Riewoldts 2014 contract

[Con Gorozidis]

Now this will be controversial and no doubt Ill offend the star worshiping brigade but I suspect Riewoldt's 2014 contract was his and his management initiative rather than the club.

What I'm saying is Nick already took a pay cut for 2013 and feels he has a good run from the club with $$ and now feels he wants to 'give back' to the club in a developmental role for 2 years. Which is great. But he also might have seen Tommy Lee and Spencer White walk in the door (alongside Rhys) and decide to get on the front foot and do his 2014 contract while he still has maxmum clout. He might have looked into his crystal ball, studied the tea leaves and thought crikeys - with my dodgey knee and with these three young gun fwds - they may not even need me in 2014! Im signing asap !

[plugger66]

Unless Rooy is injured Lee and especially White will be no where near the standard of Rooy in 2014.

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

After BJ left and we missed out on Mitch Brown (who we could apparently afford both of under next year's cap), we would have had a large amount of salary cap space unused next year, so I expect the club would have been keen to either ne-negotiate one or more contracts, (to front end them, so that more of next year's cap was filled and we had more space available for 2014), or we could alternatively give someone like Roo a new and longer contract, with a big % of his money to be paid next year, again to fill up as much of next year's cap as we could, thus leaving us with lots of cap space free for 2014 and beyond (to go hard at free agency or trades, or to give anyone we want to keep bigger contracts). So I expect that is what happened and there is every chance it was the club who initiated the talks. He's probably getting as much as $800K (or even more) next year and as little as $200K (or even less) the following year, so that we maximise our available cap space for 2014 and beyond.

I don't think Nick or his team would have been worried at all about him losing his spot in 2014.

[Con Gorozidis]

Unless Rooy is injured Lee and especially White will be no where near the standard of Rooy in 2014.

Ill hold you to that. I reckon Rooey might be toast by the end of 2014.
Lee will overtake Rooeys standard in 2014 and dont forget Rhys (and even Wilkes) . Sure White might be a few years off it but hes a comin!
And Rooeys knee is just not going to hold out.

and p.s Im fuming we have to put up with Kosi and pay him money for 2013. The guy is shot.

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

Roo's knee has reportedly been a heap better since he had that new treatment (the treatment that originated in Europe and which has reportedly also helped Cooney's knee to be the best it has in years), on it earlier this year and from what I've been told by someone very close to the club it is going really well, hence him saying that he hopes to play on beyond the two years he just signed for. It has reportedly improved so much that he was able to train during the week again in the 2nd half of this year and as a result he started to get back close to his best footy and he was awarded the 3 Brownlow votes in 3 of his last 8 completed games (and he was well on the way to another 3-voter in the game he got injured in against Melbourne- which was a completely different knee injury than the one that's been causing him grief for the last few years). He would have probably given the Coleman a good shake had he played out the year, too, he was finishing so strongly.

He'll only be 31 for the 2014 season, so I'm hoping he'll be still at the sort of level he was this year, then and that he'll hopefully be even better in 2013 (I'm confident that he'll have a really good year next year, with a new lease of life and then perhaps drop off a little in 2014, to the sort of level he was this year). I don't think we need to start writing him off unless his knee regresses, or he gets to the age of about 32, which he'll be in the 2015 season.

He still seems to be very hungry and seems confident in his body and how he feels generally and is probably really looking forward to playing alongside the likes of Lee and Stanley and eventually White, as they improve and take the pressure off him. I do expect Lee to surprise many with how good he is though. Many seem to be really underestimating him on here for some reason. He looks to have all the tools to be as good as "elite", or near enough to it, now that he has apparently knuckled down and realised how much you have to work to make it at the highest level. His performances have apparently gone through the roof since he pulled his finger out and also now that he has stopped growing. With Roo to show him the way and what hard work is all about, there's no telling how good he will be.

[st_Trav_ofWA]

Nick is the marquee player for our club from a marketing point of veiw alone he has more value to the saints then just about any player on our list ... im fairly sure Nick would be very sure of his standing within the club and i would be willing to bet he would have no problems what so ever of where he sits in the plans for the club in 2014 and onwards til he decides to call it a day .... Roo will leave on his terms not the club pushing him out

[Con Gorozidis]

Great news if this knee treatment is legit.

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

It was pretty widely reported at the time. Here are a couple of the articles on it: http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/saints ... 6440236272
http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/riew ... 23eel.html

Cooney has had something that I've heard is identical (although he went all the way over to Europe to have it, despite it apparently being available here!) in the past couple of months and he too reportedly found that it helped his knee considerably and has been able to hit the track for the start of WB's preseason for the first time in years. It could add a couple of years to both their careers.

Here is the article on Cooney: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/more-ne ... 6527567665

[plugger66]

Unless Rooy is injured Lee and especially White will be no where near the standard of Rooy in 2014.

Ill hold you to that. I reckon Rooey might be toast by the end of 2014.
Lee will overtake Rooeys standard in 2014 and dont forget Rhys (and even Wilkes) . Sure White might be a few years off it but hes a comin!
And Rooeys knee is just not going to hold out.

and p.s Im fuming we have to put up with Kosi and pay him money for 2013. The guy is shot.

