Yeah he was the one to lock them down, which then makes Fulton surplus to requirements.

Is it brutal? or just an honest conversation about the needs of the organisation in change. Also while I would also argue it would be more brutal to bring him in to fire him and him have to walk embarrassingly out of the club in front of players and staff.

Richo is to the point kinda guy and while it seems harsh from the outside he probably was thinking this might have been more respectful way of doing it.

They knew when they brought Richo in that they were bringing someone to put a broom through the place. It’s most likely why he was the one targeted to bring in.

Wipe the slate clean for a new CEO in 6 months or if things improve the guy to take them forward knowing he wouldn’t dance around the issues the previous lot did.

Richo isn’t there part time, his role is tied to the interim board timeline of 6 months. At which point the board and Richo will confirm 3 year appointments if they get the vote of confidence from this 6 month period.

If you know anything about how Richo operates, then you’d understand he’s a guy that makes things happens. No point paying someone for a job you can do well and do yourself.

It’s also a ploy to back his coach. A history that Richo is known for!

Aust Gov commitment will have to exceed $60m per year (on top of the nearly $600m they deliver in aid money annually). PNG team may get $60m of funding but surely each other NRL team will put their hand out as well!

$60m to PNG.
$2m to each of the other 17 NRL clubs.
The NRLC will want some too.

So $94m per year minimum. 10 year outlay of $940m for a team that is likely to struggle to recruit top players, coaches and get results. As much as Olam, Johnston and co would want to help their countrymen they also want to have success. Likely that a PNG team wouldn’t make the finals in that 10 year period. They’ll also be retired or close to if they get a team in.

Remove the geo-political aspect and this makes 0% sense from RL perspective.

Last time I checked China don’t have an NRL competition and if they turn up with a bigger pot of money then PNG / Aust relationship is then leveraged further. “Gifting” someone a team that’s not ready is detrimental to the product that is NRL. PVL comes from the gambling industry so surely he’d know this is a low percentage play.

The biggest crime is not giving someone a licence, it’s taking it off them when all the evidence points to it failing in the first place.

Howarth has been paid $500k for past 2 seasons.

Nanai was just about to debut in NRL when Howarth debuted late in 2021. Nanai has since played for state and country so hard to make an argument that he outplayed Nanai in Q Cup.

His stats are so similar with Piakura also in Q Cup, despite the fact Piakura has struggled for 2 years with concussion issues and played 10 or so less games than Howarth.

Howarth has played close to 50% games as a centre where he has failed to finish many games as a centre and yet played the next game. From what I can work out he’s only finished 14 games of Q cup these coming as a back rower.

He’s a talent I believe but currently getting paid on potential not delivery.

I agree, first 25-30 and last 25-30 with a 30-40 minute break between stints is far more effective for NAS.

Felt they missed a trick with their rotations in 2023.

If they get the Blore / Olam swap to happen for 2024 and recruit 2 middle forwards with either punch in attack or whack in defence they are back to where they need to be.

Off the back of go forward their spine is elite. With young Sua play more so than not at #14.

Welch has trimmed down to play longer minutes as well. So hoping NAS can maximise his input by being on longer.

NM,

Agree with a lot of your points, yes they need to have faith in Chan and Co. Storm probably saw the best of Jesse B and letting him go would almost certainly mean Kenny would follow. I say let go because usually you tie up those you want before they become available to negotiate. But hey they do have Howarth on half a mil for a couple of years so no doubt they wanted to see their value elsewhere and all in an age that might not see the next expansion team.

Katoa is a gun and I can’t see why warriors didn’t keep him. Chan has a lot of upside if he can fix his defence. Quick and lots of intent!

Be interesting transition for 2024 and beyond when Bellamy steps back and Ryles takes over.

Their system holds them in good position so hopefully they can get a couple recruits.

Problem with or at the Storm is that they’ve let go of Sims, Eisenhuth and Jennings as depth cover. Id argue there is no one left on the free agent list that’s better than those guys.

Now I get that they are ageing players but outside of the Blore / Olam swap deal the Storm haven’t recruited.

Storm have always invested heavily in their spine and put role players around them but imo the biggest loss was letting the Bromwich Brothers, Kaufusi and Cheese go. They provide leadership, starch in defence and punch in attack. Which were lacking from the 2023 campaign.

The Storm “system” is what makes them so strong, the Panthers have now created something similar where you can lose guys and it not effect the overall performance. The Storm just don’t have system below it to manufacture players wearing the Storm jersey right through from U/17’s through to reserve grade before hitting NRL.

Moving Meaney to centre and Loiero to the middle doesn’t solve the fact they don’t have another impact bench player or fear inducing back rower that can whack.

I expect the system to hold them in good stead but I think they’ll slip to top 8 team not top 4 and further away from the top 2 sides.

Agree with the slide but surely he’s been hit just as hard and humbled throughout his playing career in PNG. They turn blokes on their heads for fun and it’s play on up there.

I’d say there’s more to it than one good hit. It certainly was great contact though, on the bloke that is usually dishing it out!

Carried a significant knee injury for most of the season. Chose to rehab it instead of playing pacific champs to get right for 2024.

