Not being the club you come to to let your career die has been probably the biggest transformation in the Warriors post-Covid period.
If someone like Ponga is considering the Warriors then it will come down to this.
NRL NRL 2025 General Recruitment Thread
- Thread starter Noitall
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If someone like Ponga is considering the Warriors then it will come down to this.
RE Will Warbrick potentially coming here, I would be very cautious. Bellamy is great at timing the market: he loves to suck all the upside out of his players before letting them go just as their performance peaks out. Justin Olam is case in point. So if Melbourne are willing to let Warbrick go, that would be a negative signal as to his performance at any future club, as far as I'm concerned.
Cooper Cronk not count?
Walker to replace Reynolds at Broncos. That would make sense
Going back to 2020 I can only consider Tino Fa'asuamaleaui as one they would have liked to keep with his best footy ahead of him.
Hynes allowed them to keep more valuable players
Addo-Carr worked at a standard wingers contract, but wouldn't have at anything more
B Smith attitude had usurped his ability
Finucane, good but long in the tooth
They haven't let any stars in the making go.
I understand the caution with Melbourne players leaving that environment. History has shown a lot have dropped off.
Is this Bellamy timing the market or Warbrick driving the request?
Melbourne also heavily spend their cap on their spine. The rest of their squad would have a specific budget. He's now an international so he could be looking at a higher salary.
I haven't heard about him being off contract. So, it could also be someone from a small town in NZ wanting to return home closer to family.
A bye week or a few days off and he's a 3.5 hour drive home. Or his family can come up to Auckland easily enough.
Him or Paps/Hughes to take over from Slater at the end of 2018. At that stage Hughes was well and truly a fullback.
They had an embarrassment of riches.
No to Warbrick. Storm fans think he's a liability on defense.
I think the cheerleader effect is huge when evaluating Melbourne players. Most of their players look amazing as cogs in the Melbourne system that largely shields the defects in their individual games. Outside this system, these defects become apparent, which is why Bellamy I think is happy to let them go as soon as their usefulness to his system is exhausted. Maybe there are a few exceptions like Tohu who I believe came to us on his own volition against the desires of Bellamy for compassionate reasons. But in general, if Melbourne are shopping him to us, which is what the previous poster seems to have implied, then I would be very suspicious.
Personally, I'd prefer it if we didn't chase Ponga or another marquee FB signing and just backed TT. Maybe this is a superficial reading of our recent history, but it seems to me that our worst years have coincided with periods when we loaded up on marquee outside back signings (ie 2014 with Tomkins and 2017 when we had the entire NZ spine of RTS, SJ, Foran and Luke).
I like this approach
Put faith in our youth and they will pay it back. I think that’s the Storm and Panthers secret bro success.
But I reckon the Aussies that come here have a point to prove. The pure bred Aussies, not the kiwi Aussies
I've repeated this pt before: our most consistent period was the Cleary years when we invested most of our cap in a tough pack led by seasoned professionals (Wiki/Price) but a rather inexperienced backline filled with young Aussies looking to prove a point: ie (Fien/Rovelli/Witt/McKinnon, etc). Kind of similar to what we have right now...
This will be a fuzzy counter point as I don't trust my writing skills to get my point across clearly but essentially a counter point is that TT himself was a recruit from an Australian team. Feel my point?? I will try again if it isn't clear.
And I would argue that in those years we were 1-2 boom rookies/superstar players away from making it count. We were a solid side in the 4-8 range on the ladder (14th in Stacey Jones's ill-fated 2009 comeback season).
Cleary's calm and consistent approach, with a team full of grafters made us respectable, but not really contenders. Maloney/SJ magic got us into the dance, which was a bit of an anomaly. He also had the benefit of Packer, Matulino and Rapira all coming through to set a heck of a forward platform, under the leadership of Price who was a massive (superstar imho) signing.
This season has been a nice surprise and I like your comparison to 2007, but we don't have the spine to be a sustained threat.
So while I enjoy reading your perspective, I disagree on the lack of need for that marquee player. I think we are in the position to secure someone special to compliment the tough and hardworking squad we are developing, and to compliment the x factor of our exciting rookie forwards.
That's a bit fuzzy mate, we'd appreciate it if you spoke the King's English and used proper grammar please Wrighty
According to SEN. Isaiya Katoa wants out of the dolphins.
He'd go pretty well on the open market.
Would the Broncos have a crack at him? Ben Hunt and Adam Reynolds are ancient, and him and Mam would probably go alright.
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