Didnt he only sign till the end of 2014? Lee will overtake Rooy in 2014. Can we vote on your best quotes for the year? This is right up there.

[The Redeemer]

Unless Rooy is injured Lee and especially White will be no where near the standard of Rooy in 2014.

Ill hold you to that. I reckon Rooey might be toast by the end of 2014.
Lee will overtake Rooeys standard in 2014 and dont forget Rhys (and even Wilkes) . Sure White might be a few years off it but hes a comin!
And Rooeys knee is just not going to hold out.

and p.s Im fuming we have to put up with Kosi and pay him money for 2013. The guy is shot.

Con, have you seen White play? He is a prepube for christ sake.

Lee will overtake a complete gun probable 650 goal (by career's end) by 2014?

Well Rooey better get his skates on because some kid who has shown a bit in the WAFL is coming!

Realistic please...

[Con Gorozidis]

Have a go at me mid 2014 if it is rubbish.

[defacto]

Roo's knee has reportedly been a heap better since he had that new treatment (the treatment that originated in Europe and which has reportedly also helped Cooney's knee to be the best it has in years), on it earlier this year and from what I've been told by someone very close to the club it is going really well, hence him saying that he hopes to play on beyond the two years he just signed for. It has reportedly improved so much that he was able to train during the week again in the 2nd half of this year and as a result he started to get back close to his best footy and he was awarded the 3 Brownlow votes in 3 of his last 8 completed games (and he was well on the way to another 3-voter in the game he got injured in against Melbourne- which was a completely different knee injury than the one that's been causing him grief for the last few years). He would have probably given the Coleman a good shake had he played out the year, too, he was finishing so strongly.

He'll only be 31 for the 2014 season, so I'm hoping he'll be still at the sort of level he was this year, then and that he'll hopefully be even better in 2013 (I'm confident that he'll have a really good year next year, with a new lease of life and then perhaps drop off a little in 2014, to the sort of level he was this year). I don't think we need to start writing him off unless his knee regresses, or he gets to the age of about 32, which he'll be in the 2015 season.

He still seems to be very hungry and seems confident in his body and how he feels generally and is probably really looking forward to playing alongside the likes of Lee and Stanley and eventually White, as they improve and take the pressure off him. I do expect Lee to surprise many with how good he is though. Many seem to be really underestimating him on here for some reason. He looks to have all the tools to be as good as "elite", or near enough to it, now that he has apparently knuckled down and realised how much you have to work to make it at the highest level. His performances have apparently gone through the roof since he pulled his finger out and also now that he has stopped growing. With Roo to show him the way and what hard work is all about, there's no telling how good he will be.

too much repeating brianspeaking.

lee has a long way to go. going from the wafl to the afl is a huge step up. lee had the best midfield by a long long long way delivering the ball to him in the wafl and probably the worst set of defenders to play the wafl in a long long long time. the eyes have been picked out of the wafl for a while and with only two afl clubs playing their reserves there isnt much high level competition.

dont drink the coolaid coming from some that says he is a player with alite attributes. watch him play a decent amount of games first.

[AnythingsPossibleSaints]

too much repeating brianspeaking.

lee has a long way to go. going from the wafl to the afl is a huge step up. lee had the best midfield by a long long long way delivering the ball to him in the wafl and probably the worst set of defenders to play the wafl in a long long long time. the eyes have been picked out of the wafl for a while and with only two afl clubs playing their reserves there isnt much high level competition.

dont drink the coolaid coming from some that says he is a player with alite attributes. watch him play a decent amount of games first.

I have drawn my conclusions from multiple sources (including Kevin Sheahan having him at 11 in his mock draft- you don't rate his opinion either?- and he would have known very well where others in the industry rated him) and I'm also happy to back in the judgement of those that are experts in the recruiting field who have seen him play a significant amount of footy and who rate him extremely highly, including those who are recruiting for us, who have done what looks to be a terrific job since joining the club so far, headed by Chris Pelchan, who has been largely credited with building Hawthorn's premiership list. They really and truly know what they are doing. I say that with extreme confidence. They may all be wrong and you (and the others that don't think he's that good) may be right, but I have to say what I believe to be true and that is what I've done, based on all the evidence in front of me and my gut feel on the matter.

And don't forget that as well as dominating in the WAFL this year Tom also did a number on Zac Dawson in Freo's intra-club game and then kicked a year-high 6 goals in the Foxtel Cup grand final against one of the strongest VFL teams (Williamstown) as well as kicking 6 goals in Claremont's semi final win. All that at 21yo. How many others at his height and with his physical attributes and skill level were doing similar things at that age in any of the state level comps this year, or any other year of late? Of course it's going to be harder in the AFL. Much much harder, no one's doubting that, but no-one's suggesting that he's going to kick 70 goals in 17 or 18 games next year, like he did this year, either.

I could understand your scepticism if he was 25 years old and fully developed already, but it looks like he's just getting rolling, after only having just stopped growing recently and only recently pulling his finger out.

Happy to see him play some games though. We could debate this 'till we're blue in the face otherwise and I don't see too much point in that.