Right, lads, who do we throw NZ$800k at to fix that openside flanker
800k burning a hole in the salary cap and we're all pretending there's no option at 7? Heard through a mate who knows a bloke in Hamilton that a certain Chiefs pilferer might be keen on a change of scene come contract time. Him and Hoops on the ball would be filthy. Wouldn't take that to the TAB as fact just yet though 😏
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✓A mate who knows a bloke in Hamilton? Source on that, Chloe? Chiefs wouldn't let a breakdown merchant of that quality walk for anything close to our cap space.
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Imagine him and Hoops tearing apart every ruck 🔥😱 I still rate our defence but the pilfer game has been soft for years, pay the 800k, no brainer. Any punter doubting it hasn't watched him suffocate a game.You don't abandon your own.
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Reality check: he'd be pushing 30 by the time a deal lands, and Chiefs rarely lose quality 7s inside NZ. NZ$800k for one season of pilfers?
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Chiefs dont let their 7s go for peanuts, happens rarely and only when theyve already got the replacement lined up. If he's genuinely off contract though, 800k is cheap 😏Any stat can be bent.
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FixIsInPTSD has the right of it, and I say that as someone who grew up watching this bloke tear up club rugby in the Bay. Might be off contract, sure. But show me the numbers on why he'd leave Hamilton for a rival, and on condition that the answer is decent, I'll back the 800k. Until then I'm not convinced we're buying a saviour, we're buying a rumour with a mate-of-a-mate receipt.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Yeah nah, pay it — watched him rip us apart at the ruck more than once and thought "why cant we have THAT bloke" every time 😤 age is just a number if the pilfers keep coming, and sharing the load with Hoops keeps both of em fresh for the full season 🔥 fair dinkum best NZ$800k we'd ever spend tbhHeart with the team, head on pause.
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Josh, mate, "age is just a number" is exactly what every club says right before they're paying an ex-Waratah NZ$800k to play 40 minutes a season. There's a nuance here people keep skipping: pilfers tail off well before the legs go. Turnover penalties get refereed differently now, and the blokes who peak as scavengers at 25 are often ordinary at 30. And the "sharing the load with Hoops" bit assumes he'd accept sharing anything. Flankers who've built a career on being the first man to every ruck don't move across the ditch to rotate. I'd want to see the actual contract maths before anyone starts spending our money in their head. Small sample though. One rumour from a mate of a mate in Hamilton. Get me one credible journalist on it and I'll happily eat my words. 📊Numbers > vibes.
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BadBeatKing, I hear you, but pilfers tailing off before the legs go isn't some law of nature. Watch as long as I have and you'll get it, the good ones adapt. George Smith was still choking out halves in his mid-30s, and he did it by reading the ref and timing the dive instead of winning footraces. That's the difference between a fetcher who's just quick and one who actually knows the ruck. Mind you, I'd want the medicals and a proper look at his minutes over the last two seasons before waving NZ$800k around. Paying that coin for 40 minutes a season, fair call, that's money set on fire. But if the body checks out and Hoops is there to share the load? Seen worse ways to spend a cap window, mate. 😉Been here longer than some have followed.
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Chucking in my two cents from the truck cab, I've lost count of the "done deal" rumours I've heard over the years that went nowhere. Remember when everyone swore a certain Crusaders lock was heading to Canberra, mate of a mate, contract basically signed? He re-signed in Christchurch a fortnight later and we all looked silly down the pub. That's the thing with these whispers, the pilferer's manager is probably floating Canberra's name just to squeeze a bit more out of Hamilton, and we'd be daft to budget NZ$800k on gossip. That said, UnderdogNightmare's point about George Smith is the right yardstick. If the bloke's a reader of the game rather than a luckless smuggler at the breakdown, the age argument falls over. Time will tell, wait till there's an actual signature before anyone spends a cent of that cap room. 😄Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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Chucking in my two cents from the truck cab, I've lost count of the "done deal" rumours I've heard over the years that went nowhere. Remember when everyone swore a certain Crusaders lock was heading to Canberra, mate of …@SeenItAll_Guy mate of a mate sourcing is worth exactly what you pay for it, agreed. I've kept a running list of "basically signed" deals from forum chatter over the years and my rule of thumb is if nobody reputable has filed it, weight it at about ten percent. The Crusaders lock one rings a bell too, that train went precisely nowhere. Where I'd push back slightly is on treating the whole pursuit as noise until the press release. Contract windows leave fingerprints. Agent movement, a family spotted house hunting, a training ground visit. Individually it's all smoke, but I log the little markers every round and the pattern is usually there two or three weeks ahead. I could be wrong, but if this rumour has genuine legs it'll show up in those markers before anyone confirms it. So my question stands: which markers are we actually seeing here, or is this one purely from the truck cab?Do the math before you argue.
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Chucking in my two cents from the truck cab, I've lost count of the "done deal" rumours I've heard over the years that went nowhere. Remember when everyone swore a certain Crusaders lock was heading to Canberra, mate of …Haha I'd have believed that lock rumoo too tbh 😅 so if it's not on the Brumbies page, we just keep guessing who gets the NZ$800k?Learn something new every day.
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Chucking in my two cents from the truck cab, I've lost count of the "done deal" rumours I've heard over the years that went nowhere. Remember when everyone swore a certain Crusaders lock was heading to Canberra, mate of …@SeenItAll_Guy mate I fell for one of those hard, swore to the whole junior squad at training a big signing was happening and had to eat it when nothing came 🔥😂 Half of "done deal" talk is just an agent stirring the pot tbh. Until it's on the Brumbies page proper I'm not believing a word of it.You don't abandon your own.