Official Thomas Hazelton

[egg]

Tony was probably our best forward at the end of last year.

I might be one of the few , but I don't feel we should we have re-signed laterally impaired slow moving Tall Tom.
Love him BUT

I feel the ONLY 4 definite pack starters for say 2026 should be :

Addin Fonua-Blake
Blayke Brailey
Briton Nikora
Teig Wilton

No Doubt
Cam McInnes will be there too if his motor is still STRONG .

The REGULAR additions I think we need ( especially for defence and impact ) are :

Jesse Colquhoun
Toby Rudolf ( Listen to fins up as to why )
Tukupa-Ke Hau Tapuha

So that leaves in the mix ( some on very good coin )
Oregon Kaufusi
Brayden Hamlin-Uele
Siosifa Talakai
Tom Hazelton
Add a few AWESOME up and comers in the mix , so things gets even trickier.

So should we have re-sign Tom on 500K per year , thoughts ?

 

[Capital_Shark]

What sort of money did Parramatta get Jack for?

 

[Milkshark]

I might be one of the few , but I don't feel we should we have re-signed laterally impaired slow moving Tall Tom.
Love him BUT

I feel the ONLY 4 definite pack starters for say 2026 should be :

Addin Fonua-Blake
Blayke Brailey
Briton Nikora
Teig Wilton

No Doubt
Cam McInnes will be there too if his motor is still STRONG .

The REGULAR additions I think we need ( especially for defence and impact ) are :

Jesse Colquhoun
Toby Rudolf ( Listen to fins up as to why )
Tukupa-Ke Hau Tapuha

So that leaves in the mix ( some in very good coin )
Oregon Kaufusi
Brayden Hamlin-Uele
Siosifa Talakai
Tom Hazelton
Add a few AWESOME up and comers in the mix , so things gets even trickier.

So should we have re-sign Tom on 500K per year , thoughts ?

I’ve said it before, we have too many of those forwards in the team. We need impact players thats pack a punch.

Wilton - slow, lacks punch
Nikora - small, doesn’t get involved in the hard yards, instead is a line runner
McInnes - small for a lock, has punch but his size lets him down
Tom - slow, lacks punch

With those 4 players on at one time, you aren’t getting much value.

Talakai needs to be on the field more often than not.

 

[egg]

What sort of money did Parramatta get Jack for?

That's a very good question .
I suppose Fitz was making LOCK place for Jesse Colquhoun

 

[sharkfan]

Personally don't mind Hazelton, but I'm not convinced he's worth half a million a season. Hope he's going to be lifting his game noticably to justify it.

 

[Wizard]

I’ve said it before, we have too many of those forwards in the team. We need impact players thats pack a punch.

Wilton - slow, lacks punch
Nikora - small, doesn’t get involved in the hard yards, instead is a line runner
McInnes - small for a lock, has punch but his size lets him down
Tom - slow, lacks punch

With those 4 players on at one time, you aren’t getting much value.

Talakai needs to be on the field more often than not.

Yep

AFB
Sifa
Tuks/BHU or
Tom

Power forwards you need them on the field or in the team at minimum.. on the field at one time our power game would be hard to stop

McInnes
Oregon
Nikora

Job/role players

..

Wilton - replaceable for me, doesn’t add no point of difference

 

[Milkshark]

Yep

AFB
Sifa
Tuks/BHU or
Tom

Power forwards you need them on the field or in the team at minimum.. on the field at one time our power game would be hard to stop

McInnes
Oregon
Nikora

Job/role players

..

Wilton - replaceable for me, doesn’t add no point of difference

Yep, it’s a power game mate. You win the ruck / PTB you win momentum and the game. It’s all about getting over the advantage line.

Which is another aspect of the game I’ve mentioned multiple times, our line speed, and where our ball runners receive the ball. It’s the first area they need to address.

^ All of which is hampered if you’re not winning the ruck / PTB.