Down on form and confidence throughout the year and certainly not his usual self. He did spend some time off back in PNG throughout the season which I believe he hasn’t done in some time so possible a family issue back home maybe.

I’m hearing Benji is getting more reps in than his actual halves at the moment at training.

Great to see some action from the Tigers on the board front and they can still land an in demand player.

While (for mine) the jury is out on Benji who has never been a head coach before NRL. It will be the day to day stuff of making 50 decisions before even having to put comes down on the grass.

It’s the grind and graft of a head coach that many are unprepared for.

The “star player becomes assistant becomes head coach” pathway is very much over valued in sport in Australia. I believe this sets them up to fail.

But hey, we have boards who have little idea about what good coaching actually looks like before appointing some of these guys then hang the coach out to dry when it doesn’t go to the board’s plan.

Here’s hoping the new structure helps and supports Benji, I think he’ll be good so long as Richo stays there.

These roles are call ATM jobs, when the role is getting you down, when everything around you is frustrating….. just go to the ATM and check your balance and instantly you’re happy again!

Tony, Mal’s shown us you don’t need to be a coach to be successful with rep teams.

You just have to be good at managing men and get technical assistants.

When PVL came along it was written into every contract that when Bennett was off contract he would be the ARLC’s first choice candidate for that role.
It’s just interesting lately that when Bennett comes off contract, expansion is on the horizon.
PVL has a problem this time though as he’s been riding on Albo’s coat tails but Bennett won’t leave Brisbane to coach a PNG side regardless of if they are based in Cairns or Port Moresby.

100%

While I love watching PNG players play.

I doubt their Gov would ever turn down a bigger bucket money. Especially if it is true they borrow $500m off Australia a number of years ago with $310m of that going to sitting members for reelection.

I get your point about the defence budget but a 1% increase to secure a footy team just isn’t going to stop China.

It may stop interaction between PNG and China for a bit but I doubt that will hold for too long. Then we will be left with the same scenario we are in now with a weaker NRL product as a byproduct of this soft diplomacy strategy.

So we are then getting back to why would we do this from a rugby league aspect when that just doesn’t make sense. PVL is from a gambling industry but even he should consider that a failure of this franchise is short odds!

Would have been 15 for the APEC summit but that’s only because the Chinese had only just finished the surfaces and bringing sand onto Ela beach upgrade that was full of asbestos!

Perth only makes sense on surface level. The time zone, location to support a truly national competition all work in its favour.
Dig a bit deeper an we get into well-being / performance issues, players outside NRL have to play on the east coast. So you have players flying for 10 hours, 5 hours either side of games each weekend to play in a quality competition.
Can’t see the RLPA getting behind that set up. Storm while hugely successful in AFL heartland, still have only produced a handful of NRL talent in 25 years.

Yeah I agree Nico and I admit I’m not a finance expert here but PNG (through current PM) asked China to refinance its total debt in 2019. I am unsure if that all went through and I’m not that keen to investigate it.
As the resource industry in PNG funds the debt and commodity prices are volatile one thinks at what point does that debt servicing become debt serving.
Let’s also take into account when hosting the 2018 APEC summit, PNG bought 40 Maserati’s for officials who never used them. There’s about 15 roads that these can be driven on in Port Moresby.
These cars still sit in a warehouse relatively untouched and cannot be on-sold to other neighbouring countries. With logic like this I assume China would play a lot more hardball than Australia.
Additionally Albo spent $400m on the referendum, give PNG annually $600m in aid money, now wanting to fund a NRL team to the tune of $600m without even addressing the cost of living issues in Australia who are on the brink of a recession.
At some point Aussie voters or his own party are going go against his logic. China all the while are just doing what they do, most likely oblivious to our PM’s wild card is football team that has more cons than pros for success!

China don’t actually need to turn up with $$$$, PNG owed almost $2b to China in 2019 at almost 25% of the countries national debt.

PNG national debt now stands at $15b so if the rate is still 25% to China that $3.75b

They are already in a powerful position.

Last time I checked China doesn’t have Rugby League competition……. Not one worthy of playing chicken with a political football such as this.
Outside of the political aspect there is almost no reason to be even entertaining this idea. Now if Albo wanted to connect RL and education throughout PNG, then that would be a program that would beneficial to supporting a team in 10-15 years time.
He would also be better off letting every NRL club have access of 3-5 PNG players to put through junior pathways each year and raise the level of football education.
This pool of up to 85 players could then funnel back to the PNG Hunters to strengthen once they age out of junior competitions. That or spread to state cup teams or super league for those not at NRL standard yet. This would be a more immediate solution for all involved.
It might not hold off China, but I don’t think a football team, that is more chance of failing than succeeding, is striking any fear or delays in their plans in taking over PNG.

FT,

Agree mate, it’s the selective honesty that irks most I think. Case in point, 9 weeks ago he didn’t want to be honest.

Clearly never told “never burn your bridges”.

It’s a funny old world we live in these days….. I dislike the apology more than I dislike the original comments.

The “I tell it like it is” attitude in his apology is bemusing given the week after mad Monday he was a lot less reliant on this description of himself.