Cooper Cronk

[The Eagle]

I hope that club wears Maroon and White,face it itll be the only way he'll see a premiership anytime soon
We could be in the market for a top halfback,theres only one place to sensibly go career wise,Storm or Manly

[bula]

Manly can't afford him, they couldn't hold on to Hodkinson. No chance.

[The Eagle]

Perry,Possibly Matai,Hodko himself + $300k extra salary cap room not to mention Marquee player status? and 3rd party deals from rich benefactors
With alot of our guys being long term we'd have $100k dispensations all over the park and why would we let Hodko go so meekly
and without a serious counter offer,Plan A doesnt seem to be whats in plain sight at this point in time,we still havent resigned our
#6 for next year,something seems fishy to me,itd suit me as his the only melbourne player i enjoy every moment of watching and i think there may
just be room for a high calibre player such as himself with the talent we may be parted with (if rumours are true,Matai is goneski freeing up a fair bit)
and even as it is we do seem to get alot of melbournes former stars and one that im still not 100% on yet (Cross)

Manly or Parra?
Which would further his career at his brilliant best to get englands big bucks in 5 years time?
Losing him isnt the end of the world for melbourne either,i remember joking around with a few friends when Ox came our way,something along the lines
of "Who the *lima lima lima duck* is Cooper Cronk "mad scientist laugh as his parents did whilst naming him"? Melbourne are seriously boned in this year (2006 i believe)"

Even tho that year could have ended 1 better for melbourne,my comments were well off the mark and i honestly dont think bar state of origin Bellamy would
ever have a team thats not extremely competitive on the playing field,your time in the top 4 isnt up yet,this is merely a setback,an obscure undeserved blip
on the radar,a year that in my and alot of rugby league fans just doesnt count due to the premiership being tarnished by taking out possibly the best team
from the race,like the bulldogs in 2002 but not comparable,everybody knows who'd have won the 2002 premiership if they hadnt been caught just as everyone
will wonder who really deserved to win the 2010 premiership,no team can claim to be the man this year as they dont have to beat the man

[Ice]

So we have this from one of the major papers:

Late last week the Storm were also advised they could not re-sign any players or re-commit to those on longer contracts, until August at the earliest


And the other one says this:

THE depth of Melbourne's systematic rorting of the salary cap is expected to be known within a week, allowing the club to finally learn if it must shed some of its superstars. Sources have told The Daily Telegraph that accountancy firm Deloitte is set to hand over the findings of its exhaustive audit to the embattled club's major financial backer, News Limited, by the end of the month.

Surely if the latter article is true then that would be the green light to oficially start contract re/negotiations? As for the Cooper thing, i think a lot of us are thinking about him leaving more on the emotional side of things and not the team structure type way. I'll be as devastated as anyone if he leaves, it's hard losing any player let alone one that's been there for so long and helped build to where we got to. Though as some others have mentioned we do have a couple of good options there to replace him if he does leave. It won't be instant success and it'll take a bit of time to settle but you only have to look back to when Bellyache took over as coach, he had a shitload less to work with player wise than what he has now and will still have after we have to shed some players and look where he took us.

We know we're going to lose players, but if it is "only" Coops from the big 4 and a few more second tier players, taking into account the talent we have in our young boys just waiting for their chance we'll still have a strong squad to work with.  Whoever leaves we're going to be just fine and whoever stays, give them a season or 2 together ang we'll be a major contender once again. As mentioned Belly did it back then with much less, he'll do it again with much more.

[Michael :P]

Alot of you guys are carrying on like its the end of the world. Its really not, Coops is not be all end all and nor will he ever be. The guy is 27, he's soon to be hitting the stage where he will start to decline. Storm have a back up plan and always have in order to replace him. The name is Ben Hampton, and I know that he's about 2 years off from FG but Bellamy is the man at fast tracking and developing players, Dont forget that GI and Billy were making waves at 18. The Future is bright, so hold on to ur memberships (1999)

Spot-on Freshy, some of this talk about Cooper reminds me of when we decided to go with a certain 19yo who has to shave 55 times a day.

We''ll be fine, Bellamy "made" Cronk, he'll do the same to some-one else.

[I love Cooper]

Whatever he does I hope he doesn't leave the NRL. If Manly's gonna offer you 650,000, I say take it. But obviously I'd love for him to stay!!!

[stormsally]

I hope our boys go to any club other than Parra! 

I wouldn't mind cowboys

[simo]

Just goes to show how great this team is.. We are all shattered by this news.. we all love our Storm Boys..

Anyone that goes. I'll be shattered to hear.

[Storm Spirit]

Ill find out what the deal with Cronk is in the morning, I work with some of the NYC boys and I know a few of the FG boys from growing up with them in NZ.

Any news Freshy....only asking cos you offerred to find out 

[Freshy]

Ill find out what the deal with Cronk is in the morning, I work with some of the NYC boys and I know a few of the FG boys from growing up with them in NZ.

Any news Freshy....only asking cos you offerred to find out 

Haha well all I can say, is they are all tight lipped. I have a feeling they know something.  A couple of the FG boys I know just smiled. I dont know how to take that?

[LESStar58]

Read in Roy Masters article today that Cronk is being offered $650K a season by "another NRL club" and Melbourne Rebels AND Biarritz RU are also in the mix.

[The Mauritian]

Cronk aint going anywhere from what I have heard

[Woody]

I hope you`re right Mauritian. As I`ve said before I dont want anyone to go ( although realistically I know it`s probably going to happen) but the fact is I`d hate to see Coops go. Apart from not wanting him to leave the fold he`s a damn good halfback. I know what everyone is saying in that we have a number of guys who show real potential and I agree with them to a point but the fact is that we already have one who has realised that potential and busts his gut for the team every week and just gets better and better

[The Mauritian]

What I heard was White, Hoffman, Neilson, Finch, Blair(only if breach is really big), Lima, Mcdougall, will be allowed to shop around.  Tandy(already gone)  Tolman(already signed).  It all depends on final figure but they want to keep Big 4.

[Freshy]

What I heard was White, Hoffman, Neilson, Finch, Blair(only if breach is really big), Lima, Mcdougall, will be allowed to shop around.  Tandy(already gone)  Tolman(already signed).  It all depends on final figure but they want to keep Big 4.

Exactly what Ive been told by a few people in the club. One other thing I heard is that Stanley, O'Neill and Duffie are high priority to keep and expect once the Big 4 is decided to see these 3 locked away long term.