 

[BlackWhiteBlue]

Personally don't mind Hazelton, but I'm not convinced he's worth half a million a season. Hope he's going to be lifting his game noticably to justify it.

Im the same. Happy enough to have kept him but hes gunna have to do more than he has to justify it. Off the bench as well.

 

[Gumby]

What sort of money did Parramatta get Jack for?

Was on 475k with us for assuming he left for more. No info online by my guess would be around 600k + a season. Personally, i think it was huge mistake not letting him go however from what i was told he did agree to terms with us and then at the last minute Parra came in and got him. So it must have been for more money.

 

[Tiger Shark]

500k for Tom is good business. Caps going up about 150k a year for the next few years. He's a good player who's only going to get better with more games, offers a nice point of difference to our other forwards.

Am looking for it to be official though, bet the club didn't like Buzz leaking it. He's not getting a Xmas card this year.

 

[bort]

500k for Tom is good business. Caps going up about 150k a year for the next few years. He's a good player who's only going to get better with more games, offers a nice point of difference to our other forwards.

Am looking for it to be official though, bet the club didn't like Buzz leaking it. He's not getting a Xmas card this year.

It is a good point we need to continually reevaluate how we look at value

Contracts will keep going up

I still think that’s a bit of an overpay based on what we spent to poach Kaufusi, but it’s very different from if we paid 500k at the same time, or 10 years ago etc

 

[Ryan McGoldrick #1 Fan]

Great attacking threat, but otherwise I dont think he is NRL standard. Not mobile enough and now seeing teams just run at him all the time, to wear him down or get an easy 6 again or linebreak through him

 

[Sparkles]

Tony

was great.

More how I picture Toby in the offseason tbh

 

[Thresher]

I don't see him as a definite starter if our whole pack is fit and firing.

Not that that ever seems to happen.

 

[Sparkles]

Toby Rudolf ( Listen to fins up as to why )

No. I won't. You can't make me.

 

[Bundy Shark]

Who knows if we actually got Tom for 1.5 for 3 yrs but anyone remember what was the figure the dragons were reportedly offering a few weeks back, again, it could have been speculation or media chat but sometimes the figures floated are correct.

 

[bvella]

Happy to have kept him, especially when it looks like BHU and Rudolph will be on the outer as their contracts come to an end. Should only improve and gives us a solid forward core for the foreseeable future.

Only concern is how much moneuvarbily it leaves us in the cap. Massive to resign and keep our core but we've already seen the difference it makes to have a bit of cap to bring in fresh blood, breeds completion and pushes standards.

 

[BlackWhiteBlue]

Who knows if we actually got Tom for 1.5 for 3 yrs but anyone remember what was the figure the dragons were reportedly offering a few weeks back, again, it could have been speculation or media chat but sometimes the figures floated are correct.

There was definitely chat about 650 per year or some **** with Knights or Dragons.

Hard to think any player, let alone a bloke that took so many years to break through would leave $450,000 on the table

 

[Bundy Shark]

There was definitely chat about 650 per year or some **** with Knights or Dragons.

Hard to think any player, let alone a bloke that took so many years to break through would leave $450,000 on the table

Cheers, I thought Dragons offered 1.2, couldn’t remember if this was correct & whether it was for 2 or 3 which means it worked out 400 or 600 per season.
Again, with pure media speculation, his management was asking 700k & that’s when the Knights supposedly said, nah, we aren’t interested if that’s the amount you want.
I’m hoping we didn’t pay 500, for me, that’s about 100 too much

 

[MrDravid]

Cheers, I thought Dragons offered 1.2, couldn’t remember if this was correct & whether it was for 2 or 3 which means it worked out 400 or 600 per season.
Again, with pure media speculation, his management was asking 700k & that’s when the Knights supposedly said, nah, we aren’t interested if that’s the amount you want.
I’m hoping we didn’t pay 500, for me, that’s about 100 too much

Could be $450k year 1, $500k year 2, $550k year 3?

Might be a little more reasonable that way.