Haas, Piakura and Mam look poor deals imo right now. We know they are all good players but I still think they are overpriced. Carrigan for $850k ish a year is a good deal. Payno at $1.2 million isn't imo. That's why our cap is and squad has gone out of balance again, good players being signed for too much money because we are afraid to make hard choices when it comes to retention.
I think the approach rorters are taking with Walker is how we should've gone with Ezra.
He had earned an upgrade based on his form last year, but they went way too hard and for way too long.
Give him a decent upgrade over a 3yr contract (24,25,26) and then if he has developed and progressed give him the big payday and extension... or if he hasnt then he will have settled into a role and value suitable for the roster. At the moment Ezra is the longest signed player we have on the books through to 2029. We better hope to hell that he becomes the player that the club thinks he will otherwise he will be an anchor on our cap that we cant move.
Haas I dont have as much of an issue with, purely because it's pretty short term and if things get dire it wont be hard to move.
He comes off contract at the end of 2026, so the contract saga will spark up again halfway through next year. Based on his form this year he's not really looking a $1m player so if his management start talking about upgrades you'd tell them to test the market and see what comes back... but at least with his contract we're not locked into Haas at $1.1m for 5yrs.
Piakura is signed pretty long 2026 or 27 (I think?), but I daresay he's on about normal value for a second rower. If Crichton just got signed for $800k then Piakura and Riki should be barely scraping $600k qualifying as first grade standard second rowers.
Need to stop paying on potential and not lock potential players into long contracts. Long contracts should only be reserved for proven quality and value.
In the squad at the moment I'm limiting that to Patty and Walsh, and maybe Payne, but that's if the price comes down. Even for Cobbo I'd like to see some consistency over a full season before committing to a 4 or 5yr deal and also noting that he's a role player and not a spine player.
Sure we can sign players on potential, but only give them 3yr max contracts and mostly target them as 2yr extensions. If the player wants longer for security then price comes down, but you can still upgrade contracts later if they exceed expectations.
