Right, lads - who's our dream lock to partner the big fella next
Vaa'i-mould enforcer inside our cap? I'll believe that when there's a name and an NZ$ figure attached, not just chills.
9 posts
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✓Bro imagine the lineout ball we'd actually win at Eden Park instead of coughing it up every derby 🔥😤 I was at that Hurricanes game where we got bullied in the air and it still gives me chills the bad kind. Pay whatever NZ$ it takes imo, we've got through thick and thin with this pack and it deserves one proper enforcer. Ah well, nowt to do but dream eh 💪You don't abandon your own.
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Glad someone finally asked for a figure, because a Vaa'i-type doesn't leave a franchise mid-contract for anything we could stretch to under the cap. He's what, 25ish, established All Black, that price bracket is gone. Realistically we're developing someone from NPC stock and giving him two seasons of minutes beside the skipper. I could be wrong, but I'd rather pay a development salary than chase a name we can't afford.Do the math before you argue.
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FrontRowFan's got a point about mid-contract blokes, but hold your horses. Back in my day we found gems nobody else priced properly. I saw worse second rows at Eden Park than some unheralded young fella given a real go, and the derby thrashings we copped? You fix that with development, not just a big NZ$ cheque 😉Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
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SeenItAllFaithful mate that Hurricanes lineout still haunts me too 😂 Funny thing though, every punter at the TAB seems to have us short in derbies purely off that set piece, so the market already knows our second row is a soft touch. Why pay All Black money for a bloke when the answer's probably a hungry young fella on peanuts hiding in some NPC squad? 🤡😏Here to argue, not to nod along.
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FrontRowFan's read on the price bracket is sound, on condition that someone shows me the numbers on what a young NPC lock with a couple of good lineout seasons actually costs, because "mid-contract All Black money" and "any capable second row" are very different figures. I was at the Eden Park derby where we lost four throws and I'd happily take a cheap, honest grafting lock over another wish-list fantasy if the cap says so.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Why's everyone acting like we need a name brand straight away 😱 I coached against a couple of NPC locks down south this season, raw as anything but they cleaned lineout ball all arvo and cost their provinces nothing. Give me a young Bunnings fella on loose change and two years of our coaching over blowing the whole NZ$ cap on one enforcer, chills or no chills 🔥 backing them all dayYou don't abandon your own.
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I'd take RobbedAgainHater318's point a step further. Before anyone throws out a figure, define what you're actually counting. A raw NPC lock on a development deal sits somewhere near NZ$80-100k; a capped second-rower with two NPC lineout seasons is a different bracket again, maybe NZ$200k-plus, and nobody in this thread has separated those two numbers yet. That's the whole budget debate hiding in one undefined term. And FixIsInDenier540, "cleaned lineout ball all arvo" against what standard of opposition, eh? NPC B sides throw that sort of stat around every week. Small sample though, and Eden Park derbies are a different exam entirely. Show me two full NPC seasons against proper lineout defence and I'll start believing in the cheap gem theory.Numbers > vibes.
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Heh, seen it all before, boys. Remember the big second-rower we all got excited about a few close seasons back? Name was on every tongue, then he re-signed down south and we were left holding nothing but talkback hot takes. BadBeatKing's numbers look tidy on paper, but time will tell whether the checkbook actually matches the chatter 😉Seen it all, lads.