Canterbury should spend salary cap wealth on Manly’s Jake and Tom Trbojevic
With another season set to drift by, tension is mounting at Belmore. Forget spending that $8.5 million salary cap war chest on Latrell Mitchell - the Bulldogs should target Manly’s finest sons, writes PAUL KENT.
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If Latrell Mitchell is worth a million dollars a season to Canterbury, the value of Jake and Tom Trbojevic keeps on climbing.
The Bulldogs got into something of a fractious fight last week at Belmore.
A new talent scout is soon to arrive and in another conversation, which is closely related, board member Chris Anderson and recruitment boss Mark Hughes didn’t exactly see it the same way.
The pressure at Canterbury is on the rise.
The new board needs to make an impact beyond blaming the previous board, or the previous coach, or the previous chief executive, and needs to show something with that $8.5 million war chest everybody keeps hearing about.
The logical choices are the Trbojevic brothers, for many reasons.
Their talents are undeniable. Jake was man of the match in NSW’s win on Sunday night and Tom scored three tries to finish a narrow second for best on ground.
Some years back, former Canterbury recruitment boss Noel Cleal was telling a guy who was interested what he looked for in a player.
He looked for the Ss, he said. Size, speed, skill, stamina.
Add to that two more traits, which are increasingly necessary in the modern game. Character and attitude.
In an era where salary cap management is as much dark art as science, this is where the greatest gains can be made.
Some players have influence beyond their talents.
The talk out of the NSW camp from Origins I and II was of the influence James Maloney and Wade Graham had when they went into camp.
They immediately changed the squad’s entire dynamic.
There was something about both, a confidence and knowledge, that teammates found reassuring. It also seemed to be what was missing from Queensland.
Mitchell brings a similar confidence at times for the Roosters. When challenged to perform, he responds.
Whether he could carry the role at Canterbury is a valid question, though.
Great players don’t necessarily make great leaders.
Greg Inglis was often heralded as a leader but always struggled with the role.
Souths tried to make him the leader but the crown sat uncomfortably, before and after he was named captain.
Inglis, we learned, was more often at his best once responsibility was removed. Only then was he freed to perform and did his influence spread among the team.
Arthur Beetson was the opposite. Beetson was never considered a leader in his early days.
It wasn’t until Jack Gibson, the Eastern Suburbs coach, spent time in America with San Francisco 49ers coach Dick Nolan that Beetson was considered.
Nolan gave Gibson a questionnaire on leadership. Gibson had his Roosters players answer the questions and sent them back to America. He was stunned when the report came back.
Beetson was off the charts. The Americans said they never had anyone score so high.
Gibson asked Ron Massey what they should do.
“Well, if you’re going to go to the trouble …” Massey said.
Beetson was captain.
Mitchell is still maturing and might one day become a tremendous leader, but it’s a role he lacks the consistency for at the moment, which should make Canterbury wary.
Jake Trbojevic is already a leader. It is born into him.
It comes through strong values and strength of character, traits learned well before he made it to the NRL.
On spare weekends, Trbojevic is often found hanging around the local footy, playing lazy guitar.
For a club struggling to rediscover its culture, Trbojevic not only brings impact on the field but off it as well.
The Bulldogs could do a lot worse than poach both Trbojevics, comfortable in the club they could build around them.
The irony is that what Canterbury need is what makes Manly confident they will retain them.
They are entrenched in the Manly community, so ingrained that few could see them ever leaving.
If the Sea Eagles are vulnerable it’s because they have no chief executive, while owner and chairman Scott Penn lives in New York chasing another life.
On top of that, captain Daly Cherry-Evans is already on a million-dollar-plus contract that is tied to a percentage of the salary cap.
So what if Manly can afford one brother and not the other?
To carry all three would mean close to a third of the salary cap invested in three players.
This is where the Sea Eagles’ greatest asset might be coach Des Hasler.
Often an easy target for the troubles at Canterbury, Hasler understands the dark art of roster management better than just about everybody.