AJ is on 850k or so and the Titans would likely chip in 150-200ish (although there was some debate that is what they couldn't come to terms with PNG over) to move him on since they have fucked their cap badly and have paid two fullbacks and only need one - they have badly botched their cap paying Fermor overs after the ACL ruined him, Fotuaika overs after he declined to being a fringe NRL level forward, Tino is obviously good but is also on overs, they've paid both Kini and Brimson starter fullback money and have paid Jayden Campbell a ton too and other than Fotuaika they're all long term deals that cripple the club's ability to do anything else about their horrible forwards/backs/2nd row
They're going to have to pay all of Zane Harrison, Cooper Bai and Jojo Fifita in November to keep them too so they're desperate to free up cap space - i'm sure they would want to move AJ on if they can to have the money to not lose any of them as i'm sure PNG will be interested in Bai and also Harrison if they don't get Cleary or Walker and a ton of clubs would be interested in Jojo.
I'm not saying we should sign him, obviously we should keep Hammer if we can and I think we will keep him, but he would likely come at about half the cost of Hammer to the cap and it's only a downgrade from about the 4th or 5th best fullback in the comp in Hammer to about the 10th best fullback in the comp give or take if it were to happen, he's not as bad as people think he is as a fullback he's just been playing out of position for two years now due to the horrendous mismanagement of the Titans roster/club in general
Will be interesting to see how Makinson goes for us, hopefully he does well
For what its worth re Hammer im fairly sure the 1.4 quote is under the context of the new cap so it's more like 1.1m under the current cap or so - if it was 1.4m under the current cap, that is overs, his fair market value is probably around the 1m mark but 1.1 or so is probably fine to keep the team together, more than that and it's too much though - if the ramping to 1.4m is under the new cap then it's probably no problem and we can figure out a deal with him that is effectively close to what he's on now maybe with a trivial increase and it's just tied to the cap going up and that's no problem as it'll be using the same percentage of the cap
We basically need to distribute Safiti and Flegler's cap space money to Katoa and Herbie to keep them long term, then slight bumps for Hammer/Bostock/Cobbo, Averillo+Nikorima money covers Williams already and a min wage depth signing of some sort to fill those two roster spots, Isaako's money should cover Naufahu plus a little and Kaufusi's money should also really help us give Plath and Donoghoe and JMK bumps next season (obviously Katoa needs a large bump too) and we can let one of the three second rowers move on too, likely Lemuelu, if we need more space.
At that point to start 2028 if we have Hammer/Cobbo/Herbie/Bostock/Naufahu/Williams/Katoa/Gilbert/JMK/Molo/Pouniu/Finefuiaki/Plath/Donoghoe as our base 14 players that is a hell of a team that very likely wins a premiership in one of 2026/27/28 and we can fill in the remaining gaps/bench/depth with young/developed talent
