Suli

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glennb
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Story in the Telegraph has Suli being targeted by Rugby Union and the Wallabies. The story says Storm are thinking about letting him go because of salary cap pressure. Storm just let Chambers go and he was a part of the 2020 cap. Also let Kata go although he would have only been on base wage. So how are Storm still under pressure to fit under the cap next year. It seems every other club does not have "salary cap pressure" as must as Storm do. Look at the squad at the Raiders, Sea Eagles, Sharks and don't forget the Roosters.

I suppose the paper could be making it all up...……...again.
blazza18
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Probably wouldn't use Manly or the Raiders as examples there. And the Roosters are wizards with how they recruit and let go of players.

I think Suli, like a few other players we re-signed over the same period were all a little overvalued by the club and it's put us under a little bit of pressure cap wise.
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blazza18 wrote: Sat Oct 19, 2019 10:48 am Probably wouldn't use Manly or the Raiders as examples there. And the Roosters are wizards with how they recruit and let go of players.

I think Suli, like a few other players we re-signed over the same period were all a little overvalued by the club and it's put us under a little bit of pressure cap wise.
Yep. Plus when signed, they probably didn't expect Cam Smith to still be going so strong. And now, we need to find cash for Papenhuyzen. He has suddenly become our priority signing.
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Danger D
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I don't think Suli was overvalued. Didn't we sign him after his second consecutive year as the highest try-scorer in the comp? He has been extremely under-used in the last two years with our halves unable (or unwilling) to put kicks through for him to contest in the air.
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yourhero
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It's a fair point that we haven't utilised Suli's air prowess anywhere near as much as we should. But surely that it more gameplan related than halves execution? We rarely even attempted it in 2019.

That isn't the only issue though. Suli can often be a 'rocks or diamonds' player. You can deal with the rocks as long as you are getting a decent share of diamonds... The diamonds have been rare in the past couple of years and make the rocks much harder to swallow.

Hopefully he sticks around as I still think he has something to offer. I think our attacking gameplan needs to cater for his skills more often and he needs to go looking for some tough work.
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Danger D
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It's a chicken/egg situation really. Is it the gameplan that limits what the halves do or is it the limitations of our halves that determine what the gameplan is? Either way we need to factor in more aerial opportunities for Suli or else he doesn't get the chance to produce those diamond plays that offset the inevitable rocks he comes up with sometimes.

He can be a damaging ball runner when he wants and it does appear to me that he could have done more yardage work this year though I don't have any stats to inform this view. I wonder if the idea was for the wingers to stay out wide to space out the defensive line so that there's more space in the middle for Paps and Hughes to take those blitzing runs up the middle? Either way there's a case to be made that the gameplans aren't accomodating to Suli's full suite of skills.
blazza18
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If you need high kicks to the corner to make an impact then you're probably overvalued and overrated. Unfortunate for Suli that Cronk moved on 2 years ago.
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blazza18 wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 4:37 pm If you need high kicks to the corner to make an impact then you're probably overvalued and overrated. Unfortunate for Suli that Cronk moved on 2 years ago.
This is so valid, but, Cronk always got the ball with plenty of time to measure off a pin point kick, none of a crop have that time (why?). Munster will run to the line and kick, if he's not running it himself, Croft invariably took it up on the 4th or 5th tackle and was not in position and Hughes, well he tried...
I tend to think the game plan has changed from Cronks days and thus Suli (and the Storm) are not the beneficiaries.

Is Suli our current best winger, I think he's as good as JAC. JAC has the wheels for sure and is willing to roll his sleeves up but due to his size doesn't make a huge impact when hitting it up out of our own end. This is where Suli can be good (when he holds the ball). Who's our next best winger, who else has there been? Chambers, Earl...
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Danger D
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blazza18 wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2019 4:37 pm If you need high kicks to the corner to make an impact then you're probably overvalued and overrated.
If the other clubs in the comp would be willing to pay round about what we paid (many would probably pay more) then he was 'valued' at about the right price.
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yourhero
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I think the issue is we paid market rates based on what he was providing at the time. Same with Chambers. It is unfortunate that they have fallen off and the value is then questioned.
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bula
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All I know is when Suli wasn’t there, we missed him. He was really good in his last few performances.

Watching the Rugby World Cup there’s been a huge shift in the way teams attack and attacking kicks have become a big part of team play. Australia struggled in this area although Marika was their best back this year due to his running and workrate. I can see how he’ll flourish there.

I’m more worried about losing NAS to rugby in a couple years.
blazza18
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Wonder why we missed Suli in the prelim? Wouldn't have anything to do with not having a genuine first grade backup to replace him with.
Danger D wrote: Tue Oct 22, 2019 8:33 am If the other clubs in the comp would be willing to pay round about what we paid (many would probably pay more) then he was 'valued' at about the right price.
Not for us he wouldn't be. We've generally never paid overs or market value for outside backs. Until a season or two ago..
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