Another Miss of a Future Star Signing

[Sydney_Roosters_4_Life]

Jarrod Croker just resigned for Canberra! I cannot believe we didnt make a run for him!!! We need a centre and he is future talent and future Origin star.

[Guest]

Jarrod Croker just resigned for Canberra! I cannot believe we didnt make a run for him!!! We need a centre and he is future talent and future Origin star.

Signing Jarrod Croker would have been a massive signing for the club. He is still relatively young and is already developing into a class centre. Came up against Justin Hodges a few weeks back and put arguably "the best centre in the world" on show. Maybe he was worth a bit too much for what we could fork out with all our other young guns signed but would have much prefered to sign Croker than Naughton, who we've apparently just nabbed from Canberra as well.

[Guest]

You fool!!!! We have Sista Waqa and De plesis, you watch them rip it up next year.

[Guest]

Saw Sisa shopping on George Street on Tuesday, with who looked to be his mum. He looked a big boy.

Look at the centres this year that we missed out on:

Chase Stanley - signed with Storm
Daryl Millard - signed with ESL
Brett Delaney - signed with ESL
Dean Collis - signed with Sharks
Jarrod Croker - re-signed with Raiders
Ben Farrar - signed with Manly (mid-season)
Blake Ayshford - re-signed with Tigers
Will Chambers - signed with QLD Reds
Taulima Tautai - signed with Sharks
David Simmons - signed with Panthers
Kevin Gordon - re-signed with Titans
Esileki Tonga - re-signed with Titans
Joseph Tomane - signed with Titans
Jerome Ropati - re-signed with Warriors

...and we also missed out on Josh Morris, Joel Moon, Nick Emmett, Israel Folau, Colin Best and Willie Tonga last year, all of whom changed clubs and were on the open market.

Esi Tonga, Ayshford, Stanley, Millard or Delaney do exactly what Soliola does, but far better (make lots of yards, use their size to offload and set up their outside men) and thus would have been the ideal replacement power centre for Soliola. Additionally, guys like Chambers, Tomane, Gordon and Croker have serious pace to burn and would have been very nice strike centre signings.

But alas, we chase Tuqiri, and are likely to miss out. We should still chase Lett IMO, great fast centre.

[Guest]

Is Lett off-contract? Would be a good buy for us, but I wouldn't sign him at the expense of him blocking any of our younger talent. Chase Stanley.. well we missed out on a future superstar.

[Guest]

Lett I think re-signed for next year.

Stanley is a freak for his age, already played a few seasons of FG and is still only 20. Plenty of size, speed and skill. I rate Esileki Tonga very highly too. Both were on the market, and I would have gone strongly for either of them. Ideal replacements for Soliola - essentially everything that he was MEANT to be, i.e. big, strong, fast, can break the line, offload, and create space for their winger.

Ayshford plays similar to them but isn't as explosive, Delaney plays more like a backrower, and Millard has been quiet the past 2 seasons.

[Kingbilly]

There is plenty of rubbish in that list.

I do believe they are doing something right in Canberra though and have some outstanding young players coming through.

I don't think its a bad management thing missing Croker, I think that the Raiders would have fought tooth and nail to keep him. If they can keep most of their young kids they will be a force in 2 or 3 years time.

[Guest]

I agree that there is a fair amount of not-so-good players there, but a fair few of them a are a hell of a step up over what we are producing at the moment.

[Guest]

I would actually suggest Maurice Blair from Panthers. Big, strong centre who can break the line, but has been wasted at five-eighth and hooker for the past two seasons. He looks most comfortable in the centres, has a fair amount of skill too, but has issues with fitness and commitment, a bit like Sa. That is the problem I think...