True on all counts.

Question is..... what do YOU think Cheese should get at the Dogs, and what would you call "overs"?

"Past his peak"

The guy is having the best year of his life and he is now "past his peak"..

You've lost it HD.

Something with a 7 in front of it max, and even that may be over-payed. Bet Gus won’t pay that.

Because the thing is, no matter how much he is everyone’s favourite player, he really is nothing more than a battering ram with the odd good pass.

He doesn’t steer you around the park, he doesn’t think 3 plays ahead, he doesn’t lead, he doesn’t influence.

He just sees, he does. Probably better than most admittedly, but he’s still not marquee material.

In reality you would have to know the salaty cap details for the club to make a judgement. Also we need to consider the cap is reduced by almost 600K for 21 and 22 with the lower paid players not taking the hit

Cooper Cronk...the master of understatement: Eels still the ultimate chokers.

"“F*** me you dumb c***,” Gutherson yelled in Opacic’s direction.

“Yeah Tom Opacic gets in the road and causes the penalty and Clint Gutherson is not happy about his teammate giving away a penalty,” Cooper Cronk said."

Ideal bench player which is in fact what he will be for Melbourne once Grant gets fit. 

"He doesn’t steer you around the park, he doesn’t think 3 plays ahead, he doesn’t lead, he doesn’t influence."

He might not steer you around the park like a halves player and yes he is instinctive, but i reckon he is VERY influential and LEADS by example.

If we follow your logic (and im not saying Gus doesnt agree with you), only halfbacks are entitled to earn 700k +.
But that isnt the case. 

Like i said, most top 8 clubs have at least 1 or 2 million dollar players. We have none. An i cant see why we cant have HIM as one.

And as final note, he is a rep player (Test) and one of the better players in the Kiwi team, so i dont know what someone has to do to be a marquee player in your books.
I bet you think Flanagan is marquee only because he is wearing the 7 this week.

I only saw glimpses of the game (Olympics was more interesting) but i did see the part in the 65th minute when Gutherson threw a pass to Sivo from a kick return which was spilt and Gutho's response was clear dismay at Sivo.... It was great to watch.

Throw in the antics of a returning Mitchell Moses and the self implosion is not far from occuring....

If Brad Arthur doesnt reel this in, it will blow up in his face!

Can I have some of what you are smoking Zef? 

The Cheese is the perfect marquee for our club. He brings experience, leadership and is quite clearly one of the most fun blokes to have in your team. He is the modern day hooker and can play anywhere in the forward pack. He is also rarely injured and always gives 100%. 

You know, one of the best things about getting to Gus to the club is I don’t have to waste time arguing the balance of the SC with the likes of blissfully spending Marki and Micko no more.

I will say though Melb have come in with a 2.2m offer over 3 years, Easts are circling so they’ll be similar. Melb want him to replace Finucane, Easts want him to replace Cordner. Both for him to play long term in the backrow, his best position.

Now sure, someone… not us… is gonna offer him close to a million to play #9. But Melb and Easts have won 4 out of the last 5 comps between them, soon to be 5 out of the last 6, so you know…

Such a cheesy post this one.

I agree Micko. Especially your last paragraph.
We must at the very least have a good crack. 
If we dont, I have to question whether both Barrett and Gus have any clue as to how to bring us back in the shortest timeframe.....

It's might be ok for some to put forward 5 or 10 year plans, but this bloke would make an immediate difference and would no doubt make us guaranteed top 8 next year. 

I think the Cheese already knows that if he comes to the Dogs he is guaranteed No.9 but with Melb or Easts he will be predominantly back row. So it's up to him. Of course there is always the possibility that an outsider will throw a curved ball offering ludicrous money, but if they do then that again is their prerogative.

Just when you think that the Bulldogs are probably the worse team in 2021, you have a look at the Tigers v Warriors game and New Zealand were diabolical but you realise the Tigers were diabolicaler.  It was like both teams were fighting it out to lose.

We want the Cheese, but the issue is price.
His price will never be higher, it will end up in overs territory for sure.
Often a Storm player doesn't go as well at a new club, 
Gus and Baz will be making the call.
I am happy either way, becuase I doubt that we will pay crazy overs on a long term contract.
So if he comes great...
If he doesn't, I can live with that.

If you play cards you know that 500,000 plus 2 brown paper bags beats 750,000 every day of the week.

So which hooker in the NRL do we think is worth 800k? Is it Hodgson? Is it Cook? Is Ben Hunt (I certainly think so). Is it Cheese?

Now who of these would you say is best suited for the Dogs? Cheese hands down.

None of the above. 

Who is?

One thing I do worry about with the way our club has been managed. All the current signings have been unplanned. TPJ and Vaughan released and Dufty begging for a contract with anybody. 

How do we know the price? And how do we know we have 800k to spend?

If his body can be repaired, Harry Grant is worth 800k.

The young Manly hooker with the poor off field behaviour is the next most talented 9.

If we have 800k lying around doing nothing in particular, the Cheese is worth it.

Not our call  with Gus on board,  I'll leave it to the experts.

In reality I don't think any player is worth more than $750,000 P.A. Clubs will pay what they want to obtain the services of a certain player but that's just my opinion.

And Jason Hetherington was signed as a 5/8 ...

It really is supposition that if the price is right we can get him. It is only part of the rumour mill that Melbourne will release him if he finds someone who is willing to take him and he wants to go. Why would Melbourne want to release him? Why would he want to leave? You can say money but he'd be on decent coin...and could probably suffer 500K for another year or two.

FMD if someone offered me 500K a year for the next two years I'd be knocking the door down to sign on the dotted line. 

It's not unreasonable to think that. 
But you can spread your cap in multiple different ways. That's the liberty of it.

But history shows the better teams tend to spend the lions share on their top 10 or so players and 1 or 2 of them earn even more than that. Others have picky-backs from "permitted" 3rd party sponsorships (which are a blight to the game and counter intuitive to SC in my opinion).

For years now, we have paid good money to reserve grade players and yet cry foul when we cant offer that last 200-300k on a marquee player.

Now that doesn't mean we should give someone like Flanno a saloon passage to the first grade team. It just means it was a mistake. Try to fix it by shopping him around and move on.

Not all recruits will be successful. But don't compound your first error by flogging a dead horse. I cant remember a player on big money who has languished in reserve grade and hasn't sought an early release

But not if someone else offered you 800k on your way to sign!

FFS!!!...