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Waratahs 2025

The Ghost of Raelene

Michael Lynagh (62)
Much needed tall timber for the 'Tahs. Must be happy to come home to Sydney. He's a huge upgrade on Grant/Sinclair/Amatosero.

All these positive news stories make me suspicious we're going to lose some people soon.
Inevitable. As it is with any sports side in the world.

If you look at it from a squad upgrading over time I tend to think a guy like Sinclair as much of a workhorse as he is could be on the told to look elsewhere list. Sports cruel like that but a journeyman type at 33 next year...
 

Braveheart81

Will Genia (78)
Staff member
If you look at it from a squad upgrading over time I tend to think a guy like Sinclair as much of a workhorse as he is could be on the told to look elsewhere list. Sports cruel like that but a journeyman type at 33 next year...

I used to not really rate Hugh Sinclair but he has been an excellent servant of the club and his rugby has improved significantly. I don't know anything specific but he does strike me as the kind of player who will remain here as long as he has a contract. If he's willing to fall back into being a depth piece on an equivalent contract then I'd be keen to keep him.

His versatility being able to cover lock, 6 and 8 increases his value in my view and he seems like an excellent culture guy.
 

Wilson

John Eales (66)
I used to not really rate Hugh Sinclair but he has been an excellent servant of the club and his rugby has improved significantly. I don't know anything specific but he does strike me as the kind of player who will remain here as long as he has a contract. If he's willing to fall back into being a depth piece on an equivalent contract then I'd be keen to keep him.

His versatility being able to cover lock, 6 and 8 increases his value in my view and he seems like an excellent culture guy.

Very hard to build a squad without the guys like Sinclair. He's probably close to the best value player in the squad in terms of return on his contract spend, and lock is one of the better positions to have that. It's also doubtful he'd be getting big money offers overseas at this stage, so unless he really wants a retirement stint overseas for the last few years of his career you'd expect him to sign on again for another couple of years to finish things out.

The bigger danger for loses is a guy like Foketi - has fallen right down in the wallabies pecking order and is fast running out of time to push his case. Given the time it's probably going to take to get the tahs backline humming it'll be an uphill battle when he makes it back on the field. He probably only has one really big contract left in him at his age and if he doesn't have RA interested in topping him up the Japanese/Euro options may be too hard for him to ignore.
 

The Ghost of Raelene

Michael Lynagh (62)
Very hard to build a squad without the guys like Sinclair. He's probably close to the best value player in the squad in terms of return on his contract spend, and lock is one of the better positions to have that. It's also doubtful he'd be getting big money offers overseas at this stage, so unless he really wants a retirement stint overseas for the last few years of his career you'd expect him to sign on again for another couple of years to finish things out.

The bigger danger for loses is a guy like Foketi - has fallen right down in the wallabies pecking order and is fast running out of time to push his case. Given the time it's probably going to take to get the tahs backline humming it'll be an uphill battle when he makes it back on the field. He probably only has one really big contract left in him at his age and if he doesn't have RA interested in topping him up the Japanese/Euro options may be too hard for him to ignore.
I wouldn't be gutted as much as I like him. I think there is talent in the system at Centre. O'Donnell has shown he's up to the standard and from what Iv'e seen of him coming through and in the trials Jackson Ropata can't be far off a debut. I still expect to see JAS get time in the Centres at some stage. Foketi is likely to receive healthy offers from overseas clubs that are going to be almost impossible to match when he doesn't seem in Test contention at the moment.
 

Wilson

John Eales (66)
I wouldn't be gutted as much as I like him. I think there is talent in the system at Centre. O'Donnell has shown he's up to the standard and from what Iv'e seen of him coming through and in the trials Jackson Ropata can't be far off a debut. I still expect to see JAS get time in the Centres at some stage. Foketi is likely to receive healthy offers from overseas clubs that are going to be almost impossible to match when he doesn't seem in Test contention at the moment.
Yeah, there's a lot of talent there about to come through which doesn't help his case. I also really rate Ripley on potential, if he can get on the park for an extended period (seems a bit unlikely at this point though).

Not ideal to have that much centre turn over year on year though, the tahs will really need to hang onto these guys coming through to build something there. Going to be a very young and green backline if he and Gordon go too, it'll be "old man" Kellaway and a bunch of 20-23 year olds for the most part.
 

The Ghost of Raelene

Michael Lynagh (62)
eh I'm a bit so what on it going on the last couple of years performance.

Let them come through and they'll be green now but also develop together and hopefully form a core group to move into the next 3-5 years then making it smoother for future talent to be brought in. While some of them are young guys like Jorgo could have close to 40 games and 20 Tests by the start of next year. Even JAS as raw as he in in pro Union does have the base of over 70 games of NRL by 20.

I get it's different and maybe I'm seeing this year differently to most and that I want to the organisation move in the right direction and I think the side on the field will be on a bit of delay behind that.
 
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