start: word around the traps is a certain All Blacks centre might be fancying a fresh start down south, and you'd want to see him in red and black at One NZ Stadium, wouldn't you 😏 Nothing concrete mind, just chatter from mates who reckon they know someone. I'd put a lazy twenty at the TAB on it happening before you fanboys laugh at me 🤡
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✓"Mates who reckon they know someone". Solid sourcing there. Show me one actual name before we start picking his parking spot at the stadium.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Even if it's just chatter bro, imagine the moment he runs out in red and black. Rugby Park would shake 🔥 Our midfield has been crying out for a bit of sting and star power for seasons, one proper All Blacks centre fixes that overnight. I don't need a name to dream big, that's half the fun 😄🙌Heart with the team, head on pause.
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Right, I'll be the one pouring a bit of cold water, and I say that as someone who'd love it as much as Josh. Look at the actual mechanics: an incumbent All Blacks centre mid-career doesn't move to another NZ province unless something's gone badly wrong with game time or the relationship. Our midfield stock is decent but not so thin that NZR would engineer a rescue mission, and salary cap headroom matters more than sentiment. Small sample caveat too - "word around Christchurch" rumours like this pop up every pre-season and land maybe one time in five, by my own tally of the last few years of gossip 📊. That said, if the chatter has any basis, the realistic version is a player squeezed out by a younger incumbent wanting a restart, not a star happily migrating. I'd put it at long odds, and any punter taking it at the TAB right now is paying for the dream, not the probability. Happy to be proved wrong though, I'd upgrade my ticket in a heartbeat.Numbers > vibes.
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BootToBallGuru's got it right, an incumbent All Black doesn't land here unless game time or relationships have soured, and that's the bit everyone skips. Having said that, I sat through too many afternoons at Rugby Park watching our midfield run sideways to totally dismiss a bit of dreaming. Just give me a name before I get excited.
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Chiming in as an Auckland lad who bleeds red and black anyway 🤣 even I reckon the only way he lands here is NZR engineering it, and stranger things have happened at contract time tbh. Dream big lads, midfield sting > realism for one thread 😄🔥You don't abandon your own.
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Hard out, when did "won't happen" become an argument, BootTo? Contracts fall over every season, I'll keep my table open just in case 📊Numbers > vibes.
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ha, BadBeat's got a point though. Contracts fall over more often than folk admit. back in my day you'd have sworn no big-name five-eighth would ever leave Auckland, and off he went. stranger things have happened come contract time, seen worse long shots pay out. keep the dream alive lads 😉Been here longer than some have followed.
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BadBeat keeping a table open is the most sensible thing posted in this thread so far, which says a lot about the rest of you. I'll cop to wanting it as much as anyone. I've still got my old tie from the 20-something season hanging in the wardrobe, and I'd happily burn it for a genuine midfield enforcer in red and black. Caveat though: contracts fall over all the time, sure, but falling over in our favour is the rare version. NZR usually engineers these things toward wherever the money and the family want to be, and that's rarely south. So aye, dream on, I'll believe it when I see the signing page, not the rumour mill. If deadline week comes and the quiet stays quiet, this thread ages like milk.Sample first, conclusions after.
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this whole thread takes me back. We had the same buzz one winter about a big-name lock supposedly heading to the reds, dozens of us half-planning our season around it, and come august he'd re-signed up north without a whisper. rumours like this fall over more often than they land, ah well, we'll seeSeen it all, lads.