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Recruitment and Retention for 2027

RE SIGN JACK BOSTOCK RIGHT NOW

What a performance singlehandedly keeping Australia in this
Attacking under the high ball he was like Xavier coates. Genuinely have no answers against him. Both those kick tries were against Isaako too, and one was even a 2 on 1. On the kangaroos socials they had some pictures of training and by god bossy is as much of a specimen as I have ever seen for an outside back.
 
I assume he's a min wage depth signing but if the coach sees something in him hopefully he has what it takes

Barring any craziness our starting back 5 is pretty locked in for 2027 with Hammer/Naufahu/Bostock/Herbie/Cobbo at full strength but it's good to have depth

Has anyone seen much of him playing?
yeah he will be but with the way we get injurys having next man up with nrl ready experince seems to be proving gold for us
 
I assume he's a min wage depth signing but if the coach sees something in him hopefully he has what it takes

Barring any craziness our starting back 5 is pretty locked in for 2027 with Hammer/Naufahu/Bostock/Herbie/Cobbo at full strength but it's good to have depth

Has anyone seen much of him playing?
This year the depth pecking order was Averillo, Fuller, Naufahu and Nonu the latter season was constantly ripped by a pre-season training mishap that never fully got right. Nonu if he wasn't injured would have made his NRL debut this year and he was very close to a debut in 2025 despite starting the season on an Academy deal.

Now the pecking order will be Fuller, Nonu, Anderson and Lavender and I suspect the latter like Pouniu will eventually make the full-time transition to the second-row.

I would be finding a spot in the team now for Pouniu to me he's one of those talents that just has to be there. I think Lemuelu will be moved on end of next year and also the time for Woolf to have the conversations he doesn't want to have eg moving Knowles on. He's in a position where Dolphins are overloaded with high quality in Plath and Donoghoe and there's also Fineanganofo coming through the system who's pretty much taking the Donoghoe path of a couple years back playing and standing out in the lock position for Capras whilst filling in for NRL at dummy half.
 
Last year Dolphins only filled 28 of their Top 30 spots.

Dolphins never confirmed which players from Development got promoted. Fineanganofo was a known to be one the others you assume Symonds and Garton as they're now on Top 30 deals.

SIGNINGS/PROMOTIONS vs DEPARTURES
Kain Anderson (Raiders) IN Jamayne Isaako (Storm) OUT
John Fineanganofo (Dev/Sup) IN Jake Averillo (Wests Tigers) OUT
Zac Garton (Dev/Sup) IN Daniel Saifiti (retired) OUT
Kilarney Lavender (Academy) IN Oryn Keeley (Storm) OUT
Lewis Symonds (Dev/Sup) IN Ray Stone (retired) OUT
George Williams (Warrington) IN Kodi Nikorima (Dragons) OUT

Player 29 really needs to be a front rower and Player 30 you keep up your sleeve.

 

Luron Patea, from panthers and Mat Croker are two props we looking at and been told we can afford to get both​

 
I get we need forwards but we need to sign at least two of Hammer/Herbie/Bostock as the first priority

I haven't watched that much tape on Patea, he's young, but how good is he? I know i've seen him play before just don't remember a lot about his game

Croker is a solid hand but not someone to pay marquee dollars for but if he's cheap he's fine to have around
 
I get we need forwards but we need to sign at least two of Hammer/Herbie/Bostock as the first priority

I haven't watched that much tape on Patea, he's young, but how good is he? I know i've seen him play before just don't remember a lot about his game

Croker is a solid hand but not someone to pay marquee dollars for but if he's cheap he's fine to have around
hes gun the young one and crocker will be good off the bench wont be asking much
 
I get we need forwards but we need to sign at least two of Hammer/Herbie/Bostock as the first priority

I haven't watched that much tape on Patea, he's young, but how good is he? I know i've seen him play before just don't remember a lot about his game

Croker is a solid hand but not someone to pay marquee dollars for but if he's cheap he's fine to have around
None of those 3 will sign anything during the WC
 
Yeah I guess we just have to try and keep them all post WC and then keep a minimum of two of them regardless if one signs elsewhere.

Walker re-signing with the Roosters on 1.5m a season for 4 years apparently so that will slightly lessen their cap room and hopefully they're keeping room to re-sign Naqaqanitawase after the Union world cup, lessening their cap space if they're not cheating the cap re Herbie

For Bostock I guess it will come down to does he want to play for us or the Dragons, we're way more likely to win a premiership than they are but he has links to both areas

Re Hammer i'm not sure what other clubs will be interested in him that he'd want to go to, I guess maybe PNG or the Cowboys but the Bears are a dumpster fire and already have a FB signed in Mason Barber even though he's a rookie, Broncos and Titans don't need fullbacks and neither do the Storm so his only other options are to go to Sydney and the Dogs are probably the only club in the market for a fullback there unless the Sharks want to discard Kennedy but I doubt the Sharks have the cap space to pay his ask. He's not going to sign elsewhere to play centre and clubs wouldn't pay enough for him to. He's an upgrade for a lot of clubs at FB but not enough of an upgrade to justify his ask unless it's maybe the Bulldogs or Bears and i'd imagine Barber would be pretty upset if another starting FB was signed over him

Maybe the Cowboys after losing Drinkwater and Barber, depends if they're going to try and turn Purdue into a fullback or not

On the plus side at a minimum we have all of them for 2027 so let's win the comp next season, hopefully we can extend that window in November
 
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Yeah I guess we just have to try and keep them all post WC and then keep a minimum of two of them regardless if one signs elsewhere.

Walker re-signing with the Roosters on 1.5m a season for 4 years apparently so that will slightly lessen their cap room and hopefully they're keeping room to re-sign Naqaqanitawase after the Union world cup, lessening their cap space if they're not cheating the cap re Herbie

For Bostock I guess it will come down to does he want to play for us or the Dragons, we're way more likely to win a premiership than they are but he has links to both areas

Re Hammer i'm not sure what other clubs will be interested in him that he'd want to go to, I guess maybe PNG or the Cowboys but the Bears are a dumpster fire and already have a FB signed in Mason Barber even though he's a rookie, Broncos and Titans don't need fullbacks and neither do the Storm so his only other options are to go to Sydney and the Dogs are probably the only club in the market for a fullback there unless the Sharks want to discard Kennedy but I doubt the Sharks have the cap space to pay his ask. He's not going to sign elsewhere to play centre and clubs wouldn't pay enough for him to. He's an upgrade for a lot of clubs at FB but not enough of an upgrade to justify his ask unless it's maybe the Bulldogs or Bears and i'd imagine Barber would be pretty upset if another starting FB was signed over him

Maybe the Cowboys after losing Drinkwater and Barber, depends if they're going to try and turn Purdue into a fullback or not

On the plus side at a minimum we have all of them for 2027 so let's win the comp next season, hopefully we can extend that window in November
I've stated over and over, I think Hammer is one of the best centres in the comp. Not as good as Herbie but neck and neck with Bostock as a centre. As a fullback, 5th or 6th best. So around the middle of the pack.

His game against the Roosters shows that and his game against the Warriors wasn't any better until the last 15 min.
 
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